Wifetheif
Experienced
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2012
- Posts
- 747
I like to pride myself on the fact that I do not read what anybody else does. This takes me to some strange areas. Right now I am reading a collection of Jules de Grandin and Arthur Towbridge stories by Seabury Quinn. Quinn was the most popular writer to appear in "Weird Tales" magazine in its heyday. Two investigators of the paranormal, de Grandin and Towbridge encountered cat people, were-gorillas, disembodied hands, and so forth. I was struck by a story called, "The Jest of Warburg Tantavul" that was first published in "Weird Tales" in 1935.
A warped old man raises a brother and sister to believe they are cousins and not siblings. The old man seems to encourage their marriage in his generous will, after his death, the oblivious couple weds and has a child. The ghost of the old man returns shortly thereafter to spill the beans to the bride who goes nuts, abandons her wedding ring and family and is discovered, months later, as a prostitute in nearby New York City.
Here is where it gets weird, or weirder after the bride is tracked down, de Grandin hypnotized her to forget everything about being her husband's sister and stashes her in a sanitarium to recover from her life as a hooker and then she goes back to her still oblivious husband for a happy ending!
Doctor Towbridge is appalled, "But great heavens man, they're brother and sister!" I exclaimed in horror.
"perfectly," he answered coolly, "They are also man and woman, husband and wife, and father and mother."
"But -- but -- " I stammered, utterly at a loss for words.
"But me no buts, good friend. I know what you say. They're child? Ah ha, did not the kings of ancient times repeatedly take their sisters to wife, and were not their children healthy? But certainly."
The French occult investigator then cites Darwin and Wallace and their respective views of evolution to allow the incestuous couple to continue on obliviously!
I knew that "Weird Tales" was quite often controversial. A story about necrophilia famously cost them thousands of subscribers. Even so, I was totally unprepared for a HEA ending that promoted the idea that incest is a harmless event rather than a major taboo. All the more remarkable for when it was written and the fact that the couple involved had a church wedding and were portrayed as more than just casual believers! Just when you think you have read it all!
A warped old man raises a brother and sister to believe they are cousins and not siblings. The old man seems to encourage their marriage in his generous will, after his death, the oblivious couple weds and has a child. The ghost of the old man returns shortly thereafter to spill the beans to the bride who goes nuts, abandons her wedding ring and family and is discovered, months later, as a prostitute in nearby New York City.
Here is where it gets weird, or weirder after the bride is tracked down, de Grandin hypnotized her to forget everything about being her husband's sister and stashes her in a sanitarium to recover from her life as a hooker and then she goes back to her still oblivious husband for a happy ending!
Doctor Towbridge is appalled, "But great heavens man, they're brother and sister!" I exclaimed in horror.
"perfectly," he answered coolly, "They are also man and woman, husband and wife, and father and mother."
"But -- but -- " I stammered, utterly at a loss for words.
"But me no buts, good friend. I know what you say. They're child? Ah ha, did not the kings of ancient times repeatedly take their sisters to wife, and were not their children healthy? But certainly."
The French occult investigator then cites Darwin and Wallace and their respective views of evolution to allow the incestuous couple to continue on obliviously!
I knew that "Weird Tales" was quite often controversial. A story about necrophilia famously cost them thousands of subscribers. Even so, I was totally unprepared for a HEA ending that promoted the idea that incest is a harmless event rather than a major taboo. All the more remarkable for when it was written and the fact that the couple involved had a church wedding and were portrayed as more than just casual believers! Just when you think you have read it all!
Royal incest provided 
