Author: Dr. Moses Blaine

Cited by

• Joyce Carol Oates (1)
  • IN: The Falls (2004) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The Falls at Niagara, comprising the American, the Bridal Veil and the enormous Horsehoe falls, exert upon a proportion of the human population, perhaps as many as forty percent (of adults), an uncanny effect called the hydracropsychic. This morbid condition has been known to render even the will of the active, robust man in the prime of life temporarily invalid, as if under the spell of a malevolent hypnotist. Such a one, drawn to the turbulent rapids above The Falls, may stand for long minutes staring as if paralyzed. Speak to him in the most forcible tone, he will not hear you. Touch him, or attempt to restrain him, he may off your hand angrily. The eyes of the enthralled victim are fixed and dilated. There may be a mysterious biological attraction to the thunderous force of nature represented by the The Falls, romantically misinterpreted as "magnificent" -- "grand" -- "Godly" -- and so the unfortunate victim throws himself to his doom if he is not prevented. We may speculate: Under the spell of The Falls the hapless individual both ceases to exist and yet wills to become immortal. A new birth, not unlike the Christian promise of the Resurrection of the Body, may be the cruellest hope. Silently the victim vows to The Falls -- "Tes, you have killed thousands of men and women but you can't kill me. Because I am me."
    FROM: A Niagara Falls Physician's Log 1879-1905, (1905), Log, US