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

Meanwhile, in Weird Tales, Moore was beginning a new series of stories about Jirel, the warrior maid of
the mythical kingdom of Joiry. In those days, the sf magazines were all intensely male oriented. Most of
the readers were male, and the idea of sexual equality had never been considered—certainly not for the
protagonist of an adventure story. For such fiction, it followed axiomatically, one used a male hero. But in
“Black God’s Kiss” the intensely feminine Jirel was a woman equal in battle to any swashbuckling male
hero who ever ruled over the knights of ancient valor.
Jirel of Joiry was no imperturbable battler, however. She loved and hated, feared desperately to the core
of her superstitious heart—and yet dared to take risks that no man had ever faced. Every male reader
loved the story, forgot his chauvinism, and demanded more stories
about Jirel. More were quickly forthcoming, though to my mind, the first one remained marginally the best
and most original. “Black God’s Kiss” was simply too good to be surpassed in later episodes of the
series.
“Tryst in Time” was another love story that greatly pleased the readers of Astounding Stories. Once
again Moore captured the ul-timate sense of romance that could be accepted only in a world of fan-tasy.
Here was a love that swept through time—roving among the ages and building slowly to a climax of full
realization. Yet “Tryst in Time” was more than a love story—it was also an exposition of both the
fallibility and the glory of man.
During these early years, C. L. Moore had been a fairly prolific writer of stories which dealt almost
exclusively with the most emo-tional elements of fiction. But after 1938, changes came about that may or
may not have been caused by a change in her personal life. Her biographers disagree, and she makes few
comments that provide us with any real answer. My own suspicion is that the changes oc-curred because
of greater maturity on the part of the writer. Certainly, however, the alteration of her fictional interests
coincide with a major event in her life.
When her first story was published, she was just twenty-two years old and was employed as a secretary
in a bank in Indianapolis. By all accounts, she was a lovely and very popular young lady. But there had
been many years of ill health before, during which she had turned to fiction as an escape. She says that
she had been writing for fifteen years before submitting anything for publication. That would explain the
“escapist” nature of her early fiction, though hardly the vigor of the stories.
In 1938, Catherine Moore met Henry Kuttner, a young writer of great promise, who was then just
becoming recognized. She gave up her job in Indianapolis and moved to New York, where she and
Kuttner were married in 1940. From then until 19~8, when Kuttner died of a heart attack, after
becoming one of the leading writers of science fiction, her interests were strongly focused on writing as a
way of life.
Kuttner and Moore were an unusual mating of talents. Her fiction was noted for its sensitivity and
emotional coloration. His was essen-tially intellectual in its creation, based upon a firm understanding of
plot structure and, initially, often more clever than moving in its de-velopments. Somehow, the couple
managed to merge their talents, so that a story by either one would display both an intellectual base and a
richly colored background.
They often worked together upon a single story; indeed, few stories produced during their marriage seem
to be the work of either one alone. They used a great number of pseudonyms, some of which they
seemed to share or exchange. And generally, the authorship of many of the stories is something of a
puzzle, even today. A tale credited to Kuttner in one compiler’s list may be ascribed to Moore in another
list. Internal evidence isn’t always much help, either. I’m told that the novel Fury was written by Kuttner,
based upon a novelette entitled “Clash by Night,” by Moore; yet of the two, the novel seems to have
more of the richness of emotional tone one might expect from Moore.
The change in Moore’s fiction began before her marriage, however. “Greater Than Gods” appeared in
the July, 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction (the magazine having changed its title slightly). In this
story, love again plays a key role—but hardly in its old, romantic fashion. Here love is no longer some
unbreakable tie between man and woman that can defy time and the gods. Now the conflict lies in a
choice between duty and a man’s desire for love. The problem and the resolution of the story are clearly