The Supernatural in Modern English FictionScarborough, Dorothy
History
The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction
Scarborough, Dorothy
English fiction -- History and criticism; Supernatural in literature
One reason why these motifs of science are not used in drama to any
extent is that they are impossible of representation on the stage.
Even the wizardry of modern producers would be unable to show a Power
of Physics, or Nitrous Acid, save as they might be embodied, as were
the symbolic characters in Maeterlinck's _Blue Bird_, which would mean
that they would lose their effect. And what would a stage manager do
with the rhythm of the universe, which enters into Dreiser's play? Many
sounds can be managed off stage, but hardly that, one fancies. These
themes are not even found in closet drama, where many other elements of
supernaturalism which would be difficult or impossible of presentation
on the stage trail off. William Sharp's _Vistas_, for instance, could
not be shown on the stage, yet the little plays in that volume are
of wonderful dramatic power. The drama can stand a good deal of
supernaturalism of various kinds, from the visible ghosts and devils
of the Elizabethans to the atmospheric supernaturalism of Maeterlinck,
but it could scarcely support the presentations of chemicals and gases
and supernatural botany and biology that fiction handles with ease. The
miraculous machinery would balk at stage action. Fancy the Time Machine
staged, for instance!
We notice in these scientific stories a widening of the sphere of
supernatural fiction. It is extended to include more of the normal
interests and activities of man than has formerly been the case. Here
we notice a spirit similar to that of the leveling influence seen
in the case of the ghosts, devils, witches, angels, and so forth,
who have been made more human not only in appearance but in emotions
and activities as well. Likewise these scientific elements have been
elevated to the human. Supernatural as well as human attributes have
been extended to material things, as animals are given supernormal
powers in a sense different from and yet similar to those possessed by
the enchanted animals in folk-lore. Science has its physical as well as
psychic horrors which the scientific ghostly tales bring in.
Not only are animals gifted with supernatural powers but plants as
well are humanized, diabolized. We have strange murderous trees,
vampire orchids, flowers that slay men in secret ways with all the
smiling loveliness of a treacherous woman. The dæmonics of modern
botany form an interesting phase of ghostly fiction and give a new
thrill to supernaturalism. Inanimate, concrete things are endowed with
unearthly cunning and strength, as well as animals and plants. The new
type of fiction gives to chemicals and gases a hellish intelligence, a
diabolic force of minds. It creates machinery and gives it an excess
of force, a supernatural, more than human cunning, sometimes helpful,
sometimes dæmonic. Machines have been spiritualized and some engines
are philanthropic while some are like damned souls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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