As I start, the title instantly brings to mind what, to me, is a very evocative lyric from Donovan, a little-regarded, but often surprisingly effective, 60s British contemporary of Bob Dylan.

From "Sunny Goodge Street":

"...a violent hash-eater shook a chocolate machine,
"involved in an eating scene."

Well, anyway, you had to be there, I suppose.

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Well, I read this yesterday afternoon.

Has anyone else read it? If so, what do you make of it?

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Sawfish, I have a "Hashish Eater" anecdote that might amuse you and other ED folk.

I bought Lin Carter's anthology New Worlds for Old as a 17-year-old, and didn't care for "The Hashish-Eater" and Sterling's "Wine of Wizardry" contained therein.

And I wrote to Carter (probably having seen his home address in an issue of the fanzine Amra, but maybe c/o his publisher) -- and told him so.

Carter replied (20 Jan. 1972): Both the poems by Sterling and by Smith are rich, exotic, superb phantasmagoria of gorgeous imagery. If you found them dull and unreadable, well, maybe fantasy is really not your field...there is always Agatha Christie for readers like you to fall back on." [signed] Lin Carter

I wasn't devastated. Actually I thought it was exciting to hear back from a pro, and one whose stationery had a Frazetta sketch design at that.

I wrote back and seem to have stood my ground. Carter replied (4 Feb. 1972), "My Agatha Christie crack, perhaps unkind and even uncalled for, was spurred by my impatience with a so-called fantasy buff unable or unwilling to appreciate two of the most celebrated poems in fantasy literature.

"But, yes, I do indeed think most fantasy connoisseurs agree with my own taste, and those who can miss the intoxicating gorgeousness in the HASHISH EATER and WINE OF WIZARDRY cannot seriously be considered connoisseurs of the genre."

I'm grinning as I type this. It was, again, a kick to hear from the editor of the Ballantine fantasy series.

I like that. His courteous and nuanced second reply to you more than made up for his initial rudeness, IMHO. (And I agree that Agatha Christie is rubbish, although I have friends who would lace my Earl Grey with arsenic if they ever heard me say that.)

...an overabundance of chutzpah from a young whippersnapper... ;^)

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Yeah, that's about right. ; )

I knew Lin Carter and boy was I affected by his Ballantine fantasy series. It changed my life. What he said to you was right! Those are great poems! Especially the Hashish Eater.