I was reading "The Door to Saturn" last night, with IE open to the OED as is my wont (I'm a student, so I can use it for free). When I looked up the word "malisons," I discovered an interesting fact: the OED definition for the word cited the exact passage in "The Door to Saturn" that I was reading! The passage is as follows, "the malisons which he muttered..., were of truly cabalistic length and fearfulness." So CAS is in the OED (he was one of only two 20th century examples of the word's usage). I have also found references to CAS in a few other odd places as of late. The visionary sci-fi author PKD makes a reference to him in the last chapter (I think) of his novel Radio Free Albemuth. In a passage talking about the government using science fiction to disseminate propaganda, one of the characters playfully suggests that they utilize the prose style of Clark Ashton Smith, and they come up with a hilarious false story name (which I forget, and I don't have my copy of the book with me). It is revealing to know that PKD was familiar with CAS's work, because many of PKD's ideas could be traceable to such CAS fare as "The Plutonian Drug." Another strange context in which I encountered a reference to CAS was in an interview with the British experimental electronic outfit Cyclobe. One of their pieces is entitled "Genius Loci," which I had always thought was a nod to CAS, but they confirmed it in their interview, and stated that they preferred his and HPL's treatment of sci-fi to that of "pure" sci-fi writers.
Anyway, thought you guys would find this stuff interesting.

It's fascinating to see CAS's influences on the periphery of 'modern' culture. He is often described as 'forgotten'. Of course we all haven't.

Cyclobe and I have had a conversation or two on CAS and they sent me there cd gratis. I though the following quote from one of our emails would interest every one.

Quote:

A couple of
the tracks on this album were titled after Smith stories as works in
progress 'If you Want to see that nothing is left' initially being worked on
as 'A Star Change' one of my favorite Smith shorts. Clark Ashton Smiths
writing, artworks and sculpture have been very important to us, his
otherworldlyness inspiring. It's good to see you've been giving him the
electrical attention he deserves on the internet.

I have tried to get them to do something for the site -but they are busy.


PKD must be one of my top 10 sci-fi writers but i obviously have never read Radio Free Albemuth.

oh, and welcome aboard Daniel

B.:-D

It's interesting that so many British musicians are weird fiction enthusiasts (Rudimentary Peni devoted a whole album to HPL and David Tibet has established two weird fiction presses and collaborated with Ligotti).
As for Radio Free Albemuth, it's a good read, though not his best work. It was never published during his lifetime, and he reworked many of the ideas to greater effect in Valis.
I think that one can draw many parallels between PKD and CAS. Aside from the obvious (they were both oftentimes at odds with the pulp format in which they worked, they were both relatively unknown during their lifetimes but now command cult followings), PKD's deconstructions of the nature of reality and the way that human beings understand it can be seen as an extension of HPL and CAS's attacks on man's anthropocentric outlook on the universe. PKD's protagonists are forced to deal with phenomena wildly at variance with their accepted notions of reality, just as CAS and HPL's protagonists are confronted with new truths that force them to re-evaluate humanity's ultimate position in the universe. CAS and PKD are also both fond of irony and the grotesque. With Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury citing him as formative influences, CAS has had a really underestimated impact on modern sci-fi.

As for British musicians who appreciate CAS, don't forget Endvra, who released a musical interpretation of "Ubbo-Sathla", among other Dark Gods. Some American electronic musicians have derived great inspiration from H.P.L. and CAS, too, viz., yours truly. ;-) Since Boyd has authorized such doings in the past, I suppose that now is as good a time as any to promote my musical project's Web site: http://somnambulantcorpse.com/bestia_centauri . My interpretation of "Ubbo-Sathla" appears there, as well, in streaming audio.

John Balance of Coil is also a fan of Clark Ashton Smith, even owns a number of his paintings. I was offered some scans aeons ago so will have to follow it up when I get a chance.