PC335: The Gorgon

[Ocicat]

PodCastle 335: The Gorgon

by Clark Ashton Smith

Read by Norm Sherman (Maybe you’ve Heard of him from Escape Pod or the Drabblecast?)

Originally published in Weird Tales, 1932 (and check out The Dark Eiodolon and Other Fantasies, edited by S.T. Joshi, out now from Penguin Books!)

I have no reason to expect that anyone will believe my story. If it were another’s tale, probably I should not feel inclined to give it credence myself. I tell it herewith. hoping that the mere act of narration, the mere shaping of this macabre day-mare adventure into words will in some slight measure serve to relieve my mind of its execrable burden. There have been times when only a hair’s-breadth has intervened betwixt myself and the seething devil-ridden world of madness; for the hideous knowledge, the horror- blackened memories which I have carried so long, were never meant to be borne by the human intellect.

A singular confession, no doubt, for one who has always been a connoisseur of horrors. The deadly, the malign, and baleful things that lurk in the labyrinth of existence have held for me a fascination no less potent than unholy. I have sought them out and looked upon them as one who sees the fatal eyes of the basilisk in a mirror; or as a savant who handles corrosive poisons in his laboratory with mask. and gloves. Never did they have for me the least hint of personal menace, since I viewed them with the most impersonal detachment. I have investigated many clues of the spectral, the ghastly, the bizarre, and many mazes of terror from which others would have recoiled with caution or trepidation… But now I could wish that there were one lure which I had not followed, one labyrinth which my curiosity had not explored…

More incredible than all else, perhaps, is the very fact that the thing occurred in Twentieth Century London. The sheer anachronism and fabulosity of the happening has made me doubt the verities of time and space; and ever since then I have been as one adrift on starless seas of confusion, or roaming through unmapped dimensions. Never have I been quite able to re-orient myself, to be altogether sure that I have not gone astray in other centuries, in other lands than those declared by the chronology and geography of the present. I have continual need of modern crowds, of glaring lights, of laughter and clangor and tumult to reassure me; and always I am afraid that such things are only an insubstantial barrier; that behind them lies the realm of ancient horror and immemorial malignity of which I have had this one abominable glimpse. And always it seems to me that the veil will dissolve at any moment, and leave me face to face with an ultimate Fear.
 
Rated PG. Contains monsters.

Listen to this week’s PodCastle!

[Dwango]

Oh this one was great for Halloween!  It seemed so much like an H. P. Lovecraft story set in London, with the Greek gods substituted for Shoggoth and Cthulu.  I can now imagine how the Greeks would have thought of their gods, so powerful and dangerous.  Medusa established as a maddening monster really fits and I love how he used the shifting of time and place to create his mythical viewing.

The writing style is that Lovecraft way of using flowery words to explain the situation, almost too much, and yet perfect for the situation.  I don't think one could write this in modern prose without it losing the indescribable mythic feel of the story.

I truly have no choice but to follow the old man to Syxx.com, err... I mean Amazon and grab that collection of Clark Ashton Smith's tales. 

[Fenrix]

I just finished CAS's Zothique stories for Halloween and he writes some beautiful decadence. I think he's my favorite from the Weird Tales Trinity.

Also make sure to check out his first published story over on PseudoPod: http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=7134.0

[ElectricPaladin]

The only way to really understand Smith, in my opinion, is to remember that he really saw himself as a poet. While he never condescended to speculative fiction, he never really saw himself as a spec fic writer. That shit was just to pay the bills - he was a poet. It really shows. In my opinion, his work does a much better job of balancing lyrical prose with more-or-less coherent stories than most of today's lyrical fantasy, and this story is no exception.

Smith is basically the best of the Lovecraft generation, in my opinion. His work is better thought out more imaginative without losing any of the horror, and if he was an appalling racist, he was a lot more quiet about it.

[InfiniteMonkey]

WOW

I've never even heard of this guy, and was in fact from M.K.'s intro, was expecting H.P. Lovecraft. It certainly was atmospheric, and completely breathless.

it was certainly a great Halloween choice. And it was easy to follow. And ended in a way that made you believe the narrator would never find his way back again (as if he would want to).

[albionmoonlight]

A great Halloween choice.

And I am spoiled to have anyone other than Norm Sherman read flowery horror prose.

[APLemma]

Excellent tale and like the others said, very Lovecraftian.  I personally was puling for the protagonist to become the next keeper of the head and his tale be a pitch to his next victim.  I enjoyed Smith's explanation of the warping of time and space which was simplistic yet fascinating.  I've gotta read more.  Norm Sherman's narration was definitely the icing on the cake and now I'm inclined to delve into PseudoPod.

[albionmoonlight]

I enjoyed Smith's explanation of the warping of time and space which was simplistic yet fascinating.

I had forgotten that.  Smith basically came up with wormholes there.

[Varda]

I also wasn't familiar with this author, and enjoyed hearing Norm read the kind of story his voice was MADE for. But Hobson's intro REALLY stole the show here. Oh my gosh, that whole bit comparing Lovecraftian purple prose to a PUG?!! AHAHAHAHA I don't think I've ever heard it put so well--all breathless and so ugly it's cute. :-P That had me in absolute stitches. And I love how Hobsonween lasted all the way through the outtro. Absolute perfection.

[Unblinking]

I liked it.  Good Weird Tales era stuff.  As it went on I figured the guy was an active collector rather than just a passive one and it would turn into a physical conflict, and I figured that since the narrator survives to tell the tale the other guy would end up a statue.  But it was all well told and worth listening to, and this kind of story is perfect for Norm's reading.

But Hobson's intro REALLY stole the show here. Oh my gosh, that whole bit comparing Lovecraftian purple prose to a PUG?!! AHAHAHAHA I don't think I've ever heard it put so well--all breathless and so ugly it's cute. :-P That had me in absolute stitches.

Yes!  That may have been the best simile in the history of humankind.    Does anyone have the full quote to transcribe here?  That deserves to be on a t-shirt or a bumper sticker or a very lengthy tattoo.

[NumberFive]

This story was amazing...the richness of the language, the world creation, and the vivid descriptions.  And Norm's reading was absolutely perfect.  I will definitely look up more of this author.  What must his mind have been like...fun to talk to at a party.  I always love Podcastle, but this one really stands out.  Well chosen and well read. 

[Unblinking]

For those who really dug this Clark Ashton Smith story:

Pseudopod ran "The Ninth Skeleton" by Clark Ashton Smith:
http://pseudopod.org/2013/04/26/pseudopod-331-the-ninth-skeleton/

[Devoted135]

Perfect story for Halloween, and of course Norm was the perfect narrator. Pair it with M.K.'s brilliant intro and outro... well done PodCastle!

In these sorts of stories I always try to warn the protagonist: no, don't follow the creepy man back to his haunted house! But inevitably he doesn't listen to me and comes within a hair's breadth of losing his life and must narrowly make his escape. I did think it unlikely that he wouldn't immediately realize the significance of all the statues, but perhaps that wasn't as common knowledge back in the 1930s?


By the way, our good friend has a pug and I can vouch that he truly does have an unshakeable confidence in his own ferocity.

[SpareInch]

In these sorts of stories I always try to warn the protagonist: no, don't follow the creepy man back to his haunted house! But inevitably he doesn't listen to me and comes within a hair's breadth of losing his life and must narrowly make his escape.

Yeah, Doctor's Assistant material if ever I saw it... And is that a Police Box I see shimmering into being on the corner of the street there?

[Fenrix]

On a relisten of The Gorgon, one of the parts that I enjoyed the most was some of the meta commentary on horror. One part that struck me the strongest is that the concept of The Gorgon has been electrifying the primal portions of the brain for centuries, and that is reflected in the population of the statuary.

"They were all life-size and they all offered a most singular medley of historical periods. Yet it would seem that all of them, by the sameness of their dark material, like a black marble, and the uniform realism and verisimilitude of their technique, might well have been sculptured by the same hand. There were boys and bearded men in the chitons of Greece, there were mediaeval monks, and knights in armor, there were soldiers and scholars and great ladies of the Renaissance, of the Restoration. there were people of the Eighteenth, the Nineteenth, the Twentieth centuries. And in every muscle, in every lineament of each, was stamped an incredible suffering, an unspeakable fear. And more and more. as I studied them, a ghastly and hideous conjecture was formulated in my mind."

I also wanted to echo that the Hobson endcaps were delightful.

[UnfulredJohnson]

Meh. I think I've had enough lovcraftian prose. It is very nice and I do appreciate the wide range of vocabulary but after five or six love craft stories it all starts to feel a bit gimmicky. The story almost starts to feel padded.  Loved hobsons intro and outro though. I lol'ed.