Note: I begin by summarizing the story, and then fully discuss the plot and all its’ twists. I highly recommend going and reading the featured story first. If it is available for free online, I will link to it in the story title below. Otherwise, continue reading only if you don’t mind spoilers! ~ LL

THE DYING ART by Glen Damien Campbell

“This is a confession, a confession of an evil that I, William Green, committed over forty years ago and which cost the life of my friend…”

William’s friend is Thomas Crawford, a magician and hypnotist, a stage-performer who rises to fame, known for his terrifying stunts and extreme good looks. Tom and William both fell in love with the same woman—Olivia—but the charismatic, handsome Tom won her over easily.

After years of working together, Tom is bored. He complains one night that the audience isn’t afraid anymore, that they’ve grown comfortable. His own show is no longer amusing to him, and he’s self-aware enough to know he’s in this business for personal thrills, much more than for wealth or fame. It’s for that same reason he keeps several mistresses, despite being married to a beautiful woman. William responds casually, advising Tom to “give them something new”.

Unknown to him, Tom has already planned a gimmick, which will surpass all his prior feats. He doesn’t clue William in on the secret, only explaining that he needs the journal of a famous magician who died when they were children, someone who Tom has always revered. Reluctantly, William accompanies Tom to the graveyard in the middle of the night. They dig the old magician up and take the small box which was buried with him, a box which Tom is certain holds a journal of the magicians’ most secret tricks.

After that night, William never sees Tom again. The next day, his friend is dead. William helps bury his friend and comfort his widow. Over the course of the funeral preparations, he grows close to his old flame, Olivia, and feels rather pleased with this turn of events.

Four days after Tom’s death, William discovers a letter his friend had left on his bureau in a pile of mail. Incredulous that he could have missed this, William reads his friend’s last word to him. It details Tom’s last and most mischievous trick.

Inside the box was not only the journal but also a phial of something which causes a person to sleep in a death-like state and then wake five days later. Tom wrote instructing William to make a show of his funeral and then dig him up later so he could dramatically come back from the dead. He instructs William to “destroy this letter and tell no one”.

William obeys only one of the instructions of Thomas Crawford. He destroys the letter, and keeps his peace, remaining by the side of Olivia for forty years before finally sitting down to pen this confession. Over that time, he interchangeably regretted and obsessed over Tom’s horrific death, sometimes feeling ashamed for his act of murder, and sometimes revelling in the repayment of all the wrongs he felt Tom did him in the years of their friendship.

THEME

This story was told in a straightforward manner, with first person point of view and much reflection by the narrator. So there are no overt plot devices to discuss.

But the theme of the story prompts a variety of interesting questions. I think the main idea being posited by this character is—does the end justify the means, when a good man who is weak indirectly murders a powerful man who is evil?

Let’s unpack that a little more. William Green is a pitiable character, not only in the sense that he has a weak character but also in that he has lived a rather unfortunate life because of his friendship with Tom. A stronger man would have stood up to Tom’s ego and called him out on it. A more cunning man would have won Olivia over by exposing Tom’s terrible character. A wiser man would have walked away from the friendship, long before he became entangled emotionally and morally in Tom’s illicit activities. Instead, William was a coward and a sycophant at Tom’s self-erected altar.

Yet, even poor William had a line he could not allow Tom to cross. He was never brave enough to tell Olivia that Tom was cheating on her, but when Tom put himself in danger, assuming that William would answer his directive to save him—it was taking things too far. William wasn’t willing to shoot himself in the foot to save the man who was the source of practically every misery in his life. Although he was committing murder, William acted out of cowardly self-preservation and let his “friend” die.

The questions pile up. Is this murder something William can atone for? It is clear in the story that he does not wish to, even if he could. He says, “with time I discovered that one can make peace with any sin, as I did with mine.” Is his delight in Tom’s suffering the point at which he himself becomes evil, or was the actual murder what instigated his transformation into a villain? Does it even matter that he did something vile, when the person he did it to was far worse a demon than he?

These are worthwhile questions to follow down their respective rabbit holes. Stories like this one stir up thoughts which have weighty significance. This act of sifting through one’s emotions, convictions, and instincts is what makes fiction life-changing. We read stories not just to hear someone else’s perspective—but to be changed by encountering them within the created constructs of their fictional world and finding bridges back to our own.