Fri 27 May 2022
SF Stories I’m Reading: JOHN ANTHONY “The Hypnoglyth.â€
Posted by Steve under Science Fiction & Fantasy , Stories I'm Reading[9] Comments
JOHN ANTHONY “The Hypnoglyth.†First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1953. Reprinted in Portals of Tomorrow, edited by August Derleth (Rinehart, hardcover, 1954), and A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Robert P. Mills (Doubleday, hardcover, 1960).
A word first, if you will, about August Derleth’s Portals of Tomorrow anthology. I never realized it before, but having recently decided to read a long-owned copy, it’s clear that its original intent was that it was to be the first of a “Best of the Year†series of anthologies, this one covering SF for the year 1953. If the subtitle doesn’t give it away: “The Best Tales of Science Fiction and Other Fantasy,†then Derleth’s introduction does, without quite saying so but obvious by reading between the words. Perhaps the publisher had a change of heart somewhere along the way.
And so, what I’ve also decided to do is to read my way through the book and report back on each of the stories as I do. The year 1953 was maybe six years before I started reading the SF magazines from the local newsstand, so I wouldn’t have had the chance to read them while the ink was still fresh on them. These will be my opinions today, not from back then, often based on seeing them for the first time, not from later collections or anthologies.
And at first glance, “The Hypoglyth†is a strange choice to begin a book with. Neither the title or author was at all familiar to me. Not even learning that “John Anthony†was the pen name of John Ciardi helped at all. But Derleth was right. This one’s a small gem of storytelling.
There are only two characters in the tale. One is a returned space traveler telling a friend about his adventures on a primitive planet he has just visited. To that end, he hands his companion a strange woodlike artifact which is not wood, but which has a small hollow on one side. As the space traveler goes on with his story, the other cannot help but use his thumb to continually stroke the hollow. It is as if he is being hypnotized by it, but if so, to what end?
I wish I could tell you more, or even hint at more, but I can’t. Suffice it to say that if you play close attention to what the one man tells the other about life on the planet, everything is there to fall into place at the sweetly foreshadowed ending. Emphasis on sweetly, as say a Stanley Ellin story in another genre altogether.
May 28th, 2022 at 2:45 pm
Had not known Ciardi wrote actual sf stories.
Did like an sf poem he wrote “Love Letters from Mars”.
Ciardi was a good poet.
His work could use a revival.
May 28th, 2022 at 3:04 pm
You’re right. It’s the same fellow. I should have caught that. The things I learn by doing this blog. Thanks!
May 28th, 2022 at 3:07 pm
Looking for more information about his SF career, I’ve found only one other story by him, some poetry, and two books of gross limericks he co-authored with Isaac Asimov.
May 28th, 2022 at 3:55 pm
Here’s a link to more about John Ciardi, along with a tip of the topper to Tony Baer for coming up with it:
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/261013/authors-of-twayne-triplets
More interesting stuff I never knew before.
May 28th, 2022 at 10:00 pm
Always good to discover a story that probably should have been anthologized more often than it has.
May 28th, 2022 at 10:14 pm
Right you are on that. But by the way, I have figured out why Derleth chose this to be the lead story in the anthology. The stories are included alphabetically by author.
It’s still a gem, though.
May 29th, 2022 at 11:29 am
Here’s the issue of fantasy and sf. Also with Alfred bestor, Philip k dick and William Lindsay gresham, among other notables.
https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v005n01_1953-07
May 29th, 2022 at 11:34 am
Thanks, Tony. Not only does it contain the Anthony story, but the whole issue is well worth reading.
May 30th, 2022 at 9:01 pm
Tony,
Thanks, just downloaded it.