Weird Horror: "The Sorcery Club" by Elliott O'Donnell
Book download page: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14317
This thing is nuts. I love it! It was written in 1912.
Three broke guys in San Francisco discover an old book describing the black magic of Atlantis. They decide they can use it to get rich and establish a commercial occult enterprise, the Sorcery Club.
Then it gets weird.
The book contains instructions for obtaining supernatural abilities. The men undergo occult tests and initiation rituals and encounter entities associated with the Atlantean magic
One manifestation is basically a monstrous gnarly supernatural tree with fruit that appears to laugh, an enormous white human-like tongue that shoots out of its trunk, and a huge eye staring through its branches.
So Atlantis + demons + occult instruction manual + supernatural powers + evil businessmen + grotesque entities + early-1900s San Francisco = AWESOME!
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Comments
Ooo how does the writing from 1912 compare to today’s? Might check this out haha
It's very different. The pulp writing from that period can be tough and stilted. They tend to really 'over write" with long sentences, and speak strange and overly formal compared to how we talk now.
Definitely hard for a lot of modern readers to like though. Also, definitely be wary of racism in some of the early works.
Unfortunately, Americans from that era were NOT very friendly or open-minded to immigrants (even worse than it is today). Especially asian-americans. It can be tough to read some of the horrible things and stereotypes. :(
Very cool! Feel free to crosspost this, or any posts about what you're reading, to /c/BookClub
Thank you! I definitely will.
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