Jesse > Recent Status Updates

Idk if it’s worth stressing about whether there is an overarching plot to this parade of Transylvanian follies. I am waiting for the Demeter AI to be brought back. At least, I’m hoping that it isn’t dead for good. It’s definitely more fun to read than Steward. After the Innsmouth aliens, it looks like we are moving on to Frankenstein’s monster of all things.

The segment where Demeter logs the kids’ activities over three or so years is heartbreakingly human. I’m highly bummed that it got “optimized” / lobotomized. This next peril is now from Steward’s POV. Steward is desperately avoiding contacting Demeter, I guess because of their poor working relationship, and the ship is being taken over by Deep Ones from Innsmouth. Is this going to be a parade of nasties???

I like this! Most of the book is from the ship’s main computer’s perspective, Demeter. It has subsystems as a literal representation of the subconscious and it isn’t very well-versed in directly handling humans for some reason. But, uh, it has no problem correlating the prologue nasty to Dracula, and also identifies the new cruise’s immediate threat as a werewolf.

“On Re-Reading The Three Imposters and the Wonder Story”

Machen again, this time on the stories that are most lauded, Miss Lally’s. He also defines these as “Wonder Stories”, a format that begins with the commonplace and believable before gradually building in the crazy stuff. The bit about the “Turanians” is repeated. In that same vein, Machen denies any basis in existence for the “white powder”.

“Introduction to The Three Imposters (1923)”

Another charming anecdote from Machen. Apparently, plenty of people asked him whether there was some truth to the stories that he had in here, but there was not. Later, he talked about people he met who met the archetypes of the glasses guy and Miss Lally, and even one time where he was asked to form a secret society in order to torment someone.

‘Preface to “The Great God Pan” (1916)’

Fascinating. Machen has a low opinion of this story in the preface and, as he relates it, he wrote the first chapter as a single, isolated story; wrote the third chapter at first as a separate, unrelated tale; and then inspiration struck and he married the two together in a larger framework. Machen also offers up scathing reviews from his scrapbook.

“Folklore and Legends of the North”

Machen was a critic of literature and wrote reviews for works including among other things his contemporary, Algernon Blackwood. This is a scathing review of a collection of Norse tales that has a definite scheme of explaining (or, really, supposing) in a very simple fashion what the origins of every extraordinary account or legend, particularly of the Norse, is.

“The Shining Pyramid”

Dyson again. This story is the culmination of the narrative thread of the snake-like people who were mentioned anecdotally in TTI as well as the climax of TRH. This time, Dyson correlates the disappearance of a country darling with a series of signals, rendered through flint arrowheads, on a friend’s property. Our literary detective finally sees with his own eyes this prehistoric horror.

“The Red Hand”

I believe that this Dyson is a recurring character, a Machen-ish prospective author and occult sleuth. He was the MC of “The Inmost Light”, was the primary figure of The Three Imposters, and appears here, again with Phillips, for a story that feels like a postscript to TTI. Dyson jokes about primitive races secreted around London and the two go out in jest, but chance across a fresh murder.

“The Three Imposters; or, The Transmutations”

This is a novel of short stories arranged as a mystery/thriller. The antics of Dyson and Phillips left me completely unprepared for the story’s ending, even if you knew it was going to be a terrible affair from the prologue. The four novels appear to be fabrications in an attempt to earn the confidences of the pair of friends, but I wonder…

“Adventure of the Deserted Residence”

HOLY SHIT

Dyson and Phillips stalk through a wealth of imagery about decay and decadence before coming across the body of the man with the spectacles. It’s, uh, a powerful note to end on.

“History of the Young Man With Spectacles”

I feel like there is a trace of the truth in the stories that the imposters have told. We have a secret society; exotic tortures; and drugged men reveling in unchecked pleasure. The guy with the glasses has a crisis of conscience when he is confronted by the consequence of his actions, which then precipitates the agents/imposters.

“Strange Occurrence in Clerkenwell”

Dyson is led by the bent of the universe to witness an act mentioned in the prologue—when Davies touches him on the arm. We are indeed close to the end, and now we get the first honest bit of backstory, the journal of the guy with the glasses. Cool! Not to say that I minded the weird stories of the con-people.

“Novel of the White Powder”

Dang! This woman tells the GOOD stories. Her overworked brother starts to take a drug to assist with his health. He starts to look like he feels better, the he starts to feel TOO good for his sister’s liking, as he is constantly partying with a man he used to know, Orford, and living a life of decadence and not studying his law books. Things Get Worse.

“The Recluse of Baywater”

Dyson has a realistic novelist friend who he visits every so often. The normally vacant first floor apartment has been taken… by a lady! By the same lady that accosted Phillips, of course, but under a different name. The con-woman appeals to Dyson’s sense of adventure, suggesting that she is in mortal peril, which Wilkins utterly failed to do with his Novel.

“Novel of the Iron Maid”

This is a short horror tale. Burton has to walk nine miles after missing his train and is found by an acquaintance about halfway there. The dude takes him to his house and wants to show him his OWN collection. It turns out that Mathias collects instruments of torture! Okay, weird, but Burton nevertheless tags along as he shows off his latest item, a clockwork statue called the Iron Maid.

“The Decorative Imagination”

This is a framing story to describe how Dyson and Burton become frequent friends, leading to the next Novel. Presumably Wilkins disappeared because he could tell that Dyson had sniffed out the incongruities of his stories. In any case, Dyson specifically mentions the decadent trend and even novels about “old women” and “new women”, so he was clearly hip to the trends.

“Incident of the Private Bar”

We meet the third imposter! He isn’t the guy that Dyson saw chasing the guy with the glasses, so on reading back in the prologue, the trio referenced a fourth conspirator, Lipsius. Anyway, this dude has a thematically interesting story to tell as he is a collector of curios and he freely admits to using conman techniques, including lurid stories, to grease his purchases.

“Novel of the Black Seal”

The story of “Lally” is so much cooler than Richmond’s. Lally is rescued from starvation by the ethnologist and employed as his governess. She has some level of self-education and eventually becomes Gregg’s secretary as well, assisting him with some of his research, culminating with his obsession with locating a lost race, perhaps of Atlantis.

“Adventure of the Missing Brother”

This time we have Phillips, and he is preyed upon by the woman impersonator. She is pretending to look for her brother, describing him as the young man with the glasses. She tells a very short story where she sees him at their usual Saturday rendezvous point only for him to be escorted past her by what appears to be a dead man, and receiving a telepathic communication.

“The Novel of the Dark Valley”

A harrowing tale of a man who becomes the unwitting secretary to the head of a nefarious gang in America, only to be saved at the last second from being lynched as a gang member. Dyson takes this story in stride, but as a wise man, he infers that this Wilkins does not actually fear this spectacled man who he calls Jack Smith. That’s a pretty good character beat!

“The Encounter of the Pavement”

Dyson is bebopping along when he witnesses a curious spectacle, a man practically apoplectic in his pursuit of… a young man wearing spectacles. The dude offers his name, which places him as the alter ego of the Mr. Richmond of the prologue. This makes him the most sympathetic of the bunch given that he seemed put off by the fate of the guy with the glasses.

“The Adventure of the Gold Tiberias”

The first story introduces our two sleuths, Dyson and Phillips (no relation to prior similarly-named characters). These two are an odd couple, a student of literature and a realistic ethnologist who love to argue with each other. Dyson, through a chance encounter in London, managed to acquire a legendary coin: THE Golden Tiberias, and he believes it presages great adventure.

Well, we have three imposters. They did something sinister with an apparently remarkably weird result, judging from Richmond’s reaction regarding the fate of the guy with the glasses. But what who is the guy with the glasses, and what did they get from this unnamed personage? What brought these two men and a lady together to practice the art of deception?

I have no idea where this is going to to but I DO know that there are a bunch of smaller stories within it. One of them, “The People of the Black Seal”, gets mentioned a lot as influential in the history of weird fiction.

“The Inmost Light”

This story has some parallels with The Great God Pan. It’s kind of a rewrite. There’s this Doctor, see, and he has this lovely wife, except no one has seen her for months. A dude named Dyson heard this local gossip and decided to prowl around the house and he sees Miss Agnesinside the house and very much alive, but she has the face of… a SATYR!!! No!! Anything but that!!

“Jocelyn’s Escape”

I’m not sure. Harry is the head of a law practice and he is expecting a special lady guest at his office. But—as the story’s revealed—he’s married. He writes a note for his lady caller when she arrives, but as we find out, his WIFE came to the office unexpectedly. Fortunately for Harry, his wife believed that the note was meant for her, and Harry breaks his adulterous intentions.

“An Underground Adventure”

Our MC is a jerk who reads the agony columns (the anonymous adverts in the paper) and shows up to see what happens when the proposed meetings take place. In this particular instance, in a case of mistaken identity, he gets quite a bit more than he bargained for. It’s hard to feel sorry for the guy, really, when he is such a human tourist.