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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 1, December 1943
Page 7
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 7 And the thing on the floor is no more than "a rind of skin in loose folds over projecting bones". It was this vivid description of horror that doubtless led August Derleth, in the introduction to his Someone in the Dark (1941), to state that E. F. Benson had written but one story like "Negotium Perambulans...", and it is true that the latter but seldom has treated more objectively of a horror that is completely contrary to the moral constitution of his world. This tale is undoubtedly one of the finest--if not the finest--that Benson every produced. Spiritualism is the main theme of four of the stories in Visible and Invisible: "Machaon", "Inscrutable Decrees", "The Gardener", and "Mr. Tilly's Seance", in all of which Benson's capabilities are favorably exhibited. "At the Farmhouse" strays from the supernatural to a theme of sheer horror, but suffers not at all in the author's hands because of it. A strange story is told in the penultimate selection, "In the Tube", concerning the occult and a warp in the fabric of time, while the final offering of the collection, "Roderick's Story", introduces Benson himself as a character, to whom one Roderick Cardew relates his own ghostly experiences. It is well at this point, perhaps, to examine more closely the general characteristics of the author's writings. One is struck, first of all, by the isolation of Benson's locales and situations from the unrest and complexities so characteristic of post-war conditions. Throughout the entire series of his four collections---stories spanning well over two decades in period of composition---his world remains in its immovable state of Victorian solidity, scarcely touched by the passing din of brash modernism. New mechanical inventions are overlooked consistently, save the automobile, which, however, Benson keeps in the status of an unwilling intruder upon the quiet fastness of an English countryside, a vehicle whose tires can never be trusted not to puncture, and altogether a contrivance which should never be regarded as superceding the bicycle where reliability is concerned. A circle is drawn about a quiet tree-shaded Old-English manor, with its huge fireplaces, its undisturbed atmosphere, and its somber retinue of efficient servants. External distractions---be they the quiet bustle of near by London or even the sanguinary uproar of a world war---somehow spend their force upon an intangible barrier, and filter through only as dim echoes of unimportant events. The drawing-room is still, as always, the most important chamber of the house, and the conversation it engenders is no less animated than it is sincere. Nor apparently has Benson lost faith in human nature, if only inferentially so. The reader gleans the distinct impression that if a temporary dislocation of the social structure has occurred---and the author never admits frankly that it has---the continued staid conservatism of the English majority will inevitably triumph. The characters in these stories are precisely what their environment would be expected to produce: quiet, responsible, and capable of emotional moods that vary within narrow limits. Open-mindedness is seldom a characteristic for the simple reason that the mode of existence seldom demands or needs its exercise. It might seem to some that the latter feature would operate against a weird tale, unless the medium of a naturalistic explanation were entailed to unravel the supernatural. Yet such is not the case. The undercurrent of spiritualism that is present throughout Benson's writings is the redeeming factor here: if it is not directly brought in, in a particular story, the influence of environment of its believers is usually apparent. And it is spiritualism that has either not be mentally accepted by the characters, and hence is still an issue of debatable interest, or else its acceptance is of a recent nature, and an aura of romanticism still lends to it a mystic, mysterious air. This is one category into which the tales of these four collections may fall. There is also another. In this latter, contrary to the first in which phenomena of the occult fail to possess any---or at the most a mild---moral is-
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 7 And the thing on the floor is no more than "a rind of skin in loose folds over projecting bones". It was this vivid description of horror that doubtless led August Derleth, in the introduction to his Someone in the Dark (1941), to state that E. F. Benson had written but one story like "Negotium Perambulans...", and it is true that the latter but seldom has treated more objectively of a horror that is completely contrary to the moral constitution of his world. This tale is undoubtedly one of the finest--if not the finest--that Benson every produced. Spiritualism is the main theme of four of the stories in Visible and Invisible: "Machaon", "Inscrutable Decrees", "The Gardener", and "Mr. Tilly's Seance", in all of which Benson's capabilities are favorably exhibited. "At the Farmhouse" strays from the supernatural to a theme of sheer horror, but suffers not at all in the author's hands because of it. A strange story is told in the penultimate selection, "In the Tube", concerning the occult and a warp in the fabric of time, while the final offering of the collection, "Roderick's Story", introduces Benson himself as a character, to whom one Roderick Cardew relates his own ghostly experiences. It is well at this point, perhaps, to examine more closely the general characteristics of the author's writings. One is struck, first of all, by the isolation of Benson's locales and situations from the unrest and complexities so characteristic of post-war conditions. Throughout the entire series of his four collections---stories spanning well over two decades in period of composition---his world remains in its immovable state of Victorian solidity, scarcely touched by the passing din of brash modernism. New mechanical inventions are overlooked consistently, save the automobile, which, however, Benson keeps in the status of an unwilling intruder upon the quiet fastness of an English countryside, a vehicle whose tires can never be trusted not to puncture, and altogether a contrivance which should never be regarded as superceding the bicycle where reliability is concerned. A circle is drawn about a quiet tree-shaded Old-English manor, with its huge fireplaces, its undisturbed atmosphere, and its somber retinue of efficient servants. External distractions---be they the quiet bustle of near by London or even the sanguinary uproar of a world war---somehow spend their force upon an intangible barrier, and filter through only as dim echoes of unimportant events. The drawing-room is still, as always, the most important chamber of the house, and the conversation it engenders is no less animated than it is sincere. Nor apparently has Benson lost faith in human nature, if only inferentially so. The reader gleans the distinct impression that if a temporary dislocation of the social structure has occurred---and the author never admits frankly that it has---the continued staid conservatism of the English majority will inevitably triumph. The characters in these stories are precisely what their environment would be expected to produce: quiet, responsible, and capable of emotional moods that vary within narrow limits. Open-mindedness is seldom a characteristic for the simple reason that the mode of existence seldom demands or needs its exercise. It might seem to some that the latter feature would operate against a weird tale, unless the medium of a naturalistic explanation were entailed to unravel the supernatural. Yet such is not the case. The undercurrent of spiritualism that is present throughout Benson's writings is the redeeming factor here: if it is not directly brought in, in a particular story, the influence of environment of its believers is usually apparent. And it is spiritualism that has either not be mentally accepted by the characters, and hence is still an issue of debatable interest, or else its acceptance is of a recent nature, and an aura of romanticism still lends to it a mystic, mysterious air. This is one category into which the tales of these four collections may fall. There is also another. In this latter, contrary to the first in which phenomena of the occult fail to possess any---or at the most a mild---moral is-
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