THE DEEP ONES: "Lukundoo" by Edward Lucas White

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THE DEEP ONES: "Lukundoo" by Edward Lucas White

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2semdetenebre
Jul 8, 2013, 1:16 am

Apologies for the late post! I'll be reading from Arcane Wisdom's The Stuff of Dreams: The Weird Stories of Edward Lucas White.

3artturnerjr
Jul 8, 2013, 1:29 am

5paradoxosalpha
Jul 8, 2013, 7:21 am

I read it over the weekend in The Book of Fantasy. Sorry about the dating; I meant to date all stories to first publication, but I've been taking the dates from isfdb.org, which seemed to use that standard. Not in this case, it seems.

6cosmicdolphin
Jul 8, 2013, 7:51 am

Fortunately I found H. P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror at a used book store on Saturday night, it also has the next Deep Ones story in as well, so it was a good find.

7RandyStafford
Edited: Jul 8, 2013, 11:15 pm

8semdetenebre
Edited: Jul 10, 2013, 8:19 am

An early example of body horror. David Cronenberg might have appreciated this, earlier in his career. The Balunda "minikin" reminded me a bit of Richard Matheson's Zuni warrior-doll from his short story, "Prey". Would the creatures in White's story have been as homicidal had they finally escaped the confines of Stone's flesh?

9paradoxosalpha
Jul 10, 2013, 11:02 am

The frame story put me in mind of "The Upper Berth."

I was especially intrigued by the final colloquy between Stone and the minikin. It implied that
a) this vengeful curse partook of some strange omniscience, or
b) it was clever enough to give Stone the most hurtful answer regardless of its truth, or even
c) rather than being merely the retribution of the defeated African wizard, the curse was somehow also fueled by the hatred of Stone's ex-wife!

10AndreasJ
Jul 10, 2013, 11:17 am

9 > I sort of assumed the minikin got its knowledge from Stone (cf it's claim to know all languages he did - and by implication none other) and that it was effectively repeating his own assumptions and fears at him.

11lucien
Edited: Jul 10, 2013, 11:57 am

>10 AndreasJ:
That would make sense. I had taken the minikin's references to cypresses and Lake Pontchartrain as an indication that the curse originated not in Africa but rather in Louisiana*. When combined with the exchange about one of Stone's ex-wives, I had assumed she was at least partially behind it from there. But your interpretation could explain the Louisiana references as well if it is familiar to Stone.

*Maybe it's my US bias - but I couldn't find any references to a Lake Pontchartrain other than one near new New Orleans. Nor do cypresses appear to be jungle plants. The only references to them I see in Africa are further south - mostly South Africa with at least one species as far north as Malawi (and that one grows in high altitudes).

12semdetenebre
Edited: Jul 10, 2013, 12:26 pm

>8 semdetenebre:-11

White keeps the exact means of the curse - and who it actually originates from - deliberately vague. Stone seems to have utterly defeated and humiliated the witch doctor mentioned at the beginning:

We had heard of him two years before, south of Luebo in the Balunda country, which had been ringing with his theatrical strife against a Balunda witch-doctor, ending in the sorcerer's complete discomfiture and the abasement of his tribe before Stone. They had even broken the fetish-man's whistle and given Stone the pieces. It had been like the triumph of Elijah over the prophets of Baal, only more real to the Balunda.

However, one of the "carbuncle" heads is later said to resemble "a miniature of the head of a Balunda fetish-man".

The disconnect lies in the mannikin's statement ""Not while the moss hangs from the cypresses," the head squeaked. "Not while the stars shine on Lake Pontchartrain will she forgive."

Perhaps a clue lies in "the frightful scandal of the breach-of-promise suit" that precipitated Stone's running off to Africa. A further clue might lie in his deathbed statement, "This curse is not put on me; it grew out of me, like this horror here."

Strange that this comes across as more of a tantalizing mystery than a plot-hole.

13semdetenebre
Edited: Jul 10, 2013, 12:39 pm

Interesting that the cover of Weird Tales that "Lukundoo" appears in features "The Stolen Body" by H.G. Wells. They may have picked the wrong story! In the Afterword to Lukundoo and Other Stories, White writes, “Eight of the stories in this book I did not compose. I dreamed them, and in each the dream or nightmare needed little or no modification to make a story of it…"

He then goes on, “Lukundoo” was written after my nightmare without any manipulation of mine, just as I dreamed it. But I should never have dreamed it at all if I had not previously read H.G. Wells’ very much better story, “Pollock and the Porroh Man”. Anyone interested in dreams might relish comparing the two tales. They have resemblant features, but are very unlike, and the differences are such as no waking intellect would invent, but such as come into human mind only in a nightmare dream”

14bertilak
Jul 10, 2013, 1:21 pm

> 11-12.

One noteworthy thing about the story is the relative absence of overt racism. The paragraph about '... ending in the sorcerer's complete discomfiture and the abasement of his tribe before Stone' shows contempt for 'natives' and a culturally imperialist attitude, but the author does not go further by having the characters express contempt for the appearance or lack of European civilization of the 'natives'. Perhaps racism was such a given in 1907 that there was not any need to rub it in.

The story seems to be a straightforward fetish-man's revenge story, compact and well-told, until the question 'Has she forgiven me?', which can only refer back to the paragraph about Stone's marital instabilities. As for Lake Pontchartrain, that does refer to New Orleans and that, for a pulp writer, means voodoo. So one of Stone's exes put the whammy on him. It is not clear whether the Bulunda witch-doctor did the spell on Stone or whether it was done remotely from Louisiana. Did 'she' travel to Bulunda country with Stone or did her houngan have a reciprocal trade agreement with the gods of the Bulunda?

15semdetenebre
Edited: Jul 10, 2013, 3:29 pm

>14 bertilak:

It would work for the story if perhaps if one of Stone's ex-wives was of African descent, but Louisiana's early 20th century anti-miscegenation laws would have to quash that idea. Maybe one of the women still did have access to a kind of houngan-hitman, as you suggest. Or we could go back to choice a or b, which paradoxosalpha notes up in >9 paradoxosalpha:.

Of course, White himself states that the story was based entirely on a dream. It's hard to refute dream logic...

16bertilak
Jul 10, 2013, 3:01 pm

> 15

Actually paradoxosalpha's > 9 was a discussion about how the minikin knew languages and what to say to Stone. I was inquiring as to the efficient cause of the curse.

Putting together your remark and > 9c ('also fueled'), maybe the curse was performed exclusively by the witch-doctor and then it fed on all of Stone's karmic debt, including his scorning of one or more ladies. So the lady from Louisiana might be pleased by the outcome, but had no agency in bringing it about.

I certainly don't want to refute the author but rather to do a bit of active imagination starting with his dream.

17paradoxosalpha
Jul 10, 2013, 3:04 pm

> 16

Well, my #9 was touched off by the content (not the languages) of the minikin's speech, but ultimately was wondering about the same issue you are discussing here. I can't imagine any way to decide among the possibilities discussed so far, but they are fascinating to contemplate.

The whole thing reminds me of the extensive discussion of death curses in William Seabrook's Witchcraft: Its Power in the World Today.

18housefulofpaper
Jul 10, 2013, 3:16 pm

> 16

Bertilak, I think you've managed to bring into focus where my thoughts were going. There have been a lot of interesting ideas expressed here that made me question the ones I'd initially formed.

I suspect that the minikin's archaic English is meant to indicate that it is somehow an avatar (would that be the right word?) of the Balunda wizard. Wasn't there a literary convention of rendering African languages in this way? Possibly it started with H. Rider Haggard. (it's the "Noble Savage" idea, isn't it. It lasted well into the 1970's - Leela in Doctor Who notably Did Not Elide Her Sentences whilst other characters could speak more naturalistically.)

The framing story reminded me of Heart of Darkness, but then framing stories of this sort are such a common device that the resemblance may not be of any relevance.

19artturnerjr
Jul 10, 2013, 6:50 pm

That was a vicious little beast of a tale, wasn't it? Peter Straub's biographical note on White in the back of American Fantastic Tales also indicates that "Lukundoo" (along with White's "The Nightmare" (duh!)) were inspired by his nightmares; I'm confident that it has gone on to cause a few nightmares over the years as well.

I'd be obliged if any of our members from the UK would give us their thoughts on the characterization of Etcham in this story.

A final passing thought: would I be reading too much into the tale to say that I thought that the curse upon Stone might be seen as a metaphor (conscious or otherwise) for syphilis? The phrase "they seem to be part of a disease that affects his mind" in particular got me thinking about this.

20RandyStafford
Jul 10, 2013, 8:45 pm

Like everyone else I was puzzled as to the exact origin and reason of the Stone's curse.

I liked the somewhat evocative names. "Stone" is a name conveying strength and solidity, but the story makes it ironically clear that he's not as morally, spiritually, or physically solid as we thought. Singleton is a fitting name for a character giving us a singular story.

Most of all, I noticed the lurching nature of the narrative. I don't mean that in a bad way.

I seem to hear two common metaphors used when talking about weird and horror stories.

First, there is the story that works by a slow buildup of atmosphere, menace, and weirdness. Think of a ramp either gradually ascending to a final revelation or, alternately, taking the protagonist into some hell.

Then there is what might be seen as the "off the cliff" type structure. A protagonist suddenly and catastrophically discovers something significant or meets a fate at story's end. (These are just two sorts of stories, not all the narrative strategies authors use.)

White's narrative is more like a series of steps. The narrative goes on with a fairly standard exploration in darkest Africa feel to it. The first elevation in weirdness is the nature of Stone’s illness which is clearly, right from the start, not carbuncles. Then there’s the detail of Stone talking in feverish delirium in two simultaneous voices. Then there is a something of an unexpected turn (and, perhaps, a heightening of suspense through a narrative detour) of Van Rieten refusing to march to help Stone. Then we get another step up with the miniature, shrunken heads. Then there is the figures growing out of Stone’s body. The final lurch is when it is revealed that maybe Stone hasn’t been cursed by some African. For me, Van Rieten interrogating Etcham didn't add any atmospheric details. Rather it focused the story, momentarily, on Van Rieten's dominating nature, gave it the feel of a court of inquiry, an unweird feel. Then we get the narrative whiplash of weird details emerging, things going back to normal, another jerk into weirdness, repeated until the end.

That was my reaction. If White really did take this from a dream, that would sort of resemble dream logic more than any considered structural planning.

21paradoxosalpha
Jul 10, 2013, 8:53 pm

> 20 evocative names

Thanks for reminding me! I thought the names were hilarious. The two nested narrators were "Twombly" (the secondary, outer narrator) and "Singleton" (the primary, inner narrator). They were almost complete abstractions.

22housefulofpaper
Jul 11, 2013, 5:58 pm


> 19

I'd be obliged if any of our members from the UK would give us their thoughts on the characterization of Etcham in this story.

I assumed that he was a sort of batman figure to Stone (“batman” in the sense of “a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant.” - Wickipedia). It’s a fairly common analogy describing knight-and-squire or Holmes-and-Watson partnerships, at least in 20th-Century British English.

On reading the story I accepted him as a believable if somewhat two-dimensional supporting character.

Challenged to think about him a bit more deeply, he is something of a stereotype I suppose, but he’s not the focus of the story, and it’s not the type of story to depend on a great depth of characterisation in any case. On top of that, he’s a stereotype of a particular social and/or military role, not of “all Englishmen”.

And on top of that, he's from a past that truly is a foreign country. I've no more experience of such people in real life than I have of African Explorers in pith helmets!

23artturnerjr
Jul 11, 2013, 6:56 pm

>22 housefulofpaper:

And on top of that, he's from a past that truly is a foreign country.

An excellent point. I suppose it's a little bit like you asking me if an American character from an H.G. Wells story is representative of myself and others of my nationality! :D

24cosmicdolphin
Jul 12, 2013, 3:43 pm

Edward Lucas White does seem to have a very clear straightforward writing style, at least in this story. Although I dislike the usage of language which is there to try and illustrate a clipped english accent/lisp such as. "I've not felt ve'y fit myself." I've encountered it in other books and hated it there as well.

14> After recently reading the Arthur J Burks Arkham House Collection 'Black Medicine' which has a bunch of Voodoo themed tales (set in Haiti/Dominican Republic), I can tell you Lukundoo is definitely less overt on the racism front. Burks was writing roughly in the same time period, and spent time in the Caribbean. That's not to say Burks doesn't have some good stories 'Bells of Oceana' is fantastic, but many of his tales have racism issues.

Overall I enjoyed the story despite the minor annoyance. The New Orleans Voodoo reference is almost thrown in as an afterthought. I prefer to think the Witch Doctor did it :-)

Has anyone read more of E. L. White's short work, are his other tales up to this standard, or not as good?

25semdetenebre
Jul 12, 2013, 9:07 pm

>24 cosmicdolphin:

Just read "The Snout", which is a longish heist tale crossed with "Beauty and the Beast" - minus Belle. It works overall, and features a couple of gruesome bits, but it's not as truly weird as "Lukundoo".