May 03
Mark E Comments: Well the title is “The Saliva Tree” so frankly the writer has brought it on himself. Paint what you like.
Published 1973
Mark E Comments: Well the title is “The Saliva Tree” so frankly the writer has brought it on himself. Paint what you like.
Published 1973
May 3rd, 2016 at 12:43 pm
It looks pornographic.
May 3rd, 2016 at 12:49 pm
Gross, just Gross. Just what we want to read on a crowded bus or train ride.
May 3rd, 2016 at 1:19 pm
I’ve heard of a mouthwatering prospect but this etc. Is the tree a weeping, seeping willow?
May 3rd, 2016 at 1:20 pm
Oh, and that little fellow is looking down in the mouth.
May 3rd, 2016 at 2:02 pm
Benoit Mandelbrot’s ultimate nightmare.
May 3rd, 2016 at 2:06 pm
Title story “The Saliva Tree” was written to mark the centenary of H. G. Wells’s birth, and shared the Nebula Award for the best novella of 1964. While set in a Wellsian milieu, it contains two plot elements also found in the stories of H.P.Lovecraft: an object from space which causes crops and livestock to grow prolifically, but be unpalatable (The Colour out of Space); and a monster which is visible only when sprayed with an opaque powder (The Dunwich Horror).
Was it RachelJ who pointed out that the purpose of the cover art was usually to warn off prospective consumers?
May 3rd, 2016 at 2:25 pm
@TW: I approve of the ‘yuk’ tag! Is this also in reference to the puncture marks on the ‘d’ suggesting this cover was chewed???
May 3rd, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Everything about this cover just has an air of nastiness about it. From the figure in the mouth to the off-green shade.
The publisher really wanted to kill this book for some reason. Maybe it is a Lovecraftian plot to protect our fragile minds from the realisations of madness contained within…
May 3rd, 2016 at 2:36 pm
I note with dismay that it appears something has bitten the cover.
May 3rd, 2016 at 2:42 pm
If Aldiss had waited a couple of more years no doubt the book would be titled ‘The Sativa Tree’.
May 3rd, 2016 at 2:56 pm
Can I also say how proud I am to have submitted the first cover to receive a “yuk” tag. Deeply honoured. I’ll be scouring my bookshelves for more hideous delights.
May 3rd, 2016 at 3:24 pm
Reminds me of one of the dream sequences from Lair of the White Worm.
May 3rd, 2016 at 4:39 pm
@Mark E – I was surprised the tag hadn’t previously existed, since it was my first reaction when tagging the cover. I’m sure there a hundred other covers in the archives that would also merit the “yuk.”
May 3rd, 2016 at 5:26 pm
I certainly hope there aren’t any animals in real life that feel the need to drench their prey in spit before chowing down . . . yecch.
May 3rd, 2016 at 5:53 pm
Snake saliva!
(old joke (c) ‘Play Away’ c.1974)
May 3rd, 2016 at 6:50 pm
@Anna T.
http://www.asknature.org/strategy/5771ca2cad3b74ddbc6ad96fc7fabfe2
yuk
May 3rd, 2016 at 6:57 pm
The tryouts for this summer’s Men’s Being Eaten By a Crocodile event continue.
May 3rd, 2016 at 11:40 pm
@AnnaT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPP80_mOb7Y
yuk
May 4th, 2016 at 1:07 am
Huge tusks and gobs of spit all for one scrawny guy, really?
May 4th, 2016 at 5:03 pm
@JaunPaul, DSWBT: I don’t even know why I asked that question. I should have expected this.
May 10th, 2016 at 12:00 am
‘Shush girl, shut your…whatever that is…it’s scaring me…shut it…’
May 26th, 2016 at 9:18 pm
Judging by the marks on the “d” in “Aldiss”, my guess is someone went apeshit and stabbed the cover with a pencil screaming “Die! Die! Die!”