"Mr. Lovecraft has stated very lucidly and succinctly the essential
value and validity of the horror story as literary art, and there is
no need to recapitulate his conclusions. It has often occurred to me
that the interest in tales of horror and weirdness is a manifestation
of the adventure impulse so thoroughly curbed in most of us by physical
circumstances. In particular, it evinces a desire--perhaps a deep-lying
spiritual need--to transcend the common limitations of time, place, and
matter. It might be argued that this craving is not, as many shallow
modernists suppose, a desire to escape from reality, but an impulse
to penetrate the verities which lie beneath the surface of things; to
grapple with, and to dominate, the awful mysteries of mortal existence.
The attitude of those who would reprehend a liking for horror and
eeriness and would dismiss it as morbid and unhealthy, is simply
ludicrous. The true morbidity, the true unhealthiness, lies on the
other side."--Clark Ashton Smith
"Down through the ages from the birth of romance, and the first
emergence of story-telling, comes the horror tale. An inheritance from
the age of the birth of romance, a legacy from our savage forefathers
whose lives were saturated with spirits and beings, is our attraction
to the horror tale. I do not think that people read them because they
are an art; the reading public's first desire is to be entertained,
and in many cases, this is the first and last aim of reading them.
Entertainment!--of the same sort their forefathers had who crouched
around primitive fires, surrounded by invisible conflicting elementals
and unearthly personalities--a heritage from the past! First of all
it must be entertaining, and to be truly entertaining, it must be
'genuine' and 'powerful', as Mr. Lovecraft says, and in this sense it
will be classified as an art."--J. Harvey Haggard
"I should say that weird fans who have a taste in liking the outre
in literature have a superior taste, rather than a morbid one, a
sign of an inquiring mind, that is not satisfied with Wild West,
Gangster, or sickly mediocre love stories. But to explore the hidden
corners of things, whether it be the universe, the mind, or the
supernatural, is proving that one's mind is not smug or narrow. If this
be madness, insanity, or morbidity, glory in it, you weird and fantasy
fans."--Natalie H. Wooley
"There are at least three weird story authors I could list as my
favorites ... Merritt, Lovecraft, Smith. The only way I can settle
the problem as to which of these three is my favorite is to say that
I choose Clark Ashton Smith because of the quantity of consistent
high-quality stories he puts out. His stories are readable, and I might
go so far as to say, livable. The quality of making his yarns livable
to the reader is an outstanding one."--Kenneth B. Pritchard
We would like to know your views on any phase of weird fiction. After
all, this is _your_ magazine and we want your opinions to be put before
other fans. However, we must ask you to limit your comments to less
than 100 words, due to the small space available.
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