Smith having no use for women - yeah, after he died. What in the world is the source for this information? Certainly not the verse, the fiction, the letters, or any of the reminiscences from Smith's friends.

Jim

Kyberean Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Quote:CAS a homosexual?

> I assumed that the writer was confusing CAS with
> Lovecraft. I would add that lack of interest in
> sexual relationships, in general, as is the case
> with HPL, does not a homosexual make.

That thought occurred to me also, but felt inclined to nip it in the bud just in case, for the sake of clarity. It seems Smith must forever be compared to and confused with Lovecraft.

> *Chuckles* I think that it has less to do with
> loneliness than it has with being akin to the
> effect of a Passenger Pigeon flitting through a
> contemporary ornithologists' convention.

Great analogy! I also agree that a female readers' post here is more likely to generate interest mainly due to its rarity, unfortunately.

Jim, you wrote "Smith having no use for women - yeah, after he died." Hah! Good one, somewhat chauvinistic I suppose, but still funny . . .

-Ron

I just have to say that it's ridiculous to assert that "weird fiction" is a "male only" genre of literature. Weird Tales had several female authors. HPL encouraged women to write weird fiction just as much as he encouraged men to write weird fiction. Edgar Allen Poe was writing for a predominantly female audience in his time; is there something wrong with CAS and HPL that they were fans of his work?

It's also ridiculous to assert that men are more likely to seek out obscure writings. There's whole college departmetns of women seeking out obscure writings--of female authors, who have historically been more likely to be forgotten (Aphra Behn anyone?) than their male peers--including those who wrote weird fiction and science fiction.

It's beyond ridiculous to assert that CAS was writing for only men; if it weren't for Genevive Sully, there'd be no Smith fiction at all.

Quote:

It's also ridiculous to assert that men are more likely to seek out obscure writings. There's whole college departmetns of women seeking out obscure writings--of female authors, who have historically been more likely to be forgotten (Aphra Behn anyone?) than their male peers--including those who wrote weird fiction and science fiction.

I thought it would be obvious to anyone that, A. my comment was merely speculative ("assertions" do not usually begin with the word "perhaps", or include the word "seem", as mine does), and B., that I was referring to the ordinary reader, not to academics who earn their living by scraping the literary barrel.

Quote:

if it weren't for Genevive Sully, there'd be no Smith fiction at all.

I'm glad to see that at least we men here do not have a monopoly on making ridiculous statements. ;-)

jimrockhill2001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Smith having no use for women - yeah, after he
> died.

"The Dead Will Cuckold You," anyone?

Scott "You can't keep a good man down" Connors

"Heh-heh-heh!" he chortled chauvinistically.

Jim

All you single fellows: If you would increase female readership, read the love poetry to the girls - do not, repeat - do not! - read Mother of Toads - not a good way for a healthy girl to be brought into the circle -
Side bar - among the women I have known who knew Clark personally, all were skinny.
Among the women I have introduced to CAS who liked him, all were robust - or perhaps that's just an expression of my personal preference in les femmes, mais oui?
Dr. F

Have just returned to this forum from a trip caving in Tennessee, and found this astounding observation by LOKI. Sorry lad, there is not, never was, not even remotely the slightest shred of homosexuality in CAS' life. I cannot recall his ever writing about it, and only in casual conversation join in the common jibes at such behavior even as found in Charlie Chaplin films of his young adulthood. From the two-holers with knot-holes at his childhood country school where the boys pried on the girls, (and vice-versa) to the obvious greater experience of a 16 year old in his second novel, "Sword of Zagan", to the deeply affectioned and numerous loves of his "hay-loft" young manhood poured into his poetry, there is no shred of the irregular in his writing. For those who do not know it, one of the principal reasons for his return to Auburn from his early flirtation with the "artsy" world of Carmel-San Francisco was his weariness with being continually "hit on".

Maybe that was where I went wrong - reading this, "Morthylla", and May Sinclair's "The Villa Desiree" aloud in lieu of dinner and a movie.

Jim

I introduced my ex-fiancee to CAS' writings, and she, like me, fell in love with Sadastor. She was on the curvaceous side too; the unkind would say excessively so.

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