影片第十三。等一下!Hold on! 其實Francis Stevens 是假名!作家真的叫Gertrude Barrows Bennet喔!

Bennet班內特 (1884出生)選「Francis Stevens」這個名字,因為她知道那時候的幻想的出版公司不會理女作家。其實很多女作家一開始是這樣,譬如說夏綠蒂·布隆特第一次出版的時候,她用「Currer Bell」這個假名放在他書封面上。而,班內特還會覺得,讀者一位女生不太會適合寫的東西,所以她也有可能怕讀者一位看「Gertrude」這個女生的名字,然後看封面,還有讀內容,會嚇一跳,因為班內特都寫的Dark Fantasy「黑暗幻想」。其實,班內特是被認為「The Mother of Dark Fantasy」。
很多被Francis Stevens影響的奇怪文學作家,如H.P. Lovecraft和A. Meritt,他們還不知道Stevens其實是班內特。終於到1952,有人研究到Francis Stevens真人是誰。

把Stevens的《The Heads of Cerberus》再出版,Lloyd Arthur Eshbach寫的接受Francis Stevens到底是誰,i.e., Gertrude Barrows Bennet,班內特。
《無視,無懼》
那,這個故事開始有一位男生跟我們偵探的敘述者討論一個自殺案件。男生介紹什麼發生過。他說事情再發生的時候,他有可能產生幻覺一點,不知道他會不會記得很清楚,但他還認真使描述:
那個男生去一個人應該不去的地: Philadelphia! 費城。哇賽,認真的應該不去了啦。而,他去費城的很可怕的區。那裡有很多蠻可怕有可能是蠻暴力的衝動的人,但也有一些奇奇怪怪的店,一些有魔法的店。那個男生突然被一個阿公,「欸,beh-ki-toh? li-lai li-lai」這樣叫來。那個男生乖的跟著阿公,下樓梯,進入阿公的地下室。喔no。。各位,社會跟著不認識的阿公下樓梯進入地下室啊?!我們都是看過恐怖片是吧!我的媽呀。。

但他們到了後會發現阿公就是瘋狂科學家,所以應該還好吧。科學阿公開始接受他的最新的實驗。科學阿公給乖男生看他的玻璃,超多玻璃,他有很多很多不同顏色的鏡片和鏡子,都是一起合作為了讓人類看人類否則看不到的東西。乖男生很合理的問,「會看到什麼?」科公回答說:
“I won’t tell you what I saw! Why should I? Your own eyes shall bear witness. But this much I’ll say, so that you may better understand – later. When our poor, faultily sensitive vision can perceive a thing, we say that it is visible. When the nerves of touch can feel it, we say that it is tangible. Yet I tell you there are beings intangible to our physical sense."
然後,他給乖乖看:
“My eyes fixed themselves, fascinated, on something that moved by the old man’s feet. It writhed there on the floor like a huge, repulsive starfish, an immense, armed, legged thing, that twisted convulsively. It was smooth, as if made of rubber, was whitish-green in color; and presently raised its great round blob of a body on tottering tentacles, crept toward my host and writhed upward – yes, climbed up his legs, his body. And he stood there, erect, arms folded, and stared sternly down at the thing which climbed.”

直接看到很多很卡帕的怪獸。而怪獸都是已經在這裡,但因為他們可能是住在不一樣的維度。然後科公接受他的理論。他覺得這個東西都是人的惡思緒,惡夢,等等:
“Man has made these! By his evil thoughts, by his selfish panics, by his lusts and his interminable, never-ending hate he has made them, and they are everywhere!”
科公覺得知道人類到底一直自動得自然得創造那麼多又罪惡又噁心的東西。他受不了,然後決定吃毒為了自殺:
“One good thing I could do, if one only. I could abolish my monster-creating self.”
乖乖要救他,但突然:
“And as he said it I perceived a great Thing coming toward me – a Thing – but consciousness could endure no more. The ringing, threatening voice merged in a roar within my ears, there came a merciful dimming of the terrible, lurid vision, and blank nothingness succeeded upon horror too great for bearing.”
男生型起來的時候直接報警,然後故事開始。對Lovecraft的影響應該是很容易看得去來吧。


















