THE DEEP ONES: "The Oath of Hul Jok" by Nictzin Dyalhis

"The Oath of Hul Jok" by Nictzin Dyalhis

Discussion begins May 11, 2022.

First published in the September 1928 issue of Weird Tales.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?86391

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

The Sapphire Goddess: The Fantasies of Nictzin Dyalhis

ONLINE VERSIONS

https://tinyurl.com/3r55xzav

ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS

No online audio versions found to date.

MISCELLANY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nictzin_Dyalhis
https://www.blackgate.com/2019/01/08/rescued-from-the-vaults-of-time-the-sapphir...
https://bearalley.blogspot.com/2011/10/nictzin-dyalhis.html
https://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2012/06/nictzin-dyalhis-1873-1942.html
https://tinyurl.com/yy3rwjko

Let's add palpable misogyny to the second helping of genocide, shall we?

The over-the-top heroic tone used by Dyalhis sort of reminds me of Kenneth Morris, although certainly without his moral sensitivity.

Not having read any non-Venhezian stories of his, I wonder to what extent the tone is the author's or the narrator's? Not that I feel a huge need to seek out more of Dyalhis' work.

I found myself wondering how long a Venhezian hour is. It's weirdly common for sf aliens to speak of "your earth minutes" and the like, less, I think, for them to speak of their own units that inexplicably share the names. (Sure, a Martian foot would be unsurprising enough, had there been Martians with feet. But the hour is a rather more arbitrary sort of unit.) And just who is the narrator addressing? Venhezians might be expected to assume that hours are Venhezian unless noted otherwise.

I caught the chronometric oddity too!

2> Genocide and torture. Still, I found this more interesting than the "Waning of the Green Star" -- mostly for its sheer bloodthirstyness.

Ah, yeah. The torture feature almost missed my notice, it's become so normalized in US entertainment media since the turn of the millenium. I was recently pleased to see it be more of an object of reprobation in House of Suns.

The opening couple of sentences gave me a chuckle, as they describe my experience of working from home for the last couple of years. I'll have to drop the "impatient expletives" if I'm ever back in the office.

What else can I say in this story's favour? The meal brought by Idarbal was a surprise and a pleasingly gruesome touch. For the rest, the misogyny, genocide and torture (as already noted) were off-putting, to say the least.

I'd like to be able to view this as so inept and over-the-top to have become its own brand of camp, but I think that would depend on being able to believe that it couldn't find an unironically appreciative audience today.

>7 housefulofpaper: Well, there is a Dyalhis megapack from Wildside Press and reprints from other publishers. I don't know if modern interest is purely historical or people still find entertainment with him. I'll also note that the Wildside Press package doesn't include this story though I would think Dyalhis' total output could have been included.

I'm not going to be rushing out to read more works by him.