Stefan Rudnicki, editor, Imaginings: An Anthology of Visionary Literature; Volume One: After the Myths Went Home (Frog, Ltd., 2004)
There's nothing I enjoy so much as a good story replete with fantastical
and mythological elements. Therefore, when I heard about Stefan Rudnicki's latest
venture, an anthology entitled Imaginings: An Anthology of Visionary Literature,
I was beside myself with anticipation. As the name suggested, I expected a collection
of bizarre and forward-thinking stories. This is the first volume of three,
with this particular volume entitled After The Myths Went Home. This
conjured in me anticipation for stories of myth and nihilism, meaning and void.
I cracked open the book, devouring Harlan Ellison's brilliant foreword before
turning to the contents page. I have read no few terribly dry and unappetizing
forewords, and Ellison's endeavor here was definitely not one of them. It spoke
lushly and alluringly of the work Stefan Rudnicki had accomplished in this collection.
It pulled me in, revved me up for a great anthological experience.
A quick scan of the contents revealed this anthology to be composed of two poems
and fourteen prose selections (an assortment of stories, excerpts, and plays).
The anthology is divided equally into two sections: "The Myths We Live
By" and "Other Myths." Excited by Ellison's introduction, I hurriedly
flipped the pages back to begin the anthology proper. Unfortunately, as I read
on, I was ever more disappointed by this anthology.
The opening prose piece, "After the Myths Went Home" by Robert Silverberg,
is a very well characterized story about what happens when we no longer breathe
life into the heroes we create through stories constantly told, preferring instead
to conjure our mythological figures from the past for the sake of mere spectacle.
Then we pack them away once more when they no longer amuse. The narrative voice
is rather distant in this story leaving the reader chilled, albeit minimally
impacted. This story, though mediocre, did fit in with the purported theme of
this anthology: visionary literature.
However, the main purpose of John Crowley's "Novelty" in this anthology
seems to be to take up space, as it does very little else. The concept of the
piece is engaging enough: the story is meant to map out the process of creativity
itself through close examination of one writer's daily mental acrobatics, memory
indulgences, and minimal social interaction. However, the execution of this
idea leaves much to be desired. The story starts on an engaging note, only to
maunder on into a lack of focus. Sadly, this meandering thoughtlessness is a
recurring theme of this anthology. "Murderer, the Hope of All Women"
by Oskar Kokoschka is the crowning example of what doesn't belong. I do not
fault it as a play — when acted out upon the stage, this piece may make actual
sense where it makes so little flat upon the page. This play has something to
do with men, women, and the relationship between the two sexes. If chaotic
and visionary were synonymous, I could see how this translation from
the German by Mr. Rudnicki would work here. However, that is not the case and
this selection is one to be hurried past.
Algernon Blackwood's "The Touch of Pan" is a well-written period piece,
but again doesn't seem to fit in well with the supposed theme of visionary literature.
Admittedly, it does feature a wild young woman who does not mesh well with societal
norms and who entices a socially acceptable young man to a woods-based Bacchanalian
orgy. Yet it doesn't reach much further, remaining at most a story of romance.
(It is worth noting here that this is but one of four stories in the first section
that feature either Bacchus or Pan and reserved order's struggle against mad
passion. While this is a worthy subject, it does seem overly represented.)
It's no wonder, then, that I proceeded into the next section with
some trepidation. If all the stories that had come before were supposedly representative
of the "myths we live by," what hope could possibly be found in a
section off-handedly dubbed "Other Myths"? "Mystery Train"
by Lewis Shiner helped knock that hesitance down a few notches. This story about
Elvis' fictional wartime experience regarding a future-telling television set
and a dead movie star is just bizarre, culminating in a laughable, yet somehow
chilling, inclusion of Elvis in a secret entertainment cabal. This sort of story
is more what I expected from this anthology: extremely odd, out there, visionary.
The following story, "Continued on Next Rock" by R.A. Lafferty, was
absolutely brilliant. This story contained everything I expect when I hear the
term "visionary literature": it didn't explain itself (yet was accessible),
it engaged archetypal figures, and it tripped the reader into a bizarre other
world that was similar enough to our usual world that it just might be
our own world seen by truly open eyes. I highly recommend this story about an
archeological dig gone inexplicably awry, involving a curmudgeonly Magdalen
and impossible artifacts.
"Diary of a God" by Barry Pain was a highly intriguing look at the
birth of a new race of gods. Using both third person omniscient and diary entries,
the author manages to depict a tale at once wonderingly mad and wholly sane.
This story was definitely visionary both in thought and technical construction,
but Rudnicki lessens its impact by following it with several other similarly
formatted stories. Robert W. Chambers' "The Yellow Sign" is yet another
disappointment. It's actually an excerpt from a novel entitled The King in
Yellow, and therein lay one of the selection's problems: there is too much
plot outside the story to ensure satisfaction from just reading this one chapter.
In brief, this story addresses the foreshadowed darkening days of a painter
and his model. The source of their woe is a book about a fictional place: Carcosa
(that is also addressed in two other selections of this anthology). Though this
story is weird and strange, the reader is left worrying too much about what's
in that fictional book rather than the function of the book in relation to the
rest of the story.
My main complaint regarding this anthology is that it is full of selections
that don't fit the "visionary literature" theme. Most of these stories
are mediocre examples of a rich body of literature that spans the science fiction,
fantasy, and speculative fiction genres. Reading through this anthology and
looking at it as a cohesive whole was rather like listening to a discordant
piece of music: the stories are ill-fitting and not well representative of their
discrete genres. Therefore, as good as "Continued on Next Rock" is,
I still don't think I can suggest purchasing this book to the general public.
However, if you happen across Imaginings at the public library, I would
suggest picking it up to indulge in Lafferty's story alone.
