Mantichore 9

amateur press associations. Leigh Blackmore, 78 Rowland Ave, Wollongong, NSW 2500. Australia. Email: [email protected] Official Website: The Blackmausoleum – http://members.optusnet.com. au/lvxnox/

Mantic

Notes

(Pronunciation:'man-tik.

Etymology: Greek mantikos, from mantis : of or relating to the faculty of divination :prophetic).

Back to front: Perry Grayson, Phillip A. Ellis, Danny Lovecraft, Benjamin J. Szumskyj, Leigh Blackmore: (The Australian Kalem Club) at the Australian Museum, Sydney.

MANTICHOR E 3, No1 (WN9)

A Contribution by Leigh Blackmore for the Sword & Sorcery & Weird Fiction Terminus (Mar 2008 mailing), & Esoteric Order of Dagon (April 30 mailing)

Nothing seems to change. I’m more or less slinging this issue together at the last minute as deadline has crept up on me and life has been busy! [Stop press: I didn’t make deadline! I’m now writing my report on the Aust Kalem Club meeting on March 29, and have received Mailing #29 in which this should have been included. *Sigh* I’ll be emailing this to some members and mailing hardcopies to others, so I can stay in sequence with my mailings]. Probably should resign myself to the fact it will always be much this way – though I am trying to balance my health against the number of projects I take on, and not thrash myself… Over summer I did a course in Graphic Design (required for my Journalism degree) and had hoped to demonstrate my newfound

Photoshop & Illustrator skills here, but that will have to await a more leisurely issue. For now it’s a matter of – get it out in time for deadline! I received a Distinction for the Graphic Design, pleasingly enough. I’m now back at uni doing my last year of Creative Writing and my second year of Journalism. In February I was taken by surprise when I had a massive allergic reaction to something (virus, food, who knows?) and wound up in hospital for five days, with my whole body covered in a horribly itchy rash. Doses of Prednisone, recommended by the dermatologist, shut off the reaction but I’ll probably never know what caused. A bad episode that cost me two weeks of off-uni time which could have been better spent. I’m very grateful to my fantastic partners Margi and Graham for looking after me really well while I was ‘stricken’. However, I did manage to read a few books while in hospital – John Tytell’s Ezra Pound: Solitary Volcano (excellent); James Doig’s anthology Australian Gothic (very enjoyable); an occult book called The Book of the Glyph

which had some remarkable things to suggest about reallocating certain correspondences on the Qabalistic Tree of Life; and The Voynich Manuscript by Gerry Kennedy and Rob Churchill ( a fascinating overview of the history of attempts to decode this mysterious manuscript which some have attributed to Roger Bacon). I also listened to quite a few tapes and spoken word CD’s while flat on my back, including episodes of the Twilight Zone radio series that was scripted by Dennis Etchison a few years back. Good stuff. There were three family birthdays over the summer – Graham and Rohan both have their in November, and Margi’s is in February. The papers on our house have been signed at last and we are just awaiting the loan from the bank so we can start paying our mortgage – oh, joy! Margi is back at TAfe continuing her librarianship studies and Graham is teaching school as always, and about to recommence his anatomy teaching at Karuna College locally. I just ran a successful workshop at Lotus Bookshop on Aleister Crowley which I had needed to reschedule due to my illness. I’m proud to say my Powerpoint presentation for this (“Mythbusting the Beast: The Life and Magick of Aleister Crowley”) probably includes more photos of Crowley and his associates than have ever been assembled in one place.

I now have no less than three occult groups with which we are regularly involved, and we also do quite a bit of networking with other sections of the pagan community in NSW. Graham gave a talk on Pagan Ethics at a recent Pagan Community Weekend which was a sort of ecumenical talkfest bringing together various pagan groups and covens from around the state. This is all enough to keep one busy! I’ve also been flat out over summer reading novel manuscripts for the agencies I work for – several quite long ones. While this brings a bit of needed money for the family, it doesn’t exactly advance one’s own creative endeavours. I also proofread for pay the manuscript of a nonfiction work, Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery by Meredith Jones. Meredith an

academic and the wife of my friend Richard Trowsdale, who used to help me put together R’lyeh Texts publications. The book has now appeared (Oxford and New York: Berg Publishers, 2008) and will be launched in Sydney in April. Through Facebook, I reestablished contact with my old friend Jon Marshall – now

Dr Jonathan Marshall of University of Technology Sydney. He has a book due out shortly, Living on Cybermind, about internet communities, and we’ll be attending the launch for that in March. Jon is also an alchemist and a leading member of the Jung Society in Sydney, so I’m looking forward to catching up with him in person and discussing matters esoteric. I’m delighted to say that the new journal I ‘co-edit’ with Ben Szumskyj, Phillip Ellis and James Doig has now appeared – Studies in Australian Weird Fiction No 1 is 200 pages chock full of good stuff about horror and the weird in this wide brown land, capped off with a tasty cover by Cat Sparks. perhaps the least of its attractions is the inclusion of an interview with me. Ben Szumskyj brought this issue about almost single-handedly, and his dogged persistence (and vision) is to be applauded. I will be contributing more effort to future issues, and have a couple of interviews and articles lined up for inclusion in Issue 2. ASiWF can be obtained directly from the publisher, Equilibrium Books, at: http://www.equilibriumbooks.c

om/siawf1.htm (as can James Doig’s anthology mentioned above). Doig will be bringing out a second volume of stories by early Australian horror writers, and I applaud his remarkable research as well. James is a great new contact and I look forward to working more with him in the future. He may be appearing with Danny Lovecraft and me on a panel on fantasy poetry at this year’s Conflux 5 in Canberra, so I’ll get to meet him in person.

already taken notice of!). I’m looking forward to the new biblio, which will be current right to the end of 2007.

Speaking of Conflux 5, Margi and I have been invited to repeat our very successful workshop on real magick from last year’s Conflux, so we both cored free memberships for the con this year. I’ll look forward to running that again. The main aim is to give writers who use concepts of magick in their fantasy work a taste of what it’s like to cast a magick circle and work with different magical energies. Last year we included some sigil magick, though we may remodel our workshop this year to cover some different modalities.

With all this activity, I haven’t written any new fiction this year so far, though I’m working with Danny Lovecraft to bring out a small edition of my weird poetry. By the way, Danny Lovecraft’s P’rea Press has recently published Richard L. Tierney: A Bibliographical Checklist – a 48 pp thorough checklist of the work of this writer who looms large in the Lovecraftian community. Copies can be obtained by contacting Danny at: [email protected].

I lent S.T. Joshi some small assistance over the last few months with info on entries for his new updated bibliography of HP Lovecraft, now (I believe) handed in to the University of Tampa Press. My contributions were minor, though; I was unable to fill in much of the info about missing items that Joshi put forward; merely drew to his attention a few items that had escaped notice (and many that he had

Nearly forgot to mention that my story ‘Water Runs Uphill” finally appeared in Aurealis 38/39 (technically Sept 2007 but didn’t hit print until Jan 2008). It took another 3 weeks after

I received the issue to receive the payment - $180 Aust. This is the highest payment I’ve ever received for a short story. I was pleased about this appearance for a couple of reasons – one, the story is barely fantasy (save a twist at the end) and secondly, Aurealis is Australia’s longestrunning and, I suppose, most prestigious sf magazine, and I wanted to crack that market. It was also my first story published to receive its own full-page illo. Still, I won’t be buying too many Rolls-Royces with the proceeds. Writing for profit is, as my grandfather would have termed it, “a mug’s game.” This time around I haven’t kept a good record of films I’ve seen, so I’ll skip my usual commentary on those. I have been watching, though, THE HUNGER _ a boxed set of episodes of a TV series hosted by Terence Stamp. many of the episodes are based on stories by decent horror writers such as Karl Edward Wagner, Gemma Files, Graham Masterton, Robert Aickman and others. I’ve been enjoying those – still have many episodes out fo the 30 or so in the box set to watch. I have become interested in trying to track down all the films based on works by or written by Robert Bloch and Richard Matheson. Saw Scream of the Wolf, a Matheson TV movie from the 70’s I’d not seen before. It was just OK. I’m on the hunt to

track down all the Dan Curtis productions of Matheson stories (and indeed of other classic horrors that Curtis produced for TV in the 70s). This will be an ongoing project! By the way, if anyone has any of Bloch’s three Star Trek episodes (from the original Star Trek series) please let me know – I may be able to trade or buy copies if you’re willing. I’m also mildly obsessed with finding out if any of Bloch’s 39episodes radio series “Stay Tuned for Terror” survives. Most sources say the whole series is lost, but I wonder if anyone has really looked into this. Does anyone have any knowledge about good radio series archives? I believe the series was also broadcast by the Canadian broadcasting Corporation, so I may contact them to see if they still have recordings. I feel I should comment on a situation which affected my friend, the Holmesian and graphic novelist Chris Sequeira. Chris is actively involved selling comics scripts both here and overseas. He has also recently landed three new Sherlock Holmes stories with two important overseas anthologies. One is edited by Charles Prepolec for publication in Canada, and with that there is no problem. The other project is for publication by Wordsworth in the UK, and after being commissioned by their editor to write two Holmes stories, which Chris duly delivered, he was informed there would be

no payment. This strikes both of as odd for a number of reasons – the editor is wellknown, the publisher is a major trade publisher in England (though not renowned for generous payments, they go generally pay editors who then pay authors). The problem is, there was no contract signed. I think it’s unfortunate that Chris didn’t insist on a contract for these stories, but sometimes the writer follows promising leads in order to get a project in print, and he is the innocent victim in this situation. Writers should always guard themselves by clarifying terms of payment and getting a contract signed if possible, setting out the terms (whether it be payment on acceptance or publication, or whatever). If there is no payment involved, the writer should be told so upfront. In this case, there appears to have been a degree of deception on the part of the editor (whom I will not name). At least Chris’ stories will appear in print – but deserved to be paid for this work, and now will not be. All writers take heed! I I’m going to devote most of this issue to two things – mailing comments, on which I have been woefully deficient my last couple of issues – and a report on the inaugural meeting of the Australian Kalem Club.

MANTICHORUS: MAILING NOTES SSWFT Mailing #28

Quill (Ben Szumsky): Congrats on the Graduate Diploma! No idea how you managed studying and working fulltime. I’m looking forward to your essay collection on Blatty (American Exorcist). And of course The Man Who Collected Psychos (on Bloch) – for I will have an essay in the latter! I enjoyed your essays on the Lovecraftian influences in Hellboy and the essay on LeFanu, as well as the poetry reviews (good to see Phillip Ellis receiving due attention for his verse). Re: Hellboy and Lovecraft we have the other connection, of course, of Guillermo del Toro’s having filmed Hellboy and also being a Lovecraft fan who intends filming At the Mountains of Madness. I’ve not read enough LeFanu, though many years ago I saw a TV version of “Schalken the Painter” which was strangely haunting. Last year we were at Berkelouws bookshop near Mittagong in NSW – a mine of rare and desirable books – and I stumbled across a copy of a LeFanu reference rarity – Wilkie Collins, LeFanu & Others by S.M. Ellis (1931). Cost me $22 – probably worth five times that! I append the portrait of JSLF that appears in the volume. Hyperborean (Martin Andersson): Ah, those book acquisitions! I’ve got a Sheila Finch book – Reading the Bones – but

haven’t read it yet. I wish I had the Spiralling Worm – Conyers is a fellow Aussie but although we’re both in Southern Horror (the AHWA e-list) I’ve yet to really make contact with him. Nice that got HPL’s Marginalia! My copy has a very sunned spine – I think the pale jacket is prone to that. Yes, the photos are worth having. Ye gods, all those others I haven’t got yet, including recent Hippocampus Books. I MUST also get Shadows Seen and Unseen by Smith…can’t afford not to have a complete collection of CAS! You read a large number of books as well! I like Fred Phillips’ term Terminal Bibliomania – I confess that I too suffer from the disease! Yep, Tierney’s Drums of Chaos seems to be on the way finally – fingers crossed….Tolkien is not foremost amongst my literary interests, although Margi and Graham are devoted fans. Tolkien is somehow not horrible enough for me, though his and Lovecraft’s worldbuilding techniques were similar in their sense of authenticity. Interesting piece about John Morressy, whose work I haven’t read; always nice to see a biblio checklist, too. Hi Freya – enjoyed your musings – and indeed your amusing story about jumping the line with the “great tracts of land!” (you’re obviously a Monty Python fan, too!). Change-Winds (John Howard): Yay for pics in apa mags! I like seeing other people’s bookshelves. I used to have a lot of the Derleth

mainstream novels – all the Judge Pecks, the various kids books etc, the poetry, but I sold them all off and kept only the weird. Had to do it, to fund purchase of other weird books. Oh how I wish I could afford to buy Ash Tree Press books. I have ‘em all in my Book Mooch wishtlist – but people rarely seem to give them away – wonder why (lol). Typos are indeed very annoying – Aust Studies in Weird Fiction No 1 has some bad ones and I must talk to Ben about better proofreading next time around! Nightmayericana (John Mayer): Well, we missed you for a couple of contributions but it was nice to see this one. I’m sure we’ll appreciate whatever you can put in, even if it’s not every mailing. I like your image of being a “pirate nurse”! Sad but poignant piece on the death of your dog. I love animals and I know that all animal-loving members would have been touched by this piece. I used to love Fredric brown, but haven’t read him for many years. Interesting reflections on organ donation. I had cause to reflect on the issue when I was in hospital. The guy in the bed next to me was awaiting a kidney transplant and had been waiting six months, without knowing when or if he would get a good organ. I’d hate to be in that position. That poem you quote was indeed by Lovecraft. It is “The Dweller” (No XXXI of his ‘Fungi from Yuggoth’ sonnet sequence).

You left out four lines of the end sextet, which reads in full: “And then we saw those stone steps leading down Through a choked gate of graven dolomite To some black haven of eternal night Where elder signs and primal secrets frown. We cleared a path – but raced in mad retreat When from below we heard those clumping feet.” “The Dweller” first appeared in The Providence Journal (7 May 1930), was reprinted in The Phantagraph in 1935, in Weird Tales (March 1940) and Weird Fiction Times (Feb 1976). It appeared in book form in Corwin Stickney’s rare tribute HPL (1937) , in Donald Wollheim (ed) The Macabre Reader (1960), in HPL’s Collected Poems (Arkham House, 1963), and in his The Ancient Track: Complete Poetical Works (Night Shade, 2001 – see pp. 76-77). If you first read it about 50 years ago, maybe it was the Weird Tales appearance you recall? Elegant Amusement (Phil Ellis): I think your Lovecraft parody “On Being Shat on by a Swan” is hilarious. It perfectly captures the flavour of Lovcecraft’s rather appalling Pope-influenced verse, while taking the piss completely. Most amusing! I believe my horror writer friend Bryce Stevens (no respecter of Lovecraft’s more dignified poses) would also find it so. If I were more familiar with the poetry of Wallace Stevens, I

might have greater appreciation for “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Mi-Go”. Strangely enough, your Lovecraftian version clearly follows the structure of a typical (or famous) Wallace poem, so get some idea what the original was like simply from reading your parody. you’re a clever man, Mr Ellis. Your four prose poems this issue are beautiful. My favourite is “In the Groves, an Ocean Broods”. Also like the incorporation of your zine title into “Winter Wolves.” Your piece replying to Simon Whitechapel’s criticism anent Tolkien and CA Smith was intriguing. I suspect what Whitechapel means in referring to Tolkien as “sentimental” is that Lord of the Rings (the work for which Tolkien is best known) is essentially what M. John Harrison would term “fantasy of consolation”. We could consider in this regard a quote from Iris Murdoch: Art presents the most comprehensible examples of the almost irresistible human tendency to seek consolation in fantasy and also of the effort to resist this and the vision of reality which comes with success. Success in fact is rare. Almost all art is a form of fantasyconsolation and few artists achieve the vision of the real. - Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good

M. John Harrison has written: “The idea of consolatory fantasy makes me want to puke. It’s not that you can’t have comfort, or even a happy ending of sorts, but to me the idea that the purpose of a book should be to console intrinsically means the purpose is therefore not to challenge or to subvert or to

question; it is absolutely status quo oriented completely, rigidly, aesthetically - and I hate that idea. I think the best fantasy is about the rejection of consolation… using the fantastic aesthetic to do the opposite of Consolation.”

For further on this theory, see a LiveJournal entry by Cameron Willis: - http://caindevera.livejournal.com/8997.ht ml Some writers consider that fantasy overall too easily takes refuge in consolatory visions of how the world could be, rather than confronting it as it is. There is a dialectic here that could be (and has been) discussed at length. I can’t enter it at length in mailing comments. Far be if from me to criticise Tolkien, or to defend Whitechapel, but I think there is no doubt that Tolkien’s political stance was essentially reactionary and conservative, and that the values espoused in LOTR tend to the consolatory in that they hold up a view of a vanished, preindustrial England as the ideal. This, of course, doesn’t detract from the many complex spiritual and fantastical ideas in his epic masterwork, nor from the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have been turned on to fantasy via the medium of his fantasy trilogy. Certainly his immense scholarly knowledge gives Middle Earth a sense of reality that is rarely found in other, less academic fantasy writers. The matter of Tolkien’s style could also be debated at length. And I agree with Whitechapel that Tolkien’s

titling one of his volumes The Return of the King is an ‘antirational, loss assuaging element’. (But it is also a variant upon the old Arthurian myth of the Wounded Land, a fundamental trope of fantasy). Whether one can respect Tolkien’s yearning for a longvanished pastoral England or not depends on one’s own political views. Tolkien’s Catholicity, I believe, contributed to a worldview in his fiction that is essentially conservative and consolatory (yes, that’s a pejorative where I’m concerned); but I respect the richness of his imagination within his imagined framework. I would like to know more about Shippey’s theory of entrelacement as a structural element in Tolkien’s work. Dalriadic (Scott Sheaffer).: Congrats on 51 issues! I hope things with the job and daycare for Owen work out. Nice essay on the Twilight Zone episode. I appreciate this sort of material, for as a near50 year old, I find myself becoming fonder and fonder of the type of programmes in horror/sf/fantasy that I watched when I was growing up – TZ, The Outer Limits, and all those great old horror shows like Ghost Story, and so on. The difference seems to be that in those days they often either adapted the work of decent horror writers (Bradbury, Bloch, Matheson, Beaumont, et al) or had those writers scripting for the TV shows. Ya just don’t get the likes of Rod Serling writing for

TV anymore. Curiously, I recently picked up a box set of a TV show called Ridley Scott’s The Hunger. Some of its episodes are hosted by Terence Stamp, others by David Bowie. Some of its episodes are based on stories by decent horror writers – e.g. Robert Aickman and Karl Edward Wagner. Though not all the filmed episodes of this show hold up to their initial promise, it was still refreshing to see filmed versions of stories that were well-crafted in the first place. It’s mentioned in your mailing comment that Martin’s partner Freya is dyslexic. So is my partner Margi. We find that her condition means that often she talks things through at great length, as it’s easier to come to conclusions by verbalising thoughts. Occasionally Margi misspells things or gets directions wrong, but this doesn’t detract from her remarkable talents as a poet and novelist. I still don’t understand dyslexia all that well, though. It’s a mysterious condition that I’ll probably continue to explore as we go along in our relationship together. Opharion VI (Mark Valentine): Ahem, yes, that Sherlock Holmes anthology! Your story sounds fascinating, I must admit. I like the fragments of information that can sometimes lead to inspiration for a tale. Crowley’s Diary of a Drug Fiend is a hoot - I read it years ago in an old Abacus paperback edition. I

envy yoru easy access to the Continent! Bruges, Florence and Trieste indeed! We get an annual trip from Wollongong to Canberra….I see you know Ben Fernee, an occult bookseller from whom I have purchased, on occasion. I’m very interested in Dee and the Enochian magic system, and moderate a group on Facebook about it. I’m interested in your de la Mare collection. I intend to do work on de la Mare at some stage, taking advantage of the extensive collection at Sydney university’s Fisher Library. Des Lewis’s series Nemonymous series sound similar to the publication Consensual, out of Western Australia. These are erotic sf stories, and author’s names are withheld until the issue following. I enjoyed the overview of the year you offered in this contribution (pace Wordsworth!). Koshtra Belorn (Mike Barrett): Enjoyed this further piece on Paula Volsky. I must get hold of that “Giant Rat of Sumatra” story for my Lovecraft-related collection. Marvin Kaye is a too-little recognised anthologist and author – I have his The Possession of Immanuel Wolf and Other Improbable Tales.

EOD Mailing #141 Hesperia (John Haefele). Congratulations, Grandpa. I read the Derleth article with interest. It always seems there is still more to add to the saga! What is Anything? (Joshi) I always read of your doings

with admiration verging on wonder, and am sorry that at present you feel “close to exhaustion”. Your prolific output is truly astounding, and I wonder how you can keep up the pace. Thanks for the extracts from the forthcoming HPL biblio. Years ago (as a younger HPL fan) I wrote all over the world for copies of theses on Lovecraft – cost me a pretty penny. These days it’s just nice to know of them. Perhaps I’ll have a chance to write my own sometime soon – I may do postgraduate work when I finish my current Double Degree. I confess that while I have followed your plungings into Bierce, and even read several of your books about atheism and prejudice, I probably will not buy all the Mencken projects. But I admire your ongoing research on such writers. Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos should be a delicious read. I can hardly wait to hold a copy! I’ve been in touch lately with Gemma Files, a good friend of Caitlin R. Kiernan’s – if you enjoy Kiernan’s work you might enjoy Files’s as well. The forthcoming Hippocampus books are making my mouth water – only pray that I don’t actually salivate onto the Letters of HP Lovecraft and August Derleth when I eventually tremblingly hold a copy in my hands! As for the slate of other projects in which you are engaged, I can only echo your “gag me with a spoon!”. EOD Letter (Ken Faig): Loved reading about Ben

Clough, and even the transcribed annotations in his copy of Marginalia were fascinating! Criticaster (Stephen Walker): Always enjoy your findings about Lovecraft in pop culture and various media. Forgotten Horror Icons (Randal Everts): Fascinating read about Rondo Hatton. I’ve not yet seen any of Hatton’s movies, though always read about them in reference books. This has piqued my interest again. Aurora Borealis (Martin Andersson) : Yeah, I wish a had a spare hundred thou for “The Shunned House” ms. Oh wait, here it is my in my piggy bank. Lol John Pelan’s project on Long’s fiction is intriguing – I’m yet to learn to what extent it may overlap with material intended for publication by Perry Grayson (now resident in Oz – see Aust Kalem Club report below). XIIth Legion (Sean McLachlan): Interesting piece on Lovecraft in Spain. I wonder why no bios – I would have thought Joshi’s Lovecraft: A Life would have made it into Italian, French and Spanish by now. And surely the Spanish would have a version of Houllebecq’s Lovecraft: Against the World (not that it’s a bio, but it’s a European appreciation of the Old Gent). Also enjoyed the piece on Phillips Gamwell. And while I don’t intend buying into the ongoing Koran/terrorism controversy, I applaud your bringing forth of original quotes from which Mr Burleson

took some of his arguments in previous issues. If one is going to criticize, one must contend with the actual texts in context. Morgan & Rice Gazette(Don &Mollie Burleson): Enjoyable notes on doings and holidays, including the “festival” Solstice, which sounds wonderful. I think it’s going overboard, (and simplistic) whether or not one agrees with the viewpoint of radical Islam – to claim that the contributions of the Islamic world to culture of various sorts is long ago and elementary. The problem I find with the ranting you’re doing here, Don, is not your opposition to religious fanaticism – to which you’re perfectly entitled - but the way in which you seem to be identifying all Muslim people as irrevocably extremist, stupid and fanatical. It’s just not so. In Australia, people of “Middle Eastern appearance” are continually being subjected to prejudice and legal action, and as with most of the 9-11 suspected terrorists, often without a shred of evidence for any wrongdoing. – Let’s face it, religious fanaticism exists in great degree in America, with its fundamentalist Christian millions who are quite willing to support a saber-rattling President who wants to bomb the hell out of most of the Middle East to protect oil and military-industrial complex interests …I’m also curious how you reconcile your philosophy as a scientist with the interest in UFO’s that you have – many people may

regard that as simply “mindless superstition”, which is what you accuse the Muslims of. Now I’m an occultist, and I share the view that there are “more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy” – but your anti-Muslim stance seems to me to be verging extremism itself, and I think any form of extremism is to be guarded against. There are elements of Muslim religion which are extremely oppressive – certainly to women – but again I would point out that systems of domination and oppression exist deeply in Western societies – it’s not just the Middle East that has a monopoly on that. What about the Pope’s plan to reintroduce exorcists and fund a whole new batch of witchhunters in every parish throughout the worldwide Catholic dominions?... Well, I didn’t come in on the beginning of the conversation, but I’ve followed it through a few issues. It seems to me to be a complex issue, and not as simple as you are (in some ways) making out. Enough on this, I am more interested in other issues. Raw New Things (John Goodrich): Just got Dissecting Hannibal Lecter and will read your essay this week. Comments next time if I remember. So you know David Conyers? Maybe we could all hook up one day and write a Cthulhu Mythos story! (lol). The review of the Japanese Lovecraft series was

informative. One day I’ll get these suckers – and the other books reviewed in your issue. Redux (TR Livesey): This piece on Lovecraft and astronomy is certainly the most solid piece of Lovecraftian criticism I have seen in the mailings for a while. It encourages me to try and do some more solid articles instead of just waffling! Ibid (Ben Indick): Glad to hear you’re better. I envy you your meetings with St, Wilum et al. Glad you get Ned Brooks’ fanzines. I dropped off his list for a few years, but now get It Goes on the Shelf and It Comes in the Mail again. I agree they are delightful. Nice piece on “The Outsider” and your wartime activities. Also enjoyed the piece on Merritt and HPL. I’ve been reading Merritt’s The Moon Pool for the first time. My story “The Return of Zoth-Ommog” is set in Ponape – I conceived the idea before I realised that Merritt’s novel was set there – and I steadfastly avoided reading the Merritt until my own story was written and published, to avoid influence. I’ll get around to reading the rest of Merritt at some stage. Drake’s Potpourri (David Drake): Nice insight into your notetaking and research techniques David. Kommati (Fred Phillips): I was intrigued by the folklore reference about spiders and Lovecraft’s poem “Lament for the Vanished Spider”. And yes, that CS Lewis quote sounds surprisingly Lovecraftian! “The Commentary

Resh” was a good read and I look forward to the next part. In Thelemic (Crowleyan magick), ‘Liber Resh’ is a daily adoration to the Sun performed by all good Thelemites. Much as I enjoy reading your contribution, Fred, the typeface you use is so tiny it does my eyes no good – is there any chance you could switch to a 12point font? It’s been good to communicate by email with you on a few occasions recently.

THE AUSTRALIAN KALEM CLUB: SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF THE INAUGURAL MEETING, JAN 2008. In January I had what I consider to be an historic meeting with fellow fantasy and horror fans in Sydney. My close friends Chris Sequeira and Bryce Stevens were both unfortunately unable to make it, but the gathering that did result consisted of myself, Danny Lovecraft (poet and proprietor of P’rea Press, Sydney); Phillip A. Ellis (poet and bon vivant); Benjamin J. Szumskyj (definitely not a poet as far as I know but accomplished in many fields); and Perry Grayson (rock muso, and proprietor of Tsathoggua Press). The occasion was really that Ben was visiting Sydney from WA (thousands of miles away

on Australia’s west Coast from Sydney, which is on Australia’s East), and it was a rare chance to meet with him. Phillip also travelled all the way down from Banora Point in Northern NSW for the occasion. There was quite a Lovecraftian flavour to the day, although talk ranged far and wide across our favourite authors in the fields of horror and fantasy. Despite the intense summer heat of the day, I had a thoroughly delightful time – such a gathering was one I had dreamt of for many years. We started at the steps of Sydney’s Town Hall, where we exchanged gifts (mainly books) and I believe everyone was quite chuffed to engage this act of potlatch! I received a CD of Donald Sidney-Fryer reading Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Hashish Eater” and a copy of his “CAS: The Sorcerer Departs” (Tsathoggua Press) from Perry; and Ben gave me a magnificent gift – the first volume of Smith’s Collected Poems (Hippocampus Press). Danny also gave me things which I can’t recall at this distant date, but suffice to say I was bowled over by everyone’s generosity!

L-R: Perry, Danny, Phil & Ben.

We then visited Galaxy Bookshop, Sydney’s premier sf bookshop. Various of us made purchases…My budget could only stretch to one book. I bought the English-language edition of Michel Houllebecq’s H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (I had it in French, thanks to bookmooch, but needed the English text). There were many other books I could happily have snaffled had the funds been there, but I tired to content myself with this. Then we adjourned to Ashwoods, a secondhand bookshop of many years’ standing in Sydney, where a few further purchases were made. I bought back a copy of Penelope love’s Castle of Eyes (inscribed to me by the author) which I had sold (amongst many others) when in the throes of divorce some years previously! Phil and Perry ducked in to have a look at Abbeys, another bookshop with a fearsomely good and tempting range of stuff. Then we went for breakfast at Jet Café in the Queen Victoria Building. Danny, as is his wont, had been entertaining myself and Ben with pointing out various architectural features of the Queen Vic Bldg, reminding one more than anything of how his namesake, the great HP himself, used to hold forth knowledgably about architectural features when accompanied by his friends.

Leigh (front), Danny, Goulburn St, Sydney.

L-R: Phil and Danny at Jet Café

L-R: Perry, me and Ben at Jet cafe Over food, I had various of the attendees sign copies of books and things they had published (it’s called being a groupie!). I believe I also signed an old out of print copy of Terror Australis that Ben had gotten hold of somewhere. Ben was extremely generous in ‘shouting us’ all (good Aussie term that) to our repast, having paid before the rest of us had any chance to protest.

Ice-cream eating in honour of Lovecraft! L-R: Phillip, Perry & Ben (at back),

on

We then made our way through St Andrews Cathedral I wish I had room to include all the photos here, but this issue would be too large if I did. A few religious differences between us surfaced during the visit but all was amicable! Then it was a slow amble down to Darling Harbour. En route, we stopped off for ice-cream – this was a truly Lovecraftian touch, and necessary , for the day was extremely hot. Danny and I (at least) were tempted to engage in a replica of HPL’s famous ice-creameating contest where he and colleagues sampled all the available flavours, but we curbed our enthusiasm enough to be content with getting five different flavours between us and sampling some of each. Another fab experience I had always wanted to indulge in with like-minded fans! At the shores of Darling Harbour, today a highly commercialized tourist precinct with parks, rides, convention centres, museums and hotels, we picked a spot to stand while Danny declaimed a passage from Lovecraft’s ‘the Call of Cthulhu”, concerning the arrival of the Vigilant with New Zealand yacht in tow, and a rescued seaman found in possession of an odd stone idol. While we didn’t go to the place where the old paddlesteamers would have actually pulled in, it felt right and

proper to be honouring Lovecraft in this way in this vicinity.

Lovecraftians and Smithians, as he has met many of them. Phillip, Ben and Danny all had nuggets of information and curious, eldritch speculations to make anent current developments in Robert E Howard studies, fantasy poetry and other aspects of our chosen genre.

The age-hoared wharves of eldritch Darling Harbour! LR (back): Ben, Phil, Perry; (front): Danny, Leigh. From Darling Harbour we trudged back via the Town Hall Square and across Hyde Park towards the Australian Museum, which is (of course) the location in Lovecraft’s story of the hideous stone idol of Cthulhu. We talked long of our favourite authors and even of their sexual proclivities, and (of course) of the multifarious publishing projects we have going between us. For me it was truly the nearest thing I could imagine to walking the streets of some city like New York with HPL and his friends in the original days of the Kalem Club. Phillip had a habit of darting ahead of the pack at the traffic lights, and we often found ourselves waving at him across the trafficchoked byways. In Hyde Park we sat beneath a shady tree, and recuperated our energies while continuing our ‘meeting of the minds’. Perry was a mine of information on American

“Here the encumb’ring weight of age Its bitterest force a while resigns, For sylvan spells reverse the page, And bare the long-hid earlier lines” (HP Lovecraft). L-R: Phil, Ben, Danny, Perry in Hyde Park, Sydney.

Then we entered the hallowed halls of the Australian Museum itself. I have been there many times over the years, as my grandparents used to take me there when I was a child. And I had written a Cthulhu Mythos story (“Close to the Bone”) in the 1980’s that is set there.

In the Aboriginal cave, Australian Museum, Sydney : L-R: Perry, me, Phil and Ben. After a bite to eat in the museum café, we had a fine and intriguing time looking around the exhibits on various levels. The photograph of us inside shows us within a replicated Aboriginal cave. It was part of an exhibit of indigenous paintings and culture. I have included a photo at the beginning of the issue showing us all in the Museum’s central hall. Other photos from the day will have to await future publication, but there’s one here of us standing outside near the Museum steps.

Bradbury’s ‘The Jar” and Charles Finney’s The Circus of Dr Lao. It should perhaps have been called “The Circus of Dr Szumskyj”! We parted on a cordial note, having had an exhausting but extremely enjoyable day. Thanks to Danny for preparing the itinerary, and thanks to all the guys for one of the most memorable and enjoyable excursions I have ever had. I hope that the Australian Kalem Club will meet at least annually, as Ben promises to visit Sydney again in the future.

Freaks of Dr Szumskyj’s circus: L-R: Danny, Phil, Perry, Ben.

At the Australian Museum, Sydney. L-R: Phil, Ben, Danny, Perry. Finally, we crossed again to Hyde Park (the other section of it, this time). The Sydney Festival was on, and across from the amphitheatre where we were sitting, I glimpsed what looked like a circus hoarding. I suggested we take our final photograph in front of it, for it put me in mind of such classic horror stories as