THE DEEP ONES: "The Crystal Egg" by H. G. Wells

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THE DEEP ONES: "The Crystal Egg" by H. G. Wells

2semdetenebre
Modifié : Oct 12, 2022, 10:32 am

That opening paragraph, describing the front window contents of the "little and grimy shop near Seven Dials" is so compelling! Who wouldn't want to continue reading - or even better, to enter such a shop in person? Additionally, I liked the point where, after introducing us to Mr. Cave and the peculiar crystal egg, Wells very nimbly and with great alacrity moves the story ahead with "Now, without mincing the matter, we must admit that Mr. Cave was a liar. He knew perfectly well where the crystal was." No mincing, indeed!

As for the tale's influence on Borges, it's discernible, but the crystal egg proves to be part of a rather prosaic two-way surveillance system that's nowhere near the time-shredding, mind-expanding/mind-blowing conduit found in "The Aleph". The Martian creatures were still pretty interesting, anyway!

3paradoxosalpha
Modifié : Oct 12, 2022, 12:21 pm

The story is almost plot-free, affording just enough narrative to support the description of the enigmatic artifact and the glimpses of Mars that it supplies. The tensions in the Cave family serve only to create a background of verisimilitude and some comic relief.

4RandyStafford
Oct 12, 2022, 6:23 pm

Borges did seem to take the idea that a very specific viewing angle is necessary to see the wonders in the egg as opposed a more tv like device.

5AndreasJ
Oct 13, 2022, 4:24 am

I'm childishly pleased that I guessed the place viewed to be on Mars almost immediately, the two parallel lines of red cliffs suggesting a Martian canal.

Had Mr Cave been slightly smarter, he hadn't kept the egg in the shop once he'd discovered its properties, and avoided the familial drama.

From my 21C perspective, the story seems to balance on the border between sf and supernatural/weird, putting the trappings of the latter on what's at core the former, but Wells presumably wasn't consciously melding genres, there not being a recognized genre of "sf" in 1897.

6housefulofpaper
Oct 14, 2022, 8:57 pm

This is set in an area of London I know quite well. The Shaftesbury Avenue branch of Forbidden Planet is very close by. The area's very different from Wells' time, of course.

In addition to the observations already made, if the crystal eggs are, as Wells describes it, en rapport, does that suggest the communication between them is instantaneous? That feels closer to the mystical feel of "The Aleph" than some kind of two-way television communication.

The "clumsy bipeds" "dimly suggestive of apes" running from the "hopping, round headed" martians, with one caught before the picture shuts off, suggests danger to the (bipedal, more than apelike but actually an ape!) reader, as does the thought that the other crystal eggs on their masts could also be monitoring Earth. It's not articulated anywhere in the story but Wells must mean us to pick up on it. Presumably this story came from the same creative processes as The War of the Worlds.

7RandyStafford
Oct 15, 2022, 1:27 pm

>6 housefulofpaper: I agree. There is a suggestion that Earth is being monitored. If the egg is a piece of Martian technology, it must have been transported here though, I suppose, it could have blasted off Mars by some accident.