(I should note that for the purposes of this book, I considered anything Klarkash-Tonian as de facto Lovecraftian.)

PRESS RELEASE

EVENT:

Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon, by Dan Clore, published by
Hippocampus Press, is now available.

Eldritch . . . cacodaemoniacal . . . lucubration . . . Have you ever
wondered about the meaning of these and other esoteric words used by
Lovecraft and his colleagues? In this Cyclopean dictionary, the product
of aeons of erudition and research into the most recondite recesses of
literature, Dan Clore not only defines thousands of words found in the
work of A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E.
Howard, and many others in the weird fantasy tradition, but supplies
their etymologies and, most impressively, provides parallel usages of
the words from centuries of English usage, citing authors ranging from
Cotton Mather to Henry Kuttner, from Edmund Spenser to William S.
Burroughs, from Edgar Allan Poe to Robert Anton Wilson. This is a volume
that scholars of English usage, enthusiasts of fantasy and horror
literature, and readers who love the beauty of the English language will
find richly rewarding . . . either to read from beginning to end or to
dip into as the mood strikes them.

Purchase from Amazon:

[www.amazon.com]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dan Clore is a freelance writer and scholar whose works are well known
to fans of H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), a noted and influential author of
weird fiction. Mr. Clore's publishing credits include critical essays in
Lovecraft Studies, Studies in Weird Fiction, Necrofile; the Review of
Horror Fiction, Weird Times, the anthologies A Century Less a Dream:
Selected Criticism of H.P. Lovecraft, The Freedom of Fantastic Things:
Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith, and Supernatural Fiction of
the World: an Encyclopedia. His fiction has appeared in publications
such as The Urbanite, Deathrealm, Terminal Fright, Epitaph, Black
October Magazine, Cthulhu Sex, Lore, and several others. His work is
anthologized in The Last Continent: New Tales of Zothique and in
Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales. His collected works appeared as The
Unspeakable and Others in 2001. A new, expanded edition, illustrated by
Allen Koszowski, is scheduled for 2009.


CONTACT INFORMATION:

Dan Clore
1805 7th Street
Columbia City, OR 97018-9733
503 397-4430
clore@colcenter.org

Dan Clore

Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
[tinyurl.com]
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
[groups.yahoo.com]

"Tho-ag in Zhi-gyu slept seven Khorlo. Zodmanas zhiba. All Nyug bosom. Konch-hog not; Thyan-Kam not; Lha-Chohan not; Tenbrel Chugnyi not; Dharmakaya ceased; Tgenchang not become; Barnang and Ssa in Ngovonyidj; alone Tho-og Yinsin in night of Sun-chan and Yong-grub (Parinishpanna), &c., &c.,"
-- The Book of Dzyan.

Yes, I think I'll be getting this!

My copy arrived today. Not had time to study it at any length but just flicking through it: I now know how long a kalpa is!

I have bought this book, as well. I recommend it, but not without reservations.

The book could and should have been more comprehensive. Several of Clore's illustrative quotations go on for too many pages, and take space that could have been devoted to an even larger selection of weird words. Still, it's better than the pitifully scanty and error-riddled glossary that accompanies The Last Oblivion. (By the way, don't overlook the glossaries on this very Web site by John Kipling Hitz. They, too, have errors, but they are more comprehensive than Clore's book).

Still, Weird Words is an excellent compendium of "Lovecraftian" (and "Ashtonian") words, and the quotations make fascinating reading. One especially interesting, and perhaps even subtly polemical, aspect of the book is the number of illustrative quotations from classic literature dating from quite early days. The implicit suggestion, to me, is that "odd words" are very much a part of the Western literary mainstream, and that it is only our present-day "anti-elitist" and "democratizing" decadence that has led to these words' virtual disappearance--to say nothing of the disparagement of those, like Lovecraft and CAS, who continue to use them.

I love this book so much. It saddened me to remove my review of it from Amazon, where my review was infested by an ignoble troll, but then Amazon reviews don't seem all that important, however fun it is to crank 'em out.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

Quote:

where my review was infested by an ignoble troll

*Chuckles* That would be me.

As to the rest: "Trolling", like ignobility, is in the eye of the beholder. Me, I am glad that my comments successfully performed the community service that I intended.

I also ought to mention that Clore's book is worthwhile for younger folks who are beginning to develop their vocabularies--I made of a gift of it to a college student, myself--and, of course, for those who will purchase and reflexively drool over anything that is related to Lovecraft. Those who are over thirty-five and who have reasonably well-developed vocabularies, however, will find it a curiosity, at best.

On the other had, what's sorely needed, and what would benefit and challenge most here, would be a CAS lexicon--and, ideally, one that is prepared by someone who knows, for instance, that Antenora is not "an imaginary realm invented by CAS", or that there are five, not six, rivers in Hades. Ah, well, one can hope!

I, for one, would without a doubt purchase a Smith lexicon in a heartbeat, and I'm sure it would be one of my most prized possessions. Even the small one included at the end of "The Last Oblivion: Best Fanatastic Poems of Clark Ashton Smith" is a true joy to flip through--despite its shortcomings. Simply reading Smith has forced me to vastly improve my vocabulary, and the whole process has been a genuine joy! Actually, it was his use of unusual words, coupled with my desire to learn such words, which was a major factor in drawing me to Smith; that, and everything else that's great about his work! Each story, in addition to providing a wonderful escape from reality, includes a master class vocabulary lesson!

The truth is, there already is a Smith lexicon--it's buried in his stories. Do like I do and write down every word you don't know as you're reading (a slightly annoying process, it's true), and you will amass your own personal Smith lexicon. Unfortunately, I do this for everything I read, and do not usually keep track of what words come from where, so I can't provide such a lexicon--alas! (Although I could probably figure it out...hmmm...finding a block of words with "catafalque" and "orichalcum" and "whilom" and "lepidopteran" and "fulguration" in my collection would definitely cue me in...)

For anyone who cares, I simply fold up a piece of paper to use as a book-marker, and write words on it to look up at a later time as I read. It can be disruptive to the flow of a story--especially when reading someone so verbose as Smith--but it's so, so worth it! There's nothing like the thrill of reading a new word, writing it down, learning it, then using it in a sentence, then using it in an actual work of fiction or poem! Sweet, sweet language!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 13 Aug 11 | 02:02AM by K_A_Opperman.

Well, friends, e'er the "sunset gonfalons are furled" on this thread - for those who enjoy language play, and also wish to enrich their vocabulary (without the bother of mastering Greek and Latin), I suggest www.lexfiles.com -
an enjoyable site, and with a link to "the basic 14" - those few words whose prefixes and roots, once mastered, are the gateway to over 140,000 English words - anyone preparing for the SAT would be well advised to have spent some time on this well in advance of the exam - for the superannuated among us, it is just fund - basics are still essential to good writing dear chaps, and the tools of the trade - a simple pre-cept (thing in the front of the head - ie concept, principle etc).

K_A_Opperman:

I should have been a bit clearer, perhaps. When I called for a CAS lexicon, I meant for someone to do what Clore did: To take an OED-type approach, in which the editor gathers instances of word usage from many writers, over time. That's the strength of Clore's book. The weakness is that he pads it by, for instance, going on for ten pages with usage examples for such a rudimentary word as charnel.

Clore's book is an odd hybrid of anthology and historical dictionary, and I can't say that it accomplishes either task extraordinarily well. As I mentioned, though, I would recommend it to precocious high schoolers and college students who have an interest in Lovecraft and/or semi-exotic words. For more fundamental considerations, the site that Calonlan recommends is also worthwhile.

This sounds like an interesting book. I've always found interest in using these kinds of words. However, mainstream publishers and advisers who litter the internet (published professionals) tell young up and comers to shun words like these. That if you say, for example, "I trudged through the dark, foreboding forest" those are signs of an amateur. I disagree. Now there is such thing as over doing it. Even Lovecraft alluded to that fact. But if we went by today's standards we would be calling Clark and HPL amateurs. That is very dumb. Have we become so fixed on "economy of style" that we've forgotten how to have fun and spice up our work?

I am moderately liberal in my use of recondite words in fiction (horror fiction, of course!). As CAS and HPL were well aware, the words are part of the overall effect. However, in editing, I often find myself toning down the first draft--there definitely is such a thing as overdoing it. And actually producing a sellable story is usually the goal.

However, when I write poetry, which I do almost daily--almost anything goes. Poetry is not very marketable to begin with, let alone weird poetry; so why not just go all out?! It makes a wonderful outlet for getting the weird words out of my system, so too many of them don't get into my fiction!

I wouldn't mind owning the Weird Words book, but that I'm afraid I might already know a good portion of them....