I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Waiting for the Moon (2003).

This Tindersticks disc shows a bit of a departure for them.  Two of the first three songs are not sung by Stuart Staples (which is nice for diversity, but it is shocking to hear the first sung words on a Tindersticks disc be in the relatively high register of Dickon).  Not to mention, the song opens with lines about killing someone (!), which is a bit more drastic than most of their lovelorn lyrics.

The fourth song “4.48 Psychosis” is the most guitar heavy/rocking song in the band’s catalog, I think.  And the rest of the disc falls into a fairly traditional Tindersticks camp.

I’ve read a lot of reviews of this disc that describe it as a grower.  It’s entirely possible that I haven’t allowed this disc to grow on me enough, but I’m not as enamored of this one as I am with the rest.  The problem for me is that the first batch of discs are so magical that it just feels like this one is simply not as exciting.  Of course, any Tindersticks record is a good one, this one just isn’t quite as good as the rest.

Mayhaps I need to go back and try it a few more times?

[READ: October 31, 2009] Etidorhpa

I found out about this story when a patron requested it.  I’d never heard of it, and when I looked for it, it was very hard to find in our library system.  But when I Googled it, it was available as a Google Book.  They had scanned the entire thing and (since it was old and out of copyright) it was available free online!  Awesome.

I printed out the whole thing (double sided) and figured I would read it fairly quickly.  [Oh, and just to ruin my cool story about Google books, I see now that it is available in paperback for about $10 from Amazon.  Doh!]

Of course, I’m not just going to read something because it’s available as a Google Book.  The patron said that it was like Jule’s Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.  I had just read “Symmes Hole” in McSweeney’s #4, so Hollow Earthers were already floating around my mind.  It all seemed to work out quite well.

By the time I started reading it, I had forgotten about the Hollow Earth ideas.  Which is fine, since the first 100 pages or so are given up solely to the ideas of occult sciences.  But, let me back up a bit first.

First there is a Preface.  Lloyd claims to have found this manuscript which was hidden by Llewellyn Drury.  Before he gets to the manuscript, though, he gives a little background about himself.   He also relates a lengthy story about the value of libraries and shared knowledge.  He concludes with speculation about Drury, and the revelation that although he is unwilling to specify how he came into possession of the manuscript, he has had it for seven years (as of 1894) and is finally convinced that it’s time to get it published.

My edition also contains a Preface about Daniel Vaughn. Vaughn is mentioned as a character in the story (but he was a real person as well).  In the story, Drury sought Vaughn’s assistance with some scientific matters.  So there’s a brief biography about the man.

AND THEN, there is a section called “A Valuable and Unique Library” which is another preface about the value of libraries.  I’m not even clear about who wrote it, if it’s supposed to be a plug for this book itself or if it’s just an ad for something.

Finally, the story proper begins.  But not without a preface by Drury himself, giving his own life story (his full name is Johannes Llewellyn Llongollyn Drury) but he decided to remove those two ugly names.

As the book begins, we see Drury sitting in his study.  It is November in the Ohio Valley and he is rather despondent about the weather.  He selects a book at random.  It is Cicero and he reads, “Never less alone than when alone,” and it sets him off into a (frankly over-reactive) rage.  He is alone right now, he says.  How could he be any more alone that he is?  He wagers everything he owns, including his soul, that he is alone.

When a voice says that he has lost his wager, Drury kind of freaks out.  And there in front of him is a very old man with long hair and a long beard.  The man demands Drury’s soul since he clearly lost the wager.  When Drury refuses, the man pulls out a knife and lays it on the table.  When things settle down, the stranger tells Drury that he will be back to relate a story that Drury will scarcely believe.  When he departs, the man forgets his knife.  When Drury reaches for it, it is ice cold.  But it soon disappears.

Drury asks some scientists what this could mean, and they basically say that he has dreamed the whole thing.  But the man left a hair in his room which Drury shows as evidence.  The scientists dismiss it.

Drury returns home, crushed.  But the visitor does not return.  Drury has more or less forgotten about it until the anniversary of the visit approaches.  And then, exactly one year later, the visitor reappears exactly as he did the first night.  He reminds Drury of his first visit, whips out his knife once more and then settles down to business. The man says that because of the philosophical frame of mind that Drury showed, he is a suitable candidate to hear the man’s tale.  The man asks Drury to listen to the manuscript, to ask as many questions as he can think of and then, when all is said and done, to pledge to hide the manuscript for 30 years.  After the thirty years are up, Drury must publish  the book or find someone who can (and this is how Lloyd found the manuscript).

The man, who informs Drury that his name is “I-am-the-Man-Who-Did-It,” reads the manuscript.

As the story begins, we get a lengthy bit about alchemy.  Up till now the story had been pretty fast paced and interesting (even the early descriptions of Ohio winters were well paced).  But I-am-the-Man is setting out to prove his case, so we get the first of many very meticulously argued sections.  He reads “The Alchemistic Letter” a five and a half page history of scientists who believe in alchemy & the secret society that alchemists join.  It’s a tad dry.

After the dry letter, the story begins in earnest.  I-am-the-Man tells his tale of joining this alchemical society and learning all there is to know about it.  However, he reneges on his pledge to keep everything a secret and is captured and punished accordingly.  This intriguing and intense section goes on for some 100 pages.  Long enough that I forgot the book was about a Hollow Earth at all.  There’s kidnapping, dead bodies, blindfolds, secretive transportation, everything!

Finally, after untold days in a jail, I-am-the-Man is released in front of a cave in Kentucky.  He is greeted by a man with no eyes and a cold and clammy skin.  He is a Hollow Earth dweller.  Obviously, I-am-the-Man freaks out about this.  But he is forcibly persuaded to join this fellow.  And from this point on, they descend further and further into the earth.

I-am-the Man sees giant mushrooms (which smell of pineapple among other things), he has grand delusions, he gets completely drunk on Hollow Earth alcohol, he sees massive lakes underground, as well as the REAL reason volcanoes explode (something to do with water displacing air–there’s obviously no molten core of the earth).  And all of this story is in aid of seeking the enchanted one: Etidorhpa.

So, for an 1895 book, how does it hold up?  Quite well, actually. The prose was sharp and well-written.  The plot was rather intriguing, and the descriptions of the fantasies below ground were very cool.

One of the fundamental aspects of the story is that people who live on the surface are, for lack of a better word, unenlightened. They believe only what their senses are aware of.  They cannot possibly understand what the truly enlightened people who live under the earth know: that all life is better underground.  There’s no harsh sun or elemental problems to contend with, just wondrous peace, harmony and awesomeness.  (Although, interestingly, we never see anyone other than the guide).   That’s one of the reasons why the manuscript can’t be published now.  Surface dwellers could never deal with the truths that are contained within.  And maybe in thirty years, they’d start to “get it.”

However, a few things stand out as being a little annoying.  The first is the intense lecturing that goes on.  In nearly every chapter, the Hollow Earth guide and I-am-the-Man have philosophical/scientific arguments about what is happening.  The arguments are usually interesting for a bit, but they tend to go on and on.  And, frequently there are sections where the jargon gets a bit dense.

Another problem is The-Man himself who seems to alternate between incredulous shock about what he sees, delight about its magnificence and bitter anger about what is happening to him.  These reactions are all quite reasonable, but they don’t feel realistic in the story.  The problem is that The-Man gets mad and lashes out, saying that nothing can be true, even though every step along the way the dweller guy easily proves all of his assertions.

Perhaps people thought differently back then (or maybe a 21st century reader feels more blase about these fantastic ideas than a 19th century reader would be), but I’m surprised at how after being through so much (taken around and the under the world), he still thinks that the man is trying to kill him (even though, come on, that’s an incredibly lengthy trip full of amazing delights and crazy scenery just to kill someone).  I do understand that his belligerent tone allows for the Hollow Earther to prove him wrong, (something Lloyd was obviously quite insistent upon) but it still seems rather silly.

It’s also funny how aggressively Drury fights The-Man whenever he interrupts the tale.  There’s just so much hostility between these men (which I guess is the sign of a thinker?). At one point The-Man drags Drury through the cold night to a ferry boat where they sail across a lake just to make a point.  The hostility throughout the book is rather disconcerting.

But this all makes sense.  The whole story is written as a sort of proof of the Hollow Earth Theory.  So, all of his assertions must be backed up by science.  And he is trying to anticipate every criticism and contrary attitude that can be thrown at him.  Thus, the lengthy philosophical explanations, the in-depth science stuff, the actual physical demonstrations (The-Man brings out some flasks to demonstrate water seepage) are all there to show of the validity of this story.

The one thing that I found to be a disadvantage about reading it now, is that while I am obviously well aware that we do not have a hollow earth, I don’t know enough about the science that they talk about to know exactly what they’re talking about.  So, when they talk about water flowing a certain way because of the density of the brine, well, I don’t know anything about that.  Or if gravity actually lessens as you get closer to the center of the earth.  Or any of the other odd but insistent proofs that The-Man offers.

But that’s all fine and good, because, excepting these proofs, the science fiction aspects of the story are really cool.  Especially when he drinks the hallucinatory liquor (the fantasy sequences are wonderfully over the top).  It does really make the idea of a Hollow Earth sound very compelling.  And there were times when I forgot that it was all hogwash, and thought how cool it would be to float around in gravity-free underground space.

But alas, we know it is all nonsense.

The story ends somewhat frustratingly without telling us about the sacred land of Etidorpha.  (There’s some implication that the readers will learn all about things in the land of Etidorpha when they are smart enough to grasp the wisdom of the underground dwellers). But it is a very satisfying story, nonetheless.

After the story there is a summary of the Death of Prof. Daniel Vaughn.  The story goes that people were so moved by him when they read the book that they submitted testimony about him and his life to Lloyd for inclusion in future copies.   In particular, this section talks about what happened to him later in life (that his generosity basically made him destitute).

The final section contains reviews of the book (all glowing of course).  And the reviews are quite true.  One thing I haven’t mentioned, which the reviewers bring up, is the illustrations.  J. Augustus Knapp fills the book with remarkably cool engravings.  They are detailed and very evocative.  The reviews suggest that they are in color, but the scanner does not translate them that way, which is definitely a shame.  If I can find a copy of the book I’d like to see them in their full glory.

So, for a book I’d never heard of, I can give it some seriously high marks.  It’s not for everyone, but if you like cool science fiction, this is a pretty great story.  I’m surprised that it seems to be so hard to find in print.

For more about Etidorhpa, check out this site.