Just out of curiosity ... Does anybody have any idea who was the ghost in the short story Xeluca by M.P.Shiel? There is the passage in the tale that suggests it was not the old lady the guy was sitting with in the parlour. ("Xélucha died of cholera ten years ago at Antioch. I wiped the froth from her lips. Her nose underwent a green decay before burial. So far sunken into the brain was the left eye--")

Sorry, but I've never really connected with this story. I'd love for someone to explain it to me, because I am curious.

My guess is that the woman he encounters is indeed Xelucha, or a demon in her guise, or maybe Xelucha was always a demon. The story is weird enough that the revelation that Xelucha died 10 years ago hardly proves that this is not Xelucha.

The thought occurred to me at one point that the narrator is in Hell, but does not know it. But I can't really defend this idea because I'm not sure where I got it from.

Does anyone know if this story is available online?

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Sawfish Wrote:
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> Does anyone know if this story is available
> online?


Yes, it is. Right HERE.

To my shame, I still have not read this story. I will read it right away!

A while ago I read "Huguenin's Wife". An excellently atmospheric piece. M. P. Shiel really is a great writer. Comparable to Poe, as they say.

Well, not as profound as Poe, but similar in atmosphere.

Thanks!

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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I read it. A difficult one. Demands concentration, expelling modern superficiality from the mind. I did not understand the beginning, ... poetic, and probably requiring further erudition. But their conversation, with its philosophical implications, became more and more horrible. And it is up to reader how much of its horror you want to absorb. I chose to shut off my mind after a while, because it became too much for me, and simply read the remaining part with a blind tunnel vision aimed for the finish.

I think that it's the ramblings of a drug addict--probably laudanum. He is profoundly addicted and probably has been for some time.

If this is accurate, it's an example of unreliable POV and you can count on nothing as being literally true.

"The habit is now confirmed in me of spending the greater part of the day in sleep, while by night I wander far and wide through the city under the sedative influence of a tincture which has become necessary to my life. Such an existence of shadow is not without charm; nor, I think, could many minds be steadily subjected to its conditions without elevation, deepened awe."

In a way, the tone is reminiscent of Kipling's Gate of the 100 Sorrows.

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Sawfish Wrote:
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> I think that it's the ramblings of a drug
> addict--probably laudanum. He is profoundly
> addicted and probably has been for some time.
>
> If this is accurate, it's an example of unreliable
> POV and you can count on nothing as being
> literally true.
>
>

That seems a very sensible observation, Sawfish. But "Xelucha" is not only that. Lovecraft wrote briefly of it in his famous essay on supernatural literature - "“Xélucha” is a noxiously hideous fragment". I don't have his letters handy, and can't remember what he wrote more of it to Smith and others. I think we are confronted by something awful here, and that it is best to stow this story away from further sight and study.

User Sad Marsh Ghost at the Ligotti forum wrote:

"The weird tale's origins likely lie in poetry as it existed within that domain long before the short story became its primary form. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Christabel predates Poe and Le Fanu and is as lyrical as Aickman or de la Mare's works.

The closer to poetry a weird tale is, the purer it seems to me. M. P. Shiel's Ligeia knock-off Xelucha is a good example of a story in which plot is the least of its concerns. It is akin to music in its technique and intended effect. The more plot bound a weird/ghostly tale is, the more defined, codified and unmysterious it becomes. It's why I think Aickman's The School Friend is vastly superior to Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror – both of which tell pretty much the same story, but Aickman is more concerned with the poetry of the scenario than materialist verisimilitude."

By the way, does anybody have any idea what Mr. Shiel means by "The Primordial"?

"The habit is now confirmed in me of spending the greater part of the day in sleep, while by night I wander far and wide through the city under the sedative influence of a tincture which has become necessary to my life. Such an existence of shadow is not without charm; nor, I think, could many minds be steadily subjected to its conditions without elevation, deepened awe. To travel alone with the Primordial cannot but be solemn. The moon is of the hue of the glow-worm; and Night of the sepulchre. Nux bore not less Thanatos than Hupuos, and the bitter tears of Isis redundulate to a flood. At three, if a cab rolls by, the sound has the augustness of thunder."

Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sawfish Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I think that it's the ramblings of a drug
> > addict--probably laudanum. He is profoundly
> > addicted and probably has been for some time.
> >
> > If this is accurate, it's an example of
> unreliable
> > POV and you can count on nothing as being
> > literally true.
> >
> >
>
> That seems a very sensible observation, Sawfish.
> But "Xelucha" is not only that. Lovecraft wrote
> briefly of it in his famous essay on supernatural
> literature - "“Xélucha” is a noxiously
> hideous fragment". I don't have his letters handy,
> and can't remember what he wrote more of it to
> Smith and others. I think we are confronted by
> something awful here, and that it is best to stow
> this story away from further sight and study.

Oh, it's awful, all right, K.

I think there exists a literature of decadence that ***hints*** at come just awful stuff. Sometimes I think I'll try to explore it, but get a bit queasy when I think of the stuff I've already read--and now Xelucha will join that list.

Here's another--the first work that led me to consider this area of vague but powerful currentsw of disquiet. I've mentioned it before and I hope mentioning it now is not redundant.

Maldoror by the Compte de L'autrmonte

[librivox.org]

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

The work's transgressive, violent, and absurd themes are shared in common with much of Surrealism's output;[3] in particular, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and Philippe Soupault were influenced by the work.[a] Maldoror was itself influenced by earlier gothic literature of the period, including Lord Byron's Manfred, and Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer.

In cinema, there's also some of the work of Visconti.

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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2 comments in reference to the OP's original question
(1) I am aware of no hint that the lady she encounters is an "old lady". The suggestion is that he initially finds her attractive, but is turned off by such things as her morbid talk and (eventually) an odor of decay.
(2) Just before she appears to deny that she is Xelucha, the tells him that he just read of her in a letter of Cosmo's. But the letter of Cosmo's, at least the quoted part, only mentions Xelucha. The only other women mentioned are 3 mythical "harlots" to whom Xelucha is briefly compared.

Knygatin Wrote:
> That seems a very sensible observation, Sawfish.
> But "Xelucha" is not only that.

I tend to agree. The narrator tells us right off that his "reason is debauched", and based on what follows, we have no reason to doubt his word. But if there really is nothing more to it than that, I would have to say that M.P. Shiel is guilty of wasting his time and ours.

In case it helps, the epigraph of the story is from the Book of Proverbs. What follows is the relevant section, which the quoted part underlined:

7:4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: 7:5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

7:6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, 7:7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, 7:8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, 7:9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: 7:10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

7:11 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: 7:12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) 7:13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, 7:14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

7:15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

7:16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

7:17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

7:18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

7:19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: 7:20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

7:21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

7:22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; 7:23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

7:24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

7:25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

7:26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

7:27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 5 Jun 21 | 10:58AM by Platypus.