Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - The Cthulhu Dynasty - "The Nameless City" and "The Hound" by HP Lovecraft

Abe Sargent · 04-19-2012, 07:24 PM

Review of The Seven Geases

I love this story so much. First of all, you won’t find a better example of CAS’s dark humor. My favorite example is when the

Spoiler

He deconstructs his own story IN the story, and that’s crazy funny. He shows you such a large and sprawling world under the mountain.

This was published in 1933 and was a great story in the Hyperborea cycle, and it also demonstrates Smith’s different view on Tsathoggua in specific and all of the entities in general. All he is in a powerful, bloated deity that happens to be powerful and therefore gets sacrifices feeding to it.

There are some who believe that Abhoth and Ubbo-Sathla are the same creature, viewed at different epochs with different names. The Mythos does play games like that, and you will read of an era in which Cthulthu is spelled and pronounced Kultult or something. But these are radically different names. They have similar appearances, and my guess is that they are related – parent and child or aunt and niece or whatever.

Anyway, you can see the influence on early D&D as mentioned above, the influence on the Mythos, and the fact that it’s simply a great story.

I honestly believe this is a five outta five, and it is to Clark Ashton Smith what The Call of Cthulhu is to Lovecraft. We still feel it’s impact to this day.

A lot of people are turned by the ending, which they see as lazy, but I think it was the only ending possible. As I look back on the story, I can’t think of a ending that would have better fit the story. So if you don’t like it, you are not alone. Many others agree, and we can discuss it away!

I expect that we will come back to Smith later.

04-19-2012, 07:24 PM	#46
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Review of The Seven Geases I love this story so much. First of all, you won’t find a better example of CAS’s dark humor. My favorite example is when the Spoiler lizard folk, who are scientifically oriented say that the mystic geas is nothing more than hypnosis. He deconstructs his own story IN the story, and that’s crazy funny. He shows you such a large and sprawling world under the mountain. This was published in 1933 and was a great story in the Hyperborea cycle, and it also demonstrates Smith’s different view on Tsathoggua in specific and all of the entities in general. All he is in a powerful, bloated deity that happens to be powerful and therefore gets sacrifices feeding to it. There are some who believe that Abhoth and Ubbo-Sathla are the same creature, viewed at different epochs with different names. The Mythos does play games like that, and you will read of an era in which Cthulthu is spelled and pronounced Kultult or something. But these are radically different names. They have similar appearances, and my guess is that they are related – parent and child or aunt and niece or whatever. Anyway, you can see the influence on early D&D as mentioned above, the influence on the Mythos, and the fact that it’s simply a great story. I honestly believe this is a five outta five, and it is to Clark Ashton Smith what The Call of Cthulhu is to Lovecraft. We still feel it’s impact to this day. A lot of people are turned by the ending, which they see as lazy, but I think it was the only ending possible. As I look back on the story, I can’t think of a ending that would have better fit the story. So if you don’t like it, you are not alone. Many others agree, and we can discuss it away! I expect that we will come back to Smith later. __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent