I want to be clear in my agreement that CAS's frequent lack of complex plotting arises from choice, not from incompetence, although I do suspect that the pace at which he wrote during his "fiction writing campaign" may at times have affected his plotting. It's interesting, Scott, that you should mention "The Colossus of Ylourgne" in this respect. That is by far my favorite Averoigne tale, a collection of stories that, in general, I can take or leave, otherwise. I've heard that Clive Barker borrowed elements from this story in one of his
Books of Blood, but I haven't verified this for myself.
Quote:I agree that THE LAST OBLIVION omits some of CAS' best work. For instance, two of his finest, most personal poems, "The Old Water Wheel" (published in POETRY, founded by Harriet Monroe, and so a good poem even by the standards of contemporary American poetry) and "Town Lights," were not included. Likewise "O Golden Tongued Romance" and "Tired Gardner."
The point, though, was to include only weird or fantastic poetry in
The Last Oblivion, no? I'm wondering which of Dr. Farmer's or others' favorites in
that realm of poetry failed to make their way into the volume. As for contemporary American poetry, I freely confess that I'm one of those who would put that last word between quotation marks. ;-)
Steve Behrends doesn't post here since he has largely gafiated, although I understand he is at work on a revision of his Starmont Reader's Guide.
I respect tremendously Behrends's efforts and his devotion to keeping alive the memory of CAS's works. However, his notions that CAS was not a cosmicist, but a mere misanthrope, and that he was some sort of effete, non-intellectual "pure poet" or aesthete, utterly untroubled by ideas and philosophical problems, are--and there's really no polite way to put this, so I won't even try--patently ridiculous. Best of luck with
Lost Worlds, by the way. I'm sure that it shall be an enormous improvement over Behrends's former CAS journal.