This is a well known story by a well known Irish writer. Or he was well known until a few decades ago. You've probably heard of Sheridan Le Fanu if you're over 40. Probably not, if you're a millennial.
Neveryoumind, Le Fanu was an Irish writer in the mid-1800s and his specialty was ghost stories. Not anything like the deeply disturbing, mind-shriveling, insomnia-inducing, psychological assassination material that nowadays passes for horror, but good, old, cozy ghost stories intertwined with 19th century metaphysics (which was still a science then), some theosophy, mesmerism and misunderstood Hinduism thrown in.
Le Fanu created a hero, the German doctor Martin Hesselius, who is more into metaphysics and the bad theories of Paracelzus (the good one are actually valid until today, like vaccination) and cures people with cooled cologne and positive affirmations. One of his theories is that drinking large quantities of Green Tea creates neural fluids that allow the drinker to see the spiritual world around us, that is usually invisible (and inaudible). The catch is that this invisible world is inherently malicious and evil and tries hard to drive every person who can perceive it into a gruesome suicide.
In this case the possessed is Reverend Jennings - priest who owns surprisingly large amounts of real estate in and around London, and the demon is a a pitch-black spectral monkey with glowing red eyes and a diabolical grin. Even though Hesselius claims to have cured 57 (exactly) other people with a similar affliction, Jennings, after long suffering, cuts his own throat with an old fashioned straight razor. This kind of result is why Gillette made a fortune when inventing the safety razor. You definitely can't cut your throat from side to side with that one.
Hesselius chugs his failure to cure Jennings to his hereditary suicidal mania, since such theories were still a thing in the 1850s. And recommends against drinking green tea. (But the antioxidants!!)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment