8/16/2019 Clark Ashton Smith - On Science Fiction History

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/clark-ashton-smith-on-science-fiction-history 1/2

On Science Fiction History

Clark Ashton Smith

I have read the symposium on science-fiction the Winter 1949 issue withgreat interest. Since you have summed up so ably in your editorial themain deductions to be drawn, I will content myself with a few footnotes,so to speak. For one thing, it struck me that most of the contributors(Dr. Keller excepted) failed to emphasize sufficiently the historical aspectof the theme and were too exclusively preoccupied with itscontemporary development. Yet surely, for the proper understanding ofthe genre and of fantasy in general, some consideration should be given

to its roots in ancient literature, folklore, mythology, anthropology,occultism, and mysticism.

I was quite surprised that no one mentioned Lucian, Apulcius andRabelais among the forefathers of the genre, since all three are of primeimportance. Lucian was a satirist and skeptic who, in the form ofimaginative fiction, endeavored to "debunk" the religious superstitionsand contending philosophies of his time; being, one might say,

somewhat analogous to Aldous Huxley, who in turn has satirisedmodern science. Apuleius, borrowing a plot from Lucian in The Golden Ass, expressed, on the other hand, the power and glamor of a sorcerythat was regarded as science by the moiety of his contemporaries; and hisbook, in its final chapter, plunges deeply into that mysticism which isseemingly eternal and common to many human minds in all epochs. Theomission of Rabelais is particularly surprising, since he was not only thefirst of modern satiric fantaisists, but also one of the first writers todevelop the Utopian theme (so much exploited since) in his phalansteryof Theleme--which, I might add, is the only fictional Utopia that I shouldpersonally care to inhabit!

 Another thing that struck me was the ethical bias shown by some of thecontributors, a bias characteristic of so many science-fiction fans, asopposed to the devotees of pure fantasy. Such fans are obviously loversof the imaginative and the fantastic more or less curbed in theindulgence of their predilections by a feeling that the fiction in which

they delight should proceed (however remote its ultimate departure)

8/16/2019 Clark Ashton Smith - On Science Fiction History

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/clark-ashton-smith-on-science-fiction-history 2/2

from what is currently regarded as proven fact and delimited natural law;otherwise, there is Something reprehensible in yielding themselves to itsenjoyment Without entering into the old problem of ethics plus art, orethics versus art, I can say only that from my Own standpoint the best

application of ethics would lie in the sphere where it is manifestly notbeing applied: that is to say, the practical use of scientific discoveries andinventions. Imaginative literature would be happier and more fruitful with unclogged wings; and the sphere of its enjoyment would bebroader.

 What pleased me most about the symposium was the prominence givento Wells and to Charles Fort, and the inclusion of your anthology,

Strange Ports of Call. I could mention books, out of my own far fromcomplete reading of science-fiction, that were missed or slighted by thecontributors. Of these, Huxley's After Many a Summer Dies the Swan isperhaps the most salient from a literary perspective. It is a gorgeous andsumptuous satire on the results of self-achieved immortality. LeonardCline's The Dark Chamber could be mentioned, too, since it depicts withsingular power the retrogression of a human being to the primal slime.Incidentally, one ought to mention Lucian's True History, for it contains

 what is probably the first inter- planetary tale, a fantastic account of a voyage to the moon. And sometimes I suspect that Freud should beincluded among the modern masters of science-fiction! But one couldmultiply titles without adding anything of permanent literary value andsignificance.

[Originally from: Arkham Sampler, Spring 1949. This version from:Planets andDimensions, Ed. Charles K Wolfe. Mirage Press 1973.]