2025 Reading Challenge 05 The Human Chord
Not The Human Torch, as my wife called it, this is a blast from the past, 1910. Written by Algernon Blackwood, he of The Wendigo.
This book has been a struggle, in the main due to the archaic prose and the dealing with fairly abstract concepts. I got it as part of a subscription to the British Library Tales of the Weird, so plenty more oddities on the shelf to check out.
It helped that I got access to this BBC dramatization which explained some of the more obtuse sections.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW
So what is it about? Essentially a mad vicar tries to inherit the powers of God by invoking his name in just the right tone and pronunciation to excite and merge with his atoms (I’m putting this in layman’s terms)! He enlists Spinny and Miriam, along with his deaf, withered housekeeper, a victim of his previous experiments, to join in the “Chord”.
The young helpers fall in love and scarper, leaving the vicar and the housekeeper to perish in a divine fire, a consequence of getting god’s name wrong or possibly singing wildly out of tune.
Once I’d got into the writing and started to translate the different themes, it was interesting, if not overwhelmingly enjoyable. Still some thought-provoking ideas on the nature of the spirit and creation. I may move on to The Wendigo, whilst I still have the ability to translate and assimilate his style.
I rated it 6.5 out of 10.
TTRPG Thoughts:
Some great ideas around the nature of “magic” and the dangers with getting it wrong. The need to research and discover and then harness the spirits of creatures from other dimensions.
Particularly the ever-growing creation of a wax-lined receptacle, or room that needs to have the spirit then manifest itself. The donning of various coloured garments to protect the magician and his servants.
I can quite see an Ars Magica scenario based around this; learning Hebrew, finding out how to pronounce the word of the spirit, opening up the inner voice, much practice and close calls/battles with the spirit.
But much of the scenario could focus on finding and convincing each participant to take part and form the chord from their individual notes.
Skale (the vicar) is a great character, obsessive, cold, and fearsome in appearance and would make a fantastic villainous NPC, if he hadn’t been burnt to a crisp.