THE DEEP ONES: "A Vintage from Atlantis" by Clark Ashton Smith
CharlasThe Weird Tradition
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1semdetenebre
"A Vintage from Atlantis" by Clark Ashton Smith
Discussion begins September 7, 2022.
First published the September 1933 issue of Weird Tales.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?45063
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
The Abominations of Yondo
Sea-Cursed: Thirty Terrifying Tales of the Deep
A Vintage From Atlantis: Volume Three of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith
ONLINE VERSIONS
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/234/a-vintage-from-atlantis
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxPqpmibq0A
MISCELLANY
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781597803649/9781597803649.htm
https://locusmag.com/2019/01/john-langan-reviews-clark-ashton-smith-the-emperor-...
http://www.conceptualfiction.com/the_dark_eidolon.html
https://tinyurl.com/yyxjbk78
Discussion begins September 7, 2022.
First published the September 1933 issue of Weird Tales.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?45063
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
The Abominations of Yondo
Sea-Cursed: Thirty Terrifying Tales of the Deep
A Vintage From Atlantis: Volume Three of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith
ONLINE VERSIONS
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/234/a-vintage-from-atlantis
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxPqpmibq0A
MISCELLANY
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781597803649/9781597803649.htm
https://locusmag.com/2019/01/john-langan-reviews-clark-ashton-smith-the-emperor-...
http://www.conceptualfiction.com/the_dark_eidolon.html
https://tinyurl.com/yyxjbk78
2semdetenebre
The audio version, I should point out, is a corker! Wish I knew who was reading it.
3papijoe
When I discovered the Big Three of Weird Tales, I read Clark Ashton Smith pretty avidly, but found over the years his stories had the least staying power. Lovecraft always excited the imagination with his devotion to the atmosphere of his New England settings and Howard's evocative antediluvian tales were full of action. While Smith, with his early success as a poet, was the better wordsmith, it now feels like he's phoning it in.
It's a clever story, and to me reads a bit like Poe. Aside from the pirate captain's odd expertise in identifying Atlantean relics, there is not much to find fault with. Like most of his stories, an unabridged dictionary is an essential aid. I'd be interested in hearing from CAS fans what I might be missing in his work.
>2 semdetenebre: Agreed. Great reading and I can appreciate the story much better read aloud. Maybe I miss the subtle cadences of Smith’s prose in print.
It's a clever story, and to me reads a bit like Poe. Aside from the pirate captain's odd expertise in identifying Atlantean relics, there is not much to find fault with. Like most of his stories, an unabridged dictionary is an essential aid. I'd be interested in hearing from CAS fans what I might be missing in his work.
>2 semdetenebre: Agreed. Great reading and I can appreciate the story much better read aloud. Maybe I miss the subtle cadences of Smith’s prose in print.
4semdetenebre
>3 papijoe:
CAS is a brilliant, historically important Weird stylist for sure, and the darkly poetic imagery he often evokes is what I most appreciate now. I don't find myself going back for re-reads very often, however, and the stories themselves mostly tend to bleed together in my memory, although not without exceptions. Maybe it's that I simply prefer his earth-bound tales, of which "Genius Loci" remains a stand-out.
CAS is a brilliant, historically important Weird stylist for sure, and the darkly poetic imagery he often evokes is what I most appreciate now. I don't find myself going back for re-reads very often, however, and the stories themselves mostly tend to bleed together in my memory, although not without exceptions. Maybe it's that I simply prefer his earth-bound tales, of which "Genius Loci" remains a stand-out.
5AndreasJ
I would count myself a CAS fan, but it's mostly the style and the imagery I enjoy, rather than the stories as stories.
Some of his stories stick well enough in my mind, incl this one - which I enjoyed more on this re-read than when I first encountered it -, others less so.
FWIW, the one of the Big Three I enjoy the least is REH.
Some of his stories stick well enough in my mind, incl this one - which I enjoyed more on this re-read than when I first encountered it -, others less so.
FWIW, the one of the Big Three I enjoy the least is REH.
6paradoxosalpha
The last bit of "sober" atmospheric description is so rich that the visionary episode strains to surpass it:
At nightfall, the feasting and drinking began; and the fire of driftwood, with eery witch-colors of blue and green and white amid the flame, leapt high in the dusk while the sunset died to a handful of red embers far on purpling seas.
At nightfall, the feasting and drinking began; and the fire of driftwood, with eery witch-colors of blue and green and white amid the flame, leapt high in the dusk while the sunset died to a handful of red embers far on purpling seas.
7paradoxosalpha
Proposed allegorical reading: Modern capitalism is the pirate crew and petrochemicals are the vintage from Atlantis.
8housefulofpaper
An essay by Scott Connors in an early issue of Wormwood argues for a philosophical depth and originality to many of CAS's stories which critics overlook in favour of the general air of fin de siecle decadence and what he calls superficial resemblances to earlier authors (whilst missing the debt to his mentor, George Sterling).
On the other hand, this particular story was written as a short-short "filler" for Weird Tales and CAS may have been aiming for no more than a sailor's tale (I wonder, had he read any Dunsany, whose stories came closer to Earth as his career went on, and did include stories broadly like this one?).
On a side note, I read somewhere that at least some English pirates were well-educated and came from "good families" but had chosen the wrong side when Bonnie Prince Charlie tried to claim the English throne. So allowing for "Atlantean" as a lucky guess, maybe Red Barnaby's antiquarianism isn't quite so far-fetched.
CAS combines two old ideas here - the fairyland that is no more than an illusion (whether it's just making castles out of clouds in the sky, or a more dangerous version like the sailors' Calenture - an inspiration, perhap?) and the real one that one person gets locked out off to become an eyewitness (although actually, the story I had in mind, the lame boy who is too slow to be taken away by the Pied Piper of Hamelin, is itself ambiguous. It depends on the version you heard in childhood, I suppose).
On the other hand, this particular story was written as a short-short "filler" for Weird Tales and CAS may have been aiming for no more than a sailor's tale (I wonder, had he read any Dunsany, whose stories came closer to Earth as his career went on, and did include stories broadly like this one?).
On a side note, I read somewhere that at least some English pirates were well-educated and came from "good families" but had chosen the wrong side when Bonnie Prince Charlie tried to claim the English throne. So allowing for "Atlantean" as a lucky guess, maybe Red Barnaby's antiquarianism isn't quite so far-fetched.
CAS combines two old ideas here - the fairyland that is no more than an illusion (whether it's just making castles out of clouds in the sky, or a more dangerous version like the sailors' Calenture - an inspiration, perhap?) and the real one that one person gets locked out off to become an eyewitness (although actually, the story I had in mind, the lame boy who is too slow to be taken away by the Pied Piper of Hamelin, is itself ambiguous. It depends on the version you heard in childhood, I suppose).
