TWILIGHT ZONE
Whedon, Julia
Twilight Zone Sylva, by Vercours. Putnam. 256 pp. ?4. Reviewed by Julia Wheel on Fables provide very particular pleasures for the reader. The most noteworthy, and instantly satisfying, is that...
...Gradually it is revealed that life has overpowered Dorothy and, as she succumbs in a wild, carnal, narcotic stupor (becoming herself an animal), we witness a breathtaking, climactic exhibition of life on the ascent and descent...
...Sylva (a fox turned human) is a bewitching love story...
...The most noteworthy, and instantly satisfying, is that of accepting—outright—the incredible as credible...
...No matter, it is an extraordinary story expertly told...
...Were this the case, we might be spared the pulsating introspections and breathy poeticisms which are dispensed so readily in modern fiction...
...First he pities her as a wild creature, grows fond of her as a pet, slowly succumbs to her as a beautiful creature-woman, and ultimately his obsession leads him to try to civilize her completely...
...Depending upon which values you assign to what, the climax of the story is either tragic or hopeful...
...Naturally, he would never have written a fable had he not detected some kinship between man and animal, but he speaks to the point with almost Darwinian detachment...
...As the lines intersect, Vercours creates, in prose, something like that mathematical twilight zone around zero, where minuses become pluses, and pluses minuses...
...The fabler has no use for such devious tactics...
...The suspension of disbelief is immediate, so there is no laboring over the fiction to make it real—no sleight of hand, no coercion...
...All of this is told in the first person—that of a country gentleman who comes upon Sylva as she changes from a fox to a human...
...A fable's credibility rests with the organic nature of that story, the way it is animated, and its applicability to the human condition...
...In describing Sylva's development he also illuminates the chronology of man's own physical, psychic, and philosophical evolution...
...that we tend to see more of ourselves in the unreality of dreams than we do in reality...
...The mother, finding her child shattered by a nightmare, knows this, as does the analyst who attempts to intervene between the neurotic and his fantasy...
...The fabler is free to get right down to the business of writing— telling a good story...
...One might wish that such a formula were less the arcane property of fables and more a requisite for fiction in general...
...Vercours, with his cartwheeling imagination and skill, has taken full advantage of the fable...
...The fabler proves what we often suspect—that credibility is not necessarily elicited or served by a flawless inventory of chaotic realisms...
...As a descant, or counter theme, is the story of Dorothy—his other love...
...Because Vercours is direct, and not sentimental, he never founders in anthropomorphism and atavism...
...It is also the story of a metamorphosis from animality to humanity...
...In a sense, the fabler exploits what Freud explored—that there is candor in dreams...
...On the contrary, he relies on a simple literal rendering and understanding of his message...
...The reader is never subjected to excessive nostalgic reveries about our animal beginnings, or rhapsodies about the matchless dignity and intelligence of the animal kingdom...
...Stripped of tricks and ploys, it is the sheer force, applicability, and salience of intent than carries the fiction...
Vol. 26 • March 1962 • No. 3
