Imaginings: An Anthology of Visionary Literature 1: After the Myths Went Home

by Harlan Ellison, Stefan Rudnicki (Editor)

Imaginings inaugurates an ambitious three-book series featuring the best stories that explore key imaginative concepts in the genre and their later literary permutations. The theme in this initial entry is the power of mythology in human life through the centuries. Authors include Robert Silverberg, whose "After the Myths Went Home" shows the disastrous results of a visit by Greek gods and goddesses to a future society; Algernon Blackwood, with "The Touch of Pan," about an elitist who discovers an alternate world of total honesty; and many more. Period illustrations show the reader how previous generations saw their imaginary worlds of dream and future, and entertaining introductions offer context. Contributors include Euripides, John Crowley, Oskar Kokoschka, Oliver Onions, Robert W. Chambers, and others.

256 pages, paper

First published January 5, 2004

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.

His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imaginings: An Anthology of Visionary Literature, Volume 1: After the Myths Went Home, Stefan Rudnicki (ed.), Frog Ltd., 2004


First of a three-volume series, this book collects tales of imagination from the last couple of centuries. These are not specifically science fiction, or fantasy, or horror stories, but somewhere in the middle.

Robert Silverberg looks at a far-future human society that no longer believes in myths, so a great machine is built to bring to life mythical figures from throughout human history. Among those recreated were Adam and Eve, Odysseus, Shiva, Dionysus, Thor, St. George and St. Jude. It also recreated more modern figures who became mythical, like Galileo, Newton, Freud, Einstein and John Kennedy. After fifty years, humanity gets bored with them, so all of them are sent back into the machine. Then the invaders come and enslave humanity.

There is an excerpt from a longer piece written in 1895 by Robert W. Chambers. It explores 1930s New York City in a parallel reality, and is about the opening of the first public suicide chamber. A story from 1901 is about a man found insane and uncommunicative in an isolated area. Later, a diary is found that describes him abruptly quitting his job, living in the isolated area, becoming sick of all human contact, and convincing himself that he is a god. Elvis Presley returns to America from the Army to bear witness to a weird and jumbled timeline of death. There is a portion of a play from early 1900s German Expressionism. Included in this volume are tales by Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood and Guy de Maupassant.

This is what they mean when they talk about "great imaginative literature." These authors helped to create the fantasy and science fiction genres. There is something here for everyone, and it is highly recommended.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection of stories, though most of them were older stories, I think the most recent was from 1969 and was by Robert Silverberg, about a future society that had abandoned religion and mythology and lived in a utopian state, but, because of boredom, used a machine to call forth replications of the old gods and goddesse that humans had once believed in. The story made a really strong point about the necessity of believing in something other than oneself, and the comfort that mythology can bring. Some of the Other pieces were kind of nonsensical, I didn't see the point in I am Dionysus, an excerpt from a play that seemed to go nowhere, but Mystery Train was perhaps my favorite story – about a young Elvis who was forced to confront his future by powers that want to control him and tame his music. Another good story, 1 that I had read before, was called The Yellow Sign, which makes reference to The King in Yellow, and infamous play of which no copy supposedly survives. The King in yellow was supposed to drive anyone who read it hopelessly insane, leading to suicide and breakdowns among anyone who watched it performed or read it. Supposedly, it was banned in every country, back when it was written. Some of the other stories were just run-of-the-mill, but the few that were good lead me to give it a generous review of 4 stars

[Deborah Brannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can read my review of this anthology at Green Man Review: http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/bo....