THE DEEP ONES: "The Mainz Psalter" by Jean Ray

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THE DEEP ONES: "The Mainz Psalter" by Jean Ray

1gwendetenebre
Edited: May 29, 2023, 3:55 pm

2housefulofpaper
Edited: May 29, 2023, 11:27 am

>1 gwendetenebre: According to Scott Nicolay's notes in Cruise of Shadows, first publication (in French, as "Le Psautier de Mayence" was in "Le bien public"), 6 May 1930. First book publication would have been Cruise of Shadows ("La croisére des ombres:Histoires hantées de terre et de mer"), 1931.

3gwendetenebre
Edited: May 30, 2023, 6:03 am

>2 housefulofpaper:

Thanks! I missed the original pub date in ISFDB, which specifies La Revue belge, June 1931. I'll go with Nicolay, however, since it's the earlier of the two dates and he's a trusted source. But I'll leave the eye-catching cover above as it's the first publication in Englush.

4AndreasJ
May 31, 2023, 11:53 am

Read it from The Weird. VanderMeer's introduction says Ray only read Hodgson's The Ghost Pirates after having written this, which would otherwise have seemed an obvious inspiration.

The Schoolmaster's motivation and purpose remain wholly opaque. Apparently he need the box transported somewhere, but where, why, and why by this particular means isn't even hinted at. Are the creatures that attack the crew somehow in league with him, or on the contrary trying to thwart his plan?

The alien world is nicely portrayed.

5RandyStafford
Edited: Jun 6, 2023, 8:33 pm

I liked this one though I prefer The Ghost Pirates.

In the first issue of Penumbra magazine, Hubert Van Calenbergh in “The Resurgence of a Fallen Angel: Echoes of the Ghost Pirates in “The Mainz Psalter” claims Ray, while in jail starting in 1927 for “malversation and large-scale financial fraud”, read Hodgson’s novel in translation and decided to write a sea story of his own. Calenbergh says Ray never denied the inspiration for his tale.

He goes on to argue that the story's ending, with its religious elements, may reflect Ray's growing faith in his later years. After release from prison, Ray became close to church figures when the Abbey of Averbode (evidently a publisher) hired Ray as one of its writers, and he published a popular series for them under a pen name. Ray's posthumous memoirs point to increased religiosity at the end of his life.

Certainly Hodgson's story, though he was a cleric's son, has nothing of traditional religion.

Ray's variants from Hodgson are scenes set on land and that very odd business with a purported octopus in disguise.

>4 AndreasJ: Yes, we really have no idea whom the clergyman/schoolmaster's allies are and what his plans are. Occult discovery? Scientific discovery? Riches?

I liked how Jellewyn, when presenting his hypothesis of where the ship is, goes into his theory and then tells Ballister he doesn't want to deliver a lecture on hypergeometry.

There is also that bit at the beginning where Ray tries to address the convention of dying men delivering improbably long and concise accounts of what happened. Here he tells us that the account owes something to the stylings of a literary-minded radio man.

6papijoe
Jun 15, 2023, 5:34 pm

Never read any Ray, but except for the ridiculously implausible reveal at the end, this would have been one of the best horror tales I’ve read. I listened to the audio version. Immediately ordered two of Jean Rey’s short story collections. So far the first one Cruise of Shadows has pages of geektastic footnotes from the translator.