TSOU - In the Walls of Eryx
vonj...@hotmail.com
The Shadow over Usenet
"In the Walls of Eryx"
Sources: _Dagon and Other Macabre Tales_, Arkham House; _The
Transition of H. P. Lovecraft_, Ballantine.
Synopsis: In the distant future, a man travels through the jungles
of Venus looking for energy crystals guarded by reptile-men. He
finds a single large crystal, clutched in the hands of a dead colleague,
within an invisible maze. While exploring it, he becomes lost, and
spends a great deal of time making a futile attempt to escape. Soon
the place is surrounded by the reptile-men, acting much more intelligently
than it seemed before. He dies, but his record is found by the other
colonists, who destroy the maze and then plan the genocide of the reptiles.
Comments: Sadly, this story is no better or worse than many which
appear in the pulps. The only bright spot is the great detail with
which Lovecraft invests the Venusian setting. This technique was
used to great effect in "At the Mountains of Madness" & "The Shadow
Out of Time", yet when used in the diary of a man desperate for his
life, it falls flat. (There is one possible objection to the
tale's logic - couldn't the narrator follow one wall and get out? -
but then again, it is possible that the walls can change position.)
This story was a collaborative work with Kenneth Sterling. Sterling
was a teenage science fiction fan who moved to Providence in 1935
and took it upon himself to meet one of his idols. (Sterling later
went on to attend Harvard and Johns Hopkins and had a successful
medical career.) According to Joshi, Sterling probably wrote the
basic draft, while most of the prose was Lovecraft's. The story
was hard to place; it was rejected by five periodicals before
being accepted by Weird Tales.
I would be interested to hear people's comments on the native Venusians
in this tale. The narrator begins with nothing but contempt for these
creatures. As he observes them wait outside the maze, he acquires a
new respect for them, and begins to doubt whether humanity is in fact
superior to them. These sentiments are somewhat surprising, especially
if we interpret the tale as a thinly-disguised dig at colonialism. It
is comparable to the attitude toward the Elder Things in "At the
Mountains...", but whereas Elder Thing technology was attested broadly,
the Venusians seem to have little in the way of technology. I would
wager, in fact, that this attitude was Sterling's, not Lovecraft's.
Check Steven Kaye's post for times for IRC. Then, check in next week
for "The Night Ocean" (found in Arkham's _The Horror in the Museum_
and Carroll and Graf's _The Loved Dead and Other Revisions_.) Bye!
Yrs.,
Daniel Harms
http://members.tripod.com/~danharms/
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DONALD G. DAVIS
>(There is one possible objection to the
>tale's logic - couldn't the narrator follow one wall and get out? -
>but then again, it is possible that the walls can change position.)
I don't see how the walls could change position without sloshing
the mud substrate around conspicuously. There is, in my opinion, another
major techical problem with the invisible maze: the walls are embedded in
mud, and should therefore appear as trenches with vertical sides, which
would make the maze even easier to solve than if it were directly visible
(since a considerable area of the pattern would be in sight from one
vantage point). The only way this could be avoided would be some
sophisticated optical technique for extending an illusory mud floor
through the wall, which I suspect would involve great complications in
getting the details (avoiding mirror images of surface mud features, etc.)
exactly right. In any case, I doubt that Lovecraft had considered such
technicalities, or he would have addressed them in the story. More likely
he simply hadn't thought out the physical aspects very thoroughly.
--Donald Davis
D.E. Kesler
There is another possibility. I recall reading a tale many years ago in
Reader's Digest that featured an odd force field. In this tale,
humanity had encountered and gone to war with a race of alien beings who
were completely unlike humanity. I seem to recall the aliens having
tentacles, but my memory could be failing me.
A third party, who is never seen in the tale, decides that an
intergalactic war in their section of the cosmos is undesirable. So,
they place a representative of each race on a planet in order to settle
the dispute. The looser and his entire race will be simply obliterated
by this third party. It is a hackneyed cliche, but at the time I
thought it was very nifty.
In any event, The human and the alien are separated by a force field
that only works on sentient life. So, the two combatants can throw
rocks and sticks at one another, but they cannot engage in hand to hand
combat. The human, after experimenting on some lizards who live on the
planet, discovers that the force field seems to respond to the thoughts
of those who encounter the force field. An unconscious lizard can be
readily tossed through the force field. So, while the alien is off
gathering more rocks and building spears, the human leans against the
force field and knocks himself unconscious with a rock. He falls
through the force field, and, upon regaining his senses, kills the alien
and wins the war.
The whole point of this post is to suggest that the force field featured
"In the Walls of Eryx" is operating on a similar principle. In other
words, perhaps the Venusians had developed a thinking force field.
Perhaps it is a living, thinking creature that the Venusians have
somehow compelled to serve their cause. It would not disrupt the mud,
because it was programed or instructed to ignore the mud. The
protagonist could not simply place a hand upon one wall and follow it
out, because the walls will move in response to the actions of the one
ensnared. (For those of you have played the Champions role-playing
game, consider the Venusian maze as a force wall purchased with the
selective advantage.)
Of course, I don't think Lovecraft or Sterling was thinking along these
lines. After all, if this was the case, then the tale would feature a
point where the narrator suddenly realized that the maze was thinking
and responding to his efforts. Imagine the horror of such a moment.
Regards and Best Wishes,
Donald Eric Kesler
GoffsCA
>From: "D.E. Kesler" <er...@fantasm.org>
>Date: 1/22/99 11:59 AM MST
>In any event, The human and the alien are separated by a force field
>that only works on sentient life. So, the two combatants can throw
>rocks and sticks at one another, but they cannot engage in hand to hand
>combat. The human, after experimenting on some lizards who live on the
>planet, discovers that the force field seems to respond to the thoughts
>of those who encounter the force field. An unconscious lizard can be
>readily tossed through the force field. So, while the alien is off
>gathering more rocks and building spears, the human leans against the
>force field and knocks himself unconscious with a rock. He falls
>through the force field, and, upon regaining his senses, kills the alien
>and wins the war.
"Arena" by Frederic Brown. Later Star Trek turned it into an episode.
Robert McKay
AOL - GoffsCA (no more Instant Messenger)
E-mail - gof...@aol.com/thir...@juno.com
"I wish to complain about this parrot."
AdamsHWA
Yup. Only reason it's a cliche now is because it's been done to death. But
Brown did it first.
Benjamin Adams
ITFC Member# 0011. Welcome to the sane. Ignore the ignorance!!
http://www.sff.net/people/Ben_Adams/
D.E. Kesler
Wow. I am amazed. I assumed that no one else would know what the hell
I was talking about. So, I read Frederic Brown at a very early age, and
I did not even know it. That is too cool. Now that I know the title
and author, I'll see if I can round up a copy of the tale. I have to
find out if the actual tale is as enjoyable as my feeble memory of the
tale. I thank you both.
Regards and Best Wishes,
Donald Eric Kesler
StoOdin101
>thought it was very nifty.
>
It wasn't a hackneyed cliche at the time. The story you read was Fredric
Brown's ARENA, and it is the ORIGIN of the many cliched stories that have since
borrowed its plot.
"It is said that Music is a universal language, crossing the barriers of
culture, age, and language. Perhaps, eventually, we will learn that it also
spans those of time... and space." --- THE OUTER LIMITS; "Music of the Spheres"
GoffsCA
>Date: 1/22/99 7:07 PM MST
>>"Arena" by Frederic Brown. Later Star Trek turned it into an episode.
>
>Yup. Only reason it's a cliche now is because it's been done to death. But
>Brown did it first.
And did it well.
GoffsCA
>Date: 1/23/99 3:35 AM MST
>Wow. I am amazed. I assumed that no one else would know what the hell
>I was talking about. So, I read Frederic Brown at a very early age, and
>I did not even know it. That is too cool. Now that I know the title
>and author, I'll see if I can round up a copy of the tale. I have to
>find out if the actual tale is as enjoyable as my feeble memory of the
>tale. I thank you both.
It's in one of the volumes of the *Science Fiction Hall of Fame*, which may be
in the local library. AFAIK it's out of print, but I've been lucky and I have
my own set. The three volumes don't have, IIRC, anything newer than the 60s,
but it's high class stuff.
Also IIRC Brown wrote the shortest SF story in the world, the title of which I
disremember:
"The last man on earth sat in his room. There was a knock at the door."
Or something like that.
Susan Katz
: It's in one of the volumes of the *Science Fiction Hall of Fame*, which may be
: in the local library. AFAIK it's out of print, but I've been lucky and I have
: my own set. The three volumes don't have, IIRC, anything newer than the 60s,
: but it's high class stuff.
I think Arena is in volume 1... There are actually four volumes (five if
you count the paperback IIa/IIb as separate volumes). Volume four runs up
through 1974 and was published in 1986.
= Demian
GoffsCA
>Date: 1/26/99 7:17 AM MST
>I think Arena is in volume 1... There are actually four volumes (five if
>you count the paperback IIa/IIb as separate volumes). Volume four runs up
>through 1974 and was published in 1986.
Fascinating - I've never even heard of the fourth volume until now. I'll have
to see if I can find it.
D.E. Kesler
I thank you, sir. Although I did not realize that Fredric Brown wrote
the story that I read in Reader's Digest all those years ago, I am
somewhat familiar with his work. I believe the tale you might be
thinking about is entitled "Answer." This tale is a bit longer than the
two sentence example you provided, but it is very short indeed - about
two-hundred words. Hell, I would give you an outline of the tale, but
it would probably be longer than the real McCoy. Did the tale you were
thinking about involve a super computer?
Regards and Best Wishes,
Donald Eric Kesler
GoffsCA wrote:
>
> >Subject: Re: TSOU - In the Walls of Eryx
> >From: "D.E. Kesler" <er...@fantasm.org>
> >Date: 1/23/99 3:35 AM MST
>
> >Wow. I am amazed. I assumed that no one else would know what the hell
> >I was talking about. So, I read Frederic Brown at a very early age, and
> >I did not even know it. That is too cool. Now that I know the title
> >and author, I'll see if I can round up a copy of the tale. I have to
> >find out if the actual tale is as enjoyable as my feeble memory of the
> >tale. I thank you both.
>
> It's in one of the volumes of the *Science Fiction Hall of Fame*, which may be
> in the local library. AFAIK it's out of print, but I've been lucky and I have
> my own set. The three volumes don't have, IIRC, anything newer than the 60s,
> but it's high class stuff.
>
StoOdin101
>thinking about involve a super computer?
>
those two sentences. "Answer", however, does involve a super computer. I just
wish I could remember the title of the two sentence story. I think it is called
"The Shortest End-of-the-World Story Ever Written" or something to that
ludicrous effect.
D.E. Kesler
You comments and observations are always welcomed. Regarding the super
short Brown story, that's a new one on me. I can't imagine how one
would go about marketing such a tale.
Author - Hey, I've this great little tale for your new anthology.
Editor - Really, that's great; however, to be quite honest with you I'm
running out of room. How long is it?
Author - Ten words.
Editor - Gee, that's close to the length I need. Do you think you could
loose a couple more words?
Author - No problem; I'll just make the word "you" implied, and delete
the adjective altogether. Now, will my tale work?
Editor - Sounds great! Send it on over.
Regards and Best Wishes,
Donald Eric Kesler
GoffsCA
>Date: 1/27/99 3:07 AM MST
>>Did the tale you were
>>thinking about involve a super computer?
>>
>If you don't mind my jumping in here: No, the story he quoted is complete in
>those two sentences. "Answer", however, does involve a super computer. I just
>wish I could remember the title of the two sentence story. I think it is
>called
>"The Shortest End-of-the-World Story Ever Written" or something to that
>ludicrous effect.
That title sounds right, but it's been a long time and I only came across the
story once so I'm not certain. The story was almost, if not exactly, as I
quoted it (hard to badly mangle a memory of something that short<g>).
Steven Kaye
interesting material on "In the Walls of Eryx." Specifically:
- Sterling said he adapted the invisible maze from Edmond Hamilton's "The
Monster-God of Mamurth," which has an invisible building in the Sahara
- There are several in-jokes in the story - farnoth flies refer to
Farnsworth Wright, the editor of WEIRD TALES, and Forrest J. Ackerman is
commemorated in the effijay weeds and wriggling akmans
This is from pages 604-605.
Steven
--
Steven Kaye
box_...@ix.NOSPAM.netcom.com
Reed Andrus
Gentlebeings:
There are actually two stories. The one you cite goes like this:
"The last man on earth sat on a chair in a room. There was a knock on
the door."
Later on, the story was amended and re-titled something like: The
Shorter-By-One-Letter-Shortest-End-Of-The-World-Story-Ever-Written. And
it goes something like this:
"The last man on earth sat on a chair in a room. There was a lock on the
door."
Best regards,
... Reed
Justin Marino
Even shorter end of the world stories ...
The last man on earth sat on a chair in a room. There was a
knock on the door.
can be shortened to ...
The last man on earth was in a room. There was a knock on the
door.
can be shortened to ...
The last man was in a room and heard a knock on the door.
can be shortened to ...
The last man heard a knock on his door.
can be shortend to ...
The last man's door opened.
can be shortened to ...
The last's door opened.
can be shortened to ...
Cthulhu came!
--
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StoOdin101
>
>Cthulhu came!
>
can be shortened to:
"Cthulhu!"
Richard Ashkettle
Erk!
Richard Ashkettle
StoOdin101 wrote in message <19990204201354...@ng54.aol.com>...
GoffsCA
>>Cthulhu came!
>>
>
>can be shortened to:
>
>"Cthulhu!"
Can be shortended to "Cthul---!"
:->
Robert McKay
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