Re: Scariest , Weirdest, or Most Chilling
Posted by:
Sawfish (IP Logged)
Date: 21 October, 2004 01:40PM
Tortha Wrote:
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> Two of my most favorite Smith stories are The Ice
> Demon and The Weaver in the Vault.
I like these, too.
>
> As a kid I played lots of Dungeons and Dragons and
> from there I became a fan of horror and sword
> & sorcery. Eventually I found Clark Ashton
> Smith and now he is my favorite writer.
>
> The thing about the Ice Demon and The Weaver in
> the Vault is that they start out as pretty
> standard adventure stories... As the story begins,
> the hunter in The Ice Demon (his name escapes me)
> must journey to a dangerous glacial cavern to
> retrieve a bag of gems. In Weaver, Thirlain
> Ludoch and his companions, Yanur and Grotara, must
> travel to Choan Gracca (?) to retrieve the remains
> of an ancient mummy. A player of D&D and a
> reader of sword & sorcery adventure stories,
> would recognize these as pretty standard set-ups
> to an adventure story... but then as you read on
> and things begin to go horribly wrong for the
> heroes, you realize that these are not your
> standard adventure stories. *And I love that.* A
> lot of times, horror movies or horror stories are
> described as being chilling... And you watch the
> movie or read the book, and although they might
> have good scares in them, they really aren't
> chilling. But these stories ARE chilling.
> I like to imagine a reader in the 1930's picking
> up the latest copy of Weird Tales and turning to
> one of these two stories. And as he begins to
> read, he anticipates a rousing adventure story...
> he will be expecting the hero to head off to
> dangerous lands, to fight and defeat villains and
> monsters, to save the girl and get the treasure...
> But when this reader from the 1930's finishes the
> story, he will be stunned by the story's cold and
> chilling end, and shocked by the miserable and
> truly unheroic deaths of the 'heroes'.
> I would think that there wasn't much like this
> being written at that time and that most readers
> would have been surprised by the endings of these
> stories. Perhaps I am wrong?
I think you're right, as far as Sword & Sorcery goes. But some pretty bad things happen in LOvecraft stories, too.
> Anyway, I just thought I'd share that observation
> with you.
>
> But, with Halloween quickly approaching, the main
> thing I wanted to ask is...
> what would all the CAS fans say, in their opinion,
> is the scariest or weirdest or most chilling CAS
> story?
Of course, judging this stuff is pretty subjective, but I like Isle of the Torturers, Necromancy in Naat, and Dark Eidolon.
There are a lot of others, too. The Coming of the White Worm is really good.
> Thanks
I hope the Smith stories continue to give you enjoyment!
Happy Halloween!