Re: Stories Omitted from RENDEZVOUS
Posted by:
Kyberean (IP Logged)
Date: 8 April, 2003 12:02AM
Scott,
Thanks for the information regarding the reasons for the omission of "The Return of the Sorceror" and "Ubbo-Sathla"; I wasn't aware of them. How in the name of Tsathoggua I forgot to mention "Ubbo-Sathla", I cannot fathom. My fondness for this tale is so immoderate that I used it as the title of the longest track of my debut EP CD-R (I have a computer/electroacoustic/dark ambient music project called Bestia Centauri). I'm also glad that you mentioned "The Seed from the Sepulcher"; I almost did so, myself. That is one of CAS's finest forays into "pure" horror, and, space permitting, I'd like to see it in a "best of CAS" anthology.
I agree that the length of the "Zothique" cycle demands difficult choices, but I must take up the cudgels on behalf of the "Weaver". I consider it to be one of CAS's finest and most underrated weird tales. There, the morbidity of Beddoes and Poe (the premature burial theme) most poignantly meets the cosmic outsideness and strangeness of Lovecraft, represented here by the hovering inhabitants of the vault--a very potent and haunting mix, I think. Of course, its plot is slender, almost threadbare, but that is true of the majority of CAS's tales, I think. Not that that is a criticism--at least, not from me. I prefer to read CAS's tales as extended poems in prose. Of course, as always, tastes will differ. For instance, I'm not that keen on "Avoosl Wuthoqquan", myself, but, in addition to yourself and others, Boris Karloff seems to have liked it, as he included it in his interesting and worthwhile 1946 horror anthology And the Darkness Falls. (The tale is credited to "Clark A. Smith"!)
Regarding the lesser works: I confess that I think more poorly of "The Phantoms of the Fire" than you do; the attempt at dialect really sinks it, I think. You're perceptive in pointing out the Bierce influence, though. I believe there is a letter to HPL in which CAS mentions that he "prefers nearly all his other stories" to this one. As I mentioned, I need to read more of the "stf" hackwork, as I imagine most CAS scholars would agree that, just as "Zothique" contains his finest fiction, the "stf" contains his worst.
To conclude, here are a few other favorites that would help to fill, for me, at least, a second volume of the best of CAS:
"A Tale of Sir John Maundeville"
(also very underrated, I think)
"The Devotee of Evil"
(as mentioned previously. I'm going to use physical modeling sound synthesis techniques one day to attempt to create a software emulation of the gongs that form Jean Averaud's strange instrument. If my posts someday should suddenly cease, then you'll know what happened. ;-) )
"The Immeasurable Horror"
(wonderful extra-human atmospheres here; this is about the only kind of SF that I enjoy)
"The Testament of Athammaus"
(talk about "over the top"!)
"The Voyage of King Euvoran"
(surprisingly poignant for a Hyperborean tale)
"The Seed from the Sepulcher" (as mentioned above).
By the way, did Jim Turner correct the errors from the original Derleth-era Arkham House printings for the re-printing of the tales in Rendezvous?