Random Notes on "The Medusa"

[G. S. Carnivals]

202 as a prime number?

If a house has a basement and an upper level, the second staircase would technically be on the main floor. Under which staircase is the room?

"Dregler noted page two-hundred-and-two of The Second Staircase at his feet, and he could not help feeling a sardonic sympathy for the anonymous pair of eyes confronting an unexpected dead end in the narrative of that old mystery."

Dregler = (Dr.) Gleer? Joseph Gleer's status at the college is uncertain, but he travels a lot. Sabbatical? Doctorate?

"Dregler paid the driver, who expressed no gratitude whatever for the tip, and walked quickly through the drizzle toward a golden-bricked building with black numbers--two-oh-two--above a black door with a brass knob and knocker."

"Whether Gleer knew it or not, he was now one of them. And so was Dregler, though his saving virtue was an awareness of this disturbing fact. And this was part of his pain."

This gibberish is not written in stone.

[eldritch00]

Phil? Thanks for the reminder to reread this story! ops:

[Dr. Zirk]

Definitely one of TL's most interesting stories. I've read this one many times, and still wrestle with it.

I seem to remember that TL said somewhere (I forget exactly where) that this story was influenced by or otherwise related to the works of E. M. Cioran. Taken in that light, the story seems to take our protagonist on a path from philosophical conjecture to the physical realization of all that is implied by his ideas. Or something like that - lord knows I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals";p=&quot

202 as a prime number?

The 202 business is one thread I've haven't thought about too much - I'm afraid to follow that one too far...

[The Silent One]

Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Zirk";p=&quot

Definitely one of TL's most interesting stories. I've read this one many times, and still wrestle with it. I seem to remember that TL said somewhere (I forget exactly where) that this story was influenced by or otherwise related to the works of E. M. Cioran. Taken in that light, the story seems to take our protagonist on a path from philosophical conjecture to the physical realization of all that is implied by his ideas. Or something like that - lord knows I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals";p=&quot 202 as a prime number? The 202 business is one thread I've haven't thought about too much - I'm afraid to follow that one too far...

Yes, the quote is "...'The Medusa' is my E.M. Cioran story..."
I'd agree. And, no, sir, no one here is stupid, just estranged with their own brains :wink:.

[G. S. Carnivals]

It is foregone
That I will gaze
Into the eyes
Of the Gorgon

[Spotbowserfido2]

Ah, I see it now, clearly. The terrible thing happens because the mirror is flawed...

[Jezetha]

I read 'The Medusa' yesterday - fascinating story.

I hadn't realized Dr. Gleer could be an anagram of Dregler. But if so the name 'Benjamin Brothers', name of the owner of the bookstore, gets an added resonance. Gleer and Dregler as each other's Doppelganger, B. Brothers (the name!) functioning as a mediator = a mirror.

The idea is reinforced by something else - when Dregler enters the premises of the bar in the beginning, after his eyes have accomodated to the darkness the first thing he sees is: a beaming forehead with the glitter of wire-rimmed eyeglasses below. You could be mistaken for thinking this would be the man he has an appointment with, i.e. Dr. Gleer. But it isn't. Who it was, becomes clear later on. When Dregler visits the 'little shop' of B. Brothers one day later, how is the proprietor described? A small and flabby man with wire-rimmed eyeglasses. And Ligotti writes, misleadingly: Dregler nodded, vaguely recognizing the little man from a previous visit to his store some years ago... Which is patently not true.

Brothers is a mirroring surface in which a human substance is broken into Dr. Gleer and Dregler. And those wire-rimmed glasses are connected, I think, to the flawed mirror.

[bendk]

"Medusa" was included in the recent anthology The Mammoth Book of Monsters edited by Stephen Jones and published by Carroll & Graf in 2007. In the introduction to this story Ligotti states: "The Medusa had two inspirations: Arthur Machen's legend-based horror tales, with their sinister glamour and doomed protagonists, and the pessimistic philosophical writings of E.M. Cioran."

[graywyvern]

You know, i did think of Cioran when i read this story; i'm looking forward to finding more in The Conspiracy Against the Human Race... Susan Sontag, of course, introduced this philosopher to the English-speaking world in Styles of Radical Will (1969), & i want to reread this essay first but the point that i would make now, is that the narrator is ironic & not exemplary... This is, in its way, a cautionary tale.

[sundog]

Quote Originally Posted by bendk

"Medusa" was included in the recent anthology The Mammoth Book of Monsters edited by Stephen Jones and published by Carroll & Graf in 2007. In the introduction to this story Ligotti states: "The Medusa had two inspirations: Arthur Machen's legend-based horror tales, with their sinister glamour and doomed protagonists, and the pessimistic philosophical writings of E.M. Cioran."

What else does Ligotti say in that introduction? Does he drop any hints as to the interpretation of the story? I'm quite confounded by it. Any help would be much appreciated.