Forrest’s Reviews > Flower Phantoms > Status Update

A most sympathetic view of madness. Not what I expected from a piece of writing from this period. It is touching, but not maudlin, decadent in its subject matter but more practical in its portrayal, and seething with existentialism but not buried in fatalism. An extremely interesting, surprising read.

The more I read, the more I am enjoying this mildly hallucinogenic story.

Insanity? Pollen-induced hallucinations? Remote memories of a past life or a soul caught between states of existence? I cannot yet fathom. Nor can she. But it is beautiful, sad, and languid, whatever the source.

This has now become much more intriguing. Still, there6a danger that Judy becomes "domesticated" or portrayed as an indecisive ditz. I hope neither of those things happen. I like her too much as she is.

I like Judy's chutzpah. She is a surprisingly complex figure for a female character written by a man in the 1920s. I had not expected this.

Dreamy.

"My god, Judy, the human eye is a very terrifying thing. It's so inhuman. There's no soul in it. It's a machine. A lot of cloudy, spongy, extremely queer stuff with a sinister black hole. It's expressionless, when you look close. Laughter, kindness, everything that makes people human. seems to disappear. What a strange and terrible thing mind must be . . ."