To his further disconcertion, he soon found that he had attracted the attention of a huge foggy monster with the rough outlines of a tyrannosaurus. This creature chased him amid the archetypal ferns and clubmosses; and overtaking him after five or six bounds, it proceeded to ingest him with the celerity of any latter-day saurian of the same species. Luckily, the ingestment was not permanent for the tyrannosaurus' body-plasm, though fairly opaque, was more astral than material; and Ralibar Vooz, protesting stoutly against his confinement in its maw, felt the dark walls give way before him and tumbled out on the ground. After its third attempt to devour him, the monster must have decided that he was inedible. It turned and went away with immense leapings in search of comestibles on its own plane of matter. Ralibar Vooz continued his progress through the Cavern of the Archetypes: a progress often delayed by the alimentary designs of crude, misty-stomached allosaurs, pterodactyls, pterandons, stegosaurs, and other carnivora of the prime.
- "The Seven Geases," in which Ralibar Vooz has to contend with ghost dinosaurs. Ghost. Dinosaurs. Also a carnivorous stegosaurus, apparently predating "Red Nails" by a few years.
What I'd really like for Blogger is a widget which allows you to post certain things on certain days which are relevant to the subject of your blog. Like This Day in History, but with specific events, rather than bringing up things like Orlando Bloom's birthday. That way I won't miss someone's birthday, deathday, publication, or other important events. REH's birthday's on the 22nd of January, and Conan's 80th comes this December.
Today's the 119th birthday of the criminally underexposed third man of the Weird Musketeers, Clark Ashton Smith. Hilobrow, Grognardia, and the Greenbelt all have tributes. Unfortunately, just like last year, I'm just going to have to relink to my Cimmerian tribute, and echo James' desire to reread "The Empire of the Necromancers." For now, I just wanted to provide my favourite passage from "The Seven Geases," for clearly discernible reasons. Hopefully Clark Ashton Smith was received by the Originals of Mankind in the Cavern of the Archetypes with pomp and circumstance, and didn't run into too many persistent megalosaurs.
CAS is one of my favorite writers EVER. Not only fantasy-wise. I am a great fan of the "Hyperborea" saga. One of my all-time favorites is, in fact, "The comming of the white worm". I have just finished with the "Zothique" stories and some of them are really great.
ReplyDeleteHe mixed horror, sex, cruelty, adventure, irony and magic like a true master.
(Blogger seems to allow "reply" now, so let's try it out!)
DeleteCAS is in my permanent top ten as well. White Worm is a fantastic tale with one of the most unique monsters I've ever encountered, and I love the apocalyptic tone of the story.
Never read any of his stuff, but I really like the quote above. In fact, I instantly made up my mind to go and try to find one of his books right away. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteAs with the Wasp, I agree with "The Charnel God." Most, if not all, of his weird tales can be found on The Eldritch Dark, which is also a brilliant resource for scholarship, biographical material and media relating to the Bard of Auburn:
Deletehttp://www.eldritchdark.com
Fredrik - Check out "The Charnel God" from the Zothique stories for a good, dark tale.
ReplyDeleteI celebrated CAS' birthday by listening to the recordings of short story "The Empire of the Necromancers", the prose-poems "From the Crypts of Memory" and "The Peril that Lurks Among the Ruins" and the poem "Ode to the Abyss" available at the eldritchdark website. Much talk of slow decay, the passing of shadows and the ultimate oblivion. I love to listen to the resonant reciting voice of Craig Nickerson. It matches the mood of the words very well. I agree that eldritchdark.com is a great resource, as you mentioned Taranaich. Clark Ashton Smith is definitely underappreciated. I especially like the opening paragraphs to the short story "The Abominations of Yondo" which one can read at the aforementioned www.eldritchdark.com (I am in no way associated with the website though my comments seem to be an advertisement for that website!).
ReplyDeleteGreat tribute from Matthew David Surridge on Black Gate: http://www.blackgate.com/2012/01/15/a-few-words-on-clark-ashton-smith/
ReplyDelete(Why are the comments suddenly so cramped on blogger? Someone please explain! It's getting hard to read.)
I write a little critique about the ZOTHIQUE stories. It is in spanish but maybe some of you can read it: http://poderfriki.blogspot.com/2012/01/las-oscuras-tierras-de-zothique.html
ReplyDeleteHello Taranaich... Many thanks for this post remembering the "High Priest" of the Dark Fantasy. Beyond any doubt, Klarklash-Ton is one of the greatest visionary of the past century and one of the most daring explorer of the dark side of the soul. His prose is a kind of spider web, that catch your imagination with its beautiful metaphors. Hi's my models as a writer; beside, I run a spanish blog devoted in part to him: www.zothiqueelultimocontinente.wordpress.com.
ReplyDeleteThe Past year, I translated a bunch of his pulp SF stories that were unpublished in spanish. You know, putting my dark grain of sand to strengthen his memory.
Is Empire of the Necromancers actually the debut of the necromancer as we know them today? Specifically, is that story where necromancy stopped meaning divination and started to mean raising dead bodies to do your bidding?
ReplyDeleteI know this is an old post, figured I'd comment anyway. Some fellow CAS enthusiasts and I started a podcast dedicated to his work a few months back. Give it a listen, if you're interested:
ReplyDeletethedoubleshadow.com
Don't worry about commenting on old posts, Unknown, I'm always on the lookout for new CAS material!
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