John Uri LloydReseñas

Oddly haunting book about a forced journey into the interior of the earth. Very long winded, 1/3 story to 2/3's lecture on science, metaphysics, dangers of alcoholism etc. Tough to dig through but interesting.

I read this as part of my project to read novels set in or near my hometown of Cincinnati; "Stringtown" is a fictionalized version of Florence, Kentucky, about 12 miles away from Cincinnati, and 26 miles from where I grew up. A few scenes are set in Cincinnati, as the protagonist goes to UC for chemistry classes. It's set shortly after the Civil War, and I gather was very popular in its day. (Lloyd wrote a further five novels about the denizens of Stringtown.)

It's also inexplicably boring. People just talk and talk about stuff that doesn't matter; there's no coherence to this thing, and when there is, half of it is in terrible black dialect, so it's virtually unreadable. I got bogged down in this book for months. Tons of side-stories that go nowhere, a main plot that borders on the incomprehensible, a romance you won't give two shits about. I regret slogging through to the end.

I had to give it 3 stars because this particular edition was missing a chapter and had the same chapter twice. As for the story itself it was great. Some of the dialogue had a Socratic element to it, and it kind of had a reverse "Cave Allegory" twist to it, rather than finding further light outside of the depths of the cave, the sought further light starting from the surface and descending deeper. This book was littered with Masonic symbolism which I obviously love. Would definitely read it again just to pick up on some of the allegorical symbolism that I likely missed.

Don't recall much of it...

Etidorhpa is the vishuddha chakra of the long nineteenth century: It is a maddeningly metatextual initiatory fantasy, Masonic-Rosicrucian psychopharmaceutical philosophy to make steampunks cry, a hollow earth odyssey with laboratory experiments you can try at home, a vision of the End from which all arises. And possibly a key to hidden treasure. Supplemented with the awesomeness of J. Augustus Knapp's illustrations.

"Science thought begins in the brain of man; science provings end all things with the end of the material brain of man. Beware of your own brain." --I Am the Man (191)

This venerable hollow earth novel with five or so madding narrative threads (Masons, anyone?) is not only the most bizzare fantasy I've ever read, the phantasmagorical illustrations all by themselves offer up a truly unique outlier slice of sense of wonder. The eyeless humanoid who is all eye, for example, Virgil and psychopomp of the main narrative, is one of the most fantastic entities ever conceived.