| Author | Message | ||
     Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I'm doing some research on mirrors and came across a reference to an Edgar Allan Poe story that I don't think exists. Any help would be much appreciated in figuring out if it's a real tale. Here is the reference: "when two mirrors reflect one other, the endless abyss of mirrors-in-mirrors created between them might form a kind of spectral architecture. Jules Verne had an idea about using mirrors for space travel, where the infinite reflection travels an infinite distance innegligible time. This was derived from a story by Edgar Allan Poe involving a man trapped between two mirrors by the infinite distance between himself and his reflections." | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
Donald thinks he might have just come up with the more likely answer - Edogawa Rampo... In which case the chronology would be reversed... He thinks he might even have the story. I'm going to look into it right now. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
Yep - Hell of Mirrors. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
Doesn't quite fit the description though... Any other thoughts? | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.16.76.162 |
Yeah. Who are you talking to?  No, but why are you researching mirrors, A?... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.16.76.162 |
If you need help researching a mirror, I'll look into it...  [rimshot!] ... though it doesn't reflect well on me... [rimshot!] ... seeing myself doing this for you. [rimshot!] | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
There's a Mirror in 'The Enchantress of Florence' by Salman Rushdie. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.164.5 |
And there's Leiber's 'Midnight in the Mirror World'. Which sounds more like the story described than the Edogawa Rampo story, in which a man builds himself a spherical chamber that is a single unbroken mirror. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 77.86.114.169 |
I could download all of Poe's works and do a find for the word mirror? I do have six hours spare. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 77.86.114.169 |
I found nothing close to that in any of these... http://manybooks.net/authors/poeedgar.html Maybe it was in a poem? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.238.203 |
The only Poe tale it vaguely reminds me of is "William Wilson", about a man who kills his double and by so doing kills himself. As far as I recall there are no mirrors in it, though. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 77.86.114.169 |
http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/edgar_allan_poe_2004_9.pdf According to this document he only ever uses the word "mirror" once in all his poems. Assuming he didn't have more than 74 poems. And it didn't fit with Adriana's request. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 77.86.114.169 |
The nearest I could find in one of his collected works was this: "The rage for _glitter-_because its idea has become as we before observed, confounded with that of magnificence in the abstract-has led us, also, to the exaggerated employment of mirrors. We line our dwellings with great British plates, and then imagine we have done a fine thing. Now the slightest thought will be sufficient to convince any one who has an eye at all, of the ill effect of numerous looking-glasses, and especially of large ones. Regarded apart from its reflection, the mirror presents a continuous, flat, colourless, unrelieved surface, - a thing always and obviously unpleasant. Considered as a reflector, it is potent in producing a monstrous and odious uniformity: and the evil is here aggravated, not in merely direct proportion with the augmentation of its sources, but in a ratio constantly increasing. In fact, a room with four or five mirrors arranged at random, is, for all purposes of artistic show, a room of no shape at all. If we add to this evil, the attendant glitter upon glitter, we have a perfect farrago of discordant and displeasing effects." http://s3.amazonaws.com/manybooks_pdf/poeedgaretext00poe5v10?AWSAccessKeyId=1735 9FS6G622SA3TH7R2&Expires=1222685770&Signature=Lr3M7UDEX29pO4ZMns2iqDqUcGM%3D In PHILOSOPHY OF FURNITURE. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 77.86.114.169 |
Also, in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, chapter 18, the effect mentioned by Adriana occurs... "There were two large mirrors in the cabin, and here was the acme of their amazement. Too-wit was the first to approach them, and he had got in the middle of the cabin, with his face to one and his back to the other, before he fairly perceived them. Upon raising his eyes and seeing his reflected self in the glass, I thought the savage would go mad; but, upon turning short round to make a retreat, and beholding himself a second time in the opposite direction, I was afraid he would expire upon the spot. No persuasion could prevail upon him to take another look; throwing himself upon the floor, with his face buried in his hands, he remained thus until we were obliged to drag him upon deck." http://s3.amazonaws.com/manybooks_pdf/poeedgarother07Narrative_of_A_Gordon_Pym?A WSAccessKeyId=17359FS6G622SA3TH7R2&Expires=1222686365&Signature=xncjY6rJdqsORvH8 BXcstJkgbRg%3D | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 77.86.114.169 |
Well, there's no actual mention of infinite reflection, but it might have occured. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.112.60 |
I don't know about Poe but a symbolist like Yeats (or Ramsey Campbell) would be more likely to suggest it. In Yeats' case: "In pools among the rushes That scarce could bathe a star" Can't think of a Ramsey example. Maybe Ramsey can. Or Yeats, if he's online. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.91.127 |
Eddie Yeats? | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.91.127 |
Would he want to look at his own reflection? http://www.corrieblog.tv/Picture%204.jpg | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
Hey, thanks guys!!! Especially for that thorough search, Albie. I'm satisfied now, that the reference is some sort of mistake. Lots of neat stuff to look at here though. And while it's not the story referenced, I'm going to take this opportunity to finally read "William Wilson" as it actually feels more in line with what I'm exploring now anyway. Joel do you recommend that Leiber tale? I've been meaning to read more of him... | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Oh yes. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.154 |
I always thought he was called BOB because that name is palindromic ("WOW BOB WOW"). I've just got The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. Looks grim. Twin Peaks studenty? I can't see it, really Tony. It's literally the best telly ever. The film is my favourite film. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
OK, cool, thanks! I don't see that tale among our Leiber collection, will have to confirm with Donald - in the meantime, do you know in which collection or book it appears? | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.91.127 |
That's what I thought, Proto. What with the backwards speaking and that, BOB would always stay the same. Lynch is quite into the name Bob, so he says. His band was even called Bluebob. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.15.100 |
A - it's in HEROES AND HORRORS, which is a must-own Leiber collection (my Pocket paperback has a cool Whelan cover too!). | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
It's also in THE GHOST LIGHT. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Midnight in the Mirror World is one of my favourite Leiber stories. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.224.90 |
Lynch ate lunch for years at Big Bob's Diner in LA. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.224.90 |
Eating lunch for years. *shudder* | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
Yes, think o he nicest place and thing to do then add eternity; instant hell. I once read a story about a man being locked up in Hell; it was a cosy firelit room with endless fish fingers to eat, and only Reader's Digest to read. Once the devil finished showing him round he was to lock him in on his own there for all eternity. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Could be worse. Shaun Hutson and coleslaw. Fish fingers are good. I assume they're cooked though? | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Tony - that story's Hells Bells by Harry E Turner | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.14.96 |
Lynch also had a series of paintings about a guy called Bob. No connection to TWIN PEAKS Bob, though. I don't think. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.236.61 |
Lynch ate lunch for years at Big Bob's Diner in LA. Proto, I think you mean (?) Bob's Big Boy, a popular chain of diners in the western U.S., which folded in the early 1990's (though there's one left, one in L.A. - I think that's where it is...). In every one of them, this was the gigantic plastic entity that greeted you: http://www.you-are-here.com/sculpture/bob.html | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.14.96 |
" used to go to Bob’s Big Boy restaurant just about every day from the mid-seventies until the early eighties." http://blog.neontology.com/posts/2007/11/21/david-lynch-bobs-big-boy-and-me Looks like he hasn't been there in a while. We'll just have to assassinate him at home. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.9.21 |
We'll just have to assassinate him at home. I'm a bit concerned at how explicitly violent your posts have lately become, Albie... would you like to go get a milkshake at Bob's and talk about it?... | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.14.96 |
I'll have a RED one. According to Frank (BOB) Silva Lynch named Bob after the restaurant. Erm...kill people and that. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
seeing as I'm allergic to milk, those shakes would represent my last meal. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.14.96 |
If I see you shaking I will call the authorities. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.210.151 |
Ever see what death row inmates choose as their last meals? It tells you a lot. Frank Silva died in the 90s. They should do the red room again with Kyle McLachlan aged by time, not makeup. That dream sequence took place 25 years in the future, which is 2015. They could also do Back to the Future II in the same year. Hoverboards are just 6 years away. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I often wonder about the last meal question... Can you even enjoy a meal when you know you're going to die??? | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Thirty years or thirty minutes, does the difference matter if the food is nice? What would discourage me is knowing that whatever I ate would end up decorating my shoes and the floor a few seconds after the trapdoor fell. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.234.183 |
A famous serial killer whose name I forget (it might have been Peter Kurten) enjoyed his 'last meal' so much he asked for it a second time. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.236.6 |
Bill Clinton personally ensured that an Arkansas prisoner was executed, possibly to enhance his image. The prisoner had effectively self-lobotomised by shooting himself in the head. He saved some of his pie for after the execution. And Clinton was one of the softer US presidents. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.3.160 |
Whatever you do for a last meal, just don't choose Chinese - you only get hungry later. (... mm, even I'm gonna grade that one a solid B... took too many words to get across... a bit strained, obvious, dated... Weber would have done something better....) | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.14.96 |
Everlasting gobstopper, please. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
sigh. What if they buried you with it? I like that idea, but alas, I'm going to be cremated. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
No, not alas. I don't know why I said that. It's not like the infinite gobstopper really tempts me to decompose. Sheesh. I'm not THAT fickle. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.225.239 |
We could reduce you to a paste, add some sugar, and make an everlasting gobstopper out of you for the next death-row inmate, A, if you'd like.... Judging by the violence of Albie's recent posts, it'll probably be him anyway. So there you go, A: your fate is to be crammed into Albie's salivating gob-hole. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
You joke, but it just so happens that I have a plan to have my ashes mixed into a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies to be served at my funeral. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 67.116.103.241 |
That's funny - because I actually have plans to eat chocolate chip cookies while they bury you. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
Thou shalt absorb me. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.16.85.202 |
If you have some of that thumb laying around, you can always send me a free sample.... | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
Much of it has grown back. An amazing thing, the body... Feels tingly though. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.244.67 |
That'll be the finger elves, a-dancing and a-prancing to fostor the healing magic. |