"C. L. Moore - The Best of C. L. Moore" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore C. L)

Daemon 243
Vintage Season 265

Afterword: Footnote to “Shambleau”. . . and Others
C. L. Moore 306
The Best of C. L. MOORE
Forty Years of C. L. Moore
by LESTER DEL REY


Back in the fall of 1933, I opened the November issue of Weird Tales to find a story with the
provocath’e but meaningless title, “Shambleau,” by an unknown writer named C. L. Moore—and life
was never quite the same afterward. Up to that time, science-fiction readers had accepted the
mechanistic and unemotional stories of other worlds and future times without question. After the
publica-tion of Moore’s story, however, the bleakness of such writing would never again be satisfactory.
Almost forty years later, I sat in the audience at a World Science Fiction Convention banquet, listening to
Forrest J. Ackerman an-nounce a special award that was about to be presented to a writer. As is
customary, Ackerman was saving the name of the recipient for the climax. But he mentioned a story
called “Shambleau” and never got to finish his speech. As one, the z,ooo people in the audience came
in-stantly to their feet in unanimous tribute—clapping, shouting, and craning to see a gracious and lovely
lady blushingly accept the applause.
Many in that audience had never read the story. But everyone knew about it. And everyone knew that
Catherine Moore was one of the finest writers of all time in the field of science fiction.
It is probably impossible to explain to modem readers how great an impact that first C. L. Moore story
had. Science fiction has learned a great deal from her many examples. But if you could go back to the old
science-fiction magazines of the time and read a few issues, and then turn to ~ShambIeau” for the first
time, you might begin to understand. The influences of that story were and are tremendous.
Here, for the first time in the field, we find mood, feeling, and color. Here is an alien who is truly
alien—far different from the crude monsters and slightly-altered humans found in other stories. Here are
rounded and well-developed characters. Northwest Smith, for in-
stance, is neither a good guy nor a bad guy—he may be slightly larger than life, but he displays all aspects
of humanity. In “Shambleau” we also experience as never before both the horror at what we may find in
space and the romance of space itself. And—certainly for the first time that I can remember in the
field—this story presents the sexual drive of humanity in some of its complexity.
“Black Thirst” was Moore’s next story, and it continued the exploits of Northwest Smith. In this story,
something new was brought to our tales of the far planets: a quality of beauty as a thing a man must strive
for, even when it is perverted to wrong ends. There were other stories of Northwest Smith, but these first
two stand out as the most moving and original.
Many of Moore’s early stories appeared in Weird Tales, thoñgh they were basically science fiction.
Apparently, some of the editors of the sf magazines of the day were afraid of such extreme deviation
from the more standard stories. But in October, 1934, Astounding Stories published her “Bright
Illusion.” Now in those days, as count-less letters to the editor indicated, the one thing readers of the
science-fiction magazines did not want was a love story. Yet here was a tale of the pure quintessence of
love that transcended all limits! Nev-ertheless, the readers raved about it arid clamored for more.
A few years ago, Larry Janifer was putting together an anthology of the favorite stories of a number of
leading writers in the field. I sent him three titles, including “Bright Illusion.” He wrote back to say that
he’d never read it before, that he was deeply grateful to me for suggesting it, and that it was an absolute
must for the book. Some-how, in spite of advances and changes in our writing, the stories of C. L.
Moore remain as fresh and powerful now as they were back when the field was groping through its
beginnings.