Hi.

There are two elusive things in the short story "The Red Brain" by Donald Wandrei the meaning of which is absolutely beyond my capabilities of apprehension. The first one is "the mushroom growths," the second one "the empty and dreamless tomb of farther marble." Does anybody know what the author means by them? For my part, I am totally at sea ...

"No one knew when the dust had begun to gather, but far back in the forgotten dawn of time the dead worlds had vanished, unremembered and unmonrned.
Those were the nuclei of the dust. Those were the progenitors of the universal dissolution which now approached its completion. Those were the stars which had first burned out, died, and wasted away in myriads of atoms. Those were the mushroom growths which had first passed into nothingness in a puff of dust. Slowly the faint wisps had gathered into clouds, the clouds into seas, and the seas into monstrous oceans of gently heaving dust, dust that drifted from dead and dying worlds, from interstellar collisions of plunging stars, from rushing meteors and streaming comets which flamed from the void and hurtled into the abyss."


"A terrific tenseness leaped upon the Brains, numbed by the cry that wavered in silence down the Hall of the Mist into the empty and dreamless tomb of the farther marble. The Great Brain, hardly relaxed, rose again. And with a curious whirling motion the assembled horde suddenly revolved. Immediately, the Red Brain hung upward from the middle of a sea which had become an amphitheater in arrangement, all Brains looking toward the center. A suppressed expectancy and hope electrified the air."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 17 Apr 21 | 02:36PM by Minicthulhu.

My guess:

"The mushroom growths" is a metaphor for the stars and planets that appear (from condensing nebulas) about as surprisingly as mushrooms that suddenly pop up out of the ground, and then these same stars disappear suddenly in a nova eruption, that "pass into nothingness in a puff of dust".

"The empty and dreamless tomb of farther marble" sounds like a less well formulated metaphor for the completely empty Abyss.

Thanks a lot for you answer.

I have another question regarding "The Red Brain". Later in the story, it is mentioned that:

“Our chemists with a bitter doggedness never before displayed have devoted their time to the production of Super-Brains, in the hope of making one which could defeat the Cosmic Dust. They have changed the chemicals used in our genesis; they have experimented with molds and forms; they have tried every resource. With what result? There have come forth raging monstrosities, mad abominations, satanic horrors and ravenous foul things howling wildly the nameless and indescribable phantoms that thronged their minds. We have killed them in order to save ourselves. "

So were the brains creating new variants of themselves or entirely new, monstrous life-forms, over thousands of years? Were the "indescribable phantoms" thus creations of the monster's minds themselves?

charaina Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have another question regarding "The Red Brain".
> Later in the story, it is mentioned that:
>
> “Our chemists with a bitter doggedness never
> before displayed have devoted their time to the
> production of Super-Brains, in the hope of making
> one which could defeat the Cosmic Dust. They have
> changed the chemicals used in our genesis; they
> have experimented with molds and forms; they have
> tried every resource. With what result? There have
> come forth raging monstrosities, mad abominations,
> satanic horrors and ravenous foul things howling
> wildly the nameless and indescribable phantoms
> that thronged their minds. We have killed them in
> order to save ourselves. "
>
> So were the brains creating new variants of
> themselves or entirely new, monstrous life-forms,
> over thousands of years? Were the "indescribable
> phantoms" thus creations of the monster's minds
> themselves?

I'm unfamiliar with the story, but parsing the significant part of this sentence:

"There have come forth raging monstrosities, mad abominations, satanic horrors and ravenous foul things howling wildly the nameless and indescribable phantoms that thronged their minds."

The monstrosities, abominations, horrors, and foul things all refer to the attempts produced when the chemists tried to make Super Brains. They were failed Super Brains (FSB).

In the passage "...howling wildly the nameless and indescribable phantoms that thronged their minds", howling is used figuratively. The FSBs indeed howled, but it was in response to the FSBs' deranged perception of what they imagined they saw...the "phantoms".

Basically, the FSBs were hopelessly insane.

I perceive that the paragraph mainly *suggests*, metaphorically, rather than literally describes, the completeness of the failure.

My opinion only.

--Sawfish

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

charaina Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have another question regarding "The Red Brain".
> Later in the story, it is mentioned that:
>
> “Our chemists with a bitter doggedness never
> before displayed have devoted their time to the
> production of Super-Brains, in the hope of making
> one which could defeat the Cosmic Dust. They have
> changed the chemicals used in our genesis; they
> have experimented with molds and forms; they have
> tried every resource. With what result? There have
> come forth raging monstrosities, mad abominations,
> satanic horrors and ravenous foul things howling
> wildly the nameless and indescribable phantoms
> that thronged their minds. We have killed them in
> order to save ourselves. "
>
> So were the brains creating new variants of
> themselves or entirely new, monstrous life-forms,
> over thousands of years? Were the "indescribable
> phantoms" thus creations of the monster's minds
> themselves?


That was exactly my first thought when I was reading the passage in question. The Brains tried to develop the Super-Brains by experimenting on themselves in many ways for many years but the results were nothing but horrible mutants, mad to the point of being dangerous so they had to be killed. Later in the story one can read that:

„The Red Brain was one of the later creations of the chemists, and had come forth during the experiments to produce more perfect Brains.“

But this Read Brain was not only mad, it was also insidous and malicious because it had been capable of hiding its madness up to the critical point where it started to kill the others by sending its mad thoughts out in the marble hall.