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Acolyte, v. 2, issue 1, whole no. 5, Fall 1943
Page 28
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with the same bizarrerie, and the wizard who has raised these ghosts seems to stand aside and regard them with a sarcastic smile." Closely allied to the prose poems of Baudelaire, both in style and subject, is the gruesome little piece, Flowers of Darkness. Passing into the realm of pure fantasy are Occult Memories and The Annunciator. In yet another type of story, Villiers delights in poking fun at the advances of science in his time: Celestial Advertising, The Glory Machine, Doctor Tristan's Treatment, and The Apparatus for Chemical Analysis of the Last Breath. This satire reaches its zenith in the long novel L'Eve Future (apparently not translated into English), which tells of the manufacture, under the direction of the "celebrated American inventor Thomas Edison," of an artificial woman! The novel, Claire Lenoir, would be a very fine piece of horror writing were it not marred considerably by an excess of obscure philosophical speculations. This work exists in an English translation. Another novel available only in the original French, Isis, would also probably interest the lover of strange and unusual books. According to Huysmans, the heroine of this book was supposed to have assimilated the"Chaldean learning of Poe's women" and had into the bargain "put on the enigmatic air of a Bradamante added to an antique Circe". Through the obscurity of these incompatible mixtures loom and jostle a peculiar melange of philosophical and literary influences. THE TREE by John Hollis Mason -o0o- The voice said: "What is it you desire, Adam Orne?" There was a deep chuckle from the old man. "Prompt, aren't you?" "I find promptitude good for business." "Ah, yes. Well, I too am a good business man. I won't waste your valuable time." "Thank you." Shrewdly eyeing the dark cloud that hung in the center of the room, Adam Orne chose his words with deliberation. "There is a tree out in the yard -- a big oak. I know this tree is at least a century old because I've looked up its history. But to all appearances, it's a lusty youth in the spring of life." He paused momentarily, and there was a stirring of the dark cloud. "Yes?" it prompted. The old man resumed. "I too am old. I am reaching the end of my life. But I haven't kept my youth like the tree. And the tree is always there, always the perpetual reminder that I'm old" -- his voice rose to a sudden scream -- "and I won't have it! The damned thing's got to age, be as old and limp and weary as I am. I won't have it mocking me with my departed youth!" There was a silence after the outburst. Then the old man chuckled throatily, again the self-contained business man. "I tried to have the tree cut down, but the fools hereabouts won't go near it. They told me it was...your tree. "I tried myself. Remember how the axe would never quite hit the roots?...how the gasoline I sprinkled it with was mysteriously watered? "I never thought of my neighbors' stories as anything but twiddle twaddle up to then. But I'm not a fool. I realised this must be taken up with the proper party. Thus I come to you." "And you want me to do -- what?" "Make your tree as old and withered as I am. Take that lusty youth away from it as mine was taken from me." -- 28 --
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with the same bizarrerie, and the wizard who has raised these ghosts seems to stand aside and regard them with a sarcastic smile." Closely allied to the prose poems of Baudelaire, both in style and subject, is the gruesome little piece, Flowers of Darkness. Passing into the realm of pure fantasy are Occult Memories and The Annunciator. In yet another type of story, Villiers delights in poking fun at the advances of science in his time: Celestial Advertising, The Glory Machine, Doctor Tristan's Treatment, and The Apparatus for Chemical Analysis of the Last Breath. This satire reaches its zenith in the long novel L'Eve Future (apparently not translated into English), which tells of the manufacture, under the direction of the "celebrated American inventor Thomas Edison," of an artificial woman! The novel, Claire Lenoir, would be a very fine piece of horror writing were it not marred considerably by an excess of obscure philosophical speculations. This work exists in an English translation. Another novel available only in the original French, Isis, would also probably interest the lover of strange and unusual books. According to Huysmans, the heroine of this book was supposed to have assimilated the"Chaldean learning of Poe's women" and had into the bargain "put on the enigmatic air of a Bradamante added to an antique Circe". Through the obscurity of these incompatible mixtures loom and jostle a peculiar melange of philosophical and literary influences. THE TREE by John Hollis Mason -o0o- The voice said: "What is it you desire, Adam Orne?" There was a deep chuckle from the old man. "Prompt, aren't you?" "I find promptitude good for business." "Ah, yes. Well, I too am a good business man. I won't waste your valuable time." "Thank you." Shrewdly eyeing the dark cloud that hung in the center of the room, Adam Orne chose his words with deliberation. "There is a tree out in the yard -- a big oak. I know this tree is at least a century old because I've looked up its history. But to all appearances, it's a lusty youth in the spring of life." He paused momentarily, and there was a stirring of the dark cloud. "Yes?" it prompted. The old man resumed. "I too am old. I am reaching the end of my life. But I haven't kept my youth like the tree. And the tree is always there, always the perpetual reminder that I'm old" -- his voice rose to a sudden scream -- "and I won't have it! The damned thing's got to age, be as old and limp and weary as I am. I won't have it mocking me with my departed youth!" There was a silence after the outburst. Then the old man chuckled throatily, again the self-contained business man. "I tried to have the tree cut down, but the fools hereabouts won't go near it. They told me it was...your tree. "I tried myself. Remember how the axe would never quite hit the roots?...how the gasoline I sprinkled it with was mysteriously watered? "I never thought of my neighbors' stories as anything but twiddle twaddle up to then. But I'm not a fool. I realised this must be taken up with the proper party. Thus I come to you." "And you want me to do -- what?" "Make your tree as old and withered as I am. Take that lusty youth away from it as mine was taken from me." -- 28 --
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