/lit/ - Literature

Tonight I read The Holiness Of Azadarac by Clark Ashton Smith (1931), a tale of time travel in a secondary world, Averoigne, that is modeled on a region in 12th and 5th century France. At the outset, a renegade Christian bishop plots to intercept a young Benedictene monk who has fled his mansion after obtaining proofs of his pagan practices and demon worship, including that of Iog-Sotot (Yog-Sothoth). The narrative concerns what happens to this nephew after he is caught and transported back seven hundred years at the same location. This is a tale of the tension between the pagan and Lovecraftian versus Christian morality. It is also of a light and playful tone, as CAS plays with the cliches and archetypal characters of medieval literature; the venial cleric and his henchman, the young and naive monk, and the machinations and heaving charms of a femme fatale sorceress. Overall it's an entertaining short story that feels like it's told with a nod and a wink, worthy of two thumbs up.


On another note, I've begun a treatise of CAS that incorporates these little summaries and demonstrates his chameleon nature, an article which has doubtless already reached levels of autism.