(A Diaglogue)
by Robert Nelson
Gerald: So you say that science fiction has fallen into decay?
Sidney: Precisely. By its own outlandish and inflated ridiculousness it
has been reduced to the tedium and monotony of everyday life.
Gerald: Oh, but you make me laugh, Sidney! What of weird fiction? How
can any one endure these everlastingly infernal vampire stories with
their borish waving of crosses to defy and fight off the vampire! I
dare say that if I should fling a putrid tomato at one of the accursed
things it would run helter-skelter!
Sidney: It is very true. Vampire stories are a bit worn, and deserve to
have gone out of existence long ago. But it is the weird tale, Gerald,
the sort of tale as produced by Lovecraft and Smith, that truly makes
weird literature something far more noble and beautiful than most
modern fiction, with its silly tea-lady romances, modern love, and high
society twaddle.
For an illustration of weird fiction, Gerald, let us take Clark Ashton
Smith's most superb tale, "The Double Shadow." Here we have one of the
most beautiful weird tales in the English language. When we read it we
experience the sensation of a sweeping and stirring symphony. We read
of Pharpetron, "the last and most forward pupil of the wise Avyctes,"
and how he and his master live in the marble house above the "loud,
ever-ravening sea." We see the wind-swept sea, the white towers, the
eerie demonisms and necromancies, the Double Shadow. It creates for
us a life which we would wish to live, and fills us with a sense of
eternal, majestic beauty of which we have been ignorant. All of this is
so beautifully weird. Is not this more appealing than science fiction?
Gerald: Of course it all depends upon the individual. But I suppose
the weird and macabre is more appealing, and rightfully, perhaps, it
is. But you mentioned and inferred that the weird tale, as executed by
Lovecraft and Smith, is the most worthwhile of the whole. Personally, I
like Robert E. Howard the best of them all.
Sidney: My dear boy, all three are great writers. We know that, but
it cannot be denied that Smith is a truer artist, and that makes him
the greatest. Oh, Gerald, if more people could only appreciate and
understand the significance of the weird tale! And if scribes could
only emulate Smith or Lovecraft or Howard! If they would only strive
for originality and beauty! But no! We poor and insignificant readers
of the weird tale must continue to be plagued with time-worn vampires,
witches, rituals, and other weird senilities!
Gerald: Well, why don't you try to write a weird tale, Sidney? You seem
to know all its merits and demerits.
Sidney: Well, because I--er--well, I just haven't the time.
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If you have any articles about weird or science fiction which you think
might interest the readers of TFF, send them in, we'll be glad to look
them over.
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