Mantichore No 6

MANTICHOR E 2, No 2 (WN 6) (March 2007)

A Contribution by Leigh Blackmore for

Sword & Sorcery & Weird Fiction Terminus amateur press association. Leigh Blackmore, 78 Rowland Ave, Wollongong, NSW 2500. Australia. Email: [email protected] Official Website: The Blackmausoleum – http://members.optusnet.com.au/lvx nox/ Human body images in this issue are from Images of the Human Body (c) 1999 Agile Rabbit Editions

From "The Manticore" by Robertson Davies

"...On a chain you held a lion, which was staring out of the picture. The lion had a man's face. My face." "Any other details?" "The lion's tail ended in a kind of spike, or barb." "Ah, a manticore!" "A what?" "A manticore is a fabulous creature with a lion's body, a man's face, and a sting in his tail." "I never heard of it." "No, they are not common, even in myths...But why are you a manticore?...What about the manticore?" "Well, as he is an animal, I suppose he is some baser aspect of me. But as he is a lion, he can't be wholly base. And he has a human face, my face, so he can't be wholly animal...Very well; if I accept that the lion represents my somewhat undeveloped feeling, what about it?" "Not a lion; a manticore. Do not forget that stinging tail...The manticore can be extremely dangerous. Sometimes he is even described as hurling darts from his tail, as people once thought the porcupine did...Head of a man, brave and dangerous as a lion, capable of wounding with barbs? But not a whole man, or a whole lion, or a merely barbed opponent. A manticore. The Unconscious chooses its symbolism with breath-taking artistic virtuosity."

IN THIS ISSUE Mantic Notes………………………………2 Bryce J. Stevens………………….Cover art Films seen………………………………, …2 Books By My Bedside…………………….4 Interview with August Derleth (translated from the Dutch fanzine Cthulhu)……………...5 Two Acrostics on HP Lovecraft by Bryce Stevens. ………………………………....14 Four Poems by Danny Lovecraft………….14 Four Poems by Phillip A. Ellis……………15 Two Poems by Margi Curtis………..16

Mantichorus: Mailing Notes …….. ………..16

Mantic Notes Once again I find myself preparing this issue in some haste, and so I am including somewhat more material by writers other than myself than I usually would. Since Christmas I have been accepted into the new Bachelor of Journalism degree at the University of Wollongong. I’ll be doing this as a Double degree alongside my existing Bachelor of Creative Arts (Writing), so it’s looking like a busy year ahead. I’ve also started work for a third manuscript assessment agency (Driftwood in South Australia) as things have been extremely quiet from my other two agencies, and in fact Jan Scherpenhuizen, owner of LYNK agency, has decided to sell his agency in order to return to Europe. Would have loved to buy him out but, of course, have no money! I have also started several more Yahoo discussion groups including ones devoted to writer William Hope Hodgson and artist Rosaleen Norton, and have my own blog at http://360.yahoo.com/leigh_blackmor e. (Check it out!) Regrettably, I’ve not had time to add any more publications to my lulu.com store, but hey, that will come. (I did actually receive my first revenues from www.lulu.com for sales of print copies and downloads of my three publications there – a massive amount of US$7.70! Wow! I feasted that week). Most of my summer break from uni I spent selling on Ebay, in a desperate (and largely successful) attempt to pay for things like Christmas, presents for Margi’s 50th birthday

(which we celebrated in Feb) and uni fees. Margi has started her librarianship certificate at TAFE, we’re co-facilitating MoonSkin (our ritual working group) again this year, Graham is teaching school and lecturing in anatomy and physiology, and life is generally hectic. Also, as I write this, Margi’s mother Angela (91) has just passed away and we are in the throes of making the funeral arrangements. It’s a difficult time, although Angela passed peacefully. Hopefully by next issue our lives will be a little more stable.

Films Seen Desperately Seeking Susan: Had never seen this and we got it out to see what we had missed back in the eighties. Not much! A fairly lame caper about mistaken identity, with some Madonna songs on the soundtrack. Way outdated and not recommended. Pink Panther (Steve Martin): Basically crap. A few laughs, but not the inspired lunacy of the original Peter Sellers versions. Not recommended. Astronaut’s Wife: This wasn’t too bad, a sort of aliens-have-taken-overmy-husband thriller that worked on some levels. Overall, however, I found it a bit predictable and it seemed to have been made for a mainstream audience, so the alien bit wasn’t ramped up as much as it would have been in a genre movie. Charlize Theron is always yummy but she was a bit cold in this one. Recommended though. Capote: A very good movie. Great period detail and production design. I never knew much about Capote and his approach to the writing of IN COLD BLOOD. The movie shows how manipulative he was of the killers, in order to get the story that would make his career. An amazing performance from Phillip Seymour Hoffman (very different from his role as the bad guy in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3). Highly recommended. Gangs of New York: I really liked this movie. Performances were excellent, the historical period of 1840’s New York was brilliantly

depicted, and even though Cameron Diaz was a little unconvincing as a pickpocket, she was tolerable, as was Leonardo di Caprio. Best performance was Daniel Day Lewis. A bit like one of Scorcese’s gangster movies such as GOODFELLAS, but in an earlier time period, with some brutal killings. My partner thought there was too little character redemption but it didn’t bother me too much. Highly recommended. The Beach: While watching this, realised I’d seen it before. It had made so little impact on me that I’d forgotten it completely. It does have a sort of Lord-of-the-Flies crossed with Heart-of-Darkness via Brett Easton Ellis theme, but overall – nup! Not hardcore enough. Only recommended if shark attacks are going to freak you out, and you enjoy Leonardo di Caprio – I find him OK myself. Rosemary’s Baby: Watched this again recently. It still holds up as a good thriller of evil witches. Some of the dream sequences are great and have that real oneiric quality of the best early Polanski movies. Recommended if you’ve never seen it. The Prestige: Another movie I loved. Based on Christopher Priest’s novel. Priest has written some of the most amazing fantasy novels, which often hinge on identity switches, such as THE GLAMOUR and THE AFFIRMATION. I am also a huge fan of his ‘Dream Archipelago’ stories. The movie was somewhat different from the book but still fairly entrancing, I thought. My brother Kent, who is a real-life stage magician, enjoyed it even though it’s not one hundred percent accurate in regard to some historical facts (e.g. Chung Ling Soo). David Bowie was curious as Nikola Tesla – not a bad performance. Highly recommended – you have to see it rather than hear about the story. The Haunted Palace: Strangely, had never seen this Lovecraft adaptation from the 1960’s, directed by Roger Corman, until I recently obtained it on DVD. Not bad – better made than the Corman Poe versions, and despite being allegedly titled

after a Poe poem, basically a reworking of Lovecraft’s CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD. Some good stuff about the Elder gods in a coupla scenes, and there is a copy of the Necronomicon about. Vincent Price gives an excellent performance. Though the script by fantasy/horror great Charles Beaumont struggles valiantly with the material, it ultimately becomes a tale of Price’s revenge upon the villagers of Arkham for burning him at the stake – not enough about the thing in the pit and the “Essential Saltes” of Lovecraft’s book are left out entirely. For a better version of CDW, Dan O’Bannon’s THE RESURRECTED is still the go. But the ultimate version remains to be made. Silent Hill. Quite enjoyed this, even though it’s based on a game and I usually don’t like game-based movies. Very Clive Barkerish dark imagery. Got confusing at the end, but still maniacal horror entertainment. The Scarlet Letter. Well-acted, straight version of the Nathaniel Hawthorne story. Never cared much for Demi Moore but she was OK in this, as was Gary Oldman. Considerably like The Crucible, which I had seen not long before – hardly surprising as they are both set in the same New England era. Lie With Me. An erotic drama which promised quite a bit but was ultimately somewhat uninvolving. Hostel: Haven’t seen many of the recent crop of horror movies such as SAW etc. I thought I’d check this out to see what I’ve been missing in the graphic horror department. Apart from the fact that the poster one sees for it, with an image of an electric drill in a man’s mouth, is not actually anywhere in the movie, the film is more or less what it promises to be. Unfortunately 9as in so many movies where odious American teenagers are slaughtered), we don’t care enough about the characters. The violence is graphic enough, but the ending more or less cops out – a simple revenge ending. I was encouraged to see this by a length review which called it postmodernist horror, but I think the reviewer was having himself on.

The Tenant. An old favourite which used to creep me out – the scene where Polanski finds the tooth in the wall especially, and those weird scenes where he is being watched from across the courtyard by the people standing in the bathroom at night. Still holds up well. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. This was great fun. Geoffrey Rush as Sellers, doing his most famous roles, and showing what shit he could be in real life. Lady in the Water. Hmmm. M. Night Shmyalan. I kind of enjoy his movies without ever having been blown away by them. This was refreshingly different, at least, with the water sprite legendry being ingeniously used, and some offbeat humour. Not altogether convincing, but worth a look. 16 Blocks. Good drama with Bruce Willis as a copy trying to get his witness sixteen city blocks to testify in a trial. Nice to see Willis playing an old fart for once. Good action. Transporter 2. A flimsy storyline in this sequel to The Transporter, something about a chemical or virus that will infect everyone at a conference once they breathe it. Some great action sequences, but not as good as the first movie. A Study in Terror. An old favourite in which Sherlock Holmes solves the Jack the Ripper murders. Curious to see (now Dame) Judi Dench in an early role. Atmospheric, with a good Holmes/Watson team in John Neville as Holmes and Donald Houston as Watson. Murder by Decree. Seeing the last inspired me to rewatch this, yet another old favourite, in which (again!) Sherlock Holmes solves the Jack the Ripper crimes. With Christopher Plummer as Holmes and James Mason as Watson, a poignant teaming indeed; a great script, and all-star cast; this is a memorable movie. Based on the Stephen Knight JACK THE RIPPER : THE FINAL SOLUTION theories (as was the much later FROM HELL and Alan Moore comic book which the movie was taken).

BOOKS BY MY BEDSIDE

Yozan Dirk W. Mosig. MOSIG AT LAST: A PSYCHOLOGIST LOOKS AT H.P. LOVECRAFT. Necronomicon Press, 1997. This book was published nearly ten years ago and is still in print from the publisher. I only obtained it recently, after trying to catch up with many Lovecraftian publications I’ve missed in the last decade. It’s a volume well worth having, since it collects all Mosig’s best essays on Lovecraft. Mosig virtually founded the field of Lovecraft studies, having been S.T. Joshi’s mentor before retiring from the field for many years. The volume adds some more recent essays by Mosig, including “Lovecraft, Buddhism and Quantum reality” which includes perhaps the most cogent explanation of the tenets of Buddhism I’ve ever read (Mosig is a martial arts instructor and Zen Buddhist as well as devotee of the Old Gent). Also a few tribute essays to Mosig by Lovecraftian big names like Cannon, Joshi and Price, and one by his daughter. Highly recommended. Leo Vinci. GMICALZOMA: AN ENOCHIAN DICTIONARY. London: Neptune Press, 1992. This is an expanded edition of a work first published in 1976. Vinci seems to have been part of an occult group

called The School, and his wife Madeleine knew Aleister Crowley and was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. I wonder of this was Madeleine de Montalban, a woman of whom mention is made in various works connected with Crowley? Vinci’s writing style and syntax is somewhat lacking – the book (despite being in second edition) – badly needs to be proofread and copy-edited, but there is (amidst the occasional off-topic ramblings) some information to be had. The first half consists of biographical information about John Dee and Edward Kelley and their angelical workings which gave rise to the magical system known as Enochian; though I’m sure this info is readily available elsewhere. There follows a brief survey of the Enochian system – too brief to be really useful – a better guide is something like Schueler’s ENOCHIAN FOR BEGINNERS. A section on pronouncing Enochian comes to no firm conclusions, since the language of the angels is written down but its pronunciation is not fully known; the Golden Dawn had its system and Vinci suggests some changes. The rest of the book consists of the Enochian-English and EnglishEnochian dictionary, plus a reproduction of the Enochian calls or Keys and a list of the Aethyrs. All this is readily available elsewhere as well – Laycock’s COMPLETE ENOCHIAN DICTIONARY is far more comprehensive – so I regretfully conclude that the Vinci volume is suitable for the beginner only, and is probably dispensible for anyone who has delved much into this complex system of magick.

Seth. POST-MODERN MAGICK. A fairly crap book on chaos magic that I sold after I finished reading it, as it added little to my knowledge. Anyway, it can be downloaded from the net. David Hughes. THE GREATEST SCI-FI MOVIES NEVER MADE. Chicago: Acapella Books, 2001. I picked this up for $5 in a bargain sale. It’s a good entertaining read about 20-odd movies that should have been made but hadn’t been at the time this book was written. Some have since come to the screen, such as the movies of Thunderbirds, HitchHiker’s Guide, and the latest Superman. But will we ever see Silver Surfer, I Am Legend (Ridley Scott) or The Watchmen? A well-researched book with much behind the scenes information about the wrangles between scriptwriters and studio honchos. Recommended.

AUGUST DERLETH INTERVIEW Note: This

appeared in a Dutch Lovecraftian fanzine in the early 1980’s, CTHULHU Nr O. (Issue Zero was a tryout issue for the magazine). I had it translated by a Dutch friend in 1983. It’s been awaiting English publication for over 20 years. Now at last, here it is! Please excuse some of the clumsy English as the translation is more or less the gist of the interview but some of the English is a bit clunky.

In every summer there is an evening (especially if it is un-Dutch warm) in which I think back with a certain melancholy on a boiling hot day in July, by the way already a quarter of a century ago. To be exact: The 15th of the seventh month in 1957. At the

time I was a guest of August W. Derleth in his little 'middle class' abode (which we however in our own country would call a flourishing country property) on the outskirts of Sauk City, WI, USA. August Derleth, author of fabulous books like WALDEN WEST and WISCONSIN COUNTRY, but that did not mean a great deal to me at the time. More, much more message/meaning had I concerning Derleth as a founder/owner of the fantasy and horror specialised printer ARKHAM HOUSE. Short Intermezzo: In military service I came for the first time in contact with this type of literature (maybe lecture if you like) and became so spellbound by it that I decided to become a collector. Although in the fifties there was not a great deal of fantasy and horror available for collection. It was here in Nederland a 'hidden child' and the harvest was in fact extremely meagre. But my intensive tracking (a visit of at least five bookshops in the country) confronted me quickly with the name Arkham House. And also with the names of authors: Lovecraft, Smith, Howard and Derleth. I had made up my mind: I had to go there! The opportunity came quicker than expected. My employer at that time thought it necessary that I should absorb the atmosphere of a large American daily for a month. And after arriving, I took a few sheets of letterheads of that paper and wrote to Derleth a letter asking for an interview. He replied straight away that I was very welcome. Once I was sitting down with Derleth, his enthusiasm cooling considerably when he understood I was not working for the New York daily (only detached) and I had no single influence on the editorial staff. He hid this disappointment bravely. And when I told him I would do my utmost to introduce Arkham House in the Netherlands, Derleth became again as friendly as before and the bourbon even arrived on the table. But putting this aside.

That afternoon and all of the evening we talked. Or rather, Derleth talked and I listened. Listened to a man who looked quite different from what I had imagined. He seemed with his large, heavy-built frame, his hands like coal shovels, his brown conspicuous head and his grumbling, certainly accented voice, more like a midwestern farmer than a writerpoet. His clear blue eyes, hardly blinking, nailed you to your chair, but at the same time I thought he was not looking at you but through you, at more interesting subjects behind you. I also won't talk here about his own literary work and its connections. And what he told about Arkham House and the authors was total news to me at the time, but so much is written later about Arkham House, that most of what I listened to on that warm evening, is now known. Derleth belonged, together with about ten more recent authors, to the so-called LOVECRAFT CIRCLE, every one of them young writers, who were mesmerized by the stories of Lovecraft, which were published in WEIRD TALES. They wrote admiring letters to Lovecraft, which he always answered in a friendly manner. And when they sent him manuscripts of their own stories, they often got them back corrected or sometimes totally rewritten. But this always was done in such a manner as not to frighten a beginning author away. Every one experienced the remarks and corrections of Lovecraft as a building critique and a help on the road to the difficult art of writing. The same had happened to Derleth, whom I quickly was allowed to call August or 'Augie'. When Lovecraft died in 1937, it was felt by all members of the Circle as a great and personal loss. Derleth and Donald Wandrei (also a member of the Lovecraft Circle) decided then, as a posthumous homage to the man who had always stood by them with advice and actions, to bind and print all the works of Lovecraft themselves.

Thus the birth of Arkham called after the non-existent Arkham, in which a lot of the happenings in Lovecraft's took place.

House, town of horrible stories

When the Second World War started, Wandrei was called up and Derleth had to cope on his own. And what he achieved in between 1939-1957, and also years more afterwards, is really bordering on the unbelievable. He wrote his own works, ran Arkham House (did all correspondence with authors, designed contracts, had business talks, edited manuscripts, made them ready for the press, had contracts with compositors and printers, corrected proofs, supervised the archives of all books, noted orders, wrapped the books and delivered to post office) and also tried to find time for his young family. So he did not get more than four hours' sleep per night. The money Derleth earned from his own books he put back in Arkham House and because of that he could later print work of other Lovecraft Circle members like Robert Ervin Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Frank Belknap Long, Vincent Starrett and others. Derleth talked. I listened. It became later and later, the second bottle of bourbon was empty. 3/4 of the whisky he had drunk himself, but not a trace of drunkenness was noticed. When he showed me my room at about 2 am, he had a thick folder under his arm. "If you don't feel like sleeping yet, have a look at this. They are full of letters of Lovecraft to me. Wandrei and I are playing with the thought to bind and print soon all the letters he has written to the members of the Circle." The rest of the night I did not sleep another wink. In that large, dead silent house (also outside there was not a single sound) I read spellbound and sometimes also touched, through the whole parcel. Often letters of more than 10 pages, written in a small spidery handwriting, with recommendations

of books Derleth "absolutely had to read." A lot of letters also exposed Lovecraft's loneliness. A loneliness he tried to expel by writing long letters, always with the pressing request to the addressee to answer soon. We were to breakfast at 7am, and I came down the stairs, dead tired, with the complete folder of Lovecraft letters. I stress complete, because I had very much to resist temptation to pinch "one" Lovecraft letter. Only one...Derleth would after all not kiss it? And would I then not be the only European who possessed a real Lovecraft letter? besides: Much later it came to light that Derleth was very much aware of how many letters he had given me to read through that night. But that is another story. The parting was short. I thanked Derleth for his hospitality, and invited him in my turn for a visit to the Netherlands. It never eventuated, however, more's the pity. I also did not have the occasion to meet him later once more. From 1957 on, Derleth and I kept up a regular correspondence and in 1965 I could at last tell him with great enthusiasm, I had found a Dutch publisher for several Arkham House collections. Derleth was elated and gave me all the help regarding it being exclusive. At least...if he would be paid, because he was enough of a businessman. Thanks to Bruna's at the time editor Erik Lankester (it was I who introduced the name Arkham House in the Netherlands, but his support has, mildly - I I Part thereof: [in English in magazine] This stencil/letter is dated 'Year's End, 1966'. From a letter of the 13 Feb 1976: [in English]. Augie, so it appears, rises again above bodily and mentally. Arkham House flourishes as never before, averaging seven to eight editions per year and a sale of 500 copies per week. He writes on the 25th March 1968: "Yes...[in English].

At that time, Augie is already seven years separated, and is solely responsible for the upbringing of his children. But early in 1969, he again gets to know a woman: Caitlin. In April of that year: "Thus far..." [in English] Quick consultation with Lankester. Will Bruno publish those love/lust letters? Erik joins straight away: "Let him send them!" is his reaction. "If Bruno does not want to, I will take them to a printer friend. Straight away I will write a letter to Sauk City. Augie answers happily: He will send the copies. Arkham House. From correspondence with Derleth it became clear that Arkham House in the USA was also on the rise. But like so often in life, large success in the business, but not so in personal ways. When I once more read through the fat parcel of Derleth's letters, I stumble suddenly on a letter, of which the top one is a sort of stencil. They never arrived however. Has Derleth sent them? Or did they maybe get lost in the post? I don't get an answer to my letters anymore (there were five or more in the rest of that year). At last...half December news. On the 10th he writes: "Back at last..." He also mentioned the amount of that 'tremendous debt' over $17,000 - not a word in that letter about Caitlin and the love letters. I answer immediately but don't receive an answer anymore. Only the Arkham House publications from that period are sent, until the middle of '71. That lengthy silence. I try to take up contact with John Ramsey Campbell, author of THE INHABITANT OF THE LAKE with whom I now and again exchanged letters. But he did not react either. Suddenly I found myself in a vacuum and I did not know what to do anymore. August died in 1971. Even today I still don't know when, or how, he died. A (probably misplaced) feeling of piety has always stopped

me asking information to Derleth's daughter April Rose, whom I on that July evening as a two-year-old had a moment on my lap, because she would not go to sleep. No, the spirit had gone. August was dead, and August was Arkham House. In that period, Erik Lankester also left Bruna. And Erik was Bruna. Our favourite storyteller Kees van den Broek also respected horror (and rightly so, for his Spanish translation in particular received the Martuinhus Nyhof prize). The fun had gone for me altogether. Farewell Arkham House. But sometimes there are those warm summer evenings. HPL did not write science fiction according to his own criteria. SF, a tailend style in the twenties, a new universe, which soon filled itself with rockets with roaring, firespitting engines, Martians, and other princesses, space pirates, glorified crazy professors obsessed by 'the impulsion of knowledge of the unknown', beautiful paper daughters of those same professors, who however were only there for the benefit of the illustrators, flying saucers, flying cigars, flying soupbowls and a mile-long gathering of malicious BEM'S (see note b1) It is not surprising that HPL soon got a thorough dislike for the whole style. AMAZING, ASTOUNDING and THRILLING WONDER STORIES ran riot, and the bulk of the SF production seem to exist of the drainwater of the classic 'soap opera' (traditionally renamed later 'space opera') or masked westerns. This immature pulp SF already meant quickly a big disappointment for Lovecraft, who probably had expected the style would develop itself in the more literary traits of HG Wells and his contemporaries. Lovecraft could hardly appreciate EE Smith, Stanton A. Coblentz, and Co. he never knew a FOUNDATION or a future history, and Clarke, Asimov, Van Vogt, Sturgeon and all the others were still unknown in the SF world, and perhaps they would not be either to his liking. In any case would he

have abhorred the modern 'speculative fiction' like a pest, with its twisted story structure and useless language-experiments. In his essay "Some Notes on Interplanetary Fiction", Lovecraft specifies his own opinions very clearly and takes a stand to defend what good SF (although he did not use that word) should be. The central theme of the story should always be the great unknown self: the realistic, almost crushing 'sense of wonder' which an earthling undoubtedly has to feel when he fully realises he is really away from his own planet and finds himself in space or somewhere on a totally unknown planet. Lovecraft has some cutting remarks about the routine, cardboard personalities who terrorise the bulk of the pulp Sf by their presence in the typical 'Super-Science' stories of his time. Moreover, did he express his annoyance about stories that pretended to take place in an utmost distant future, which according to Lovecraft usually led to the grotesque and the totally unbelievable fantastic. A science fiction story always has to have its foundation in reality, has to find its strength in the description of the spacecraft and the journey itself and in the illustration (inventive but fundamental logic) of unearthly worlds and beings. So, indeed, by his own yardstick, Lovecraft did not write SF. But: Is SF the Lovecraft understood it to be? Whilst reading already the first sentences, one noticed that Lovecraft's "Guide to the Writing of a Good SF story" is enormously dated; logically, seeing he based himself on the only type of SF he knew. SF has changed enormously since that prehistoric time of the pulps. Thousands and thousands of pages are filled with definitions on SF and added commentary about it, without one agreeing amongst one another, or ever will. A real effective definition would only be possible in the form of a catalogue of themes, which says specifically: this is, this is not SF, and

who is going to judge that? Because at the basis of judging whether a story is SF or not, lays still mostly the theme of the story in question. And about this, we will knuckle down to the themes which Lovecraft himself brought up in the stories of his pseudoscientific Cthulhu Mythos, more specifically in "At the Mountains of Madness" [in English]. Following the first short summary of some themes - Extraterrestrial beings of a distant galaxy land on the primitive earth and create there in an artificial way the first protoplasmic life - octopus-like beings, derived from a totally different universe start an eradication war against these beings - unbelievable Cyclopean towns are built underneath the earth's crust and on the bottom of oceans. - It is possible by the use of mathematical formulae of unearthly complexity, to travel through hyperspace and to bridge in this manner enormous distances. - Beings can be invisible to us because the electronics of their bodies possess a different vibration frequency from those in our universe. - Enormous godlike beings slumber in pseudo-sleep in their town on the ocean bed, where they are imprisoned by a superior intelligence. - Machines which can exchange the thinking 'id, the 'ego' of a being, with the ego of another unearthly being from the past or future. - An enormous library, where a race of superbeings note all knowledge and science of the universe. A carefully detailed history of extraterrestrial races, their original glory period and downfall, with explicit detail of their psychology, biological outlook, their establishments, arts, way of life, politics, economy, etc. If all this is not pure SF, what is it then? Already in one of his most recent stories, BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP (1919) Lovecraft leans on the SF themes by a combination of dreamworlds in parallel relativity via a different dimension with a farremoved part of the Milky Way, so

that the dream becomes an arch towards the total space. The detailing however is still predominantly on the imaginary domain, so the SF parts are only used in a pseudo-rational explanation for the so-called supernatural. In "From Beyond" (1920), we meet a beloved personality from the pulps: the 'mad scientist' a learned man, who has developed a machine whereby he comes in contact with extraterrestrial beings which live amongst us, but exist in a different dimension not noticeable by us. Only six years later, Lovecraft gets spellbound again with Sf with "The Call of Cthulhu" (1926). Although the story in itself develops in pure horror style (in spite of the pseudo-rational writing and communication technique Lovecraft applied here) the same way as the two previous ones, we do find that the theme (style): an enormous octopuslike being which possesses telepathic powers, and uses then during his pseudo-sleep in the sunken city of R'lyeh, this story qualifies as pure SF. In 1927, Lovecraft wrote his spooky story about an elemental vampire strength which crashed to earth in a meteor, the inside of which has a colour not of this earth - "The Colour Out of Space". Not only did this become the first story in which the readers discovered a specific actual SF theme (the invasion of space) but it also meant Lovecraft's first story in a real SF magazine. In spite of the fact this was one of Lovecraft's best stories, with his detailed sinister illustration about the lurid change which came over the valley and its inhabitants where the meteor came down. It got rejected by Lovecraft's regular market, the magazine WEIRD TALES. Frank Belknap Long, one of Lovecraft's best friends, sent a sample to AMAZING STORIES without knowledge of the author, in which it was printed to Lovecraft's great amazement and joy. Much closer to the traditional SF, in particular in

their working-out (setting-out) is "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1930) in which beings of the planet Pluto, the 'Mi-Go', contact an earthling. They travelled through ethereal spheres, moving them selves with their membranous wings and could take the kept-alive brain of an earthling with them in special cylinders. This seems to us an absurdity now, but the atmosphere in 1939 was yet a big speculation. Lovecraft stuck strictly to his own rules and described the apparatus of the MiGo, although he was wise enough not to go into too much technical detail. A remarkable fact is that precisely in Lovecraft's SF none, or very little place is for the 'sense of wonder' of which he himself was such a fierce advocate: in Lovecraft's universe there is only room for the 'sense of fear', a specific form of terror and fright, which only can be called 'cosmic horror'. Because whereas in the SF the earthling stood in devastating amazement towards the puzzling universe, Lovecraft placed him at the mercy of a hostile cosmos, in which humans became toys of powers against which no defence was possible, because they were too unearthly and too superior. Lovecraft's heroes tried to fight, but they are doomed to lose before they start. They are symbols of our smallness, our transitory state against the endlessness of the universe. But Lovecraft's aliens also seem to be misshapen images of the negative points of humans: they are predominantly evil itself, which either live for destruction or overpowering, or are otherwise just as unearthly in thought and opinion, that we can only interpret them as total destructive powers. Even the 'positive' ones are so far above us that they simply are not interested in such primitive beings as the humans. "The Whisperer in Darkness" is also a curious hybrid, who is a sort of contact between the supernatural and the scientific Cthulhu Mythos. Mind that Lovecraft himself had no intention to work out this double, and never made a specific index himself. So the Mi-Go are fungus-like beings, which worship several of the Old

Ones, as their gods, amongst which is also Cthulhu himself. They hold sabbaths (in the way of black masses) and practice blood sacrifices. This is ultimately to strengthen the horror part of the story, but is a bit anti- the predominantly pseudo-scientific trend of the story. The next year Lovecraft finished one of his most important works - AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS (1931). A short novel of more than 100 pages. Here is for the first time in Lovecraft's work the pure horror (which only occurs in the first part and then particularly in the last pages which end in a typical HPL climax). Put in the background in respect of the pure speculative execution and detail of Lovecraft's 'history of the earth'. In the remains of an enormous underground city, discovered by a polar expedition, they find sculptures and murals from which the complex history of the Old Ones is put together; of how they came to earth and created life there to serve them and how this amoeba life did reel and in the end developed to the human being. Lovecraft had deep doubts about the value of this story and Crawford thought it too long and chose "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" instead. So it was not until 1936 that "At the Mountains of Madness" appeared in ASTOUNDING STORIES and even then only in a shortened version. (WE just note here that all the dates are when a story was written, not when it was published). For the first time, Lovecraft showed some sympathy for his nonEarthlings: The Old Ones are almost symbolising the humans, and their history is a cosmic tragedy, almost parody with the Frankenstein legend. Also the Old Ones created a form of life in their pride, which they could no longer subdue and which destroyed them. Casual readers of Lovecraft’s stories are again confronted with amazement about one of the many paradoxes, which occur in Lovecraft's Mythos stories. For the Old Ones in this story are not the nasty demon-

beings they are in most of the other stories; in fact the Old Ones in this story (the star-headed aliens) compare with the good elders from other stories and are fully rationalized in the trend of the pseudo-science version of the Mythos. No more reference to the black magic, demons and horror dimensions, although the novel ends on a sharp note of fright/terror (P.14) The same mixture of SF and horror we also find in "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1932), which one initially is meant to read as a variant on the classical spook story, develops quickly as disguised sf. The Salem witch and her familiar Brown Jenkin, a ratlike being with a beardlike and sharp-toothed human face and human hands, can travel through a different dimension outside space and time. The Witchhouse itself is built with bizarre corners that have a special mathematical meaning, so that the house in itself becomes an entrance gate to Hyperspace. The storyteller who sleeps in this house, enters this maddening hyperspace in his dreams. Lovecraft describes in detail the essence of a world outside ours, occupied by unreal things, indescribable formed masses of unearthly coloured substances, threatening shadow beings, anorganic clumps are octopuslike and centipede like, which live constantly in a storm of spectrum sound and unrealistic colours. The storyteller gets transported through this hyperspace to the centre of the universe, in which Azathoth reigns on his throne as the nucleus of a general chaos. A different aspect comes to the foreground in "The Shadow Out of Time" (1934): the large race, beings who live outside the borders of time. They lived - live - in the prehuman past and have a library in their enormous stone towns, through which the past and future of the earth is laid down.

They 'fish' for ghosts through space and time to complete their books. It is the story of a present lecturer at the university who gets snared by their machine, and whose spirit gets transferred into one of their own beings, whilst one of the others takes over his body. Just like in his other longer stories, the theme hits here also by its greatness and tragic, and Lovecraft succeeds to convey to a perhaps no cosmic 'sense of wonder' but indeed to a cosmic 'sense of awe'. Lovecraft also wrote his part in a round robin story, "The Challenge from Beyond" (1935). This was a story on which 5 authors collaborated (A. Merrit, CL Moore, RE Howard, FB Long and Lovecraft) and each wrote several chapters. Although it was meant as a horror story (at the same time five other writers wrote for the same publisher a sf round robin story with the same title) it was Lovecraft who saw to it in his own section for the scientific rationalism of the theme. Also in the same year he wrote together with Kenneth Sterling the bitterly sarcastic "In the Walls of Eryx", in which an earthling becomes imprisoned in an invisible Martian labyrinth, from which he tries to escape in vain. Lovecraft was in the first place a writer of horror stories and the bulk of his sf stories are set in this trend. Notwithstanding stories (like mentioned in this article and his creation of the pseudo-scientific Cthulhu Mythos) assure him of his rightful place amongst the other early writers of modern sf. Notes. 1. BEM's- Bug-eyed monsters with protruding eyes. Nickname for just about all 'aliens' who occupy the early sf and were defined as bad, dirty and lustful. Favoured subject for front covers. On the average cover is a rather naked but still pure girl (often wearing a space helmet) dragged away by a gourmet BEM with eyes on stalks, octopus arms, feelers, tails, scales and super-

weapons. The twosome get chased by the hero, who is usually the assistant of the mad Professor (which is her father). BEM's sometimes appear in nice roles, but their popularity has strongly declined since the sf became more adult. The classical BEM's are the leather-like jellyfish Martians from Wells' "War of the Worlds". 2. A summary of the in-Dutch translated works of Lovecraft you'll find elsewhere in this issue. BOOK DISCUSSION p. 23 The subtitle already tells what it is all about: A BIBL... Arkham House, for anybody who does not yet know, is the most important, decent and best organized publisher for horror stories (including sf) that ever existed. The publishing company was founded by Lovecraft's friend Derleth (after Lovecraft's death in 1937) with the intention of issuing the best works of Lovecraft in one book. For this purpose Derleth sacrificed all his money, took out mortgages and published (after many delays) THE OUTSIDER, the book that is still the cornerstone of the library of every Lovecraft fanatic. The contents of that famous first book is already several times reprinted in other volumes, and just as well, because the original printing is already a long time priceless. Derleth made pre-publicity for the book $3.50, when it at last was printed the price was $5 and it took years before the first edition (only 1268 copies) were sold out, and that for America. Whoever wants to get hold of the book now, usually has to search long in antique shops, will have to form out from $450 to $650 dollars, depending on the state of the book and the jacket (of Finlay). No, this is no fable: such prices are current on the collectors market for nearly all the first editions of Arkham House. I can verify that I bought in

about 1972 Hodgson's THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND AND OTHER NOVELS, without jacket, in a reasonably good state (gold print on back discoloured, pages slightly yellowed) for $5 and three years later I bought the cover separately (from Hannes Bok) in a brand new state for $2.50. Five years afterwards, when I needed money, I sold the book with cover for $45. I am sorry now, because the dealer further sold it for $110, and the present value is close to $200. These and other interesting items one can find in previous cited book, and still much more: fully bibliographic description of every book Arkham House ever published. short notes about the content (shamefully not a full content) quite a lot of interesting anecdotes about books, publishers and writers (some of them are essays within themselves) plus of course an introduction to Arkham House itself, a list of those titles which never appeared or appeared under a different title from the one announced on the flaps of previous books. (Did you know for instance that Ramsey Campbell's THE INHABITANT OF THE LAKE was originally called THE BOX IN THE PRIORY?) A listing of these books and other publishers who were sponsored by Arkham House (like THE BEST SUPERNATURAL STORIES OF HP LOVECRAFT, and the several different anthologies put together by Derleth for Rinehart etc) A listing of suggested basic collection of Arkham House books for the starting collector. Jaffery supplies with every book a price valuation of the book on the present market. A book that in other words is very interesting for whoever is interested in Lovecraft and the horror story in general, but that also of course has a bibliographical importance. For the more general reader: Arkham House keeps all Lovecraft's works constantly in print, the stories as well as the five volumes of SELECTED LETTERS. Arkham House books are bound in black leather with gold print, and with a cover by well-known illustrators. The most recent

publications sway between $12 and $14, normal for a hardcover in America.

Here are the photos I promised last time of my meeting in

Wollongong late last year with poets Danny Lovecraft and Phillip A. Ellis.

Great guys. Phillip is the bearded one. I’ve known Danny for many years as a fellow enthusiast of Lovecraft, Poe, Bloch and other writers. I’ve known Phillip now for three or four years, have contributed to his online Calenture, and hope to do more work with him in the future.

Two Acrostics on HP Lovecraft

by

Bryce J. Stevens

I. Harbinger of a new Dark Age Power of his creation Loathsome be the hybrids Out of primitive imagination Variant woods so dark at noon Eros with staff of Hali Crypts face silent oily waste R’lyeh doth wait with fervent haste Arkham rules oe’r night shafts From Cold Waste heights so clam The Boreal lights do charm. II. Hearken to ancestral call Power to the book of lore Liquid beings slough off kin Out where time and space are torn. Vultures wing o’er carnage waste Ensuring food for hungry days Ceres bathes with cold wan light R’lyeh doth wait with fervent haste A dread of unseen things, a frightened child forlorn Forested glens and fanlight panes To Providence and fancied wonder borne.

Dipping hugely past the Big Dipper And so crazily near the radiant glass slipper It did not this time away dissolve At the numinous near stroke of twelve They blazing swung on in carless mode Deep in the juniper abysses’ flashing ode. The boy he wore a reddish robe The girl a diaphanous kobe And the cords of the swing hung down from the stars Into nearly the earth’s early hours On a wooden-like seat of grainy light They purled on their purpureal swing of delight. Rocking creaking backwards and forth In the capture of joy’s deep head (to north) Flecking against all the astral stars Midst all the gold and silvery cars Happiest nodding like deep-flung flowers Ina forever garden of radiant hours. They soared and were relentless In their following of featherness Like coronets in wind spinnachering For to be in love is uplifting and dizzying! Thus were their sweet looks magnetized To each other’s dream eyes synergized….

Mystical

Four Poems by Danny Lovecraft Swing of Delight (Astral) On an astral swing (of swooned delight) The boy and girl were swinging flight Like a giant flashing arc of light Transparent in the glimmering light And silken set against the wilden stars Beyond earth’s door of isobars.

Female sunrise Like a cloud of cosmic jewelry Climbed succinct Out of the blue bath Of morning horizon And ascended Like a cloud of soaring tiara A crystal topography Into the nude morning sky Upon her ripe breast Like a necklace of blazing glass Vitreous nymphs danced And dressed…like molten jewels

Enigma Looking back on dream

And all that it might seem Was yet grasped bull by the horn Like breast pricked on a thorn That one of the Nightingale That all for love did sorrowfully wail And like Memnon by the Nile Who then sought to eternally smile.

Grapey Bubbles I…stumbled into a Fantasy Village about dawn And that had nebulous cobblestone Under the foot for dreamy traipsing Like from one dream to another capsizing As if a bubble of perfect life Were floating from some luminous strife That glistening in its shining world Was amongst so many other bubbles hurled That bulging bunched on each other were Like extraordinary kind of cellular fare. For a second then I saw two other billion Bubbles shining up from one in a trillion…

Four Poems by Phillip A. Ellis Flying Surely I fly high on the wings of spirits of sky far from life’s stings. Surely I fly forever unfurled, soaring high over the world. Surely I fly surpassing all dreams, all human lies, all human dreams.

High on the wings of phoenix I’m hurled, forgetting all things that are earthwards curled. High on the wings of spirits of steams, I hear the winds sing hymns in their reams. Far from life’s sties, arenas and rings, surely I fly high on my wings.

My Witch-Mistress I love my witch and mistress high, although she rules with darkened heart, because before her height I lie a worm prostrated by love’s dart, a slave to love and loving art because, I must confess and swear, my witch and mistress rules me fair: I fall before her power rare. She makes my every word a lie and every pulse both long and smart, she makes me long to love, then die when used, fallen, I fall apart. She makes my heart desist and start, she makes me fall to trap and snare, my witch and mistress rules me fair: I fall before her power rare. I’m weary till I cannot hie, alike a passioned, fearful hart, I’m weary, weave a lonely sigh feeling her cantrips bind and tart, but know, beyond all creed and chart, my heart my witch had caught, ensnared; my witch and mistress rules me fair: I fall before her power rare.

She shall not Leave me while my Powers are Vast My heart had vowed to leave my own,

and so my puissant runes I cast. She vowed to leave it all alone, and so I cast my runes at last. Because of seeds that others had sown I vowed to never give to grief. Because of discord that had grown I cast my runes against the thief That sought to steal my love. Naïve was that fool, whose happiness had passed.

My dream can exorcise my ghosts, defy, debilitate my runes. As fair and fulgent as my runes are, fully fairer than my dream, they stand as whispers to my ghosts, or stand as insects to my drakes, and so, with casting of my cantrips, I live, defying all the days. The runes I cast in all my days, my dreams defying all my ghosts, are drakes defiant of my cantrips.

She vowed to leave me past belief, and so my puissant runes I mastered.

Rune-Mastery Both vast and measureless the days defying mastery of runes, defying mastery of cantrips and ancient arts. And I may dream of mystic scenes and of the drakes and angels, phoenixes and ghosts. Although I dream of these and ghosts, although I dream’ and in the days, the call of phoenixes and drakes reminds me strongly that my runes are strong, nay, stronger than my dreams, are strong, nay, stronger than my cantrips. Although with casting of my cantrips the swift dispersal of my ghosts remains assured, it is a dream to say that never shall the days be fair and fulgent as my runes or high and mighty as my drakes, for as high and mighty as my drakes are days and runes and all my cantrips. I mastered easily my runes, I mastered easily my ghosts, and feel as fulgent all my days. But over everything, my dream shall rise, consuming. For my dream is mighty, powerful as drakes, is grand and vaster than my days, and outstrips any of my cantrips.

Two Poems by Margi Curtis Loss I study the wood grain features of my mother’s face scratches oiled massaged relaxed out of her skin. She taps her knife-end on the table carves my share and I agree with her because so far in her dying she is stronger than my accumulated living. She says this statue of Our Lady needs a clean asks who will want that when she’s gone. Miracles of Fatima glow limpid sweet in her eyes like me my mother smiles. Clay statues of virgins dissolve as we wash away the dust but chiseled mothers weather durable as tables. We sit watching my father’s hands shrink turn to wood skin rough as bark mossed over with a gauze of body hair silver lichen green.

We feed him slivers fruit or seed it makes no difference only a little sap dribbles from his dying core He could have made a fine chair at our table rigid consistent useful. My mother and I sit opposite study the wood grain finish the table is divided now she says our passage in or out no longer blocked. it occurs to me that wood cut from the root is beautiful but dead fit only to be burned or buried though the space it leaves remains curiously untouched.

The arms of the goddess are green The arms of the goddess are green she descends upon me a butterfly fresh hatched still wet from birthing herself she grips me with the strength of apes hairy body stench cave mother thighs flex about me I stroke her as I would stroke the silken body of a whale I glide as an air bubble on her under belly we sing little songs together hum and pierce the great womb water there is something further on for you air of air fire of fire water bearer earth bound you must leave me here I surface searing breath burns me my throat is in my head my vagina open as

my heart my stomach heaves push push breathe push You are holding me again I cannot feel Your skin Only the heat of your hands Splayed like roots clamped Into my feet Recalling me calling me Back to ground But still further off I see myself go leaping Your green sprite daughter with the flowing fire hair Fluid as water leaping With the power of a mother ape in her belly together we mourn the loss of yet another child released from your arms like seed into the cosmic winds and then we sing pentatonic vibrations diminish to a groan our embrace loosens we face eye to eye and know we are partnered now to birth rebirth and birth again

MANTICHORUS: NOTES ON LAST SSFWT MAILING (#24 Dec 2006) I apologise (as it seems I am usually doing) for the brevity of the comments, as I’m sure we all love to hear what others have to say about our contributions! I promise to be more expansive next mailing.

Front page: Still haven’t read the new Thomas Harris. Damn! I will get to it… SPEAK FRIEND & ENTER (Aaron): Congrats on graduating. I’ll try and check out your blog, which I haven’t looked at as yet. Enjoyed your piece on Peter Jackson even though (is this heresy) I’m not a big LOTR (novels) fan. (I loved the movies though). Especially liked the article on the rhymes; my ex-partner used to be into this sort of stuff, and it’s a fascinating area. Have you read the books by the Zipes authors? Excellent stuff. Also glad you enjoyed my “A Myriad of Stars” story! WHEN THE CHANGE-WINDS BLOW (John): Thanks for the checklist on Charles Grant. I have many of his books in my collection, but the pleasure of reading them still awaits… QUILL MIGHTIER THAN SWORD (Ben): Congrats on finishing the double degree! I guess I’m going to learn what you’ve been through! Don’t know if I ever told you that I intended being a Bible translator many years ago, and did much study at Sydney University on Semitic Studies etc. I reckon I could still hold a fair old theological debate, though my personal path has been (for over 20 years now) the Western esoteric mysteries. I like Dead Can Dance, too. Good interview with Dennis L. Siluk – quite a character! I dunno Ben, sometimes I feel like your essays line up the two most opposed possible subjects and try and make connections between them – Dead Can Dance and Brecht? It wouldn’t have occurred to me – but you make your argument well. Re: Dowling, I’m sure it would be good to see an essay on him by your hand. He has received too little critical attention thus far. BASIC BLACK has now been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Collection for 2006. DALRIADIC CHRONICLES (Scott): Was interesting seeing the development of your script. My friend

Chris Sequeira writes comics and though it’s not my strong suit, I can appreciate the particular skills involved . Sorry M John Harrison doesn’t attract you, but hey, different strokes for different folks, right? Sorry also you didn’t enjoy my story. I guess my characters were meant to be fairly mean, so that could create a problem with reader identification. Thanks for the comment. VIEW FROM KOSHTRA BELOM (Mike). First – what on earth is Koshtra Belom? (Forgive someone who came in late). Good stuff on the Arkham House meanderings. I’m a fanatical Arkham collector and indeed, have a complete collection of their titles. The only upgrading I need to do is seek signed copies of some of the books I have that are not in signed copies. I also can’t particularly be bothered with all the Mycroft and Morans by Derleth, though I owned many of them in years past: the general Derleth stuff doesn’t interest me like the weird does. The AH books I really want are the ones commissioned a couple of years back to be published by Battered Tin Dispatch Box – bloody hard to get in Australia! Thanks for the nice comments on my story! OPHARION (Mark): I hope your father has recovered from his lung infection. Really interesting article about books on the Holy grail. One of my favourite books on the esoteric significance of the Grail is The Chalice of Ecstasy, by Charles Stansfeld Jones, one of Aleister Crowley’s disciples who went under the magical name of Frater Achad (Unity). A truly scintillating exposition of the grail’s symbolism. HYPERBOREAN EXHALATIONS (Martin): That bibliography of the Chaosium Cthulhu Cycle series was good. To make it more complete, it would be great if you could add foreign editions (several of the books

have been published in European and South American editions). Though I must admit it seems that most of these have been pirated – Chaosium doesn’t know that much about them. I had some interesting correspondence with Bob Price about that, since an Australian author (Steven Paulsen) had a Cthulhu story in my 1993 anthology Terror Australis, subsequently reprinted in one of the Chaosium books in the US. It has subsequently seen print in at least two foreign editions, but neither Chaosium nor Price seem keen to pursue royalties on behalf of the author. Great to see the planned future volumes in the series. Thanks for your comments on my issues, especially re my story, which I don’t at all mind being called “pulpy”!

I make art sometimes – not as often as I’d like to. Most of my work is in collage form, done with old-fashioned methods including scissors and glue, coloured paint, and lost of pics cut from catalogues, magazines, textbooks and other sources. Left is my latest, “Psychic Apocalypse”, which I did in February. Sorry that you’ll only get this in black and white – it looks better in colour, but I’m using it to fill up a bit of space on this last page!