What is Magic?
The title of the text refers distinctly to magic, but the text itself is quite ambiguous on the terms of definition. In fact, one way of reducing the book to a single sentence is to describe it as an attempt to determine what is difference between magic and ignorance? For it seems determined to remind readers that the thrill of magic begins to disappear the moment it is explained:
Haddo’s explanation: “magic is no more than the art of employing consciously invisible means to produce visible effects. Will, love, and imagination are magic powers that everyone possesses; and whoever knows how to develop them to their fullest extent is a magician. Magic has but one dogma, namely, that the seen is the measure of the unseen.”
Dr. Porhoët’s explanation: “It may be described merely as the intelligent utilization of forces which are unknown, contemned, or misunderstood of the vulgar.”
I’ll Get You, My Pretty!
Haddo may be composed mostly of the real-life occultist Aleister Crowley, but he also has a little bit of Maleficent and the Wicked Witch of the West in his character makeup. Also strange and unnerving from the start, everything begins to go south once Haddo viciously kicks Margaret’s little dog in a fit of anger. The immediate thrashing he receives at the hand of Arthur as retribution hardly seems like more than just reward, but Haddo becomes as fixated upon it as Maleficent does at not being invited to a party. The transcendent pettiness of Maleficent teams up with the venomously vengeful nature of the Wicked Witch/Miss Gulch to effectively allow Haddo to go full-tilt Crowley in a chilling moment conveyed effectively through imagery:
“Haddo's eyes were fixed upon Margaret so intently that he did not see he was himself observed. His face, distorted by passion, was horrible to look upon. That vast mass of flesh had a malignancy that was inhuman, and it was terrible to see the satanic hatred which hideously deformed it. But it changed. The redness gave way to a ghastly pallor. The revengeful scowl disappeared; and a torpid smile spread over the features, a smile that was even more terrifying than the frown of malice.”
Hypnosis
Oliver Haddo is termed a magician in the title, but he is something distinctly more than David Copperfield on Ice. Magic in this sense is psychological, scientific, and more than a little psychotic. He is a mesmerist, capable of feats of hypnosis that, if were actually possible, would change life on earth as we know it. So, while not realistic, the imagery he is able to manipulate into the deep sleep of his victims are still terrifying:
“She heard shrill cries and peals of laughter and the terrifying rattle of men at the point of death. Haggard women, dishevelled and lewd, carried wine; and when they spilt it there were stains like the stains of blood. And it seemed to Margaret that a fire burned in her veins, and her soul fled from her body; but a new soul came in its place, and suddenly she knew all that was obscene. She took part in some festival of hideous lust, and the wickedness of the world was patent to her eyes. She saw things so vile that she screamed in terror, and she heard Oliver laugh in derision by her side. It was a scene of indescribable horror, and she put her hands to her eyes so that she might not see.”
The Island of Oliver Haddo
As it turns out, Oliver Haddo’s peculiarly modern form of magic is mere scientific knowledge masquerading as the unknown. The imagery which actually describes the full extent of Haddo’s experiments are an exercise in the grotesque that has no analogue in the canon of the author. It is proof enough that had he so desired, he could have carved out quite a nice little secondary niche for himself as a writer of horror. The example here is merely the introduction to the hall of terrors which follow:
“Arthur put his hand on her arm quickly to quiet her and bent down with irresistible curiosity. They saw that it was a mass of flesh unlike that of any human being; and it pulsated regularly. The movement was quite distinct, up and down, like the delicate heaving of a woman's breast when she is asleep. Arthur touched the thing with one finger and it shrank slightly.”
