THE DEEP ONES: "The Man on the Bottle" by Gustav Meyrink
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1semdetenebre
"The Man on the Bottle" by Gustav Meyrink
Discussion begins on July 24, 2019.
First published in the February 16, 1904 issue of Simplicissimus.
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.poetsandprinces.com/?p=580
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1776255
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown
The Opal (and Other Stories)
MISCELLANY
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/gustav-meyrink-150th-anniversary-b...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Meyrink
https://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2012/01/weird-tales-from-germany-and-au...
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/2010/10/literature-and-occult-strange-life-and.h...
https://fantastic-writers-and-the-great-war.com/the-writers/gustav-meyrink/
https://tinyurl.com/y4amc3cq
Discussion begins on July 24, 2019.
First published in the February 16, 1904 issue of Simplicissimus.
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.poetsandprinces.com/?p=580
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1776255
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown
The Opal (and Other Stories)
MISCELLANY
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/gustav-meyrink-150th-anniversary-b...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Meyrink
https://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2012/01/weird-tales-from-germany-and-au...
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/2010/10/literature-and-occult-strange-life-and.h...
https://fantastic-writers-and-the-great-war.com/the-writers/gustav-meyrink/
https://tinyurl.com/y4amc3cq
2AndreasJ
The previous Meyrink story we read - "The Violet Death" - was quite significantly altered in the original English translation, so I looked up the original of this one. Turns out there are quite a few minor changes and omissions here, but nothing like the profound alterations of tone and context in the WT translation of "The Violet Death".
3elenchus
>2 AndreasJ:
Ah, that's right. Appreciate the investigation there.
Online for me (and also from The Weird), hope to read this one "on schedule" and then get back to the couple stories I haven't read due to travel.
Ah, that's right. Appreciate the investigation there.
Online for me (and also from The Weird), hope to read this one "on schedule" and then get back to the couple stories I haven't read due to travel.
4RandyStafford
I didn't this that impressive, a pretty standard contes cruel in the style of Villiers de I'Isle-Adam right down to the Oriental spectacle and cruelty.
As soon as the matter of the Princess infidelity was mentioned, I knew where this was going. (Does anything good ever come from a masque in a weird story?)
As soon as the matter of the Princess infidelity was mentioned, I knew where this was going. (Does anything good ever come from a masque in a weird story?)
5semdetenebre
>4 RandyStafford:
(Does anything good ever come from a masque in a weird story?)
Ha!
I agree that there isn't much going on here beyond a rather average contes cruel. I actually enjoyed the roll-call of various costumes more than anything else.
Although she's not wearing a mask and isn't inverted in the 1915-1916 serial, I still kept picturing Musidora in Feuillade's LES VAMPIRES during the bit with The Bat in Meyrink's story.
(Does anything good ever come from a masque in a weird story?)
Ha!
I agree that there isn't much going on here beyond a rather average contes cruel. I actually enjoyed the roll-call of various costumes more than anything else.
Although she's not wearing a mask and isn't inverted in the 1915-1916 serial, I still kept picturing Musidora in Feuillade's LES VAMPIRES during the bit with The Bat in Meyrink's story.
6elenchus
>5 semdetenebre:
I thought of Les Vampires, too: great visual.
I was a bit surprised at the double entendres and then reprimanded myself: our Puritanism was a relatively modern sensibility. Good to be reminded, though.
I wondered about the Prince's name, Darasche-Koh. The first part is an anagram for charades but only in English. I'm thinking Meyrink wrote the original in German. Koh is close to Kuh or cow but none of this is particularly enlightening, so I'm left with an odd-sounding name, even in the original.
The story worked for me as a diversion, pleasant enough but don't expect to remember much of it. I like the style, which reminds me The Golem is on my wishlist but not with any urgency.
I thought of Les Vampires, too: great visual.
I was a bit surprised at the double entendres and then reprimanded myself: our Puritanism was a relatively modern sensibility. Good to be reminded, though.
I wondered about the Prince's name, Darasche-Koh. The first part is an anagram for charades but only in English. I'm thinking Meyrink wrote the original in German. Koh is close to Kuh or cow but none of this is particularly enlightening, so I'm left with an odd-sounding name, even in the original.
The story worked for me as a diversion, pleasant enough but don't expect to remember much of it. I like the style, which reminds me The Golem is on my wishlist but not with any urgency.
7AndreasJ
While the plot is less than original, I enjoyed the way it's told.
>6 elenchus: our Puritanism was a relatively modern sensibility.
One of the details the translator left out is that the dead princess is stark naked when she falls out of the sedan chair.
Regarding the prince's name, koh means "mountain" in Persian, a word that's relatively familiar to Westerners as the first part of the name of the Koh-i-Noor ("mountain of light") diamond. No idea about "Darasche", though "Darashe" (of which the former could easily be a Germanized spelling) seems to be the family name of some real-world people with Iranian-sounding given names.
Or perhaps it's a nonstandard spelling and division of "Dara Shikoh", a Persian name borne among others by a Moghul prince in the 17C. (Alternations between 'e' and 'i' are common in transliterated Persian, depending on whether the Persian pronunciation or the Arabic-derived spelling is being reflected.)
>6 elenchus: our Puritanism was a relatively modern sensibility.
One of the details the translator left out is that the dead princess is stark naked when she falls out of the sedan chair.
Regarding the prince's name, koh means "mountain" in Persian, a word that's relatively familiar to Westerners as the first part of the name of the Koh-i-Noor ("mountain of light") diamond. No idea about "Darasche", though "Darashe" (of which the former could easily be a Germanized spelling) seems to be the family name of some real-world people with Iranian-sounding given names.
Or perhaps it's a nonstandard spelling and division of "Dara Shikoh", a Persian name borne among others by a Moghul prince in the 17C. (Alternations between 'e' and 'i' are common in transliterated Persian, depending on whether the Persian pronunciation or the Arabic-derived spelling is being reflected.)
8elenchus
>7 AndreasJ: "Dara Shikoh", a Persian name borne among others by a Moghul prince in the 17C
That seems to fit, though I freely admit I have nothing backing it other than a gut feeling. In German, the final -e would be voiced, making it an even closer fit with Dara Shikoh.
That seems to fit, though I freely admit I have nothing backing it other than a gut feeling. In German, the final -e would be voiced, making it an even closer fit with Dara Shikoh.
9housefulofpaper
I read this in The Opal and other stories translated (mostly) by Maurice Raraty and published in 1994. The translations seem accurate and not Bowdlerised - at any rate, the princess is naked in the version I read.
Reading through the stories, there's a clear theme of contempt for the ruling/professional class - hidebound, status-obsessed, refusing to belief the evidence of their own senses (or the report of a perceived inferior) if it runs counter to received ideas.
With that perspective, maybe the story is less of a late-entry* conte cruel, or not only that, but fits very well into that body of European literature that points out the stresses in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and (with hindsight) even predicted WWI.
I haven't finished the book but flipping through it I noticed the name Daryash-Koh (as Raraty has it) reoccurs in at least one other story, so perhaps his character gets fleshed out a bit more across these two (or more?) stories.
*Of course the conte cruel never went away, think of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected, in fact any number of stories with "twist in the tale" endings.
Reading through the stories, there's a clear theme of contempt for the ruling/professional class - hidebound, status-obsessed, refusing to belief the evidence of their own senses (or the report of a perceived inferior) if it runs counter to received ideas.
With that perspective, maybe the story is less of a late-entry* conte cruel, or not only that, but fits very well into that body of European literature that points out the stresses in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and (with hindsight) even predicted WWI.
I haven't finished the book but flipping through it I noticed the name Daryash-Koh (as Raraty has it) reoccurs in at least one other story, so perhaps his character gets fleshed out a bit more across these two (or more?) stories.
*Of course the conte cruel never went away, think of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected, in fact any number of stories with "twist in the tale" endings.
