Customer Reviews

Etidorhpa or The End of the Earth

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

John Uri Lloyd, a famous pharmacognocist (student of plant drugs and their properties) and pharmaceutical manufacturer in Cincinnati, wrote books while his cauldrons bubbled, and very interesting books they are in many ways, though the writing is not always of the quality that readers of today's novels have grown to expect. What seized the imagination of the public then, as now, is the quality of the ideas in the book: Lloyd dares to question the received scientific orthodoxy of his day. Many of the ideas he questioned are today considered outmoded. Some of the ideas he advanced are now accepted, but beyond that is something he is trying to say about science itself: Can science rest on dogmatic assumptions, or must it remain a free inquiry, and his work is a brilliant affirmation of the latter.

Though this book has been read by many as a straight fantasy, the purpose is, as the author stated many times, a serious one:
Lloyd wrote in a letter about the book dated 1895: "Some of us come into the world to teach, we cannot evade our destiny. Whether we teach from our own selves or from others, is of no moment, the important point is whether we teach properly. Will the result of our instruction tend to elevate the thought of others and thus lead to truth and self humility, to love and charity? Etidorhpa is not an idle creation. The mission of this book is unseen by most of its readers. The thought current will be felt though by every reader and it pains me to appreciate the fact that to some the beauties of the work will serve but to deepen their hatred of conceptions holy and sublime."

I have seen the MS of the book in the Lloyd Library, which he founded and endowed, and it is better than the book itself. Lloyd, who edited the MS, with the help of a few friends, and published it privately, kept adding and moving things about, till it is rather confusing to read; but this should not deter anyone who wants to learn from it. The book itself is better than the sum of its parts. It stands as a solid creation in the mind long after one has forgotten that the style is not quite good, that the execution is less than brilliant, that the plot seems often lost, and that the two interleaved MSS were not always well meshed.

Original first editions (and even copies of the twelve editions it went through in the half-dozen years after its first publication) are exceedingly rare. I have yet to see a copy Lloyd didn't sign. Anyone interested in the early history of the genre now called "science fiction" will recognize that this is the classic that pioneered the field. If you want to know more about Lloyd the man, and his works, go to google.com and type: John Uri Lloyd "The World is My University". You may find yourself wanting to know more about the studious little man who could write a book with the title "Aphrodite" in reverse.

In 1993 the Albright Knox Museum in Buffalo, NY held an exhibit of the works of the late San Francisco-based painter and collage artist Jess, among whose works was a rendering of a passage from Etidorhpa. Eleven years later I was inspired to read this book - and what a find it was!

Etidorhpa is a work of pharmacological and geological fantasy which progresses through a series of Masonic-style initiations into the mysteries of the earth, the mind and the inner soul of humanity. At times it is reminiscent of Dante's "Divine Comedy" with a slimy, sightless subterranean serving Virgil's role as cicerone and Etidorhpa herself as the Beatrice of the narrator's journey. By turns it evokes Homer's "Odyssey," DeQuincey's "Confession of an English Opium Eater," Coleridge, Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and of course, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Thru the Looking Glass. If you read this, you might find Ted Nugent and the Amboy Duke's "Journey to the Center of Mind" an appropriate musical accompaniment.

On a personal note, my coming to the book was something of a journey as well. Though I first became aware of the book in Buffalo and read it eleven years later in San Francisco, the action takes place in Cincinnati, the narrator's address and the scene of most of his mysterious interview taking place in 1895 somewhere in the downtown area of W. 8th Street and Western Avenue near St. Peter-in-Chains Cathedral (which is mentioned in the book). Some 90 years after the tale here narrated, I walked these streets daily for three years on my way to work. Bits of reality (the Cathedral) were thus mixed with historical imagination (trying to imagine that neighborhood 90 years before) as well as pure fantasy. As a result for me the story became both more real and more fantastic.

I am not exactly sure of all the lessons Lloyd sought to teach here. The story hints at several deeper truths. Near the surface is a lesson on the psychology of chemical addiction. At a similar depth there are warnings on the dangers of both extreme science and fanatical religion - making the book relevant to today's concerns with both stem cell research and jihad. More precisely, since the action in the book takes place in 1895, and the narrator is told to put the manuscript in a vault for 30 years (to 1925), I have to wonder if Lloyd did not see that science was headed for Nazi-style human experimentation as seen in the death camps. The author repeatedly and strongly warns of the dangers of unbridled science and to me, this would be the scenario we was concerned to warn against.

Excised from the MS:
"O, Science, what crimes are committed in thy name!" -- Gilbert Highet

There is a lot here: Good story, mystery, intrigue, bizarre initiations, the hint of secret knowledge, instructions on how to see your own brain tissue, in-depth discussions on matter, gravity, fluid dynamics, caves, fungi, drugs, medicinal plants, the possibility of human immortality, the potential of post-human evolution, life, love, the deepest secrets of the heart and the rather ambiguous and multi-dimensional "end of the earth" -

It's all here. But it will take many readings to mine all the ore.

This book must be considered as the ultimate anathema to the "science-myth" debunker crowd. Written by a man of science as well as imagination, it tells the story of what really happened to a historical figure - a man named Captain William Morgan, who was "apparently" murdered by freemasons in 1826. This act itself sparked a noteworthy social movement. It was the author's intent that this book would spark a different kind of movement - away from blind faith in orthodoxy and a rekindling of thirst for pure knowledge and discovery. Sadly, that has not happened as yet. Witness the iron grip of secrecy surrounding government research projects in general and the facts about UFOs in particular. Forced ignorance of the population at large is the order of the day. But if you can put aside your prejudices, read this book in one sitting, and reflect on the changes it has made in you. Consider the challenge it poses to the materialist view of reality, and the cohesive theory of its own it presents, by implication. Mere fantasy? Think again. Also read "Moongate" by William Brian, and reconsider the finality of current theories on the morphology of the Earth and the planets. You will be at once surprised, amazed, piqued and outraged, but not in the way you thought you would be. Highly recommended reading from one of the most gifted minds in scientific American history.

From beginning to end one is caught up in the storyline of this book. Mind boggling concepts become crystal clear and images dance in one's head as one delves deeper and deeper into this alternate reality; a reality alive and vibrant right under our feet, so to speak. This book seems way ahead of its time having been written in 1895.

I assigned this book 4 stars to reward it for its outre, transgressive subject matter, all too rare in this world of orthodox thinking. That said, I found it a laborious read and possessing a bit too much of a religious overtone for my taste. For a rather more pleasurable trip down a similar rabbit hole I recommend Vril: The Coming Race.

This is a masonically influenced spiritual allegory couched in the language of the most erroneous material science I've ever read. I don't know what to make of it. The journey obviously alludes to the three degrees with surface earth being the first degree, inner earth the second degree, and the Unknown Country beyond the center of gravity being the third degree. But most of the story is the guide working to convince The-Man-Who-Did-It that the scientific consensus of his day is wrong concerning surface earth and its lack of correspondence to inner earth. Its description of scientific theory and observation is extremely detailed and includes experiments (apparently repeatable by the reader) that are provided to convince John Uri Lloyd that the scientific consensus of the day is indeed wrong. And both John Uri Lloyd and The-Man-Who-Did-It do a good job in making objections that the reader would like to make. In the end though, it seems quite apparent that the new science related to us is indeed quite wrong. The issue of gravity being a force shell located 700 miles below the earth, is wrong both in theory and fact. And John Uri Lloyd, like the reader, apparently remains unconvinced. So, there seems to be a lot of effort put toward breaking down skepticism; this effort is unsuccessful in its aim; and the author is aware of this fact.

And yet, as a spiritual allegory, the story has a certain resonance. There is both a baptism and a plunge into the Abyss. The journey of The-Man-Who-Did-It closely matches John St. John's description of the two Dark Nights of the Soul. There is an aesthetic satisfaction at the end of the book where the plot is wrapped up in an emotionally and intellectually convincing manner. One is left with the impression that the author knows at every step the impression that he is leaving on the reader and that he has gone through the trouble to create a very internally consistent mythology. All good writers of fiction do this. And yet this author skillfully uses layers of reporting (the inner earth guide, The-Man-Who-Did-It, and John Uri Lloyd) to entice the reader to buy into the objectivity of the reporting. This structure makes it almost impossible to enter an alternate reality. One's attention is constantly drawn to the fact that this is not an alternate reality, but a reality that is one and the same as that inhabited by the reader.

I feel that I will be thinking through this book for some time, though I'm skeptical of the dividends this effort will pay. If you watched Lost and were left with the desire to unravel its allegorical relevance to something or other. . . but after a while gave up and admitted that the whole thing was just a giant misdirect for apparently commercial purposes, you get a sense of what may be futility of coming to understand this book. I must say, however, that I don't think I will be able to give up on Etidorhpa any time soon. The author simply predicted my intellectual and emotional reactions throughout the book so well that I am at a loss to either find a meaning or write it off as a haphazard effort in spiritual allegory.

I'd love to get other's reactions and insights to this books.

" Etidorhpa " was written by John Uri Lloyd.He had some idealistic views of the way of the world.Though few would catch on to some of the opened minded visions of this world, all would be caught up in the reading.

This has to be one of the most unusual books that I've read. H.P Lovecraft, the Brilliant cosmic horror writer made reference to this book in his Selected Letters and Marginalia, noting that his visit to the endless caverns in Virgina made him think "above all else, of that strange old novel Etidorhpa once pass'd around our Kleicomolo circle". Anyway I think this book is great. Read it yourself and make up your own mind about it being a so called fictional book.

No one but fools and the inept would consider this work fiction, I have read the "original" version published in 1895, and have personaly researched the book to the extent of visiting the cavern entrance, verifying dates, places, and the the story told within the book over a 20 year period, and it is TRUE.

I loaned my copy of this book to my best college buddy 24 years ago and have never seen it since...it is absolutely a wonderful book in any genre...a must read...and if you see D*** D***** from Jacksonville Beach Florida, tell him I still want it back!