Re: Optimistic endings in CAS
Posted by:
Sawfish (IP Logged)
Date: 28 August, 2020 04:55PM
Hespire Wrote:
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> This exchange is a lot healthier than our previous
> disagreement, and I'm glad I'm not scared this
> time of appearing rude or ignorant. Thank you.
>
> Misanthropy is not something I can relate with,
> even with my experiences as a loner who doesn't
> try making friends. In fact I tend to find it
> shallow and narrow-minded, and when I mentioned
> disagreeing with some of CAS' sentiments a while
> ago, his seemingly misanthropic tendencies were
> among them. While I relish alien imagery, and this
> story had a lot of it, I do not negate my own
> humanity or the humanity of others in favor of it.
> Perhaps I tolerate this more in fiction however,
> especially in writers like CAS who can downplay it
> (for me) with the wild, fantastic, or alien
> imagery I'm truly interested in.
>
> Regarding the exile from Earth, I suppose in some
> or maybe most of CAS' cases it stems from
> misanthropy, but as someone who isn't
> misanthropic, I can see the idea of this situation
> as wistful, frightening, and exciting all at once.
> And in stories like "Monster" and "Door to Saturn"
> or even "Voyage of King Euvoran",
This s one of my all-time favorites stories *in terms of comedic entertainment".
SPOILERS!!!
It's almost like The Emperor's New Clothes in that it's a commentary on the foibles of human nature.
It's just one thing after another, right from the get-go...
They can't deal with the wandering necromancer, whose image in my mind is a lot like an elongated Straw Man from The Wizard of Oz.
He (the necromancer) freely admits to his crimes, and King Euvoran (looking for sadistic fun) can't even make the punishment stick, and in the process loses his crown, which has profound significant meaning and symbolism to the ruling family.
We see that once the crown is removed, Euvoran is balding...
Things go from bad to worse until, in the end, he finds out that his ancestors were conned by the traveling mariner who sold them the stuffed gazolba bird, and his sole sustenance on the island, where he is to live out his life with an unimpressed co-maroonee, is eating gazolbas.
Too great for words, so far as ironic and biting comedy.
Does anyone think that HPL would have ever written such a tale? I don't, and this, alone, is the most profound difference between them.
I'd term this "ambiguous" because he lost everything, but did not die (was not stuffed by birds!) and seemed reasonably resigned to his eventual fate.
> I find it
> soothing knowing a person can thrive in a strange
> and foreign place, though I admit in these stories
> there's a sardonic middle finger involved. For me
> it's almost life-affirming, rather than
> life-negating or earth-hating, to find one's place
> on a world of headless men or whitish skies or
> venomous half-plant monsters. This might not be
> CAS' intention, but as you reminded me, it's the
> reader's choice that matters most of all.
>
> I must admit, I'm the sort of person who probably
> wouldn't mind a romantic relationship with a
> bizarre alien being, as long as I had the time to
> know them, and they aren't too far-removed from my
> human way of thinking. I think the creatures of
> Vizaphmal's species look graceful and beautiful!
> But maybe my imagination wasn't envisioning them
> in the way others would.
>
> While I still class this story's ending as
> "positive", I agree that it cannot be considered
> universally happy among all readers. And, to be
> fair, I don't consider this one of Smith's great
> stories, though I do consider it a good one. I
> just singled it out because it was one of those
> rare stories with a cliched happily-ever-after
> romantic ending.
--Sawfish
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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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