Design by Chris Ayers—————- “Baby Pictures Of Famous Dictators” - Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad. Poor Yorick Entertainment Unlimited. Documentary or uncredited cast w/ narrator P.A. Heaven; 16 mm; 45 minutes; black and white; sound. Children and adolescents play a nearly incomprehnsible nuclear strategy game with tennis equipment against a real or holographic (?) backdrop of sabotaged ATHSCME 1900 atmospheric displacement towers exploding and toppling during the New New England Chemical Emergency of Y.W. CELLULOID (UNRELEASED) ————- Arguably one of the funniest passages in the novel is the description of Eschaton, a game played by kids at Enfield Tennis Academy. The humor lies in the fact that the game is played by 12-14 year olds, yet is so complicated that the reader has no hope of comprehending the rules. Being successful at Eschaton requires not only strategic and diplomatic skills, bit also the precise control of lobbed tennis balls which represent nuclear warheads, aimed at opposing countries which are mapped onto the surface of four adjacent tennis courts. One of the most dangerous strategies is “going SACPOP” (Strikes Against Civilian Population) which almost always sets into motion the endgame of mutually assured destruction. The particular game of Eschaton described in the novel quickly devolves into a sort of Lord of the Flies situation when some unprecedented rules disputes come into play. When reading the novel’s endnotes in chronological order you would come across a reference to James Incandenza’s film “Baby Pictures of Famous Dictators”, which is a film documenting a game of Eschaton, although the description of the game comes much later in the book. It’s an odd title, and I can only guess that the “baby pictures” refers to the fact that the game is played by young children with the fate of the whole world on the end of their tennis rackets.

Design by Chris Ayers
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“Baby Pictures Of Famous Dictators” - Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad. Poor Yorick Entertainment Unlimited. Documentary or uncredited cast w/ narrator P.A. Heaven; 16 mm; 45 minutes; black and white; sound. Children and adolescents play a nearly incomprehnsible nuclear strategy game with tennis equipment against a real or holographic (?) backdrop of sabotaged ATHSCME 1900 atmospheric displacement towers exploding and toppling during the New New England Chemical Emergency of Y.W. CELLULOID (UNRELEASED)

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Arguably one of the funniest passages in the novel is the description of Eschaton, a game played by kids at Enfield Tennis Academy. The humor lies in the fact that the game is played by 12-14 year olds, yet is so complicated that the reader has no hope of comprehending the rules. Being successful at Eschaton requires not only strategic and diplomatic skills, bit also the precise control of lobbed tennis balls which represent nuclear warheads, aimed at opposing countries which are mapped onto the surface of four adjacent tennis courts. One of the most dangerous strategies is “going SACPOP” (Strikes Against Civilian Population) which almost always sets into motion the endgame of mutually assured destruction.

The particular game of Eschaton described in the novel quickly devolves into a sort of Lord of the Flies situation when some unprecedented rules disputes come into play.

When reading the novel’s endnotes in chronological order you would come across a reference to James Incandenza’s film “Baby Pictures of Famous Dictators”, which is a film documenting a game of Eschaton, although the description of the game comes much later in the book. It’s an odd title, and I can only guess that the “baby pictures” refers to the fact that the game is played by young children with the fate of the whole world on the end of their tennis rackets.