Re: Frederick S. Oliver - Clark Ashton Smith Connection?
Posted by:
calonlan (IP Logged)
Date: 18 July, 2005 11:22AM
"Drama Queen?" - come now lad, I am no kind of Queen at all -- but I have lived already 8 years beyond expectations - yes everyone begins to die the day they are born, but rest assured, very few take it seriously - I have no fear of it at all -- been there, done that, got the T-shirt - but failing memory is worse than failing libido, or the ability to go leaping about the great stones in the American river canyon as in bygone days - I only hope to live to see the last film adaptation of the last Harry Potter book - that should give me another 20 -
As to your questions: Of couse he had read Kafka, liked it OK, but not worth a second read --
Laugh at Christians: Not per se, but folk who are trivial, pompous, self-righteous, and ignorant, officious etc. His respect for authentic Christianity (a phenomenom very few are aware of, especially those who find amusing the most potent movement in world history, from which nearly all the great art, architecture, literature and music are derived), was profound - I have mentioned elsewhere his reading of the works of Robert Graves, which I would recommend to those who have neither the time nor access to the vast library of ancient documents (most of which are not available in translation) to provide an introduction to the subject. If by "christian" one is referring to the puerile maunderings of the televangelist, had such creatures existed, Clark would simply have ignored them, save for holding in contempt those who are such blatant scam artists - I write of this matter somewhat in my memoir -
Speculate on life after death -- for amusement, Clark and I would joke about what we might like to come back as (ala Hinduism) -- in seriousness, utter oblivion in the sense of total absorption or union with the ultimate as in Nirvana, recommended itself conceptually -- the practices of that religion did not excite his interest, as the notion that one "earns" divine favor by his works made no sense to him. One must never forget that Clark's earliest exposure to life was at the late Glory of Victorian Era - If you would know what that meant to the son of and Englishman and a southern Belle, it is necessary to consult an old issue of the "Book of Common Prayer" of the Anglican church - that culture suffused society, not as something "put on" like a garment, but in the very air one breathed.
Fundamentally, Clark held self-importance, and pomposity in contempt (paricularly in journalism), but the strongly held beliefs of people of any religion? Never a subject for laughter (by which he would have meant "sarcasm", not "satire"). Clark's view was that sarcasm was born of hate, and has no desire to heal - satire is born of a love that desires to rectify or purify a good thing gone sour. Sarcasm is the most shallow form of criticism in that it requires an audience of those already in agreement to be found funny - roughly the same level of humor as that of grade school boys bathroom jokes - (which he spoke of most sadly after a day of being subjected to it by a Sully grandchild while cutting wood one day - we discussed this whole business over wine coolers that following weekend (the wine cooler was Loomis burgundy with water - half and half - over ice in a common tumbler -- in the yard at Marilyn Novaks in Newcastle under the Oaks - what good times they were.
Watching the skies for UFOS? no -
Freaked out by Orson Welles, War of the Worlds broadcast - Clark didn't have a radio, or electricity in 1938 - In that part of California, only in town was there any power.
He never lived with electric power until he married and moved to Pacific Grove. On the other hand, my parents had a brief period of alarm on that occasion - I was 2 weeks old, my recollection is dim for that event. A few years later, a radio program called "Inner Sanctum" used to scare the daylights out of me. After one particularly chilling tale, I wouldn't let my grandmother move the dial toward that end of the radio even for a month at any time of day. Radio, in many ways, worked more powerfully on the imagination that Television or film (except the films of Eisenstein,Welles, Bergman and a few others).
An additional post here asks about his "Frenchness" - Clark had seen photos of Rimbaud and Baudelaire and other writers, and his moustache and beret, vest and jacket were part of his "persona" as an artist, and adopted after his time with Sterling in the bay area - same goes for the cigaretter holder. He also "hung out" in the working class bars (the Happy Hour his favorite), and was beloved as a local character, and therefore insulated from the derision he found in the "respectable" parts of Auburn society.
