Smith and Tolkien and Dunsany

A while ago I saw a notice that a day's conference on the works of Clark Ashton Smith was being held in January. I've never read much of Smith's fiction, though I've collected several books of it, and since attendance was limited I decided to sign up: I might learn something, if I was able to go. It's next weekend, and it looks as if I can. It's in Auburn, the Sierra foothills town where Smith lived most of his life, about 3 hours drive from here.

The organizers are asking each of their attendees to name their favorite Smith story. I never really thought in terms of having a favorite Smith story, but I decided on the one with a contemporary setting - a rarity for Smith, who usually preferred lost continents or decadent future ones - whose first line reads "I have seldom been able to resist the allurement of a bookstore." I can identify with that.

Concurrently, in the context of a Zoom meeting commemorating Tolkien's birthday, which was yesterday, we were asked for favorite moments from the legendarium, and I chose for a favorite single line one of Treebeard's from The Lord of the Rings: "I am not very, hm, bendable." I can identify with that one too, and I quote it often.

Renewing and extending my acquaintance with Smith, I find that I like him to the extent that he resembles Dunsany, which he occasionally does. (I have similar feelings about Lovecraft.) Smith's language is more ornate than Dunsany's, which is already ornate enough; and he's more caustic than Dunsany, who is already caustic enough. His plots don't quite land with Dunsany's punch. But despite Smith's esoteric vocabulary, I find his storytelling to be gratifyingly clear: I always understand where I am and what's going on, not true of many of today's highly-touted fantasy authors. My biggest problem with Smith is that, after a few impressive repetitions, I get a little wearied of his favorite recurrent plot, which is of greedy or power-mad people getting their due comeuppance in a truly nasty supernatural manner.

Though I can think of one greedy and power-mad person today who really deserves a due comeuppance in a truly nasty supernatural manner. O for a Clark Ashton Smith to chronicle it.