SPOILERS
| Added | Tue, 28/11/2017 |
| Release date | 1913
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| Original title | The Horror of the Heights
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| Феномены | |
| References | Сборник "Перстень Тота". Артур Конан Дойл. Ад в небесах (рассказ, перевод Ю. Жуковой), стр. 62-78 1992г
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"The Horror of heights" (also found under the names "The Horror of the Heavens"; "Hell in Heaven (A story that includes the so-called Joyce-Armstrong diary)"; "Horror in Heaven"; "Monsters of the Sky-high Heights"; "Mountain Horror"; "Hell in Heaven (a story that includes the so-called Joyce-Armstrong diary)") is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published in 275 issue of The Strand Magazine in November 1913. For the first time in Russian, the story "The Horror of Heights" was published in the magazine "World of Adventures" in 1914.
At the very beginning of the work, Conan Doyle clarifies that he takes as a basis the manuscript of a certain pilot Joyce-Armstrong, found by farmer James Flynn in a field on the border of Kent and Sussex. Next, the narration is already on behalf of the pilot himself. He argues that the deaths of his colleagues were not accidental and had far from natural causes. He assumes that some monsters live at a high altitude in the sky. To prove his hypothesis, he sits on a monoplane, which allows him to gain a maximum height of 41,300 feet. There he observes several kinds of strange creatures. One of them attacks the pilot, but he shoots, the monster loses its balance, and the pilot lands safely. Later, he decides to take another flight to collect evidence. Conan Doyle further clarifies that several pages of the diary are missing, and at the end there is only an uneven entry: "43 thousand feet. I'll never see earth again. They are under me, and there are three of them. God help me. What a terrible death!"
This story was written at a time when aviation was just beginning, because only 10 years have passed since the first flight of the Wright Brothers (the first successful flight of the Flyer-1 aircraft was registered on December 17, 1903). Naturally, many writers began to build their fantastic hypotheses on the topic of what exactly awaits a person among the clouds.
The height of 30 thousand feet is now achieved without much difficulty, except for the cold and shortness of breath. But why am I the only one who knows about the terrible danger of great heights? This, however, is also easy to answer. An alien from other worlds could descend to our planet a thousand times without ever meeting a tiger. But tigers exist, and if this alien happened to descend into the jungle, the tigers could tear him to pieces. So did I— I happened to be the only one in the jungle of the atmosphere. Yes, there are jungles in the higher layers of the atmosphere, too, and they are inhabited by creatures worse than tigers. I believe that over time this jungle will be accurately mapped. Even now I can name two such districts: one of them lies above the territory of Po-Biarritz in France, the other is just above me as I write now at home in Wiltshire. I believe there is a third district — in the Hamburg-Wiesbaden region.
At the dawn of aviation, in 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle published the story "The Horror of Heights", in which he describes strange creatures living in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere. At that time, many writers published their fantastic hypotheses on the topic of what exactly awaits a person in a new, unexplored area - among the clouds. Over the years, despite technological progress and a lot of studies of airspace, this idea has not ceased to exist. For example, in the early eighties of the twentieth century, Luciano Boccone, Lorin Georgiou and Trevor J. Constable again suggested that there are some ethereal forms of life in the Earth's atmosphere – "energy formations with low density, usually invisible to the eye, which can take a variety of forms and have a field effect on real objects." J. Constable even proposed the term "critter" (from the English creature – creature, creature).
Phenomena in artwork: UFO
According to one contemporary hypotheses, the UFO is a living being, robbing in the atmosphere. This idea is entrenched in UFO literature since the early eighties of the twentieth century, when Luciano Boccone, Lorin, George and Trevor George. The constable suggested that in the Earth's atmosphere there are certain essential forms of life – "energy education with low-density, usually invisible to the eye, which can take a variety of forms and provide field impact on real objects". John. Constable even suggested that the term "critter" (from the English. creature – creature creature).
Kittery have a lot in common with the creatures from the story of Conan Doyle (and possibly the idea was born thanks to this story, at least modern researchers often point out this similarity).
Get back to work. Conan Doyle decided not to stick to one kind of creatures, and inhabited the upper atmosphere of a whole "jungle". Give the lines in which the author describes the strange creatures that live in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere.
"Atmospheric plankton":
The air in front of me had lost its crystal clearness. He was now full of long, ragged wisps of something which I can only compare to very fine cigarette smoke. They hung in curls and coils, turning and twisting slowly in the sunlight. When the monoplane swept through them, I felt on his lips a faint taste of oil, and the wooden parts of the plane appeared greasy residue. In the atmosphere there were some infinitely fine organic matter. They stretched for many acres, and they could not see the end. No, it was not life. But, maybe, organic food to sustain life any unknown giant creatures.
Gelatinous creatures:
Imagine a sea Medusa is bell-shaped, but giant size, than the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. She was a pale pink color, with thin light green streaks. Her vast body was so transparent, that against the background of blue sky it seemed somehow magical sketch. It pulsated with a delicate and regular rhythm. From it there depended two long, drooping green tentacles, which swayed slowly back and forth. It is a magical vision swam above my head silently and majestically, light and fragile as a soap bubble.
Snake-like creatures:
But soon my attention was drawn to other creatures like snakes. It was long and thin, fantastic coils and rings made of a substance resembling steam. They quickly jumped up and spun, flying with such speed that the eyes could hardly follow them. Some of these ghostly beings reached 20-30 feet in length, but it was difficult to determine their thickness: the contours were so vague that seemed to dissolve into the surrounding air. These air-snakes were of a very light grey or smoke colour, with some darker lines within, which gave the impression of a definite organism. One of the snakes flashed quite close to me, I felt the touch of something cold and sticky. But because of their "zero gravity" I could not imagine that I can threaten some sort of physical danger. The snake these were not denser foam from a broken wave.
Humanophobia creatures:
Descending from a great height, I rode something similar to the purple patch of a couple. "Piece" quickly increased in size as it approaches. Even though his body was transparent and gelatinous, it had a much more definite outline and solid consistence than anything of the creatures which I had seen before. It was more felt a certain physical body. Stood out two large round dark plate on the sides of his body (maybe it was the eyes) and solid white projection between them, curved and predatory, like a beak of a vulture.
The sight of this monster seemed terrible and menacing. Color it suddenly began to change constantly, ranging from a very pale mauve color to a sinister dark purple hue — this thick that it cast a shadow, flying between my monoplane and the sun. On the upper curve of his huge body, I noticed now three big ledge, like a huge bubble. Looking at them, I decided that they were filled with some extremely light gas which was maintained in the rarefied air of disgusting semi-solid body of a monster. This terrible creature moved quickly, effortlessly adhering to the speed of my plane.
[...]
I saw that he had evil intentions. This was evidenced by every purple flush of its hideous body. At me coldly and ruthlessly watched a huge ugly eyes.
I sent the plane down, trying to get away from the monster, but from his body fast as lightning, stretches a long tentacle like whip, fell on my car.
Interestingly, despite the obvious low density creatures, they can have impact on people (for example, to tear off the head), and they can be hurt by the gunshot.
According to the authors, the creatures are floating in the air through special bubbles filled with gas. If you deprive beings of one or several of these bubbles, it will lose balance. The author is right is pointing to, but it can be assumed that without these bubbles the creature falls to the ground.
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
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