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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 6, Spring 1945
Page 119
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 119 Tips on Tales by Thyril L. Ladd (Editor's note: Although this column will appear as a regular feature of Fantasy Commentator hereafter, it will not necessarily be limited to any one writer. In order to assure variety of both subject-matter and prose-style its authorship and length will be varied from time to time as submissions to us warrant.) Chester Brodhay's Veiled Victory (1941): Here is an intriguing concept! A young scientist, in his experiments, establishes television contact with the planet Mars. By means of a code which its inhabitants decipher he instructs them in the construction and operation a television set similar to his. And when their instrument is operated in conjunction with his it is seen that the intelligent beings of Mars are humans of great perfection and beauty. Using these television sets, the scientist meets, and eventually falls in love with a maiden of the red planet---and is faced with the fact that the millions of miles which separate him from his beloved bar the two from ever meeting. Brodhay solves this problem in the novel rather cleverly, I thought. Norman Matson's Flecker's Magic (1926): She certainly didn't look like a witch, with her neat black bobbed hair, cheery youthful face and charming slender figure---but she told Flecker that she was, and gave him one wish which, if used within a certain time, would certainly be granted, no matter what it might be. Poor Flecker; he ponders and ponders on how to use his wish---he has only one! The story of his decision, not a little complicated by subsequent meetings with his charming benefactor, makes very good reading. A. B. Cox's Professor on Paws (1927): This time we laugh. Two professors cannot agree---the first claims that if the human brain were removed very quickly after death and transferred to the body of a living animal it would continue to function normally; the second disagrees. But the two agree that if one of them should die, the other will promptly transfer his brain to a living creature. The first professor dies suddenly, and the only animal the second can procure to use in the experiment at such short notice is a little black kitten. The next day professor number one's daughter is much amazed when the family kitten addresses her in her father's cranky voice---the operation has been successful! The hapless pussy-prof's adventures follow fast and furious. He is taken to a lady's boudoir; he is kidnapped by low characters who see in him vast commercial possibilities; a visiting female relative receives from him a great surprise and a mighty shock; and in his feline form he tries in vain to frustrate the marriage of his daughter to a man not of his liking. And just wait until the professor discovers that he is a female cat, and is about to have kittens! Alexander de Comeau's Monk's Magic (1931): If the themes of black magic and the Elixer of Life appeal to you, by all means obtain this book. The raising of the devil in person; a Black Mass in a ruined chapel; hag-like witches in a somber wood; a dead man raised to be questioned---the author has entwined these scenes with a tender love story and some excellent sly humor. Some of the situations hint of Rabelais; some of the atmospheric effects, of Poe. All in all, it is a rare dish for the feaster on fantasy. Philip Wylie's Gladiator (1930): A mild-mannered, retiring college professor, under the thumb of his domineering wife, makes a startling biochemical discovery in his laboratory. When his wife is pregnant he slyly drugs her, and then injects a serum. Soon after the child is born, startling phenomena become apparent. The baby shatters his crib with his bare hands, and later on, when a small (concluded on page 130)
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 119 Tips on Tales by Thyril L. Ladd (Editor's note: Although this column will appear as a regular feature of Fantasy Commentator hereafter, it will not necessarily be limited to any one writer. In order to assure variety of both subject-matter and prose-style its authorship and length will be varied from time to time as submissions to us warrant.) Chester Brodhay's Veiled Victory (1941): Here is an intriguing concept! A young scientist, in his experiments, establishes television contact with the planet Mars. By means of a code which its inhabitants decipher he instructs them in the construction and operation a television set similar to his. And when their instrument is operated in conjunction with his it is seen that the intelligent beings of Mars are humans of great perfection and beauty. Using these television sets, the scientist meets, and eventually falls in love with a maiden of the red planet---and is faced with the fact that the millions of miles which separate him from his beloved bar the two from ever meeting. Brodhay solves this problem in the novel rather cleverly, I thought. Norman Matson's Flecker's Magic (1926): She certainly didn't look like a witch, with her neat black bobbed hair, cheery youthful face and charming slender figure---but she told Flecker that she was, and gave him one wish which, if used within a certain time, would certainly be granted, no matter what it might be. Poor Flecker; he ponders and ponders on how to use his wish---he has only one! The story of his decision, not a little complicated by subsequent meetings with his charming benefactor, makes very good reading. A. B. Cox's Professor on Paws (1927): This time we laugh. Two professors cannot agree---the first claims that if the human brain were removed very quickly after death and transferred to the body of a living animal it would continue to function normally; the second disagrees. But the two agree that if one of them should die, the other will promptly transfer his brain to a living creature. The first professor dies suddenly, and the only animal the second can procure to use in the experiment at such short notice is a little black kitten. The next day professor number one's daughter is much amazed when the family kitten addresses her in her father's cranky voice---the operation has been successful! The hapless pussy-prof's adventures follow fast and furious. He is taken to a lady's boudoir; he is kidnapped by low characters who see in him vast commercial possibilities; a visiting female relative receives from him a great surprise and a mighty shock; and in his feline form he tries in vain to frustrate the marriage of his daughter to a man not of his liking. And just wait until the professor discovers that he is a female cat, and is about to have kittens! Alexander de Comeau's Monk's Magic (1931): If the themes of black magic and the Elixer of Life appeal to you, by all means obtain this book. The raising of the devil in person; a Black Mass in a ruined chapel; hag-like witches in a somber wood; a dead man raised to be questioned---the author has entwined these scenes with a tender love story and some excellent sly humor. Some of the situations hint of Rabelais; some of the atmospheric effects, of Poe. All in all, it is a rare dish for the feaster on fantasy. Philip Wylie's Gladiator (1930): A mild-mannered, retiring college professor, under the thumb of his domineering wife, makes a startling biochemical discovery in his laboratory. When his wife is pregnant he slyly drugs her, and then injects a serum. Soon after the child is born, startling phenomena become apparent. The baby shatters his crib with his bare hands, and later on, when a small (concluded on page 130)
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