Destroy All Email

This space is set aside for any interesting email feedback! All letters appear with their authors' permission.

Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 18:41:08 -0700
From: David Moxness
Subject: Planet of the Apes movie cited in Mechagodzilla 74 review

Escape from the Planet of the Apes! Some weird trivia about this flick:

1) Last film of Sal Mineo, who played the doomed Dr Milo...he got choked to death by the gorilla in the zoo. Another weird Sal Mineo fact: He was starring in a play at the time of his murder. The title: PS, Your Cat is Dead.

2) The bad guy in it has also starred in some cool movies...Colossus, The Forbin Project and Titanic. Eric Braeden played JJ Astor in the most popular movie of all time.

Thanks, David! I'm definitely gonna go rent it sometime. You mean that gorilla at the end that says "Mama, mama" chokes somebody to death too?! Maybe I don't wanna see this after all.

Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 17:51:13 -0400
From: Karl Joseph Ufert

How'd I find your page? Through a link from Connie's G-Museum. I saw the G-for Gay Rights topic and said "WOW"!

Fascinating sociological analysis of G. vs. the giant roach, abetted by the ever-expanding, big thighed silver drag queen (though by NO MEANS self-identifying with drag queens--!!!--, I have a handle for "hotmail" of "Jetjaguar99"), vs. that wonderful cross between big bird, Zatoichi and the LeVar Burton character from the newish Star Trek--not to mention further goading by hairy superclone Robert Dunham (the Seatopian leader and star of DAGORA)! Personally, I think the plot would have been far more interesting if the suburban couple were forced by the Seatopian leader into some kind of bondage ritual (he looked like "the only" leather queen!) and ended the Bob Jones Productions act by singing Y.M.C.A. (actually, I 1972/4 was pre-Village People, n'est ce pas?)! hee hee

Ever more fascinating is such a study coming from a kinsman of mine from NYU's graduate English program (got my MA in '93 and also slaved in the admissions office for GSAS for almost *gulp* five years--prior to my professional escape to Columbia U.). Very cool! So sorry you are not gay though! I am looking for fellow gay Godzilla fans and can't seem to find any. Shucks, guess Kaiju fandom is one of those "boy things" (you know, like *yuch!!!* sports)... Not so, of course, when deconstructed by the likes of an insightful fellow Professor Raymo, Maynard, Gilman, Chaudhri, Tuttleton, Low, Doctorow, Olds, et. al. sufferer (? nah, not all zuffffferingk, some of 'em are pretty cool).

Hey, you may not be gay (no meter!), but maybe we can get in touch and/or together for cawfee (actually, I HATE coffee!) and schmooze about big monsters anyhoo. If interested, send me an eeeeeeeeee-male, oops, I mean eeeeeeeeee-maIL (he's not gay, not gay, not gay... hee hee). Hope to hear from 'ya!

Dear Karl,

Thanks for letting me post your letter! I think you must be the only person who's ever given me feedback on the "G for Gay Rights" section. Although I hadn't known anything about Zatoichi or Bob Jones Productions (and now that you've explained the latter, I'm thinking maybe I was better off not knowing - not that I got anything against Robin Byrd, mind you!) that still must have been the funniest description of Gigan I've ever read. Yes, we'll definitely have to get together sometime and swap horror stories from NYU Grad English. And good luck finding some gay G fans - they gotta be out there!

From: Leong
Subject: Re: Places to conquer

On Tue, 16 Sep 1997, Leong wrote:

Want a good list of planets to conquer? Check out Cosmic Spider's Alien Registration. Better not try attacking any arachnoid worlds.

Sayyy, I noticed you have quite a presence there. You wouldn't be trying by any chance to trap the Great and Mighty Ming, would ya?

Did it ever occur to you that some of the Atlantean Empire survived and are constructing Gamera? Your Gaos better watch out.

great idea! if you wanna write a story, go for it and maybe i can put it on my page and credit ya. sound like a challenge? that's cuz it is! oh, by the way, i just saw Atragon this morning for the first time since way back in the mists of my childhood. Don't tell me that one explosion finished off the entire continent of Mu! Now why would they be playing dead for so long? HMMMMMMMMM . . .

Leong took the challenge!

From: Jim Walsh
Re: Review of "Destroy All Monsters"

. . . by the way, I was thinking more about the sexual overtones in DAM...In the AIP version, when the SY3 captain calls Kiyoko at Ogasawara in the beginning, he mentions their engagement, and then the line is cut off... Kiyoko and Tetsuo (the capt.?) have a sort of wedding ceremony, arranged by the Kilaaks - she comes into the command center after the monster's raid on Tokyo, and in front of all the witnesses, she and Tetsuo exchange words to each other and the civil/military authorities (and the press). Then Tetsuo doesn't GIVE her a ring, he TAKES one, of sorts (her earring) as if to reject this perverted Kilaak arrangement...so of course the marriage isn't "consummated", until perhaps that scene you mentioned when the astronauts disable the remote control device on the moon and Kiyoko lets out a contented sigh...?!

And then there is the idea of the Kilaak saucers being like "eggs", coming to Earth and hiding in Mt. Fuji, in a womb, as it were. And what happens when the SY-3 shoots down the "burning" saucer with a missile? Pretty vivid imagery, in that context...

ok, now I must stop thinking so deeply about DAM...

Dear Jim,

Dude, I think that's brilliant! I had thought about the psychosexual violence of the earring scene, but only in a feminist way - the earring is a sign of seduction by a rival, therefore tetsuo must forcefully remove it in order to "snap her out of it" and remind her that she still belongs to him. but i'd never have made the earring-wedding ring connection. and i think it's pretty persuasive, since the scene is, as you say, like a public ceremony, where the two of them are the center of everyone's attention, where the woman makes a verbal declaration (the ideological opposite of saying "I'll love, honor, and obey you") and the man makes a physical gesture (the literal opposite of placing a ring on her body.) thanks for giving me permission to post this part of your letter!