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Horror, Fantasy and Science

by Clark Ashton Smith


The Boiling Point

Only the hottest of controversies will be printed in this column--radical
arguments that will bring your blood to "The Boiling Point." We start this
department off by presenting one of the most blasphemous articles it has been
our pleasure to read. It is by Forrest J. Ackerman, and he calls it


A Quarrel with Clark Ashton Smith

No doubt this will be the commencement of a lively discussion between the
readers. It is the editor's intention to print the most interesting arguments on
both sides of the case. I have this to say: it seems to me that Wonder Stories
is going far afield when it takes such a horror story as Mr. Smith's "Dweller in
Martian Depths" and, because it is laid on the Red Planet, prints it in a
magazine of scientific fiction. Frankly, I could not find one redeeming feature
about the story. Of course, everything doesn't have to have a moral. The
thrilling scientifilm, "King Kong," for instance, has no moral to it--except,
perhaps, to be careful of Fay Wray, if you are a great prehistoric ape--but it
has a point at least: to interest. And "Dweller in Martian Depths" didn't
interest me. I don't know, maybe it did others. But it disappointed me very
greatly to find it in a scientifiction publication. In Weird Tales, all right. I
don't like that type of story, I wouldn't read it there. I fail to find anything
worth-while in an endless procession of ethereal lites, phantastic visions,
ultra-mundane life, exotic paradises, airy vegetation, whispering flutes,
ghastly plants, and dirge-like horrors. May the ink dry up in the pen from which
they flow! Or, at least, Mr. Smith, direct those tales elsewhere--NOT to a stf
publication, because I do like your science fiction like "Master of the
Asteroid" and "Flight into Super Time." But "stuff" like "The Light from Beyond"

Well, let's hear from someone in favor.

Make "The Boiling Point" boil, you indignant fans. Don't let this guy
Ackerman get away with it. Your replies will be published in this department. We
would especially appreciate a reply from Mr. Smith himself in defense of his
stories.

The Fantasy Fan, "The Boiling Point," September, 1933.


The Boiling Point

You will remember the terrific outburst Forrest J. Ackerman made upon Clark
Ashton Smith's stories and weird tales in general in last month's column.
Shortly after the issue went to press, we received the following postscript to