THE DEEP ONES: "The Return of the Sorcerer" by Clark Ashton Smith

"The Return of the Sorcerer" by Clark Ashton Smith

Discussion begins November 7.

First published in the September 1931 issue of Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror.



ONLINE VERSIONS

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/183

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?63517

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

The Return of the Sorcerer
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Volume One
Sleep No More
Rivals of Weird Tales
The Door to Saturn

MISCELLANY

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/256/the-return-of-the-sorcere...
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/29/entertainment/la-caw-sirens-call29-2009n...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ1SygOinr0
http://tinyurl.com/capgbx3

Also in The Door to Saturn.

Rod Serling's Night Gallery episode adaptation of The Return of the Sorcerer starring Vincent Price and Bill Bixby is posted on youtube in it's entirety.

http://youtu.be/fQ1SygOinr0

I'll be reading it from The Door to Saturn. I'll check the notes and see if there is any substantial differences between it and other published versions.

>3 DavidX:

It's right up in >1 gwendetenebre:, under "Miscellany".

The Door to Saturn for me, too.

>4 RandyStafford:

Thanks for reminding me about the notes. The ePub copy I bought has them, but it is not obvious unless one accesses the table of contents.

It's sort of a shame that this is one of CAS's most-read stories, because I think it's very far from his best. There are no surprises in it at all. I'm afraid that a lot of its popularity comes from its conspicuous foregrounding of the Necronomicon to make it an obvious "Mythos" story (that got it included in Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, e.g.). Even so, there's not really any proper Yog-Sothothery here. The necromancy is of a fairly conventional sort, and the Necronomicon itself is merely an exceptionally notorious grimoire. "The Return of the Sorcerer" is sort of like "The Tell-tale Heart" without the psychological ambiguities that make Poe's story interesting, just substituting violent carnal horror.

It seems like a funny coincidence that I recently read Wheatley's The Satanist, which also features twins -- only one of whom is a powerful evil sorcerer, in that case.

CAS told HPL that he was going for a "bolder and more hazardous revelation" at the end of this tale. That's putting it mildly!

I enjoyed how the scenario builds up to its gruesome crescendo, and the bits with the Necronomicon translation are fun. You can imagine Grandpa grinning at those passages. The animated body parts are fairly ridiculous despite their Grand Guignol quality, but at least when CAS writes that, "All were moving slowly, hideously away in a charnel procession, and I cannot describe the fashion in which they moved", he is acknowledging that some kind of unusual motor function is at work.

Could this be Smith's "Reanimator"?

>7 paradoxosalpha:

I agree that this is definitely lesser CAS, despite the story's popularity. Maybe because it's a somewhat easier read than his more phantasmagorical tales? I got the impression that the author was having a lark and pushing the limits of what might be allowed by the pulps (which were not exactly well-regarded for their good taste in the first place).

What an appropriate story to read before my job interview tomorrow. :-)

Even though this is one of CAS's tamer stories, I feel it's more of a primer for readers to get into his fascination with necromancy and sorcerers which is congruent with his other stories. The fact that 'Return' is more pedestrian than his other more fantastic tales, seems intentional to make his work more palpatable to new readers.

>10 lammassu:

Good luck with your interview! Keep an eye out for ancient, forbidden tomes. It's a sure giveaway that your potential employer is up to nefarious deeds!

I was curious to see everyone's reactions because this was the first Smith story I ever read -- about seven years ago, and it put me off him. It was only coming to his fiction a couple of years later, through his poetry, that I found him worthwhile.

>7 paradoxosalpha: That's exactly my problem with it. It goes on too long and for a predictable payoff. I did like like John Carnby listening to noises -- very much like Roderick Usher, another guy who isn't quite sure he's really buried a family member. And I liked the bit with the headless shadow sawing up John.

I also have a vague memory of an early Wrightson Swamp Thing issue which had a voodoo priest reanimating body parts, and I think a visual adaptation of this story, with some black comedy, would work better.

This was, I believe, my first CAS story too, some years ago, and I agree it's not his best work; but that's setting a high bar indeed.

>14 AndreasJ: Yes, we should do one of his Zothique stories next quarter. Has the group done the "Isle of Torturers?"

I think Deuce Richardson (writing in The Cimmerian (http://www.thecimmerian.com/owchar-reviews-the-return-of-the-sorcerer/) ) nailed this one for me when he described "Return" as "not one of {Smith's} most characteristically 'Klarkash-Tonian'" tales. The thing that always sticks out for me about this one vis-à-vis CAS' other fiction is how dialed-down his trademark crazy style and vocabulary is here. Unfortunately, that also makes the tale a little less enjoyable, IMHO; for me, Smith has always been sort of like James Joyce or William Faulkner in reverse - i.e., the less stylistically idiosyncratic he gets, the less I like him. Regardless, this is still a fun tale and serves as evidence that Smith was a bit more adaptable a writer than he is sometimes given credit for.

PS Personal to anyone who's thinking of adapting this into a film (hey, it could happen!): I wanna do the sound design (or at least be a Foley artist on it). 8)

> 15

"Isle of the Torturers," no. But we did cover "Empire of the Necromancers." I'm a Zothique fan, and that one really opened up for me on that read.

Everyone's here has beheld the awesomeness that is Richard Corben's adaptation of "TRotS", yes?

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/257/the-return-of-the-sorcere...

Who better?

>19 paradoxosalpha:

Yeah, I think Corben was pretty much born to do that one. :D