"The Shadow and the Flash" (Jack London) Reviewed
Dr Hermes
OF THE WILD or WHITE FANG or similar Yukon adventures when Jack is
mentioned. I have read references here and there to how very prolific
and influential he was as a writer, and how widely varied was his range.
Still, "The Shadow and the Flash" really took me by surprise. This
short story dealing with two very different invisible men is a pleasant
example of turn of the century science fiction (errr, turn of the 19th
into the 20th, that is.). First published in THE BOOKMAN for June 1903
and later included in MOON-FACE AND OTHER STORIES (1906), it is long out
of copyright by any standard. In fact, it can be found in a number of
free e-texts all over the Web.
Our nameless narrator seems to be a likeable, unambitious upper
class twit who all his life has served as mediator between two intense
rivals. These are Paul Tichlorne and Lloyd Inwood. Both are scientific
super-geniuses of world calibre, and from childhood they have been in
furious
competition to show each other up. The rivalry became hopelessly bitter
after they both courted (and lost) the same heartbreaker while in
college. This story tells what happened when the two lunatics decided to
race each other to invent invisibility.
Now, these two guys are both tall, slender, nervous, excitable and
high strung to the point of being borderline maniacs. Lloyd has black
hair and dark eyes, Paul has blue hair and blond eyes (oh, heck) but
aside from that they look like identical twins. The remarkable
similarity between these two and the opposite ways they go after the
invisibility secret inevitably makes the Yin/Yang symbol pop up in my
mind`s eye. I am not sure exactly what literary term is called for here.
Parable, fable, allegory...? Beats me. It`s almost as extreme as those
Spy Vs. Spy cartoons that used to run in MAD.
Most of the story goes into great details about how Paul and Lloyd
approach the problem from opposite directions. Paul goes for the Griffin
approach that H.G. Wells brought to our attention, achieving
transparency by chemicals means. He achieves it too, with the drawback
that the objects made invisible frequently emit a burst of varicolored
light.... a brief rainbow flash. (He sadly explains this as related to
sun dogs, rainbows and so forth).
Lloyd`s theory is fascinating but considerably dodgy. He has the
idea that an object which does not reflect any light at all would be so
black that it could not be seen. All the things in the world that we
think are black are really only distant approximations of real black.
Despite London`s devoting several pages of ingenious examples and
argument, this leaves me unconvinced. I can`t help but think that if an
utterly black object was placed in front of brick wall, you would
clearly see its outline in front of the wall. At most, you might think
you have serious floaters inside your eyeball and need immediate medical
attention.
After perhaps a bit too much exposition and numerous examples to get
us to accept the idea, both men succeed. Unfortunately, just as Paul has
his occasional rainbow flash, Lloyd still casts a shadow which he cannot
escape. (Isn`t life like that?) Then, on a tennis court in brilliant
daylight, as the narrator is hopelessly trying to play a match against
an unseen opponent, the other invisible man turns up, fuming with rage
at his rival`s success. It`s like those horror movies where the two
monsters meet and immediately fight to the death for no clear reason.
"I cried a warning to Paul, and heard a snarl as of a wild beast, and an
answering snarl. I saw the dark blotch move quickly across the court,
and a brilliant burst of varicolored light moving with equal swiftness
to meet it; and then shadow and flash came together and there was the
sound of unseen blows...."
This is pretty wild, especially considering these two mad scientists
cannot see each other any more than our narrator can see either of them.
It all ends badly, as you might expect. Unhappily, I suppose that Lloyd
and Paul could not have combined their discoveries because the fatal
flaw that drove them also made them so unreasonable. The story ends, "As
for myself, I no longer care for chemical research, and science is a
tabooed topic in my household. I have returned to my roses. Nature`s
colors are good enough for me."
The writing style is a bit more eloquent and formal than we have
come to expect, but it has clarity and vividness. It is by Jack London,
after all; and knowing he wrote a good deal of fantasy and science
fiction, I think I have just added more stories to the huge list I
intend to read as I can get to them.
Dziadsj
>after all; and knowing he wrote a good deal of fantasy and science
>fiction, I think I have just added more stories to the huge list I
>intend to read as I can get to them.
"The Science Fiction Stories of Jack London" (Edited by James Bankes). is a
book that you might want to track down.
Steve
