“A precursor of the Cinema” follows the life and art of Harlan Crane. Harlan was known to have the most detailed art of all the other artist, to the point of that a magnifying glass. In all phases of his art, his pieces have been known to be lifelike that they moved. While observing Still Life with a Fly many people reported seeing the fly fly across the painting. There were no tricks or any explanation for the movement of the fly but viewers swore it happened. As time went on the paintings became even more life like and incredible. During his Transgressive era he created a painting a woman called Young Woman. When viewers saw the painting they reported feeling “the unmistakeable sensation of a hand touching a cheek.”. Crane created paintings that actually had a life form of their own and each one became a little closer to becoming a part of the 3-D world especially Terra Incognita which is the last painting he showed publicly. This painting was reported to have shadowy figures actually coming out of the painting, the viewer got so scared it resulted in a death.
A common theme seen throughout Millhauser’s Dangerous Laughter is one of obsession. Though we don’t explicitly see Crane’s journey into madness through his own thoughts we can see it through it his art.The little information on Crane’s life was documented by Crane’s friend how talks about watching him struggle and go into solitary moments in order to complete his work. Every piece he has created was an attempt to out do himself. He wanted to create bigger and lifelike paintings. At some point he even created a painting that people can actually walk into, creating an actual portal between our world and the one he had created. The more special the painting the more powerful the motions were. This search for greatness led to sinister happenings that eventually led to the end of his career. Like in “The Reign of Harad IV” Crane goes into a solitary phase to try to immerse himself into his art but because of his magic in painting he actually able to go into his own painting where he disappears from the world, taking all of his art from the world with him.