Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The House of the Vampire by George Sylvester Viereck, Chapter twenty.
They were sitting in a little Italian restaurant, where they
had often in the old days, lingered late into the
night over a glass of La cramee cristie. But no
pale ghost of the past rose from the wine, only
a wriggling something with serpent eyes that sent cold shivers
(00:22):
down her spine and telled her speechless and entranced. When
their order had been filled and the waiter had posted
himself at a respectful distance, Reginald began at first leisurely,
a man of the world. But as he proceeded, a
strange exultation seemed to possess him, and from his eyes
leaped the flame of the mystic. You must pardon me,
(00:44):
he commenced, if I monopolized the conversation. But the revelations
I have to make are of such a nature that
I may well claim your attention. I will start with
my earliest childhood. You remember the picture of me that
was taken when I was five, she remembered. Indeed, each
detail of his life was deeply engraven on her mind
(01:04):
at that time. He continued, I was not held to
be particularly bright. The reason was that my mind, being
pre eminently and extraordinarily receptive, needed a stimulus from without.
The moment I was sent to school, however, a curious
metamorphosis took place in me. I may say that I
became at once the most brilliant boy in my class.
(01:27):
You know that to this day I have always been
the most striking figure in any circle in which I
have ever moved. Ethel nodded assent, silently, watching the speaker.
She saw a gleam of the truth from afar, but
still very distant and very dim. Reginald lifted the glass
against the light and gulped its contents. Then, in a
(01:47):
lower voice, he recommenced, like the chameleon, I have the
power of absorbing the color of my environment. Do you
mean that you have the power of absorbing the special
virtues of other people? She interjected, that is exactly what
I mean. Oh, she cried, for in a heart beat,
(02:07):
many things had become clear to her. For the first time.
She realized, still vaguely, but with increasing vividness, the hidden
causes of her ruin, and still more plainly, the horrible
danger of earnest fielding. He noticed her agitation, and a
look of psychological curiosity came into his eyes. Ah, but
that is not all, he observed, smilingly, that is nothing.
(02:30):
We all possess that faculty in a degree. The secret
of my strength is my ability to reject every element
that is harmful or inessential to the completion of myself.
This did not come to me easily, nor without a struggle.
But now, looking back upon my life, many things became
transparent that were obscure even to me at the time.
(02:51):
I can now follow the fine spun threads in the
intricate web of my fate and discover in the wilderness
of meshes a design awful and grandly play. And his
voice shook with conviction as he uttered these words. There
was something strangely gruesome in this man. It was thus
that she had pictured to herself the high priest of
some terrible and mysterious religion, demanding a human sacrifice to
(03:15):
appease the hunger of his God. She was fascinated by
the spell of his personality and listened with a feeling
not far removed from awe. But Reginald suddenly changed his
tone and proceeded in a more conversational manner. The first
friend I ever cared for was a boy marvelously in
doubt for the study of mathematics. At the time of
our first meeting at school, I was unable to solve
(03:35):
even the simplest algebraical problem. But when we had been
together only for half a month, when we exchanged parts,
it was I who was the mathematical genius. Now, whereas
he became hopelessly dull and stuttered through his recitations only
with a struggle that brought the tears to his eyes.
Then I discarded him heartless. You say, I have come
(03:56):
to know better. Have you ever tasted a bottle of
wine had been uncorked for a long time? If you have,
you have probably found it flat. The essence was gone evaporated.
Thus it is, and we care for people, probably no assuredly,
there is some principle prisoned in their souls or in
the windings of their brains, which when escaped, leaves them insipid, unprofitable,
(04:19):
and devoid of interest to us. Sometimes this essence not
necessarily the finest element in man's or woman's nature, but
soul stuff that we lack, disappears. In fact, it invariably
disappears It may be that it has been transformed in
the process of their growth. It may also be that
it has utterly vanished by some inadvertence, or that we
(04:41):
ourselves have absorbed it. Then we throw them away ethel asked,
pale but dry eyed, A shudder passed through her body,
and she clinched her glass nervously. At that moment, Reginald
resembled a veritable prince of darkness, sinister and beautiful, painted
by the hand of a mo master. Then for a
(05:02):
space he again became the man of the world. Smiling
and self possessed. He filled the glasses, took a long
sip of the wine, and resumed his narrative. That boy
was followed by others. I absorbed many useless things and
some that were evil. I realized that I must direct
my absorptive provensities. This I did. I selected selected well,
(05:25):
and all the time the terrible power of which I
was only half conscious, grew within me. It is indeed
a terrible power, she cried, all the more terrible for
its subtlety. Had I not myself been its victim, I
should not now find it possible to believe in it.
The invisible hand that smites in the dark is certainly
more fearful than a visible foe. It is also more merciful.
(05:50):
Think how much you would have suffered had you been
conscious of your loss. Still, it seems even now to
me that it cannot have been an utter, irreparable loss.
There is no act without reaction. Even I, even we,
must have received from you some compensation for what you
have taken away. In the ordinary processes of life. The
law of action and reaction is indeed potent, But no
(06:13):
law is without its exception. Think of radium, for instance,
with its constant and seemingly inexhaustible outflow of energy. It
is a difficult thing to imagine, but our scientific men
have accepted it as a fact. Why should we find
it more difficult to conceive of a tremendous and infinite
absorbed development. I feel sure that it must somewhere. Phenomenon
(06:34):
in the physical world finds its counterpart in the psychical universe.
There are radium souls that radiate without loss of energy,
but also without increase. And there are souls the reverse
of radium, with unlimited absorptive capabilities, vampire souls. She observed
with a shudder, and her face blanched. No he said,
(06:59):
don't say that, and then he suddenly seemed to grow
in stature. His face was ablaze, like the face of
a god in every age, he replied, with solemnity. There
are giants who attain to a greatness which by natural
growth no men could ever have reached. But in their
youth a vision came to them, which they set out
to seek. They take the stones of fancy to build
(07:21):
them a palace in the Kingdom of Truth, projecting into
reality dreams monstrous and impossible. Often they fail, and, tumbling
from their airy heights, end a quixotic career. Some succeed.
They are the chosen Carpenter's sons. They are who have
laid down the law of a world for millenniums to come,
or simple Corsicans before whose eagle eyes have quaked the
(07:46):
kingdoms of the earth. But to accomplish their mission they
need a will of iron and the wit of a
hundred men. And from the iron they take the strength,
and from a hundred men's brains they absorb their wisdom.
Divine missionaries, they appear in all all departments of life.
In their hand is gathered to day the gold of
the world, mighty potentates of peace and war. They unlock
(08:08):
new seas, and from distant continents lift the bars. Single handed,
they accomplish what nations dared not hope. With titan strides,
they scale the stars and succeed where millions fail. In art,
they live the makers of new periods, the dreamers of
new styles. They make themselves the vocal sunglasses of God,
Homer and Shakespeare, Hugo and Balzac. They concentrate the dispersed
(08:32):
rays of a thousand lesser luminaries in one singing flame that,
like a giant torch, lights up humanity's path. She gazed
at him, open mouthed. The light had gone from his visage.
He paused, exhausted, But even then he looked the incarnation
of a force, no less terrible, no less grand. She
grasped the immensity of his conception, but her woman's soul
(08:54):
rebelled at the horrible injustice to those whose light is extinguished,
as hers had been to feed an alien flame. And
then for a moment she saw the pale face of
Earnest staring at her out of the wine. Cruel, she sobbed,
How cruel? What matter? He asked? Their strength is taken
from them, but the spirit of humanity, as embodied in us,
(09:17):
triumphantly marches on end of Section ten.
The House of the Vampire by George Sylvester Viereck, Chapter twenty.
They were sitting in a little Italian restaurant, where they
had often in the old days, lingered late into the
night over a glass of La cramee cristie. But no
pale ghost of the past rose from the wine, only
a wriggling something with serpent eyes that sent cold shivers
(00:22):
down her spine and telled her speechless and entranced. When
their order had been filled and the waiter had posted
himself at a respectful distance, Reginald began at first leisurely,
a man of the world. But as he proceeded, a
strange exultation seemed to possess him, and from his eyes
leaped the flame of the mystic. You must pardon me,
(00:44):
he commenced, if I monopolized the conversation. But the revelations
I have to make are of such a nature that
I may well claim your attention. I will start with
my earliest childhood. You remember the picture of me that
was taken when I was five, she remembered. Indeed, each
detail of his life was deeply engraven on her mind
(01:04):
at that time. He continued, I was not held to
be particularly bright. The reason was that my mind, being
pre eminently and extraordinarily receptive, needed a stimulus from without.
The moment I was sent to school, however, a curious
metamorphosis took place in me. I may say that I
became at once the most brilliant boy in my class.
(01:27):
You know that to this day I have always been
the most striking figure in any circle in which I
have ever moved. Ethel nodded assent, silently, watching the speaker.
She saw a gleam of the truth from afar, but
still very distant and very dim. Reginald lifted the glass
against the light and gulped its contents. Then, in a
(01:47):
lower voice, he recommenced, like the chameleon, I have the
power of absorbing the color of my environment. Do you
mean that you have the power of absorbing the special
virtues of other people? She interjected, that is exactly what
I mean. Oh, she cried, for in a heart beat,
(02:07):
many things had become clear to her. For the first time.
She realized, still vaguely, but with increasing vividness, the hidden
causes of her ruin, and still more plainly, the horrible
danger of earnest fielding. He noticed her agitation, and a
look of psychological curiosity came into his eyes. Ah, but
that is not all, he observed, smilingly, that is nothing.
(02:30):
We all possess that faculty in a degree. The secret
of my strength is my ability to reject every element
that is harmful or inessential to the completion of myself.
This did not come to me easily, nor without a struggle.
But now, looking back upon my life, many things became
transparent that were obscure even to me at the time.
(02:51):
I can now follow the fine spun threads in the
intricate web of my fate and discover in the wilderness
of meshes a design awful and grandly play. And his
voice shook with conviction as he uttered these words. There
was something strangely gruesome in this man. It was thus
that she had pictured to herself the high priest of
some terrible and mysterious religion, demanding a human sacrifice to
(03:15):
appease the hunger of his God. She was fascinated by
the spell of his personality and listened with a feeling
not far removed from awe. But Reginald suddenly changed his
tone and proceeded in a more conversational manner. The first
friend I ever cared for was a boy marvelously in
doubt for the study of mathematics. At the time of
our first meeting at school, I was unable to solve
(03:35):
even the simplest algebraical problem. But when we had been
together only for half a month, when we exchanged parts,
it was I who was the mathematical genius. Now, whereas
he became hopelessly dull and stuttered through his recitations only
with a struggle that brought the tears to his eyes.
Then I discarded him heartless. You say, I have come
(03:56):
to know better. Have you ever tasted a bottle of
wine had been uncorked for a long time? If you have,
you have probably found it flat. The essence was gone evaporated.
Thus it is, and we care for people, probably no assuredly,
there is some principle prisoned in their souls or in
the windings of their brains, which when escaped, leaves them insipid, unprofitable,
(04:19):
and devoid of interest to us. Sometimes this essence not
necessarily the finest element in man's or woman's nature, but
soul stuff that we lack, disappears. In fact, it invariably
disappears It may be that it has been transformed in
the process of their growth. It may also be that
it has utterly vanished by some inadvertence, or that we
(04:41):
ourselves have absorbed it. Then we throw them away ethel asked,
pale but dry eyed, A shudder passed through her body,
and she clinched her glass nervously. At that moment, Reginald
resembled a veritable prince of darkness, sinister and beautiful, painted
by the hand of a mo master. Then for a
(05:02):
space he again became the man of the world. Smiling
and self possessed. He filled the glasses, took a long
sip of the wine, and resumed his narrative. That boy
was followed by others. I absorbed many useless things and
some that were evil. I realized that I must direct
my absorptive provensities. This I did. I selected selected well,
(05:25):
and all the time the terrible power of which I
was only half conscious, grew within me. It is indeed
a terrible power, she cried, all the more terrible for
its subtlety. Had I not myself been its victim, I
should not now find it possible to believe in it.
The invisible hand that smites in the dark is certainly
more fearful than a visible foe. It is also more merciful.
(05:50):
Think how much you would have suffered had you been
conscious of your loss. Still, it seems even now to
me that it cannot have been an utter, irreparable loss.
There is no act without reaction. Even I, even we,
must have received from you some compensation for what you
have taken away. In the ordinary processes of life. The
law of action and reaction is indeed potent, But no
(06:13):
law is without its exception. Think of radium, for instance,
with its constant and seemingly inexhaustible outflow of energy. It
is a difficult thing to imagine, but our scientific men
have accepted it as a fact. Why should we find
it more difficult to conceive of a tremendous and infinite
absorbed development. I feel sure that it must somewhere. Phenomenon
(06:34):
in the physical world finds its counterpart in the psychical universe.
There are radium souls that radiate without loss of energy,
but also without increase. And there are souls the reverse
of radium, with unlimited absorptive capabilities, vampire souls. She observed
with a shudder, and her face blanched. No he said,
(06:59):
don't say that, and then he suddenly seemed to grow
in stature. His face was ablaze, like the face of
a god in every age, he replied, with solemnity. There
are giants who attain to a greatness which by natural
growth no men could ever have reached. But in their
youth a vision came to them, which they set out
to seek. They take the stones of fancy to build
(07:21):
them a palace in the Kingdom of Truth, projecting into
reality dreams monstrous and impossible. Often they fail, and, tumbling
from their airy heights, end a quixotic career. Some succeed.
They are the chosen Carpenter's sons. They are who have
laid down the law of a world for millenniums to come,
or simple Corsicans before whose eagle eyes have quaked the
(07:46):
kingdoms of the earth. But to accomplish their mission they
need a will of iron and the wit of a
hundred men. And from the iron they take the strength,
and from a hundred men's brains they absorb their wisdom.
Divine missionaries, they appear in all all departments of life.
In their hand is gathered to day the gold of
the world, mighty potentates of peace and war. They unlock
(08:08):
new seas, and from distant continents lift the bars. Single handed,
they accomplish what nations dared not hope. With titan strides,
they scale the stars and succeed where millions fail. In art,
they live the makers of new periods, the dreamers of
new styles. They make themselves the vocal sunglasses of God,
Homer and Shakespeare, Hugo and Balzac. They concentrate the dispersed
(08:32):
rays of a thousand lesser luminaries in one singing flame that,
like a giant torch, lights up humanity's path. She gazed
at him, open mouthed. The light had gone from his visage.
He paused, exhausted, But even then he looked the incarnation
of a force, no less terrible, no less grand. She
grasped the immensity of his conception, but her woman's soul
(08:54):
rebelled at the horrible injustice to those whose light is extinguished,
as hers had been to feed an alien flame. And
then for a moment she saw the pale face of
Earnest staring at her out of the wine. Cruel, she sobbed,
How cruel? What matter? He asked? Their strength is taken
from them, but the spirit of humanity, as embodied in us,
(09:17):
triumphantly marches on end of Section ten.
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