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Imagination, v. 1, issue 7, whole no. 7, April 1938
Page 9
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IMAGINATION! #7 38 Apr 9 "THE LIVING LIE," A Play Review in English. [Signed Forrest J. Ackerman] The title aptly expresses the writer's attitude in regard to his preparing this article in the accepted spelling, punctuation and paragraphing of the present time. As you see, he is quite backward about it. You will have to hold the page to the mirror in order to be able to interpret it (what a screwy idea!); if you can't get a laugh out of this, possibly you will from the reflection... [Remaining text all inverted/mirror-text.] The play opened in a little hut (not literally, of course) in West Borneo, where Anderson, an old explorer, lay dying of fever. Attending him, like an understanding servant, was a great ape. The name to the anthropold, Ahzu. Paxton, a scientist discredited by his university because of certain evolutionary--and revolutionary--experiments, enters the little hut. The great ape rushes at him. Terrified, the scientist raises his revolver to shoot; but old Anderson, lifting from his bed, cries to Ahzu, "Stop! --Friend..." Anderson acquaints Paxton with the amazing intelligence of the ape, a species not quite like any seen before. Then, as a dying request, asks Paxton to loose Azhu to the jungle when he, Anderson, has passed on; further, that, if possible, when Ahzu dies the ape be buried by his side--for Ahzu, the beast he taught to mumble a few man-like sounds, has been his best friend. But when, Anderson dead, the ape became his property, Paxton returned with the anthropoid to America, to carry out his evolutionary experiments on this, so unusual a subject. Four months later, Paxton has invited a number of scientists and members of their immediate families to his home to disclose to them some amazing thing. In particular, he has present Stanbing, a scientist who has opposed his views, and against whom he is very bitter. Paxton introduces Ahzu. But Ahzu is no longer an ape, but an ape-man! An astounding anomaly: A bent, bow-legged creature with bulging chest, brown, hairy hands, and shaggy, dark ape-ture half human! Dressed as a man! It--no he--speaks: "How...da do!" All are on their feet, gasping. Paxton, aglow, describes his work with Ahzu. He explains that the ape-man now has the intelligence of a six-year old child, and that he will answer any reasonable question that can be answered in one word. To prove this to themselves, he invites his guests to put questions to the creature, one at a time; and these Ahzu answers. But then, frightened by one of the party, Ahzu attacks him, and Standing, drawing a gun, shoots the half-human ape! The next scene, Ahzu is on an operating table in Paxton's private laboratory. Paxton is bent over the strange, still form. "Ahzu is dead," he says. Martha Robers, nurse long in Paxton's service, and secretly in love with her employer, feels Ahzu's pulse, startled. "But he is not!"
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IMAGINATION! #7 38 Apr 9 "THE LIVING LIE," A Play Review in English. [Signed Forrest J. Ackerman] The title aptly expresses the writer's attitude in regard to his preparing this article in the accepted spelling, punctuation and paragraphing of the present time. As you see, he is quite backward about it. You will have to hold the page to the mirror in order to be able to interpret it (what a screwy idea!); if you can't get a laugh out of this, possibly you will from the reflection... [Remaining text all inverted/mirror-text.] The play opened in a little hut (not literally, of course) in West Borneo, where Anderson, an old explorer, lay dying of fever. Attending him, like an understanding servant, was a great ape. The name to the anthropold, Ahzu. Paxton, a scientist discredited by his university because of certain evolutionary--and revolutionary--experiments, enters the little hut. The great ape rushes at him. Terrified, the scientist raises his revolver to shoot; but old Anderson, lifting from his bed, cries to Ahzu, "Stop! --Friend..." Anderson acquaints Paxton with the amazing intelligence of the ape, a species not quite like any seen before. Then, as a dying request, asks Paxton to loose Azhu to the jungle when he, Anderson, has passed on; further, that, if possible, when Ahzu dies the ape be buried by his side--for Ahzu, the beast he taught to mumble a few man-like sounds, has been his best friend. But when, Anderson dead, the ape became his property, Paxton returned with the anthropoid to America, to carry out his evolutionary experiments on this, so unusual a subject. Four months later, Paxton has invited a number of scientists and members of their immediate families to his home to disclose to them some amazing thing. In particular, he has present Stanbing, a scientist who has opposed his views, and against whom he is very bitter. Paxton introduces Ahzu. But Ahzu is no longer an ape, but an ape-man! An astounding anomaly: A bent, bow-legged creature with bulging chest, brown, hairy hands, and shaggy, dark ape-ture half human! Dressed as a man! It--no he--speaks: "How...da do!" All are on their feet, gasping. Paxton, aglow, describes his work with Ahzu. He explains that the ape-man now has the intelligence of a six-year old child, and that he will answer any reasonable question that can be answered in one word. To prove this to themselves, he invites his guests to put questions to the creature, one at a time; and these Ahzu answers. But then, frightened by one of the party, Ahzu attacks him, and Standing, drawing a gun, shoots the half-human ape! The next scene, Ahzu is on an operating table in Paxton's private laboratory. Paxton is bent over the strange, still form. "Ahzu is dead," he says. Martha Robers, nurse long in Paxton's service, and secretly in love with her employer, feels Ahzu's pulse, startled. "But he is not!"
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