Cornell & Diehl - Visions of Celephaïs (The Old Ones) review

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mikecronis

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 5, 2021
156
342
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From HP Lovecraft works, paraphrased out of Wiki:

Celephaïs was created in a dream by Kuranes (which is his name in dreams—his real name is not given) as a child of the English landed gentry. As a man in his forties, alone and dispossessed in contemporary London, he dreams it again and then, seeking it, slowly slips away to the dream-world. Finally knights guide him through medieval England to his ancestral estate, where he spent his boyhood, and then to Celephaïs. He became the king and chief god of the city, though his body washes up by his ancestors' tower, now owned by a some rich dude.

In the original short story, Celephaïs is described as being situated in the valley of Ooth-Nargai beside the Cerenerian Sea. Its most remarkable feature is that it is unaffected by the passage of time, and takes no decay or wear, so that a person may leave it and return many years later to find that nothing has changed..

Popping open the can smells disconcertingly of grape (as expected). Though I'm an aromatic fan, this is disturbing and strange.

Tastes of Welch's Grape soda are mixed with musky, Indonesian cigar tobacco in the background and creamy Cavendish that has a hint of woody cocoa powder in the back with toasted bread. The grape is not synthetic but it is unusual.

The grape flavoring is unusual, even for the aromatic fan that I am, leading to late-aged, teenager-purchased-at-a-bargain-bin, stale Renaissance Festival incense of a girl you're dating while you're a liberal arts major sophomore, shooting for a BA in Creative Writing. Your dad knew you have a head for figures and insisted you try for an Engineering degree but you went for something more fun. The girl you've landed in the college today that you met at a vinyl record store who dresses like she loves Poe and Lovecraft lit this grape incense up during an intimate romp on a rainy Sunday afternoon in her dorm with the windows part-open, the rain-musk coming in, mixed with different scents. You're 21 and you think you know everything but you suddenly realize your might not, actually. You start to realize perhaps that your college choices will not land you a job, and this slightly chubby Janeane Garofalo might not be The One for you despite her over-confidence that got you there in the first place as you lie there, considering you're at a crossroads, and choices you made may not have been right, the path you went down was in error, but there's still time..

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Probably best with a churchwarden pipe on a hot, August summer evening, this tobacco blend is intriguing as William Blake's "Book of Thel". It inspires doubt and dreams simultaneously, with hints of the idea of clove cigarettes and late-teen overconfidence as being "sophisticated" and as unique and interesting as your evening concubine suggests.. though best not to linger here, as it's all a flight of fancy.

Recommended for a unique and smooth change.. but not everyday.
 

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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,500
A wonderful review, not so much of the tobacco itself, but of the experience of the tobacco. I was never that particular undergraduate, but I certainly had several of his predicaments. The review powerfully evokes a moment in life. As with Molto Dolce, I'd be good for one tin smoked over several years. I have just the cob for it. 'Ember's pipe is the perfect receptacle, but I think he has more than one tin on hand.
 

originalnutcracker

Can't Leave
Feb 26, 2018
304
2,020
62
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
The tobacco is a bit weird for me - seem to clash somewhere....
Same reason "Scarecrow" didn't work for me - it's a little like listening to the "New Music" festival at the symphony - a cacophony of taste if there is such a thing.

I'm too much of a pleb to "get it"
 
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Donb1972

Can't Leave
Feb 9, 2022
415
1,079
Erie, PA
The BEST of C & D! I smoke it every evening. The grape scent and taste is definitely there, as is the incense, but as you smoke, it softens and morphs into a smooth, voluptuous wine must(although the incense remains). I don't normally store tobacco, buying as needed instead, but I have 30 tins of Visions(things I like tend to be discontinued sooner or later).

If I had to pick a desert island tobacco ~ this one would be it!
 

EssJaySea

Can't Leave
May 12, 2021
435
6,572
Sebastopol, CA
As I just posted in the WAYS thread, I popped my tin of this in part -- large part -- to the review here. I may be finding it more Coleridge's Kubla Khan than anything by Blake, but most importantly I was warned of the grape. That would have thrown me, as I bought it a bit on a whim. Part way through the bowl, it is seeming to come on more complex than other aros I sometimes spoke (like PS Nougat).