The Mask of Circe (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Henry Kuttner
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—mythological
- Time of Work: Similar to ancient Greece but contemporaneous with 1940’s Earth
- Setting: Primarily a parallel world
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: Memory, Mythology or myths, 1940’s, Gods or goddesses, Greek or Roman times, Reincarnation, Parallel universes or alternate dimensions
- Locales: Earth, alternate versions of
The Plot
This story is told, in the ancient tradition, by Jay Seward to a man named Talbot over a campfire in the Canadian woods near the seashore. Three years before, Seward was working on a new method for using drugs to treat psychiatric patients by revealing repressed memories of past crises. He uses the method on himself and unearths latent memories he has inherited from an ancient ancestor—Jason, commander of the Argo in Greek mythology.
The memories haunt Seward. Sometimes he hears a voice calling to Jason. He tries to break the spell by going into the...
[The entire page is 1075 words long]
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