Why isn't Clark Ashton Smith as famous as Lovecraft and Howard?
He's not as fun.
>>7795013
His work is harder to find.
>>7796371
This, also less adaptations.
He definitely used to be. I knew his name first. Lovecraft has only really taken off in the last 20 years at most.
he lived on the west coast and interacted far, far less, than the east coast pulp writers.
he's also much more the antiquarian than lovecraft, and his work somehow manages in certain ways to be more nihilistic than lovecraft's. in lovecraft, the universe doesn't care about the fate of mankind. with CAS, mankind doesn't care about the fate of the universe.
>>7796371
His work is harder to find because he's less popular. He's less popular because he never wrote anything as memorable as the other two.
>>7796435
his work is of higher quality than REH for sure, but his chosen subject matter is less accessible, being almost unbearably dark. compare that to REH, who strike a chord with all the skinny nerds who wish they had MUSKLES and POWER.
lovecraft, on the other hand, is an equivalent erudite vocabularian, but lovecraft's work is more unified, having 3 main bodies of work, of which tie into each other organically (despite concerning the meaninglessness of the universe). CAS's body of work is more chaotic, having a dozen splintered worlds, which are harder to thread together into a chronological narrative.
>>7795013
Such a cutie
>>7796458
too bad he was so weak willed and led a life of womanly pleasure (hundreds of broads). i mean, look at his jaws in old age. he looks so wimpy compared to military looking seniors.
Where would you guys recommend to start with this author? Something relatively small, high quality and self contained
>>7796468
Try "The Beast of Averoigne", s short story.
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/12/the-beast-of-averoigne-%28abridged%29
^ it says abridged, but this is the published version 99% of his readers are familiar with
Themes: predator vs prey, falsity of religion
>>7796468
I read a collection of his last year and I honestly couldn't tell you it all just blends together so much in my mind. He may have been a better writer than Lovecraft or (arguably) Howard, but his plots were shit compared to them.
The one where a guy goes into a mirror world and wants to bang the evil sorceress was a good one. Maybe someone else knows the name.
>>7796493
his plots were straightforward, very similar to those of the arabian nights. that doesn't mean they were shit, as aladdin and the like are relatively simple plots, and yet they expositioned very salient imagery and scenes.
as lovecraft's modern championer noted, REH is subliterary trash. not because he couldn't write adequately, but because his world view was so childishly narrow.
>>7796493
This honestly. Other than random images I can never remember his stories. Something like REH's Valley of the Worm blows anything CAS did out of the water.
>>7796464
>led a life of womanly pleasure (hundreds of broads)
Wha? In the introduction to a collection of his I read (might of been the penguin one) it said he was asexual and might have even been gay.
