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Futuria Fantasia, Winter 1940

Page 9

9

patterns -- designs which if read, might lure the intrepid miserable one who reads them out of earth and beyond...beyond, to immeasurable evil...Do you understand what I am saying?" His voice quivered metallically, was vibrant with emotion.

I tried to smile, but managed only a sickly grin. "I understand you, sir, but I am not in the habit of accepting nebulous theories such as that without any shred of evidence."

"There is, sad to say, only too much evidence. But do you believe that men have lost their minds from incessant study of the stars?" 

"Perhaps some have, I don't know," I returned. "But in the South of this state in one of the country's leading observatories, I have a friend who is famous as an astronomer. He is as sane as your or I. If not saner." I tacked the last sentence on with significant emphasis.

The fellow was muttering something into his muffler, and I fancied I caught the words "danger..." and "fools..." We were silent again. Low dark clouds fled over the roaring sea and the gloom intensified. 

Presently, in his clipt speech, the stranger said, "Do you believe that life exists on other planets, other stars? Have you ever wondered what kind of life might inhabit the other stars in this solar system, and those beyond it?" His eyes were near mind as he spoke, and they bewitched me. There was something in them, something intangible and awful. I sensed that he was questioning me idly, as an outlander might be questioned about things with which the asker is familiar, as I might ask a New Yorker, "What do you think of the Golden Gate Bridge?"

"I wouldn't attempt to guess, to describe, for instance, a Martian man," I said. "Yet I read with interest various guesses by writers of fiction." I was striving to maintain a mood of lightness and ease, but inwardly I felt a bitter cold, as one on the rim of a nightmare. I suddenly realized, with childish fear, that night was falling.

"Writers of fiction! And what if they were to guess too well? What then? Is it safe for them to have full rein over their imaginations? Like the star-gazers..." I said nothing, but smiled.

"Perhaps, man, there have been those whose minds were acute beyond most earthly minds -- those who have guessed too closely to truth. Perhaps those are Beyond are not yet ready to make themselves known to Earthlings? And maybe THEY are annoyed with the puny publicity they receive from imaginative writers...Ask yourself, what is imagination? Are earth-minds capable of conceiving that which is not and has never been; or is this imagination merely a deeper insight into worlds you know not of, worlds glimpsed dimly in the throes of dream? And whence come these dreams? Tell me, have you ever awakened from a dream with the sinister feeling that all was not well inside your mind? -- that while you, the real you, were away in Limbo -- someone -- something -- was probing in your mind, invading it and read it. Might not THEY leave behind them in departure shadowy trailings of their own minds?"

Now I was indeed speechless. For a strange nothing had started my neck-hairs to prickling. Authors who might have guessed too well...Two, no three, writers whose stories had hinted at inconceivable yet inevitable dooms; writers I had known; had recently died, by accident...

"What of old legends? Of the serpent who shall one day devour the sun. That legend dates back to Mu and Atlantis. Who, man, was and is Satan? Christ? And Jehovah? benevolent and all-saving, were but a monstrous jest fostered by THEY to keep man blindly content, and keep him divided among himself so that he strove not to unravel the stars?"

"Man, in my foolish youth I studied by candle flame secrets that would scorch your very soul. Of women who with their own bare hands have strangled the children they bore so that the world might not know...Disease and sickness at which physicians throw up their hands in helpless bafflement. When strong men tear at their limbs and heads

Saving...

9 patterns -- designs which if read, might lure the intrepid miserable one who reads them out of earth and beyond...beyond, to immeasurable evil...Do you understand what I am saying?" His voice quivered metallically, was vibrant with emotion. I tried to smile, but managed only a sickly grin. "I understand you, sir, but I am not in the habit of accepting nebulous theories such as that without any shred of evidence." "There is, sad to say, only too much evidence. But do you believe that men have lost their minds from incessant study of the stars?" "Perhaps some have, I don't know," I returned. "But in the South of this state in one of the country's leading observatories, I have a friend who is famous as an astronomer. He is as sane as your or I. If not saner." I tacked the last sentence on with significant emphasis. The fellow was muttering something into his muffler, and I fancied I caught the words "danger..." and "fools..." We were silent again. Low dark clouds fled over the roaring sea and the gloom intensified. Presently, in his clipt speech, the stranger said, "Do you believe that life exists on other planets, other stars? Have you ever wondered what kind of life might inhabit the other stars in this solar system, and those beyond it?" His eyes were near mind as he spoke, and they bewitched me. There was something in them, something intangible and awful. I sensed that he was questioning me idly, as an outlander might be questioned about things with which the asker is familiar, as I might ask a New Yorker, "What do you think of the Golden Gate Bridge?" "I wouldn't attempt to guess, to describe, for instance, a Martian man," I said. "Yet I read with interest various guesses by writers of fiction." I was striving to maintain a mood of lightness and ease, but inwardly I felt a bitter cold, as one on the rim of a nightmare. I suddenly realized, with childish fear, that night was falling. "Writers of fiction! And what if they were to guess too well? What then? Is it safe for them to have full rein over their imaginations? Like the star-gazers..." I said nothing, but smiled. "Perhaps, man, there have been those whose minds were acute beyond most earthly minds -- those who have guessed too closely to truth. Perhaps those are Beyond are not yet ready to make themselves known to Earthlings? And maybe THEY are annoyed with the puny publicity they receive from imaginative writers...Ask yourself, what is imagination? Are earth-minds capable of conceiving that which is not and has never been; or is this imagination merely a deeper insight into worlds you know not of, worlds glimpsed dimly in the throes of dream? And whence come these dreams? Tell me, have you ever awakened from a dream with the sinister feeling that all was not well inside your mind? -- that while you, the real you, were away in Limbo -- someone -- something -- was probing in your mind, invading it and read it. Might not THEY leave behind them in departure shadowy trailings of their own minds?" Now I was indeed speechless. For a strange nothing had started my neck-hairs to prickling. Authors who might have guessed too well...Two, no three, writers whose stories had hinted at inconceivable yet inevitable dooms; writers I had known; had recently died, by accident... "What of old legends? Of the serpent who shall one day devour the sun. That legend dates back to Mu and Atlantis. Who, man, was and is Satan? Christ? And Jehovah? benevolent and all-saving, were but a monstrous jest fostered by THEY to keep man blindly content, and keep him divided among himself so that he strove not to unravel the stars?" "Man, in my foolish youth I studied by candle flame secrets that would scorch your very soul. Of women who with their own bare hands have strangled the children they bore so that the world might not know...Disease and sickness at which physicians throw up their hands in helpless bafflement. When strong men tear at their limbs and heads