...Saki describes this poster closely."One huge sombre poster depicted the Damned in Hell suffering a new torment from their inability to get at the Filboid Studge which elegant young fiends held in transparent bowls just beyond their reach. The scene was rendered even more gruesome by a subtle suggestion of the features of leading men and women of the day in the portrayal of the Lost Souls; prominent individuals of both political parties, Society hostesses, well-known dramatic authors and novelists, and distinguished aeroplanists were dimly recognizable in that doomed throng; noted lights of the musical-comedy stage flickered wanly in the shades of the Inferno, smiling still from force of habit, but with the fearsome smiling rage of baffled effort. The poster bore no fulsome allusions to the merits of the new breakfast food, but a single grim statement ran in bold letters along its base: 'They cannot buy it now'."
I realized that Saki's text of this paragraph closely resembles a Midjourney prompt. No artist has ever produced this imaginary poster of "Filboid Studge." However, thanks to Large Language Models, it's become easy and even trivial to generate such an image — a modern graphic artifact which derives from a prose fantasy of the year 1911.
...Prompt: Please draw a huge sombre poster depicting the breakfast cereal Filboid Studge. The Damned in Hell are suffering a new torment from their inability to get at the Filboid Studge which elegant young fiends hold in transparent bowls just beyond their reach. The scene is rendered even more gruesome by a subtle suggestion of the features of leading men and women of the day in the portrayal of the Lost Souls; prominent individuals of both political parties, Society hostesses, well-known dramatic authors and novelists, and distinguished aeroplanists are dimly recognizable in that doomed throng; noted lights of the musical-comedy stage flicker wanly in the shades of the Inferno, smiling still from force of habit, but with the fearsome smiling rage of baffled effort. A single grim statement ran in bold letters along its base: `"They cannot buy it now."
...Prompt: Please draw a huge sombre poster depicting the breakfast cereal Filboid Studge. The Damned in Hell are suffering a new torment from their inability to get at the Filboid Studge which elegant young fiends hold in transparent bowls just beyond their reach. The scene is rendered even more gruesome by a subtle suggestion of the features of leading men and women of the day in the portrayal of the Lost Souls; prominent individuals of both political parties, Society hostesses, well-known dramatic authors and novelists, and distinguished aeroplanists are dimly recognizable in that doomed throng; noted lights of the musical-comedy stage flicker wanly in the shades of the Inferno, smiling still from force of habit, but with the fearsome smiling rage of baffled effort. A single grim statement ran in bold letters along its base: "They cannot buy it now."
