THE READERS' VIEWPOINT
LIKES POETRY
In my opinion "The Woman Who Couldn't Die" is a fairly good fantasy, but certainly nothing to rave about. Perhaps that opinion is brought about through a fault of my own rather than through any weakness in the style of writing or plotting of Mr. Stringer, though. Anyway, I just didn't get the connection between Thera and Olga. I take it that one was supposed to be an incarnation of the spirit of the other, or something. The whole thing is very vague and left me with a feeling of extreme dissatisfaction. I will ask a friend about the problem, though. He ought to know. He's read the story three times and crusaded long and arduously for its reprint in F.F.M. I'm sure he can clear up the fantastic mystery (pun) for me.
Speaking of the short stories, I just couldn't force myself to plow through the long-winded style of André Maurois in his story, "Weigher Of Souls." The story was probably good, but it couldn't have been worth the effort I would have spent in trying to find it among those hundreds of superfluous words.
The other short story was a different matter, however. The style was direct and clear cut, the plot was rather unusual and simple, and, best of all, the ending was superb. If it weren't for the length of the later, I'd try to rate it better than "The Woman Who Couldn't Die."
Thanks for the poetry. I want to see a special poetry section too.
With the request that you print a Taine story—any Taine story—I shall leave you. Be back again next issue though.
Tom Covington.
315 Dawson Su,
Wilmington, N. C.
MAUROIS YARN GOOD
For all the build-up it got (and didn't deserve) "The Woman Who Couldn't Die" was a let-down.. The handling of the wild, wind-tossed life of the Vikings, the berserker harrying of the coasts around Denmark 1, Scotland, etc., was poorly reproduced by Arthur Stringer. All seemed so lifeless and dull; even the setting, the very first sentence, and I quote "The fiord air was windless and humid". . was unlike the typical abode of a dragon ship.
One would expect Karl Knuttson to be as interesting as Sigurd Blödoxe, at least. The latter character was interesting, but Knuttson was reviled all along. What was Stronger trying to do? He seems to have been confused. Even he was not sure of just what Parese resembled. Parese is described as a "gaunt Corsican" early in the story. Later, he is described as short and Isquat, or words to that effect.
Whole story was pointless. No one profited from the trip; and the far north holds little for a white man. Gold is all that ever lured anyone so far north, and it is not likely to happen again. It does continually offer hardships. But even in story, Stringer denies us the one luxury really worthwhile that the north ever offered Man, and that for an awful price . . . gold!
"The Weigher of Souls" is better. Maurois could have made it shorter and eliminated so many anti-climaxes. But a good yarn, all in all. Lawrence cheated in drawing the ultraviolet lamp. The mercury arc tube is much too dim, the reflector likewise, and the room is practically dark. As I know them, a sunlamp is very bright. Thus, the "soul substance" would be invisible, unless the disk with the aperture in the center were moved up flush with the lamp to exclude all but the beam of radiation through the aperture. It further seems that after a lot of deliberation and doubt on the part of Dr. James, (as to just what he was doing), questioning if it were soul-substance or anything else, that they took a rather sudden departure from well founded doubt and simply decided that it was "soul-substance." Many of the topics brought into this story were true. The "Odicforce" was not just a product of the imagination of André Maurois. Baron Karl von Reichenbach really existed. Dr. Joseph Jastrow, in his book "Wish and Wisdom" devotes six pages to Reichenbach's ideas (which were a delusion); and to a Frenchman's theory about "N-Rays." I recommend this book to all readers as enjoyable.
"Nor Moon by Night" was fair. Passably fair. I gathered that the executed inmates were actually precipitated into purgatory. For the stay at the point of "materialization" was limited. One day's delay was too late . . for what? One must move away from the point of entrance to the top of the valley, or miss something better, it seems. Seems unfair. Sort of a punishment for those who ignore the old idea of purgatory in figuring the chances of life after death. You land there but you don't know it.
Bob Barnett.
1107 Lyon, Carthage, Mo.
Address comments to the Letter Editor, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, All-Fiction Field, Inc., 205 E, 42nd St., New York 17, New York.
112
