Transcribe
Translate
Dream Quest, v. 1, issue 1, July 1947
Page 33
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
DREAM QUEST 33 rejuvenation-ray which this inventor has perfected, and which has kept a dead rat from decay for a considerable length of time, while not actually restoring the breathing and heartbeat of the animal. During this demonstration to the Bolshevists, or Debs followers, or whoever the agitators happen to come along and murder the inventor in cold blood, then tossing a bomb into the basement where the rejuvenation apparatus is located, caving in the ancient house on poor Jeremy. When Jeremy wakes he is well along in the 21st century, and Whitechapel is a few low mounds of ruins. The breakdown is not as complete here as in many such novels. The breakdown is more in the ambition of man than in the actual destruction of machines and such; man has become like a bunch of cattle. Railroads still run intermittently, as do electric lights in various high-class portions of the English countryside. There are boats from England to France. It seems that the only thing which has vanished is the desire in the minds of men to repair apparatus and machinery and buildings when they have run down and decayed, and to build new ones. When the roof of a building caves in, the occupants move to another building; it never enters their head to put up a new roof. Such is the will of men when Jeremy Tuft happens on the scene. He feels alone in the world, the only true man left and the only one who has not become mentally like a cow. He soon discovers that this assumption is incorrect, however. The ruler of the country, a figure called the Speaker, still retains all the intelligence and fire of a person of the old days, even though he is a trifle off the beam. The Speaker has a lovely daughter who has inherited her father's mind. So there are three real human beings left in a world of cattle -- Jeremy Tuft, preserved for over a hundred years by the action of some crackpot's rejuventation machine; the Speaker, a slightly half baked reform politician; and the lovely, sane daughter of that dignitary. Eventually was develops between the Scotch and the English, and it is revealed that the Speaker has been manufacturing guns secretly. Jeremy, who served in artillery in the Great War, is put in charge of two small cannon and wins the battle for the Southern English by blowing up the enemy's ammunition stores with a chance shot. He is the hero of the day and ends up engaged to the lovely daughter, as might be expected. Here a pulp hack novel might end. But not so Edward Shanks. He creates another battle, this time with the Welshmen from the west. In this battle part of the British force sells out to the enemy and the battle is lost, as is the sanity of the Speaker; his mind reverts to childish idiocy under the strain. From there on -- in fact, from a little before that incident -- the story begins to strike up a note of futility. It ends in a manner which Raymond of the Inner Sanctum would indeed love -- everyone dies. The lovely gal and poor Jeremy each commit suicide after the poor old Speaker dies from exposure and fits. There is a prophetic note that civilization will Join the Philcon Society today
Saving...
prev
next
DREAM QUEST 33 rejuvenation-ray which this inventor has perfected, and which has kept a dead rat from decay for a considerable length of time, while not actually restoring the breathing and heartbeat of the animal. During this demonstration to the Bolshevists, or Debs followers, or whoever the agitators happen to come along and murder the inventor in cold blood, then tossing a bomb into the basement where the rejuvenation apparatus is located, caving in the ancient house on poor Jeremy. When Jeremy wakes he is well along in the 21st century, and Whitechapel is a few low mounds of ruins. The breakdown is not as complete here as in many such novels. The breakdown is more in the ambition of man than in the actual destruction of machines and such; man has become like a bunch of cattle. Railroads still run intermittently, as do electric lights in various high-class portions of the English countryside. There are boats from England to France. It seems that the only thing which has vanished is the desire in the minds of men to repair apparatus and machinery and buildings when they have run down and decayed, and to build new ones. When the roof of a building caves in, the occupants move to another building; it never enters their head to put up a new roof. Such is the will of men when Jeremy Tuft happens on the scene. He feels alone in the world, the only true man left and the only one who has not become mentally like a cow. He soon discovers that this assumption is incorrect, however. The ruler of the country, a figure called the Speaker, still retains all the intelligence and fire of a person of the old days, even though he is a trifle off the beam. The Speaker has a lovely daughter who has inherited her father's mind. So there are three real human beings left in a world of cattle -- Jeremy Tuft, preserved for over a hundred years by the action of some crackpot's rejuventation machine; the Speaker, a slightly half baked reform politician; and the lovely, sane daughter of that dignitary. Eventually was develops between the Scotch and the English, and it is revealed that the Speaker has been manufacturing guns secretly. Jeremy, who served in artillery in the Great War, is put in charge of two small cannon and wins the battle for the Southern English by blowing up the enemy's ammunition stores with a chance shot. He is the hero of the day and ends up engaged to the lovely daughter, as might be expected. Here a pulp hack novel might end. But not so Edward Shanks. He creates another battle, this time with the Welshmen from the west. In this battle part of the British force sells out to the enemy and the battle is lost, as is the sanity of the Speaker; his mind reverts to childish idiocy under the strain. From there on -- in fact, from a little before that incident -- the story begins to strike up a note of futility. It ends in a manner which Raymond of the Inner Sanctum would indeed love -- everyone dies. The lovely gal and poor Jeremy each commit suicide after the poor old Speaker dies from exposure and fits. There is a prophetic note that civilization will Join the Philcon Society today
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
