0:00

Welcome to Sudapod, the weekly horror podcast. We're

0:02

here to scare and entertain you, so if

0:04

we're only scaring you, then

0:06

please bail out the episode. We won't mind,

0:08

and another one will be along next week.

0:10

Promise. Sudapod

0:14

comes to you this week with a special May

0:17

2024 visit to the vault. The

0:21

Gorgon by Tanith Lee. Hi,

0:24

I'm Julie C. Day, author

0:26

and both publisher and editor-in-chief

0:28

at Essential Dreams Press. In

0:31

the last few years, Essential Dreams

0:33

has released the anthologies, Weird Dreams

0:35

Society and Dreams for a Broken

0:38

World. And right now, I'm hard at

0:40

work on our latest book, Storyteller,

0:42

a Tanith Lee tribute

0:44

anthology, which is live on

0:46

Kickstarter through to the end of May. Today's

0:49

story, The Gorgon, is one I

0:51

first read in her collection, Gorgon's

0:54

and Other Beastly Tales. One

0:57

of the dozen or so books I've carried

0:59

with me since my early teens. Tanith

1:01

Lee was born September 19th, 1947, and

1:07

passed away on May 24th, 2015. Tanith

1:12

was a British writer who influenced many

1:14

areas of genre. Though

1:16

she wrote nearly 90 novels, as

1:18

you'll hear today, Tanith Lee was

1:20

also a master of short fiction with

1:23

over 300 published short stories.

1:26

Tanith Lee's influence on contemporary fiction

1:29

is an often hidden strand of

1:31

DNA that connects writers

1:34

of fantasy, science fiction, romance,

1:36

horror, and YA. N.K.

1:39

Jemisin, Martha Wells, Holly

1:41

Black, C.S.I. Cooney,

1:43

Chyna Meavel, Charlie Jane

1:46

Anders, Theodora Goss, Nisi

1:48

Shawl, and Terry Windling are

1:51

just a few of the authors who

1:53

cite Tanith Lee as deeply influential to

1:55

their own work. She

1:57

was the first woman to win the British Fantasy

1:59

Award. for Best Novel, also

2:02

known as the August Derrleth Award,

2:04

for her book Death's Master in 1980,

2:08

a feat that wasn't repeated until

2:10

the 21st century. She's

2:13

also the second recipient of the

2:15

CIFFWA Infinity Award, which will

2:17

be presented at this year's Nebula Awards

2:19

in June. Like

2:22

the Infinity Award, the upcoming

2:24

Tanith Lee tribute anthology Storyteller

2:26

is an attempt to honor

2:28

her legacy and to bring

2:30

her work and impact on genre to the

2:32

attention of a new generation of readers. The

2:36

Gorgon originally appeared in

2:38

1982 in the anthology

2:40

of Quiet Horror, Shadows

2:42

Five, edited by Charles

2:45

L. Grant. Audio production

2:47

is by Chelsea Davis. Your

2:50

narrators are Sharon Moskowitz

2:53

and Scott Campbell. Sharon

2:56

was a passionate supporter and participant

2:58

in theater, both stage and audio.

3:01

She worked with all the major

3:03

theater groups in Tallahassee, Florida, such

3:05

as the Cabaret, the Mickey Faust

3:07

Club. She was

3:09

a founding member of Curious Echo

3:11

Radio Theater and an avid outdoorswoman.

3:14

She was passionate and curious and had

3:16

a true lust for life. Scott

3:20

searches for challenges that will increase his skills

3:22

for the battles to come. The

3:25

slush pile underneath Sudapod Towers is

3:27

a worthy opponent. Scott

3:30

started as an associate editor at Sudapod

3:32

in 2016. He

3:35

became Web Wrangler in

3:37

2021 and ascended to

3:39

assistant editor in 2022. He

3:43

is an invaluable resource for

3:45

not only his assistance with reviewing

3:47

stories, but also helping to

3:49

build all the blog posts and

3:51

ensuring our website and bios are up to

3:54

date. Scott cherishes

3:56

that he was able to perform this with Sharon

3:58

and say that he is a good person. Her voice

4:00

in perpetuity. Now

4:03

we have a story for

4:05

you and with promises it's

4:07

true. The

4:13

Gorgon. By. Ten Italy. Read.

4:16

To by Scott Campbell in sure

4:18

and Moskowitz. The

4:21

small island which lay off larger island

4:23

it a who. Obviously

4:25

contained a secret of some sort. And

4:28

day by day. particularly night. But

4:30

night began to exert influence on

4:33

me. That. I must find

4:35

out. The zoo itself.

4:38

Or. More correctly herself for she

4:40

was a female country. Philips.

4:42

Was and cruel by turns in the true

4:44

and succession of the goddess. Is

4:47

hardly enormous. A couple

4:49

roads, the tangle of

4:51

sheep tracks, a precarious

4:53

escalating village, rocks and

4:55

hillsides fetched with listed

4:57

grass. Hollow which

5:00

our hunger extraordinary see.

5:03

Unlike any see and which I had

5:05

encountered elsewhere in Greece. Water

5:07

which might be mistaken for blueness from

5:09

a distance. But. Which from

5:11

the harbor the multi the case and

5:14

cove said undermine the island. Revealed.

5:16

Itself to be a clear and succulent

5:18

green. Like. Milky lines.

5:21

With. A Bottle class a certain spirits. On

5:24

my first morning. Having. Com

5:26

aren't the natural terrorists. The only

5:29

recommendation of the have a like

5:31

accommodation. To. Look over

5:33

the strange green ocean. I

5:35

saw the smaller island. Lying.

5:37

Like a little boat of land. More

5:40

just why to defuse three hills. The.

5:43

Day was clear, the water filled with white.

5:45

Where's that? The sayings and the indices blue,

5:47

The terrorists. But. The

5:49

smaller island barely or from full showed.

5:52

It seem to glide up from the

5:54

sea smooth as mere. The.

5:57

Little Island was burdened also.

5:59

A. The food when the stands and

6:02

stone pine Cyprus in cedar. The.

6:04

Smaller sister was clouded by still lamp

6:06

and haze of foliage that the to

6:09

the woods. Visions.

6:11

Of Groves Springs.

6:13

A ruined temple. The. Statue Pan

6:16

playing the pan pipes. Reverend Some

6:18

played. Were. Only yesterday

6:20

it might seem a thin com of

6:22

aromatic smoke had gone up. These.

6:25

Images were an offensively to draw me

6:27

into inquiries about how the small and

6:29

them may be reached. And

6:32

when my inquiries first met with

6:34

her plight, Betty excuses. Next.

6:36

With a refusal. Last. With

6:39

a blank wall of silence. As.

6:41

If whoever I mentioned little

6:43

island to had gone temporarily

6:45

different mad I became of

6:47

course. Insatiable, To

6:49

get to it to find out what

6:51

odd superstitious thing kept these people away.

6:53

Naturally, the death We were not friendly

6:56

to me at a time beyond the

6:58

false friendship one anticipated extend to a

7:00

man of another nationality or climb the

7:02

can be relied on to pay his

7:04

bills. Perhaps. Also,

7:07

allow himself to be a charged. Even

7:10

made a downright monkey in

7:12

order. To preserve good will.

7:15

And the normal run the things I

7:17

could have had anything I want in

7:19

exchange for a pack of localized abroad

7:21

local smile and a broader local price.

7:24

That. I could not get to the little

7:27

island. puzzled me. I tried

7:29

money and I tried burger. I.

7:31

Even in a reckless moment, probably

7:34

knowing openness succeed I repeat us

7:36

when the younger fishermen the gold

7:38

and onyx ring he coveted. My

7:41

sister made it for me. The. Faithful

7:44

copy of and and hagel ios belonging

7:46

to the house. Abortion no less. Generally,

7:49

Peters cannot pass the time of day

7:51

with mates without mentioning the ring. Adding

7:54

something in the nature of if you ever

7:56

wanted great service any great service I will

7:58

do it for that ring. I

8:00

half believe he would have stolen or murdered for

8:02

it, certainly shared the bed with me.

8:06

But he would not, apparently even for

8:08

the borsering, take me to the little

8:10

island. "'You

8:12

think too much of foolish things,' he

8:15

said to me, but I beg right that that

8:17

is not good. I ignored

8:19

the humorous aspect of big, equally

8:22

inappropriate of the sense of heighth,

8:24

girth, or fame. Pitos'

8:26

English was fine, but when he slipped

8:28

into mild inaccuracies it was likely to be a

8:30

deep point. "'You're wrong, Pitos. That

8:34

island has a story in it somewhere. I'll

8:36

take a bet on it.' "'No

8:38

fish today,' said Pitos. "'Why

8:41

do you think that is?' I

8:43

refrained from inventingly telling him that I

8:46

had seen giant swordfish leaping from the

8:48

shallows by the smaller island. I

8:51

found I was prowling Dafu, but

8:54

only on the one side, the side where

8:56

I could get a view or views of

8:58

her sister. I would climb

9:00

down into the welter of coves and smashed

9:02

emerald water to look across at her. I

9:06

would climb up and stand, leaning on the

9:08

sun-blasted walls of a crumbling church and

9:11

look at the small island. At

9:13

night, crouched over a bottle of wine,

9:15

a scatter of manuscript,

9:18

moths falling like rain into the oil

9:20

lamp. My stairs stayed

9:22

fixed on that small island, which,

9:25

as the moon came up, would

9:27

seem to turn silver some

9:29

older metal—Nemian metal, perhaps—slowed

9:32

from the moon herself. Curiosity

9:34

accounts for much of this, and

9:37

conscious jestiveness, but

9:39

the influence I presently began to feel that

9:42

I can't account for her

9:44

exactly. She

9:46

was only the writer's desire to fantasize rather

9:48

than to work, but

9:50

each time I reached for the manuscript, I

9:53

would experience a sort of distraction, a sort

9:56

of calling, uncanny.

10:01

Like nostalgia, though

10:03

for a place I had never visited. I

10:07

am very bad at recollecting my dreams,

10:10

but one or twice, just before

10:13

sunrise, I had a

10:15

suspicion that I had dreamed of the island, of

10:18

walking there, hearing

10:20

its inner waters, the

10:22

leaves brushing my hands and face. Two

10:27

weeks went by, and precious little had been done

10:29

in the line of work, and

10:31

I had come to Dafu with the sole intention of working.

10:34

The year before, I had accomplished so much

10:36

in the month of similar islands, or had

10:40

they been similar, that

10:42

I had looked for results of some magnitude.

10:45

In all of fourteen days I must have

10:47

squeezed out about two thousand words,

10:50

and must of those dreary enough that the

10:52

only covers they would ever get between would

10:55

be those of the trash can. And

10:58

yet, it was not that I

11:00

could not produce work, it

11:02

was that I knew, with blind

11:04

and damnable certainty, at

11:07

the work I needed to be doing

11:09

spraying from that spoonful of island. The

11:13

first day of the third week, I

11:15

had been swimming on the calm stretch of

11:17

sea west of the harbor, and had emerged

11:19

to sun myself and to smoke on

11:21

the parched hot shore. Presently,

11:24

Pitos appeared, having scented my

11:27

cigarettes. Surgical and government

11:29

health warnings had not yet penetrated

11:31

to spots like Dafu, where filtered

11:33

tobacco continues to symbolize Hollywood, or

11:36

some other amorphous anachronistic surrealism still

11:39

hankered after and long vanished from

11:41

the real world beyond. Once

11:44

Pitos had acquired his cigarette, he

11:47

sprawled down on the dry grass. The

11:50

end indicated the borger ring,

11:53

and mentioned a beautiful cousin of his, or their

11:56

male or female, I cannot be sure. After

11:59

this had been cleared out of the way, I said

12:01

to him, You know how the currents

12:03

run. I was thinking of a

12:06

slightly more adventurous swim, but I'd

12:08

like your advice. Pitos glanced at

12:10

me rarely. I had had

12:12

the plan as I lazed in the velvet water. Pitos

12:15

was already starting to guess it. Garants

12:18

are very dangerous, not to be trusted except

12:21

for the haba. Haba between

12:23

Dafu and the other island. It

12:25

can't be more than a quarter mile. The

12:27

sea looks smooth enough once you break away from

12:29

the shoreline here. No, said

12:32

Pitos. I waited for him

12:34

to say that there was no fish, or a lot

12:36

of fish, or that his brother had

12:38

gotten a broken thumb or something of the sort. But

12:41

Pitos did not resort to this. Troubled

12:44

and angry, he stabbed my cigarette half-smoked

12:46

into the turf. Why

12:49

do you want to go to this island so much? Why

12:52

does no one else want me to go there? He

12:55

looked up then and into my eyes.

12:58

His own were very black, sensuous,

13:02

cardinal, earthbound eyes, full

13:04

of orthodox sins and extremely young in a

13:06

sense that had nothing to do with physical

13:08

age, but with race, I suppose,

13:11

the youngness of ancient things like

13:13

Pan himself quite possibly. Well,

13:16

I said at last, are you going to

13:18

tell me or not? Because believe me, I

13:21

intend to swim out there today or tomorrow.

13:24

No, he said again. And

13:26

then you should not go. On the

13:29

island there is a— And

13:31

then he said a word in some tongue, neither

13:33

Greek nor Turkish, not even

13:36

the corrupt Spanish that sometimes penetrates

13:38

from Malta. A

13:41

what? Pitos shrugged

13:43

helplessly. He gazed out to

13:45

sea, a safe sea without islands. He

13:48

seemed to be putting something together in his mind and

13:50

I let him do it. Very

13:52

curious now. Pleasantly unnerved

13:54

by this waft of the occult,

13:57

I had already suspected to be the root cause of

13:59

this ban. Eventually

14:01

he turned back to me, treated

14:03

me once more to the primordial innocence

14:05

of his stare, and announced, The

14:08

cunning one. Ah,

14:11

I said. Both irked

14:13

and amused, I found myself

14:15

smiling. At this, Pitos'

14:18

face grew savage with pure

14:20

rage, an expression I

14:22

had not witnessed before. The

14:24

façade kept by foreigners had well and truly

14:27

come down. Pitos,

14:29

I said, I don't understand.

14:33

Meda, he said then,

14:35

the Greek word, old Greek. Wait,

14:38

I said. I caught at

14:41

the name, which was wrong, trying

14:43

to fit it into a memory. Then

14:45

the list came back to me, actually from graves.

14:48

The names, which meant the cunning. Meda,

14:52

Medea, Medusa.

14:57

Oh, I said. I

14:59

hardly wanted to offend him further by bursting

15:01

the loud mirth. At the

15:03

same time, even while I was trying not

15:05

to laugh, I was aware

15:08

of the hair standing up on my scalp and

15:10

neck. You're telling

15:12

me that there's a gorgon on the

15:14

island. Pitos grumbled

15:17

unintelligibly, stabbing the dead cigarette

15:19

over and over into the ground. I'm

15:22

sorry, Pitos, but it can't be Medusa. Someone

15:25

cut her head off quite a few years ago,

15:27

a guy named Perseus. His

15:30

face erupted into that awful expression again,

15:33

mouth and a rictus, tongue starting

15:35

to protrude, eyes flaring

15:37

at me. Quite

15:39

abruptly, I realized he wasn't

15:42

raging, but imitating the

15:44

visual, panicked contortions of a man

15:47

turning inexorably into stone.

15:50

Since that is what the gorgon is credited

15:53

with, literally petrifying men by

15:55

the sheer horror of recountments, it

15:58

now seemed almost pragmatic of Pitos' to

16:00

be demonstrating. It was,

16:02

too, a credible facsimile of the

16:04

sculpted Gorgon's face, sometimes used to

16:06

seal ovens or jars. I

16:09

wondered where he'd seen one to copy it so well.

16:13

All right, I said, okay, Pito's

16:15

fine. I fished in my

16:17

shirt, which was lying on the ground, and

16:19

took out some money to give him, but he recoiled.

16:22

I'm sorry, I said. I don't think

16:24

it merits the ring, unless you care to

16:27

roam me over there after all. The

16:29

boy rose. He looked at

16:31

me with utter contempt, and without

16:33

another word, before striding off

16:35

up on the shore. The

16:38

mashed cigarette protruded from the grass, and

16:40

I lay and watched it, the

16:42

tiny strands of tobacco slowly

16:45

crisping in the heat of the sun as

16:47

I plodded my route from Dafu. Dawn

16:50

seemed an amenable hour, no one

16:52

in particular about on that side of the

16:54

island, the water chill but flushing quickly with

16:57

warmth as the sun reached over it, and

16:59

the tide was in the right place to navigate the rocks.

17:03

Yes, Dawn would be

17:05

an excellent time to swim out to the

17:07

Gorgon's island. The

17:09

gods were on my side, I concluded

17:11

as I eased myself into the open

17:13

sea the following morning. Getting

17:16

clear of the rocks was no problem, their

17:18

channels only half-filled by the returning tide.

17:21

While just beyond Dafu's coast, I picked

17:23

up one of those contrary currents that

17:25

laced the island's edges and which, tied

17:27

or no, would funnel me away

17:29

from shore. The swim

17:31

was ideal. The sea limped, and

17:34

no longer any more than cool. Sunlight

17:37

filled in the waves and touched Dafu's retreating

17:39

face with gold. Barely

17:42

altered in thousands of years, either

17:44

rock or sea or sun. And

17:48

yet, one knew that against all

17:50

the claims of romantic fiction, this

17:52

place did not look now as it once had.

17:55

Some element in the air or in time

17:58

itself changed things. A

18:00

young man from the Bronze Age, falling

18:02

asleep at sunset in his own era, waking

18:05

at sunrise in mine, looking

18:07

around him, would not have known

18:09

where he was, I would swear to that. Such

18:12

thoughts I had leisure for in the

18:15

facile swim across to the wooded aisle

18:17

moored of Dafu. As I

18:19

detected, the approach was smooth, virtually

18:22

inviting. I cruised in

18:24

as if sliding along butter. A

18:27

rowboat would have had no more difficulty, the

18:30

shallows were clear, empty of rocks, and

18:33

if anything, greener than the water of

18:35

Dafu. I had not

18:37

looked much in Medusa's island, I

18:39

had begun jokingly to call it this, as

18:41

I crossed, knowing I would

18:43

have all the space on my arrival. So

18:46

I found myself wading in on a seamless

18:49

beach of rare glycerin sand and

18:51

looking up saw the mass of trees spilling

18:54

from the sky. The

18:56

effect was incredibly lush, so

18:59

much heavy green and seemingly

19:01

quite impenetrable, while

19:04

the sun's chucking glistening shas,

19:07

lodging like arrows in the foliage,

19:10

which reminded me very intensely

19:12

of huge clusters of grape

19:14

on the vine. Anything might

19:17

lie behind such barricade. It

19:20

was already beginning to get hot. Dry,

19:22

I put on the loose cotton shirt and

19:24

ate breakfast packed in the same waterproof wrapper,

19:27

standing on the beach impatient to get on.

19:30

As I moved forward, a bird shrilled somewhere

19:33

in its cage of boughs, sounding

19:35

an alarm of invasion. But

19:38

surely the birds, too, would be stoned

19:40

on Medusa's island, if the

19:42

legends were correct. And when I

19:44

stumbled across the remarkable stone carving

19:46

of a man in the forest, I

19:49

would pause in shocked amazement at

19:51

its vermiscillitude to life. Five

19:56

minutes into the thickets of the wood, I

19:58

did indeed stumble upon on a carving, but

20:01

it was of a moss-grown little fawn. My

20:05

pleasure in the discovery was considerably

20:07

lessened, however, when investigation told me

20:10

it was scarcely classical in origin.

20:14

Circa 1920 would be near the mark. A

20:18

further minute I put the fawn from my

20:20

mind. The riot of

20:22

water-frawling plants through which I had

20:25

been picking my way broke open

20:27

suddenly onto an inner

20:29

vista much wider than I anticipated. While

20:33

the focal point of the vista threw me completely, I

20:36

cannot say what I really had

20:38

been expecting. The

20:40

gray white stalks of pillars, some temple

20:43

shrine, the spring which

20:45

its votary of greenish-rotted bronze. None

20:48

of these would have surprised me. On

20:50

the other hand, to find a

20:53

house before me took me completely

20:55

by surprise. I

20:57

stood and looked at an abject

20:59

dismay, cursing its

21:01

wretched normality, until

21:04

I gradually began to see the house

21:06

was not normal in the

21:08

accepted sense. It

21:11

had been erected probably at the turn of the century

21:14

when such things were done. An

21:16

eccentric two-story building, and

21:18

transiently European, that is

21:20

the Europe of the North, with

21:22

its dark walls and arched roofing. Long

21:25

windows, smothered by the proximity

21:27

of the wood, received and

21:30

refracted no light. The

21:32

one unique and startling feature,

21:35

startling because of its beauty, was

21:38

the parade of columns that ran along the

21:40

terrace, in form and

21:42

choreography for all the world like the

21:44

columns of gnosis, differing

21:47

only in color. For

21:49

these stems of the gloomy house were

21:51

of a luminous sea-green marble, and

21:54

shone as the windows did not. Before

21:57

the house was a stretch of rough-caught lawn. Tamarisk,

22:01

in one lost, dying olive tree. As

22:05

I was staring, an apparition

22:07

seemed to manifest out of the center of the tree.

22:10

For a second we peered at each other

22:13

before he came from the bushes with

22:15

a clashing of gnarled brown forearms. He

22:18

might have been an elderly satyr. I

22:21

patently was only a swimmer, with

22:24

my pale foreigner's tan, my

22:26

bathing trunks, the loose It

22:30

occurred to me, at last,

22:33

that I was conceivably trespassing.

22:37

I wish my Greek was better. He

22:40

planted himself before me and shouted

22:43

intolerantly, and anyone's Greek was good enough

22:45

to get the trip that I should go. He

22:48

was ranting, and he began to

22:50

wave a knife, with which,

22:52

presumably, he had been pruning

22:55

or mutilating something. I

22:58

said that I had been unaware anyone lived

23:00

on the island. He took

23:02

no notice. He went on

23:04

waving the knife, and his attitude

23:06

provoked me. I told

23:08

him sternly to put the knife down, that

23:11

I would leave when I was ready, that I

23:13

had seen no notice to the effect that the island was

23:15

prime of property. Generally,

23:17

I would never take a

23:19

chance like this with someone so obviously qualified

23:22

to be a lunatic, but my

23:24

position was so vulnerable, so

23:27

ludicrous, so entirely indefensible, that

23:29

I felt bound to act firmly. Besides

23:32

which, having reached this magic

23:35

grotto and find it was not

23:37

as I had visualized, I

23:39

was still very reluctant to abscond with

23:41

only a memory of dark windows and sea-green

23:43

columns to brood upon. The

23:47

maniac was by now quite literally foaming,

23:50

due most likely to a shortage of teeth,

23:53

but the effect was alarming, not

23:55

to mention unaesthetic, as

23:57

I was deciding what fresh course to take

24:00

and if there might be one." A

24:03

woman's figure came out onto the terrace. I

24:06

had the impression of a white frock before

24:09

an odd, muffled voice called out in a

24:11

rapid — too rapid for

24:13

my translation — stream of peculiarly

24:16

accented Greek. The

24:18

old man swung around, gaze at the

24:20

figure, raised his arms, and

24:23

bawled another foaming torrent to the effect

24:25

that I was abandoned or some

24:27

other kind of malcontent. While

24:30

he did so, agitated as I

24:32

was becoming, I nevertheless took

24:34

in what I could of the woman standing

24:36

between the columns. She

24:39

was mostly in shadow, just

24:41

the faded white dress, white scarf at

24:43

the neck, marking her position. And

24:47

then there was an abrupt flash of warmer

24:49

pallor that was her hair, a blonde

24:52

Greek, or maybe just

24:54

a peroxided Greek. At any

24:56

rate, now it's next. The

24:59

drama went on, from his side from hers.

25:02

I finally got tired of it, went by him,

25:05

and walked towards the terrace, pondering —

25:07

rather too late — that I

25:09

might not be awarded the knife in my

25:12

back. But

25:14

almost as soon as I started to move, she

25:17

leaned forward a little and called another phrase to him,

25:20

which this time I made out, telling

25:23

him to let me come on. When

25:26

I reached the foot of the steps, I halted, really

25:30

involuntarily, struck by something

25:33

strange about her, just

25:35

as the strangeness of the house had begun to strike

25:37

me — not its evidence

25:39

of strangeness, the ill marriage to

25:41

location, the green pillars — but

25:44

a strangeness of atmosphere, items

25:46

the unconscious eye notices, where

25:49

the physical eye is blind and willowm explain.

25:52

And so with her — What was it? Still

25:54

in shadow, I had the impression — I had the impression — I had

25:56

the impression — I had the impression — I had the

25:58

impression — I had the impression — she might be

26:00

in her early thirties, from

26:03

her figure, her movements. But

26:06

she had turned away as I approached, adjusting

26:08

some papers on a wicker table. "'Excuse

26:11

me,' I said. I

26:14

stopped and spoke in English. For

26:16

some reason I guess she would be familiar with

26:18

the language, perhaps only since it

26:20

was current in Da Fu. Excuse

26:23

me, I had no idea the island

26:25

was private. No one gave

26:27

me the slightest hint." "'You are English.'"

26:30

She broke in, in the vernacular, proving

26:32

the guess to be correct. "'Nere

26:35

enough. I find it easier to

26:37

handle than Greek, I confess." "'Your Greek is very

26:40

good,' she said with

26:42

the indifferent patronage of one who is multilingual.

26:45

I stood there under the steps, utterly

26:48

fascinated. Her

26:50

voice was the weirdest I'd ever heard, muffled,

26:53

almost unattractive, and

26:56

with the most incredible accent, not

26:58

Greek at all. The nearest approximation

27:00

I could come up with was Russian,

27:02

but I could not be sure. "'Well,'

27:05

I said. I glanced over

27:07

my shoulder and registered that the frothy cedar

27:10

had retired into his shrubbery. The

27:12

knife glinted as it slashed her tamerisk in

27:14

lieu of me. Well

27:16

I suppose I should retreat to Da Fu. Or

27:20

am I permitted to stay?' "'Go.

27:23

Stay,' she said. "'I

27:26

do not care at all.' She

27:28

turned then, abruptly. My

27:30

heart slammed into the base of my throat. The

27:33

child is a silly reaction,

27:35

yet I was quite unnerved. For

27:38

now I saw what it was

27:41

that had seemed vaguely peculiar from a

27:43

distance. The lady

27:45

on Medusa's island was

27:47

masked. She

27:50

remained totally still and let me have my

27:52

reaction, neither helping nor hindering

27:54

me. It was

27:56

an unusual mask, or usual

27:58

I am unfamiliar with a new person." normal such things.

28:01

It was made of some matte-light substance

28:04

that toned well at the skin of

28:06

her arms and hands, possibly

28:08

not so well with that of

28:10

her neck where the scarf provided

28:13

camouflage, besides which

28:15

the chin of the

28:17

mask—this certainly an extra-tentany mask

28:19

I had ever seen—continued under

28:21

her own. The

28:24

mass physiognomy was bland, undescriptly

28:26

pretty in a way that was somehow grossly

28:30

insulting to her. Before

28:32

confronting the mask, if I had tried to

28:35

judge the sort of face she would have,

28:37

I would suspected

28:39

a coarse, rather heavy beauty,

28:42

probably redeemed by one chiseled

28:44

feature—a small slender nose,

28:46

perhaps. The mask, however, was

28:49

vacuous. It did not suit her.

28:51

It was not true to her. Even

28:53

after three minutes I could tell as much—or

28:55

thought I could, which amounts to the same

28:57

thing. The blonde hair, seemingly

29:00

natural as the mask was not, cascaded

29:03

down, lush as the

29:05

foliage of the island. A blonde

29:08

Greek, then, like the golden

29:10

Greeks of Homer's time, when gods

29:12

walk the earth in disguise. In

29:16

the end, without any help or hindrance from her,

29:19

as I said it, I pulled myself

29:21

together. As she had

29:24

mentioned, no aspect of her state, neither

29:26

had I, I simply repeated what

29:28

I had said before. Am

29:30

I permitted to stay? The

29:33

mask went on looking at me. The

29:35

astonishing voice said, You

29:37

wish to stay so much. What do

29:39

you mean to do here? Talk

29:42

to you, oblique lady, and wonder what

29:44

lies behind the painted veil. Look

29:47

at the island, if you let me. I

29:50

found the statue of a fawn near the beach. Elaboration

29:53

implied I should lie. Someone

29:56

told me there was an old shrine here. Huh,

29:59

she barked. It was apparently a

30:01

laugh. "'No one

30:03

told you anything about this

30:05

place.'" "'I was at a loss.'

30:08

"'Did she know it?' was said. "'Frankly

30:11

then, I romantically hope there might be.'

30:14

"'Unromantically, there is not.

30:16

No shrine, no temple. My

30:18

father bought the faun in a shop in

30:20

Athens, a tourist shop. He

30:22

had vulgar tastes, but he knew it. And

30:25

that has a certain charm, does it not?' "'Yes,

30:28

I suppose it does. Dear

30:30

father, she cut me short again.' "'The

30:33

woods cover all the island, except for

30:35

an area behind the house. We

30:37

grow things there, and we keep goats and

30:39

chickens. We are very domesticated, very

30:42

sufficient for ourselves. There

30:44

is a spring of fresh water, but no vaudre,

30:46

no genius locae. I

30:48

am so sorry to dash your dreams to

30:51

pieces.' It

30:53

suggested itself to me, from

30:55

her tone of amusement, from little

30:57

inflections that were coming and going in her

30:59

shoulders now. And she might

31:01

be enjoying this. Enjoying

31:03

if you like, putting me down as

31:05

an idiot. Presumably

31:08

visitors were rare. Perhaps

31:10

it was even fun for her to talk to a man, youngish

31:13

and unknown, though admittedly never

31:15

likely to qualify as any one setterfold.

31:19

But you have no objections to my being here,

31:21

I pursued. And your father?" "'My

31:24

parents are dead,' she informed me.

31:27

When I employed the plural, I referred to

31:30

him," she gestured with a

31:32

broad sweep of her hand to the monster

31:34

on the lawn, "'and a woman who attends to

31:36

the house. My servants,

31:38

my unpaid servants. I

31:40

have no money anymore. Do you see

31:42

this dress? It is my mother's dress. How

31:45

lucky I am the same fitting as my mother, do

31:47

you not think?' "'Yes.' I

31:50

was put in mind suddenly of myself

31:53

as an ambassador at the court of

31:55

some notorious female potentate. Cleopatra,

31:58

say, or Catherine." Catherine

32:00

de Medici. You are very

32:02

polite," she said, as if

32:04

telepathically privy to my fantasies. I

32:07

have every reason to be. What reason? I'm

32:10

trespassing. You treat me like a guest.

32:14

And how, she said, thank-glorious all at

32:16

once, do you rate my English? It's

32:19

wonderful. I speak

32:21

eleven languages fluently, she said

32:24

with off-handed boastfulness. Three

32:26

more I can read very well. I

32:29

liked her. This

32:31

display, touching and magnificent at

32:33

once, her angular theatrical

32:36

gesturings, which now came more and

32:38

more often, her hair, her

32:40

flat-waisted figure in its 1940s dress, her large

32:44

well-made hands, and her challenging me

32:46

with the mask, saying nothing

32:48

to explain it. All

32:50

this hypnotized me. I

32:53

said something to express admiration, and she barked

32:55

again, throwing back her blonde

32:57

head in the resistably, though only

33:00

for a moment, conjuring Garbo's Queen

33:02

Christina. Then she walked

33:04

down the steps straight to me, demonstrating

33:07

something else I had deduced, and

33:09

she was only about an inch shorter than I.

33:13

I will show you the island. Come.

33:16

She showed me the island. Unsurprisingly,

33:19

it was small. To

33:21

go directly around it would maybe have taken

33:23

less than thirty minutes. So

33:25

we lingered, over a particular tree,

33:27

a view, and once

33:30

we sat down on the ground near the

33:32

gushing, melt-white spring. The

33:34

basin under the spring she informed me had been

33:37

added in 1910. A

33:39

little bronze nymph presided over the spot,

33:42

dating from the same year, which

33:44

you could tell in any case in the

33:46

way her classical costume and her filleted hair

33:49

had been adapted to the fashions of

33:51

hobbleskirt and warty and kafure. Such

33:54

age imposed its own overlay on the

33:56

past. Behind

33:59

the house was a scatter. of the meager white-joylings that

34:01

made up such places as the village on Da

34:03

Fu, now plainly unoccupied

34:05

and put to other uses. Sheltered

34:08

from the sun by colossal cypress, six

34:11

goats played about in the grass. Chickens

34:14

and an assortment of other fowls strutted up and

34:17

down, while a pig, or

34:19

pigs, grunted somewhere out of sight.

34:22

Things grew in strips and patches, and

34:25

fruit-trees and vines ended the miniature

34:27

plantation before the woods resumed. Self-sufficiency

34:30

of a tolerable kind, I supposed.

34:34

But there seemed, from what she said, no contact

34:37

maintained with any other area, as

34:40

if the world did not exist. Potchedly

34:43

the light or harsh weather intervened

34:45

what then? Then the

34:47

old satyr. How long would

34:49

he last attend the plots? He

34:52

looked two hundred now, which on

34:54

the islands probably meant sixty. I

34:57

did not ask her what contingency plans she had

34:59

for these emergencies and inevitabilities.

35:03

Looked good after all her most plans. We

35:06

could be invaded from Amjama to tomorrow. It

35:09

wouldn't help for us all then. Either

35:12

it is in your nature to survive, somehow,

35:15

anyhow, or it is not. She

35:18

had well and truly hooked me, of course. If

35:21

I had met her in Athens, some sun-baked

35:24

afternoon, I would have

35:26

felt decidedly out of my depth, taken

35:28

her for cocktails, and foundered before

35:30

we even reached the dinner hour. But

35:33

here, in this pulsing

35:35

green bubble of light and leaves, strayed

35:38

out of one's most irrational visions of

35:40

the glades of Arcadia, conversation,

35:43

however erratic, communication,

35:46

however eccentric, was happening. The

35:49

most inexplicable thing of all was

35:52

that the mask had ceased almost immediately

35:54

to bother me. I

35:56

cannot, as I look back, properly

35:58

account for this. For to

36:01

spend a morning, a noon, an afternoon, allowing

36:03

yourself to become fundamentally engaged by

36:06

a woman whose face

36:08

you have not seen, whose face

36:11

you were actively being prevented from

36:13

seeing, seems now

36:15

incongruous to the point of perversity.

36:19

But there it is. We

36:22

discussed Ibsen, Dickens, Euripides,

36:24

and Young. I

36:26

remember trawling anecdotes of

36:29

a grandfather, mentioned my sister's

36:31

jewelry store in St. Louis,

36:34

listened to an astonishing description of wild

36:36

birds flying in across a desert from

36:38

a sea. I

36:41

assisted her over rocky turf, flirted

36:43

with her, felt excited by and

36:45

familiar with her. All

36:47

this with her masked face before me,

36:50

as if the mask, rather than

36:52

being a part of her, yet

36:55

no more than the frocks she had elected to wear

36:57

or the narrow-heeled, vanilla shoes she had

36:59

chosen to put on, as

37:02

if I knew her face totally and

37:04

had no need to be shonin' the

37:07

face of her movements and her

37:09

ridiculous voice. But in fact,

37:12

I could not even make out her eyes. Only

37:15

the shine in them when they caught the light, flecks

37:18

of luminescence but not color from

37:20

the eye-holes of her mask, were

37:22

long-lidded and rather small. I

37:25

must have noticed, too, that there

37:28

was no aperture in the lips. This

37:30

may have informed me that the mask must

37:32

be removed for purposes of eating or drinking.

37:35

I really do not know. I

37:38

can either excuse nor quite understand

37:40

myself, seen in the distance

37:42

there with her on her island. Hartley

37:46

tells us that the past is another country.

37:49

Of course, we also were other people.

37:51

Strangers yesterday. But when

37:53

I think of this, I remember, too, the sense

37:56

of drawing I had had, of being

37:59

magnified to that shore,

38:01

those trees, nostalgia

38:03

for a place I'd never been to.

38:06

For she, it may be true

38:09

to say, was the figment of

38:11

that nostalgia. As

38:13

if I had known her and come back to her. Some

38:16

enchantment, then. Not Medusa's island,

38:19

but Cersei's. That

38:22

afternoon, even though the dappled, la

38:25

primédide dauphin effect of the leaves,

38:28

was a Viridian furnace when we regained the

38:30

house. I sat in one

38:32

of the wicked chairs in the terrace and woke

38:34

with a start of embarrassment to hear her laughing at me.

38:38

You are tired and hungry. I must

38:40

go into the house for a while. I will send

38:42

Clea to you with some wine and food. Made

38:46

a bleary sense. When I

38:48

woke again, it was to find an old fat

38:50

woman in the ubiquitous Grecian island black, demonstratively

38:53

clear, setting down

38:55

a tray of pale red wine,

38:57

amber cheese and dark bread. Where

39:00

is—I realized I did

39:03

not know the Enchantress's name. In any

39:06

event, the woman only shook her head, saying

39:08

brushly in Greek that she spoke no English.

39:11

And when I attempted to ask her again in

39:13

Greek, where my hostess had gone, Clea

39:16

waddled away, leaving me unanswered.

39:19

So I ate the food, which was passable, and

39:23

drank the wine, which was very good, imagining

39:25

her fawn-buying father putting

39:28

down an enormous patrician cellar. Then

39:31

fell asleep again, sprawled in the chair. When

39:35

I awoke, the sun was setting. The

39:37

clearing was swimming in red light

39:40

and rusty violet shadows. Columns

39:42

burned as if they were internally on

39:45

fire, holding the core of the

39:47

sunset it appeared. Some

39:49

while after the sky had cooled and

39:51

the stars became visible. A trick

39:54

of architectural positioning that won

39:57

my awe and envy. I was

39:59

making a mental note of the to ask her, who had been

40:01

responsible for the columns, and jumped when

40:03

she spoke to me, softly and

40:05

hoarsely, almost deductively, from

40:07

just behind my chair, thereby

40:10

promptly making me forget to ask her any

40:12

such thing. Come into the

40:14

house now. We will dine soon." I

40:16

got up, said something lame about imposing

40:19

on her, though we were

40:21

far beyond that stage. Always, you

40:23

apologize. There is no imposition. You

40:25

will be gone tomorrow. How do you know,

40:27

I nearly inquired, but prevented myself. What

40:30

guarantee? Even if the

40:33

magic food did not change me into a swine, perhaps

40:35

my poisoned dead body would be carried

40:37

from the feast and cast as the

40:39

sea, gone, well and truly

40:42

to Poseidon's fishes. You

40:44

see, I did not trust her, even

40:47

though I was somewhat in love with her. The

40:49

element of her danger, for

40:52

she was dangerous in some obscure

40:54

way, may well have

40:56

contributed to her attraction. We

41:00

went into the house, which in itself alerted

41:02

me. I had forgotten

41:04

the great curiosity I had had to look

41:06

inside it. There was

41:08

a shadowy, unlit entrance hall, a sort of Roman

41:11

atrium of a thing. When

41:13

we passed, she leading, to

41:16

a small salon that took

41:18

my breath away. It

41:20

was lined all over, floor-ceiling

41:22

walls with the sea-green marble

41:25

the columns were made of.

41:28

Whether in good taste or bad, I was not

41:30

qualified to say, but the effect,

41:33

instantaneous and utter, was

41:36

a being beneath the sea. The

41:39

oil lamps of a very beautiful Art

41:41

Nouveau design hung from the

41:43

profundity of the green ceiling, lighting

41:46

the dreamlike swirls and oceanic

41:49

variations in the marble that they seemed

41:51

to breathe, definitely

41:53

to move, like

41:55

nothing else but waves. Shoes

41:58

on that floor would have squeaked

42:00

around. clattered unbearably, but I

42:02

was barefoot and so now was she, a mahogany

42:05

table with a modest placing for eight

42:07

stood centrally. Only

42:09

one place was laid. I

42:11

looked at it and she said, I do

42:13

not dine, but that will not prevent

42:15

you. An order? I

42:19

considered vampires idly, but

42:21

mainly I was subject to an infantile

42:24

annoyance. Not

42:26

quite realizing it, I had looked

42:28

for the subtraction of the mask when she ate,

42:31

and now this made me very conscious of

42:33

the mask for the first time since I

42:35

had originally seen it. We

42:38

seated ourselves, she two places away

42:40

from me, and I began

42:43

to feel nervous. To eat

42:45

this meal while she watched me did not

42:47

appeal, and now the idea of the

42:49

mask, unconsidered all morning,

42:51

all afternoon, stole over

42:53

me like an incoming tide. Inevitably

42:56

I had not dressed for dinner, having no

42:58

means, but she had

43:00

changed her clothes, and was now wearing

43:02

a high-collared, long gray gown, her

43:05

mother's again, no doubt. Had

43:07

the fragile look of age, it was

43:09

very feminine and appealing for all that. Above

43:12

it, the mask now reared, stuck

43:15

out like the proverbial sore thumb. The

43:19

mask. What on earth

43:21

was I going to do, leered

43:23

at by that myopic, soulless

43:25

space, which has

43:27

suddenly assumed such disastrous importance?

43:31

Clea waddled in with the dishes. I

43:34

cannot recall the meal, save

43:36

that it was spicy and mostly

43:38

vegetarian. The wine came

43:40

too, and I drank it, and

43:42

as I drank the wine I began to consider

43:44

seriously for the first time, which

43:46

seems very curious indeed to

43:48

me now, the reason for the

43:51

mask. What did it

43:53

hide? A scar, a

43:55

birthmark. I drank her

43:57

wine, and I saw myself snatch off the

43:59

mask. Taken the to figure

44:01

mint uncoiled. Behold the painful gratitude

44:03

and her eyes as she watched

44:06

me. I would inform her genius

44:08

surgeons she repeats she had no

44:10

money. I would promise to pay

44:12

for the operation. Suddenly.

44:15

Started me by saying. To.

44:17

You believe that we have lived before. I

44:20

looked at my glass that font wisdom

44:22

a possibility and said. It

44:25

seems a sensible proposition as any

44:28

the others I have heard I

44:30

fancy. She smiled to herself and.

44:33

Do not. A while I thought that. I

44:35

know now I was wrong. For.

44:37

Accented, thickened and distorted further when

44:40

she said. I rather hope that

44:42

I have lived before. I could wish to think

44:44

that I may live again. To

44:46

compensate for the a slice. I.

44:49

Said Buddhists li. A

44:51

are not needed to be so obvious when

44:53

I already had given the implication on the

44:55

solver. Yes

44:57

to compensate for this. I

45:00

downed other wisdom impossibility left in

45:02

my glass, swallowed an extra couple

45:05

of times, and said. Why?

45:07

Are you going to tell me why you wear a

45:09

mask? As. Soon as

45:11

I had said it, I grasped that

45:14

I was Trump's. Nor. Was that

45:16

pleasant up in this. I

45:18

did not like the demanding Tonia take with her.

45:21

And I was angry at having allowed the

45:23

game to go on for so long. I

45:26

had no knowledge. The rules are pretended I

45:28

had not. And I cannot

45:30

stop myself. When. See did

45:32

not reply. I added on a note of

45:34

ghastly banter. Or sell I

45:36

guess. She. Was still.

45:39

Seeming. Very composed. Had

45:42

the scene of an active before. Finally,

45:44

She said. I. Would suppose

45:47

you do guess is to conceal something that

45:49

I were. It's something you

45:51

imagine worth concealing, which perhaps

45:53

isn't. That.

45:56

Was in the still to fanfare. Bravado.

45:59

I braced by. Of flushed with

46:01

that's super confidence. Why?

46:05

Not. I said my grope

46:07

hold when I I remember how I spoke

46:09

to her at the damn thing off. Take

46:12

tough the mascot. drink a glass of wine

46:14

with me. A. Pause.

46:17

Then. Know. Her.

46:19

Voice was level and com. There.

46:22

Was either eagerness nor fear. and

46:24

it. Go. On I

46:26

said the drunk not getting his

46:28

way for were oh god he

46:30

did get it by the power

46:33

of his intention alone Please. You're.

46:35

An astounding woman. You're. Like

46:37

this island. A fascinating mistreat.

46:40

But I've seen the island.

46:42

Let me see. You know,

46:45

I started to feel even through the

46:47

one I to meet and decency just

46:49

in the to her and this along

46:51

with the offer cliches I was bringing

46:53

out increase my anger and my discomfort.

46:56

For. Heaven's Sake I said, do you

46:58

know they call you Wonder who?

47:00

Yes, This. Is absurd. You're

47:03

frightened. know? I am not afraid,

47:05

afraid, afraid to let me see.

47:07

But maybe I can help you

47:10

know. You. Cannot help me? How

47:12

can you be sure? She.

47:14

Turned in a chair. And

47:16

all the way to face me that the masked. Behind.

47:19

Her. Everywhere about her. The.

47:21

Green marble dazzled. If you know what

47:24

I am, call on this. Who are

47:26

you Not An easy as to what

47:28

you may see. Jesus, mythology and superstition

47:31

and ignorance. I assure you I won't

47:33

turn to stone. It. Is I who

47:35

have done that? Something. About the

47:37

phrase. The. Way in which

47:39

he said it's filled me. I

47:42

put down my class and in that instant,

47:45

Her. Hands or to the side of

47:47

the mask and her fingers worked at

47:49

some complicated strap arrangement which her hair

47:51

had covered. Good,

47:54

I said good. I'm

47:56

glad. but i

47:58

thought it over cold

48:00

night sea seemed to fill my

48:02

veins, where the warm red

48:04

wine had been. I

48:06

had been heroic, and sure, and

48:09

bold, the stuff of celluloid. But

48:12

now that I had my way, with hardly

48:14

any preliminary, what

48:17

would I see? And

48:20

then she drew the plastic away, and

48:22

I saw. I

48:24

sat there. Then I stood up.

48:27

The reflex was violent, and

48:29

the chair scraped over the marble with an unbearable

48:32

noise. There

48:34

are occasions, though rare, when

48:36

the human mind grows blank of all thought.

48:39

I had no thought as I looked at her. Even

48:43

now, I can evoke those long, long,

48:46

empty seconds, that lapse

48:49

of time. I

48:51

recollect only the briefest confusion,

48:54

when I believe she still played some

48:56

kind of hideous game, at

48:58

what I witnessed was a product of her

49:00

decision and her will, a gesture.

49:05

After all, Pitos had done

49:07

this very thing to illustrate and

49:09

endorse his argument, produced

49:11

this very expression, the eyes

49:14

bursting from the head, the

49:16

jaw rigidly outthrust, the tendons

49:18

in her neck straining, the

49:20

mouth in the grimace of

49:22

a frozen, agonized scream, the

49:24

teeth visible, the tongue

49:27

slightly protruding, the gorgon's

49:29

face on the jar or the oven,

49:32

the face so ugly, so

49:34

demented, so terrible, it could

49:38

petrify. The awful

49:40

mouth writhed. You

49:42

have seen, she said. Somehow

49:45

the stretched and distorted lips brought out

49:47

these words. It

49:50

was even the nuance of humor

49:52

I had heard before, the smile,

49:54

although physically a smile would have been ahead

49:56

of the question. You have seen. I

50:00

picked up the mask again, gently,

50:02

and put it on, easing

50:04

the under-part of the plastic beneath her

50:06

chin to hide the convulsed tendons in

50:08

her throat. I stood

50:10

there, motionless. Childishly,

50:13

I informed myself that I

50:15

now comprehend the reason for

50:17

her peculiar accent, which was

50:19

caused not by some exotic

50:22

foreign extraction, but by

50:24

the atrocious malformation of jaw,

50:27

tongue, and lips, which somehow

50:29

must be fought against for every sound

50:31

she made. I

50:33

went on standing there, and

50:35

now the mask was back in place. When

50:38

I was very young, I suffered without warning

50:41

from a form of fit or stroke. Various

50:43

nerve centers were paralyzed. My father took me to

50:45

the very best of surgeons. You may comfort yourself

50:47

with that. Unfortunately, any effort

50:49

to correct the damage entailed the penetration of my

50:52

brain so uncompromisingly delicate that

50:54

it was reckoned impossible, for it would

50:56

surely render me an idiot. Since

50:59

my senses, faculties, and intelligence were

51:01

otherwise unaffected, it was decided not

51:03

to risk this dire surgery, and

51:05

my doctors resorted instead to alternative

51:07

therapies, which patently were unsuccessful. As

51:10

the months passed, my body adjusted to

51:12

the unnatural physical tensions resulting from

51:14

the facial paralysis. The pain of

51:17

the rectus faded, or grew acceptable.

51:19

I learned both how to eat and how to

51:21

converse, although the former activity is not attractive, and

51:23

I attend to it in private. The mask was

51:26

made for me in Athens. I am quite fond

51:28

of it. The man who designed it had worked

51:30

a great many years in the theater, and could

51:32

have made me a face of enormous beauty or

51:34

character, but this seemed pointless, even wasteful. There

51:37

was a silence, and I

51:39

realized her explanation was finished. Not

51:42

once has she stumbled. There

51:44

was either hurt or badness in

51:46

her inflection. There

51:49

was something. The

51:51

time I missed it, though it came to me

51:53

after, then I knew only

51:55

that she was far beyond my pity or

51:57

my anguish. on

52:00

even from my terror. "'And

52:03

now,' she said, rising gracefully,

52:05

"'I will leave you to eat your meal in

52:08

peace. Good night.' I wanted, or

52:11

rather I felt impelled, to

52:13

stay her with actions or

52:15

sentences, but I

52:17

wasn't capable of either. She

52:20

walked out of the green marble room and left me

52:23

there. It is the fact

52:25

that for a considerable space of time I

52:29

did not move. I

52:32

did not engage the swim back to the food that

52:34

night. I judged myself too

52:36

drunk and slept on the beach at the edge of

52:39

the trees. Where

52:41

at sunrise the tidal water woke me with

52:43

a strange, low hissing. Green

52:46

sea, green sunlight through

52:48

leaves. I

52:50

swam away and found my course through the warming water

52:53

and fetched up, exhausted

52:55

and swearing, bruising myself on

52:57

Dafu's fangs that had not harmed me when

52:59

I left her. I

53:02

did not see Pitos anywhere about. That

53:04

evening I caught the boat which would take me to

53:06

the mainland. There

53:09

is a curious thing which can happen with

53:11

human beings. It

53:14

is the ability to perform for days

53:16

or weeks like balance and

53:19

cheerful automata where

53:21

some substrata, something upon

53:23

which our codes or our hopes

53:26

had firmly rested, has

53:28

given way. Men

53:30

who have lost their wives or their god

53:33

are quite capable of behaving in this manner

53:35

for an indefinite season, after

53:38

which the collapses, brilliant

53:40

and total. Nothing

53:43

of this sort had happened to me. Yet

53:45

to fathom what I had

53:47

lost, what she had

53:49

deprived me of, is hard to say. I

53:53

found its symptoms, but not the sickness which

53:55

it was. Medusa—I

53:58

must call her that—she had no idea. other name I

54:00

know, struck by the

54:03

extraordinary arrow of her misfortune, condemned

54:06

to her relentless, uncanny,

54:09

horrible isolation, her

54:11

tragedy most deeply rooted in the fact

54:13

that she was not a myth, not

54:16

a fabulous and glamorous monster. For

54:20

it came to be one night in a bar in Corinth

54:23

to consider if the first Medusa

54:25

might have been also such a victim, felled

54:28

by some awesome fit, not

54:31

petrifying but petrified, so

54:34

appalling to the eyes and, more

54:36

significantly, to the brooding aesthetic

54:39

spirit that lives in man that

54:41

she too was shunned and

54:43

hated and slain by a murderer

54:46

who would observe her only in a polished

54:48

surface. I

54:51

spent some while in bars that summer, and

54:55

later, much later,

54:57

in the cold climate of the years

54:59

and closed the prospect of travel and adventure,

55:03

I became afraid for myself, that

55:06

dreadful writer's fear which

55:08

has to do with the death of the idea, with

55:11

the inertia of hand and heart and

55:14

mind. Like

55:16

one of the broken leaves, the

55:18

summer's withered plants, I

55:20

had dried. My block

55:23

was sheer. I

55:25

had expected a multitude of pages from the island,

55:28

but instead I saw those unborn

55:30

pages die on the horizon,

55:32

with a beach met the sea, and

55:34

this, merely a record

55:37

of marble, water, the

55:40

plastic shell strapped across a woman's face.

55:43

This is the last thing, it seems, which

55:46

I shall commit to paper. Why?

55:49

Perhaps only because she was to me such

55:52

a lesson in the futility of things, the

55:55

waiting fist of chance, the

55:58

random despair we name the world. And

56:02

yet, now and then, I

56:05

hear that voice of hers. I

56:08

hear the way she spoke to me. I

56:11

know now what I heard in

56:13

her voice, which was neither

56:15

pain nor shame in it nor

56:18

pleading nor whining nor

56:21

even a hint of the tragedy, the

56:23

Greek tragedy of her life. And

56:26

what I heard was not dignity either, her acceptance

56:30

or nobleness. It

56:32

was contempt. She

56:35

despised me. She

56:38

despised all of us, who live

56:40

without her odds, who struggle with

56:42

our small struggles, incomparable

56:44

hers. Your Greek is

56:47

very good, she said to

56:49

me, with the patronage of one

56:51

who is multilingual. And in that

56:53

same disdain, she says over and

56:55

over to me, that you live

56:57

is very good, compared to

56:59

her life, her existence,

57:02

her multilingual endurance. What

57:05

are my life or my ambitions worth

57:08

or anything? It did not

57:10

occur immediately, but still it

57:12

occurred. In its way,

57:14

the myth is perfectly accurate. I

57:18

see it in myself, scent

57:20

it, taste it like

57:22

the onscent of an escapable disease. What

57:26

they say about the Gorgon is true. She

57:29

has turned me to stone.

57:37

After that reading, I completely

57:39

understand why Tanis Lees the

57:41

Gorgon won the 1983 World Fantasy

57:44

Award for short fiction. I'm

57:47

left with a delicious sense of

57:49

veils removed and the horror, the

57:51

random nature of horror in the

57:53

world exposed alongside the

57:56

horror experienced secondhand to

57:58

our protagonist of being.

58:00

forced to face one's

58:02

own unexamined and unacknowledged

58:04

inadequacies. And

58:07

then there's the way that Tanith

58:09

Lee managed to present the powerful

58:11

nature of the Gorgon, who

58:14

in the end wasn't a tragic figure,

58:17

despite the tragedy that she

58:19

experienced. Tanith

58:22

Lee didn't really discuss her own work in

58:24

any detail. Instead, she

58:27

lets her stories speak for themselves,

58:29

which they most definitely do, with

58:32

great power. Tanith

58:34

Lee's creative voice, the beauty of

58:36

her prose, the world she created,

58:38

and the lens she applied to

58:40

those worlds, are what made her

58:42

unique. In the late

58:44

70s, 80s, and 90s, when it was

58:47

not readily accepted in the mainstream, Tanith

58:50

Lee included gender fluid and queer characters

58:52

as a normal part of her world,

58:55

both as secondary characters and

58:57

protagonists. She wrote

58:59

female-forward and feminist stories that directly

59:02

interrogated such worn-out concepts as the

59:04

knight in shining armor and the

59:06

woman as victim. In

59:09

fact, among Tanith Lee's many accomplishments,

59:12

along with Angela Carter, she

59:15

spawned the modern subgenre of

59:17

feminist fairy tale retellings. Storyteller,

59:20

a Tanith Lee tribute anthology, was

59:22

an idea I first considered a

59:24

couple of years ago, when

59:27

I realized the 10th anniversary of Tanith

59:29

Lee's passing was coming up in 2025,

59:33

and that her contributions, her

59:36

deep legacy to genre, was largely

59:38

unseen by those not directly influenced

59:40

by her, though we

59:42

are legion. For

59:44

both the authors and editors involved

59:46

in this tribute anthology, she is

59:49

foundational to our creative approaches to

59:51

fiction. The

59:53

authors already associated with Storyteller

59:55

include Martha Wells, Nisi

59:57

Shawl, Theodora Goss, Harry

1:00:00

Windling, Elia Dawn Johnson,

1:00:03

C.S.I. Cooney, Maya Dean

1:00:05

and Andy Duncan, with

1:00:07

Corinna Bissette and Craig Lawrence Gidney

1:00:09

as my two co-editors. We're

1:00:12

currently running a Kickstarter for Storyteller that

1:00:15

closes, as I mentioned before, at the

1:00:17

end of May, and

1:00:19

we'll be running two open submission calls

1:00:21

in July. Though

1:00:24

the Kickstarter quickly funded, it still remains

1:00:26

short of the stretch goals that would

1:00:28

allow me to throw open the slush

1:00:31

pile as wide as I'd like. My

1:00:34

ultimate goal for Storyteller is that

1:00:36

it embraces all the faces of

1:00:39

Tana's Lee and the genres and

1:00:41

sub-genres she impacted. I

1:00:43

have a huge amount of faith that we're going to end

1:00:46

up with a feast of a book, overflowing

1:00:48

with passionate and passionately talented

1:00:50

writing. Drop by our

1:00:53

Kickstarter and check out what we're up to.

1:00:56

Backers are always welcome. Sudapod

1:01:00

is part of Escape

1:01:02

Artists Incorporated and is

1:01:04

distributed under a Creative

1:01:06

Commons attribution non-commercial, no

1:01:09

derivatives 4.0 international license.

1:01:12

Theme music is by permission of Anders

1:01:15

Manga. Sudapod

1:01:17

knows either it

1:01:19

is in your nature to survive, somehow,

1:01:23

anyhow. Or it

1:01:26

is not. An

1:01:31

arm appeared from nowhere on

1:01:33

the shape, seemingly projected like

1:01:35

the pseudopod of a protozoan.

1:01:38

It's a pseudopod, it's a bigfoot. It's

1:01:41

all about podcasts, he says.