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Chanticleer, v. 1, issue 3, December 1945

Page 19

The whole book hinges on women--one of the points that make it well worth reading--and their influence in Odysseus. There undoubtedly is symbolism in this Odyssey, how the hero is repeatedly brought through different adventures with the help of woman, then kicked out when they become tired of him. Erskine only picks the incidents using women--and manages to leave both sexes in a very unfavorable light, with perhaps an edge on the side of the men. There is Helen of Troy; the naked girl of the Lotus Eaters, who wants Odysseus to give her a child, and then be killed; Circe, the Enchantress, whom he stays with a year, and turns out to become the same as her previous husbands, and is kicked out; ((kinda hammy what!)) the Sirens, whom Odysseus merely finds boring; Calypson, whom he stays with seven years, and has a number of children from; Nausicaa, who is a surprise; and then his wife, Penelope, who is about to grab off a nice prince when Odysseus appears on the scene. The ending is a surprise; and makes the book well worth reading.
Sprinkled through the book, very liberally, as almost all the principal proponents go about naked, is a generous helping of pornography. This in itself would make the book well worth reading. ((Ah, these young reviewers))
But there are other things beside pornography in the book, and they call combine into a civilized, witty book, that can merit the highest praise this review can give: It is well worth reading!
--Ray A. Karden

WORLD D -- Hal P. Trevarthen (Official Historian of the Superficies); being a brief account of the founding of Helioxenon. Edited by J. K. Heydon, New York: Sheed & Ward, Inc., 1935. (Printed in Great Britain.)

If you've read "The Messiah of the Cylinder", you'll have some idea of how "World D" is likely to affect you. You'll know how a book can be so startlingly good that you want to shout your joy from the rooftops--and at the same time so incredibly stupid that you hardly know whether to laugh or make a dive for vomiting-pan.
"World D" as Walt has indicated, is in some respects deliciously good, reminiscent of the best of E. E. Smith. Consider the plot:
A great scientist taps the strange powers of the mind, opening up a whole new science of Psycho-Psychics. His mental powers augmented to superhuman capacity by a series of brain-potential-boosting cells, he constructs in the red-hot magma beneath the Pacific Ocean a great cube of force to act as a shelter for selected specimens of humanity against the doom threatening our race. He sends into the outer world his daughter, to bring back a man fit to rule beside her as King of Helioxenon. The amazed newcomer witnesses the marvels of the Hallucinators, the Great Machine, the Little Machine, the Memories, and all the diverse superscientific marvels of this world within the Earth. Not the least of Helioxenon's wonders is the Psychophone, with which the scientist keeps in touch with three different worlds of distant solar systems. Truly alien civilizations are described, and the conflict of the psychologies involves the shattering of the lovers' hopes unless the icily intellectual beings of Triangulum can be made to see the beauty of human love. The story is a tense drama of interstellar intrigue, bustling with vast and weirdly original concepts. In at least one respect it is superior to Smith's stories, for while they frequently descend to blood-and-thunder action, the thrills of "World D" are conflicts of minds and personalities. This is a thoroughly adult story.
Sadly, however, there is another side to the picture. Two great weaknesses detract from the book's affect. First is the romance. It may be my own evil mind, but it seems to me that the author, for all his ravings about the spiritual beauty of love, is obsessed with the physical aspects of sex. There is one passage of pure pornography, and frequent overly-enthusiastic references to the warmth and softness of the heroine's body--a sort of between-the-lines leering.

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The whole book hinges on women--one of the points that make it well worth reading--and their influence in Odysseus. There undoubtedly is symbolism in this Odyssey, how the hero is repeatedly brought through different adventures with the help of woman, then kicked out when they become tired of him. Erskine only picks the incidents using women--and manages to leave both sexes in a very unfavorable light, with perhaps an edge on the side of the men. There is Helen of Troy; the naked girl of the Lotus Eaters, who wants Odysseus to give her a child, and then be killed; Circe, the Enchantress, whom he stays with a year, and turns out to become the same as her previous husbands, and is kicked out; ((kinda hammy what!)) the Sirens, whom Odysseus merely finds boring; Calypson, whom he stays with seven years, and has a number of children from; Nausicaa, who is a surprise; and then his wife, Penelope, who is about to grab off a nice prince when Odysseus appears on the scene. The ending is a surprise; and makes the book well worth reading. Sprinkled through the book, very liberally, as almost all the principal proponents go about naked, is a generous helping of pornography. This in itself would make the book well worth reading. ((Ah, these young reviewers)) But there are other things beside pornography in the book, and they call combine into a civilized, witty book, that can merit the highest praise this review can give: It is well worth reading! --Ray A. Karden WORLD D -- Hal P. Trevarthen (Official Historian of the Superficies); being a brief account of the founding of Helioxenon. Edited by J. K. Heydon, New York: Sheed & Ward, Inc., 1935. (Printed in Great Britain.) If you've read "The Messiah of the Cylinder", you'll have some idea of how "World D" is likely to affect you. You'll know how a book can be so startlingly good that you want to shout your joy from the rooftops--and at the same time so incredibly stupid that you hardly know whether to laugh or make a dive for vomiting-pan. "World D" as Walt has indicated, is in some respects deliciously good, reminiscent of the best of E. E. Smith. Consider the plot: A great scientist taps the strange powers of the mind, opening up a whole new science of Psycho-Psychics. His mental powers augmented to superhuman capacity by a series of brain-potential-boosting cells, he constructs in the red-hot magma beneath the Pacific Ocean a great cube of force to act as a shelter for selected specimens of humanity against the doom threatening our race. He sends into the outer world his daughter, to bring back a man fit to rule beside her as King of Helioxenon. The amazed newcomer witnesses the marvels of the Hallucinators, the Great Machine, the Little Machine, the Memories, and all the diverse superscientific marvels of this world within the Earth. Not the least of Helioxenon's wonders is the Psychophone, with which the scientist keeps in touch with three different worlds of distant solar systems. Truly alien civilizations are described, and the conflict of the psychologies involves the shattering of the lovers' hopes unless the icily intellectual beings of Triangulum can be made to see the beauty of human love. The story is a tense drama of interstellar intrigue, bustling with vast and weirdly original concepts. In at least one respect it is superior to Smith's stories, for while they frequently descend to blood-and-thunder action, the thrills of "World D" are conflicts of minds and personalities. This is a thoroughly adult story. Sadly, however, there is another side to the picture. Two great weaknesses detract from the book's affect. First is the romance. It may be my own evil mind, but it seems to me that the author, for all his ravings about the spiritual beauty of love, is obsessed with the physical aspects of sex. There is one passage of pure pornography, and frequent overly-enthusiastic references to the warmth and softness of the heroine's body--a sort of between-the-lines leering.