TSOU - The Disinterment
vonj...@hotmail.com
The Shadow over Usenet "The Disinterment" (Note: I said last week that I was
going to cover "The Diary of Alonzo Typer". However, I was using the
timeline in _Dagon_, when I should have been using the one on Donovan's
website. I'll probably double up on at least one time to get this done by
the end of the year.)
Sources: _The Horror in the Museum_, Arkham; _The Loved Dead_, Carroll and
Graf.
Synopsis: A man who contracts leprosy in the Phillipines discovers it only
upon returning home. His friend, Marshall Andrews, suggests that he take a
paralytic drug he found in Haiti, which will allow him to fake his death and
come back to life without anyone being the wiser to his affliction. Upon
awakening, the man is unable to move his body, and Andrews will not let him
view or move himself. The man becomes convinced that Andrews is evil, and one
night he arises and kills the doctor and his servant. He then makes his way
to his grave and digs it up - only to find his own headless corpse.
Comments: Not particularly inspiring, I have to say. I can't put my finger
on why; it was well done, but there was something missing.
James Ambuehl's recent post of an article by Duane Rimel raises the question
of who wrote this story. Here's the relevant section:
Incidentally, my first story in WEIRD TALES, "The Disinterment,"
was not, and I repeat NOT, ghosted by HPL, as certain would-be
"critics" and "editors" would like to believe. This fraud was
perpetrated upon me behind my back, so to speak. HPL did indeed
see the tale and congratulate me upon it. He made a few
suggestions. He said it was ready for professional submssion;
and Otis Kline did indeed sell it.
Any other interpretations by self-appointed "HPL researchers"
are false. I was there. I know who wrote the story.
Of course, correspondents of HPL have been wrong in the past, but this seems
to be borne out by a letter quoted by S. T. Joshi in his biography, in which
HPL discusses his streamlining of the prose style. Joshi believes that
Lovecraft had a greater hand in it because a) Lovecraft was often modest
about his contributions to these works; b) Rimel never wrote anything this
good again (!), and c) the plot's development and ending are very much like
Lovecraft in tone. It's an interesting case, but I'd still prefer a letter
from Lovecraft to someone else discussing the piece to back this up, and none
has yet materialized. At any rate, the story was rejected by Farnsworth
Wright, then accepted (as was his habit), and published in the January 1937
issue of Weird Tales.
There was one interesting aspect of the story that I'd like to comment upon -
the drug which Andrews claimed he was giving his friend. There is actually a
drug which has the effects described in the story, derived from the puffer
fish. Wade Davis, in his book The Serpent and the Rainbow, argues that this
substance is the main ingredient in the mixture used by bokors to create
zombies. There has been some debate over whether this ingredient is present
in sufficient quantities to take the effects he claims it does, but it does
make for an interesting footnote.
There's not much of the Mythos in this piece, save for the re-appearance of
the town of Hampden, Washington.
Chat will be this Sunday; if we get done with "The Disinterment", I may
comment on my trip to Poe's house in Philadelphia, with a note on HPL's piece
on the great author's homes. Next week, we'll do "The Diary of Alonzo
Typer". Really.
Yrs.,
Daniel Harms
http://members.tripod.com/~danharms/
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own