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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 11, Summer 1946
Page 277
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 277 crete, for members of each may sometimes be regarded as the intervening divisional gaps. II The first of these groups comprises those tales where there is not only no direct reference to the supernatural, but where it need not necessarily be introduced to explain the phenomena described. The fact that they exist in close proximity to stories where the supernatural is undeniably present, as well as that supernormal agencies might conceivably be postulated to account for the events depicted, however, leads to consideration of such tales here.They may be referred to as stories of coincidence, and if the definition is understood to include such a work as "The Monkey's Paw" of W. W. Jacobs, it beomes immediately obvious why they warrant discussion. Dr. Harvey wrote seven tales of this variety: "August Heat," "The Follower," "Unwinding," "Six to Six-Thirty," "Full Circle," "Mrs. Ormerod" and "Midnight House." The first is of course the most widely known, and is also probably the best. On a hot August day an artist is suddenly inspired to produce a hurried sketch. It depicts a condemned criminal in the dock just after the judge has pronounced sentence---a fat, bald fellow, gripping the rail with his short, clumsy fingers, his expression one of hopelessness and collapse. After finishing the drawing, the artist sets out on an aimless walk, letting his steps lead where they may. Having proceeded some miles he feels impelled to enter a near-by monument-cutter's workshop, and there meets the owner, who is putting the finishing touches to the inscription on a marble tombstone; the name engraved there is the artist's own, with the birthdate correctly given---and the one of his death named as today's. The marble cutter (who is immediately recognizable as the subject of the mysterious sketch) can furnish no explanation for the coincidence, having never met the artist, and having chosen the name and dates at random for a sample monument. Determined to avoid all encounters that might make his death materialize, the artist decides to remain with his new acquaintenace for the remainder of the evening, and the two men await the hour of midnight, talking listlessly..... It is after eleven now. I shall be gone in less than an hour. But the heat is stifling. It is enough to send a man mad. One cannot deny that "August Heat" is ably written, and that technically it is quite ingenious. The story's claim to being considered supernatural lies not so much in the double coincidence described, of course, as in the individual reader's interpretation of its fascinating suspended climax. The author has been very careful to avoid divulging his own particular preference---granting that he had one---which is precisely why the work has attained a sucess comparing favorably wih that of Stockton's "Lady or the Tiger!," which depends on a similar literary device. It is worth noting that Harvey's very characters maintain the desired uncertainty to the tale's end, where the artist writes the cleverly ambiguous statement quoted above: "I shall be gone in less than an hour. Gone from the house! Or---dead! "The Follower" and "Six to Six-Thirty" have slighter coincidental bases, and merit no extended discussion. The theme of coinidence met with in "Midnight House" is not distastefully mingled with atmospheric horror, treating as it does the strange aura which clings about an isolated rural inn. A traveller who stops there one night is troubled by fearful lnightmares, sensing "a spirit of evil abroad, an ugly, horrible spirit . . . trying to enter the house" which forms a lurid backround for his dreams. That very night a new-born child there dies but a half-hour after birh. "Unwinding" gains more than passing mention simply be-
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 277 crete, for members of each may sometimes be regarded as the intervening divisional gaps. II The first of these groups comprises those tales where there is not only no direct reference to the supernatural, but where it need not necessarily be introduced to explain the phenomena described. The fact that they exist in close proximity to stories where the supernatural is undeniably present, as well as that supernormal agencies might conceivably be postulated to account for the events depicted, however, leads to consideration of such tales here.They may be referred to as stories of coincidence, and if the definition is understood to include such a work as "The Monkey's Paw" of W. W. Jacobs, it beomes immediately obvious why they warrant discussion. Dr. Harvey wrote seven tales of this variety: "August Heat," "The Follower," "Unwinding," "Six to Six-Thirty," "Full Circle," "Mrs. Ormerod" and "Midnight House." The first is of course the most widely known, and is also probably the best. On a hot August day an artist is suddenly inspired to produce a hurried sketch. It depicts a condemned criminal in the dock just after the judge has pronounced sentence---a fat, bald fellow, gripping the rail with his short, clumsy fingers, his expression one of hopelessness and collapse. After finishing the drawing, the artist sets out on an aimless walk, letting his steps lead where they may. Having proceeded some miles he feels impelled to enter a near-by monument-cutter's workshop, and there meets the owner, who is putting the finishing touches to the inscription on a marble tombstone; the name engraved there is the artist's own, with the birthdate correctly given---and the one of his death named as today's. The marble cutter (who is immediately recognizable as the subject of the mysterious sketch) can furnish no explanation for the coincidence, having never met the artist, and having chosen the name and dates at random for a sample monument. Determined to avoid all encounters that might make his death materialize, the artist decides to remain with his new acquaintenace for the remainder of the evening, and the two men await the hour of midnight, talking listlessly..... It is after eleven now. I shall be gone in less than an hour. But the heat is stifling. It is enough to send a man mad. One cannot deny that "August Heat" is ably written, and that technically it is quite ingenious. The story's claim to being considered supernatural lies not so much in the double coincidence described, of course, as in the individual reader's interpretation of its fascinating suspended climax. The author has been very careful to avoid divulging his own particular preference---granting that he had one---which is precisely why the work has attained a sucess comparing favorably wih that of Stockton's "Lady or the Tiger!," which depends on a similar literary device. It is worth noting that Harvey's very characters maintain the desired uncertainty to the tale's end, where the artist writes the cleverly ambiguous statement quoted above: "I shall be gone in less than an hour. Gone from the house! Or---dead! "The Follower" and "Six to Six-Thirty" have slighter coincidental bases, and merit no extended discussion. The theme of coinidence met with in "Midnight House" is not distastefully mingled with atmospheric horror, treating as it does the strange aura which clings about an isolated rural inn. A traveller who stops there one night is troubled by fearful lnightmares, sensing "a spirit of evil abroad, an ugly, horrible spirit . . . trying to enter the house" which forms a lurid backround for his dreams. That very night a new-born child there dies but a half-hour after birh. "Unwinding" gains more than passing mention simply be-
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