DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Jinx, v. 2, issue 1, whole no. 5, June 1943

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Jinx, v. 2, issue 1, whole no. 5, June 1943

Page 5

THE ABBATTOIR
"The Public Slaughterhouse"

DOUGLAS WEBSTER     Psychology
If you are quite ignorant of psychology, it's about time we did something about it. I wouldn't start on Galton ("Enquiries Into Human Faculty") —haven't read him myself, but he'll be stiff and slighty boring after the fashion of these 19th century blokes; a good man, though. One of the best introductions is Cattell's "Younr Mind and Mine", an extremely nifty bit of work. McDougall's "Psychology, the Study of Behavior" is a good 'un, too. After that it depends why your follow. I'm an Adlerian, I treat Freud with great respect, but I find I can't accept as it is the whole of his infantile sexuality premise, and I haven't yet reached the stage of grasping the meaning of the libido. I'll have to study Sigmund fully sometimes. But I like Adler; he analyzes my own case with a sureness and crispness which is a pleasure to see. "Social Interest", you would begin with. The field widens, of course. E.g. there's Spearman's monumental tome on the intelligence et al ... um... think it's called "The Abilities of Man." Costs a devil of a lot, though. I think Jung's "Psychological Types" would be a juicy job, too.

HARRY WARNER     Books
In the three volume biography of Mark Twain by Albert Bigelow Paine, in the appendix of the third volume, there are published extracts from an unfinished long novel of Twain's "My Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes". There are three or four thousand words, or more.

JACK SPEER     The Bible
The Bible is boring. Mainly it impresses me with the utter hopelessness of trying to translate anything but the most clear and unfigurative writing from one language to another, especially when they are as alien to one another as ancient Hebrew or Greek and modern English, with MIddle English (or early modern) the intermediary. Luke and Ecclesiastes are the only Bible writers I know of for whom I have any great respect, and that's because they most closely approximate modern patterns of thinking. And of Luke I've gotten practically the whole in Sunday School at one time or another. (I wonder how far Christianity would have gotten on just Matthew, Mark, and John) and Ecclesiastes I've read a bit a time or two.
The chief pleasure in reading the Bible is from recognizing quotations and turns of phrasing which are so much a part of the language that you never thought of them as quotations from anywhere. It's difficult to judge their intrinsic literatry merit. I almost marked for inclusion in Ars Gratia Artis this quotation when I ran across it in one of Sheridan's plays last year: "Am I to blame, Sir Peter, because flowers are dear in cold weather? You should blame the climate and not me. For my part, I'm sure, I wish that it were spring all the year round and roses grew under our feet."

BOB JONES     Fantasy Authors
HPL is far the superior of Clark Ashton Smith. Of his works, the finest are "Celephais" and "Cats of Ulther". Smith's "The Seven Geases" and "Double Shadow" are among those stories which rate in such a high place. All beautiful little fantasies. But they are, in turn, humbled by the two masters, Blackwood and Dunsany. Read Lord Dunsany's "Wonder Book", "Five Plays" and his others — and I think you'll see why. Algernon Blackwood wrote the weirdest and most exciting stories I've ever read. Should you ever have the opportunity, find his "The Listener" in your local library and sit yourself down for some thrills. Then, too, there are his "The Willows", "The Windigo", and so forth. And there's Beirce, "The Death of Halpin Frayser"; and Machen with his stories and plays.

Outside of "The Devil and the Doctor", Keller's stuff is pure adventure hack. Written to be sold. That's A. Merritt's trouble —his stuff was written for money. His stuff is outmoded now. Fantasy has progressed since he was in his hey day. Classic, hah! Their chief value seems to lie in the associations of the Good Ol' Days

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THE ABBATTOIR "The Public Slaughterhouse" DOUGLAS WEBSTER Psychology If you are quite ignorant of psychology, it's about time we did something about it. I wouldn't start on Galton ("Enquiries Into Human Faculty") —haven't read him myself, but he'll be stiff and slighty boring after the fashion of these 19th century blokes; a good man, though. One of the best introductions is Cattell's "Younr Mind and Mine", an extremely nifty bit of work. McDougall's "Psychology, the Study of Behavior" is a good 'un, too. After that it depends why your follow. I'm an Adlerian, I treat Freud with great respect, but I find I can't accept as it is the whole of his infantile sexuality premise, and I haven't yet reached the stage of grasping the meaning of the libido. I'll have to study Sigmund fully sometimes. But I like Adler; he analyzes my own case with a sureness and crispness which is a pleasure to see. "Social Interest", you would begin with. The field widens, of course. E.g. there's Spearman's monumental tome on the intelligence et al ... um... think it's called "The Abilities of Man." Costs a devil of a lot, though. I think Jung's "Psychological Types" would be a juicy job, too. HARRY WARNER Books In the three volume biography of Mark Twain by Albert Bigelow Paine, in the appendix of the third volume, there are published extracts from an unfinished long novel of Twain's "My Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes". There are three or four thousand words, or more. JACK SPEER The Bible The Bible is boring. Mainly it impresses me with the utter hopelessness of trying to translate anything but the most clear and unfigurative writing from one language to another, especially when they are as alien to one another as ancient Hebrew or Greek and modern English, with MIddle English (or early modern) the intermediary. Luke and Ecclesiastes are the only Bible writers I know of for whom I have any great respect, and that's because they most closely approximate modern patterns of thinking. And of Luke I've gotten practically the whole in Sunday School at one time or another. (I wonder how far Christianity would have gotten on just Matthew, Mark, and John) and Ecclesiastes I've read a bit a time or two. The chief pleasure in reading the Bible is from recognizing quotations and turns of phrasing which are so much a part of the language that you never thought of them as quotations from anywhere. It's difficult to judge their intrinsic literatry merit. I almost marked for inclusion in Ars Gratia Artis this quotation when I ran across it in one of Sheridan's plays last year: "Am I to blame, Sir Peter, because flowers are dear in cold weather? You should blame the climate and not me. For my part, I'm sure, I wish that it were spring all the year round and roses grew under our feet." BOB JONES Fantasy Authors HPL is far the superior of Clark Ashton Smith. Of his works, the finest are "Celephais" and "Cats of Ulther". Smith's "The Seven Geases" and "Double Shadow" are among those stories which rate in such a high place. All beautiful little fantasies. But they are, in turn, humbled by the two masters, Blackwood and Dunsany. Read Lord Dunsany's "Wonder Book", "Five Plays" and his others — and I think you'll see why. Algernon Blackwood wrote the weirdest and most exciting stories I've ever read. Should you ever have the opportunity, find his "The Listener" in your local library and sit yourself down for some thrills. Then, too, there are his "The Willows", "The Windigo", and so forth. And there's Beirce, "The Death of Halpin Frayser"; and Machen with his stories and plays. Outside of "The Devil and the Doctor", Keller's stuff is pure adventure hack. Written to be sold. That's A. Merritt's trouble —his stuff was written for money. His stuff is outmoded now. Fantasy has progressed since he was in his hey day. Classic, hah! Their chief value seems to lie in the associations of the Good Ol' Days