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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 10, Spring 1946
Page 254
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254 FANTASY COMMENTATOR The interested reader can secure a glimpse of Nerval's eccentric genius by reading his short story "Sylvie," published in the Everyman's Library edition of the book French Short Stories of the 19th and 20th Centuries. As one of the great masters of fantasy it is only fitting that Walter de la Mare should be mentioned. I nominate "The Vats," that strange, breathless tale wherein the reader seems led to the very threshold of some great secret of life, time, or the infinite itself; with the author's characteristic restraint, the secret is never disclosed. Strangeness abounds also in such stories as W.F. Harvey's "August Heat," with its masterly handling of the double coincidence theme; H. P. Hartley's "A Visitor from Down Under," in which a B.B.C. broadcast of a children's party with its typical games serves as a background for the appearance of a singularly grisly visitant; and Margaret Irwin's magnificent Still She Wished for Company. Proof that strangeness and humor do not necessarily conflict is provided by Richard Middleton's "Ghost Ship." The concept of ghosts mingling with the living on perfectly amicable terms---each accepting the other without question or fear---makes an enchanting story. The idea of the ghost ship's captain getting the local village ghosts drunk and recruiting them for his crew touches the sublime in fantastic humor. At the opposite pole from Middleton's delightful effort is the horror-laden psychological tale by the Russian author Leonid Andreyev, "The Red Laugh." Few readers of William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost-Finder will forget "The Whistling Room." The notion of a room, so impregnated with the malignant spirit of the slain jester that its floor puckers up into a huge pair of lips emitting a gargantuan whistle and capable of hurling men about with murderous force is original in the extreme. Those lucky enough to possess files of Weird Tales in its golden age will find there strange stories in abundance, ranging from the sombre grandeur of Donald Wandrei's "Red Brain," in which we see the last days of a dying universe, to the delicate, poetical "Wind that Tramps the World" by Frank Owen. In that same magazine there appeared in 1930 a story that may be remembered by many not because of its merit, but because of its utter absurdity. Such a one is "The Land of Lur" by Earl Leaston Bell. Alliteration is here pushed to such extremes that it first irritates the reader, then enrages him, and finally causes him to laugh heartily. The generally hilarious atmosphere is also enlivened by scraps of inane verse and the invention of such words as ghoupire to describe beings who are half ghoul, half vampire. Truly it is a masterpiece---though not in the sense that the author intended. ---oOo--- The Superman in Modern English Fiction---concluded from page 248 of the purely physical superman, for example---not one of which can be considered to be excellent in calibre---points to a section of the field can profitably bear further cultivation. Despite a number of inferior examples that could be cited, the picture as a whole is one showing a comparatively high standard of quality---one almost unequalled by any other fantasy topic, in fact. This is unusual indeed when one reflects that supermen are very much in the public eye, both in fiction and in real life. The most surprising observation of all is that the majority of the better examples encountered have "pulp" magazines as their origin. Leading the roster is the weird novel "But Without Horns," superb for its general literary quality, unusual treatment of theme, and grandiloquence of finale. Despite its appearance in a "pulp" magazine it shows a few of the characterizing cliches that pervade even many of the hard-cover items. In second place is "Seeds of Life," which is also the best example of the purely scientific
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254 FANTASY COMMENTATOR The interested reader can secure a glimpse of Nerval's eccentric genius by reading his short story "Sylvie," published in the Everyman's Library edition of the book French Short Stories of the 19th and 20th Centuries. As one of the great masters of fantasy it is only fitting that Walter de la Mare should be mentioned. I nominate "The Vats," that strange, breathless tale wherein the reader seems led to the very threshold of some great secret of life, time, or the infinite itself; with the author's characteristic restraint, the secret is never disclosed. Strangeness abounds also in such stories as W.F. Harvey's "August Heat," with its masterly handling of the double coincidence theme; H. P. Hartley's "A Visitor from Down Under," in which a B.B.C. broadcast of a children's party with its typical games serves as a background for the appearance of a singularly grisly visitant; and Margaret Irwin's magnificent Still She Wished for Company. Proof that strangeness and humor do not necessarily conflict is provided by Richard Middleton's "Ghost Ship." The concept of ghosts mingling with the living on perfectly amicable terms---each accepting the other without question or fear---makes an enchanting story. The idea of the ghost ship's captain getting the local village ghosts drunk and recruiting them for his crew touches the sublime in fantastic humor. At the opposite pole from Middleton's delightful effort is the horror-laden psychological tale by the Russian author Leonid Andreyev, "The Red Laugh." Few readers of William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost-Finder will forget "The Whistling Room." The notion of a room, so impregnated with the malignant spirit of the slain jester that its floor puckers up into a huge pair of lips emitting a gargantuan whistle and capable of hurling men about with murderous force is original in the extreme. Those lucky enough to possess files of Weird Tales in its golden age will find there strange stories in abundance, ranging from the sombre grandeur of Donald Wandrei's "Red Brain," in which we see the last days of a dying universe, to the delicate, poetical "Wind that Tramps the World" by Frank Owen. In that same magazine there appeared in 1930 a story that may be remembered by many not because of its merit, but because of its utter absurdity. Such a one is "The Land of Lur" by Earl Leaston Bell. Alliteration is here pushed to such extremes that it first irritates the reader, then enrages him, and finally causes him to laugh heartily. The generally hilarious atmosphere is also enlivened by scraps of inane verse and the invention of such words as ghoupire to describe beings who are half ghoul, half vampire. Truly it is a masterpiece---though not in the sense that the author intended. ---oOo--- The Superman in Modern English Fiction---concluded from page 248 of the purely physical superman, for example---not one of which can be considered to be excellent in calibre---points to a section of the field can profitably bear further cultivation. Despite a number of inferior examples that could be cited, the picture as a whole is one showing a comparatively high standard of quality---one almost unequalled by any other fantasy topic, in fact. This is unusual indeed when one reflects that supermen are very much in the public eye, both in fiction and in real life. The most surprising observation of all is that the majority of the better examples encountered have "pulp" magazines as their origin. Leading the roster is the weird novel "But Without Horns," superb for its general literary quality, unusual treatment of theme, and grandiloquence of finale. Despite its appearance in a "pulp" magazine it shows a few of the characterizing cliches that pervade even many of the hard-cover items. In second place is "Seeds of Life," which is also the best example of the purely scientific
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