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Spaceteer, issue 1, August 1947
Page 13
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SPACETEER Page 13 THE THORNE SMITH LEGEND by Jack Clements A short time ago the Pocket Books publications released several new editions of old Thorne Smith novels. These were, no doubt, immediately leaped upon by stf and/or Smith fans. Thorne Smith has often been called the king of ribald humor in fantasy. Actually, I think Smith could more properly be called the king of trash in fantasy. For that's what he really is. Now the Smith fans will, no doubt, immediately jumping on me, referring to me as a prude, among other things. Well, I'll take my stories as spicy as they come, if necessary, as long as the spice is handled well in a plausible story. Also, in an alleged fantasy story, I think fantasy should be the prime factor. But with Smith, fantasy was merely used as a tool, for his characters were so incredible and forced that they would not be fitting in a non-fantasy story. His "plots" usually ran pretty much alike. Here is staid, respectable business man. He meets up with one of Smith's hackneyed fantastic females, and is caused a great deal of embarrassment until the end of the story. "Topper" and "The Passionate Witch" both follow this line. Even worse than the two mentioned is "The Glorious Pool", which has the two central figures, a wealthy man and his mistress, both after middle ago, going for a swim, and by the fantasy method, emerging from the pool young and vibrant. Here we leave the fantasy and go through a series ridiculous events, wherein normal people react implausibly to unnatural events. In "Night Life Of The Gods", we have an inventor that conceives a device which enables him to turn people to stone and statues to people. The inventor uses it on his relatives, and while they know nothing of it beforehand, they do not act the least bit surprised when they are released from their state. Now the dyed-in-the-rayon Smith fan will say at this point, "but it was meant to be humorous". And that is my chief objection to Smith. For his stories were supposed to be humorous, yet they were anything but. Real humor in fantasy must be handled delicately. In fact, the main funny bone tickler in this type of story is in the reactions of the normal people when faced by incomprehensible and impossible events. The reactions may be over done, but they still must be plausible. In our Mr. Smith's stories, no one ever is surprised at what happens. When a half visible dog appears in a restaurant, the diners do nothing more than make some idle remark to their companions and resume eating. When a man looks from his bedroom window at two o'clock in the morning and sees someone setting his house afire, Smith would have you believe that he would merely tell the responsible parties to be quiet and go back to sleep. Both of those incidents are from Smith novels. Now, where is the delicacy? Anyone can write trash like that. It takes real skill for an author to imagine how a human would react under staggering circumstances, and even more to put his ideas down on paper. This is where Smitty got stuck. For he had some good ideas, but they got lost in his books. Practically every one of his efforts starts out all right, but he unwaiveringly got botched up with a lot of nonsense that would have filled the waste continued on next page
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SPACETEER Page 13 THE THORNE SMITH LEGEND by Jack Clements A short time ago the Pocket Books publications released several new editions of old Thorne Smith novels. These were, no doubt, immediately leaped upon by stf and/or Smith fans. Thorne Smith has often been called the king of ribald humor in fantasy. Actually, I think Smith could more properly be called the king of trash in fantasy. For that's what he really is. Now the Smith fans will, no doubt, immediately jumping on me, referring to me as a prude, among other things. Well, I'll take my stories as spicy as they come, if necessary, as long as the spice is handled well in a plausible story. Also, in an alleged fantasy story, I think fantasy should be the prime factor. But with Smith, fantasy was merely used as a tool, for his characters were so incredible and forced that they would not be fitting in a non-fantasy story. His "plots" usually ran pretty much alike. Here is staid, respectable business man. He meets up with one of Smith's hackneyed fantastic females, and is caused a great deal of embarrassment until the end of the story. "Topper" and "The Passionate Witch" both follow this line. Even worse than the two mentioned is "The Glorious Pool", which has the two central figures, a wealthy man and his mistress, both after middle ago, going for a swim, and by the fantasy method, emerging from the pool young and vibrant. Here we leave the fantasy and go through a series ridiculous events, wherein normal people react implausibly to unnatural events. In "Night Life Of The Gods", we have an inventor that conceives a device which enables him to turn people to stone and statues to people. The inventor uses it on his relatives, and while they know nothing of it beforehand, they do not act the least bit surprised when they are released from their state. Now the dyed-in-the-rayon Smith fan will say at this point, "but it was meant to be humorous". And that is my chief objection to Smith. For his stories were supposed to be humorous, yet they were anything but. Real humor in fantasy must be handled delicately. In fact, the main funny bone tickler in this type of story is in the reactions of the normal people when faced by incomprehensible and impossible events. The reactions may be over done, but they still must be plausible. In our Mr. Smith's stories, no one ever is surprised at what happens. When a half visible dog appears in a restaurant, the diners do nothing more than make some idle remark to their companions and resume eating. When a man looks from his bedroom window at two o'clock in the morning and sees someone setting his house afire, Smith would have you believe that he would merely tell the responsible parties to be quiet and go back to sleep. Both of those incidents are from Smith novels. Now, where is the delicacy? Anyone can write trash like that. It takes real skill for an author to imagine how a human would react under staggering circumstances, and even more to put his ideas down on paper. This is where Smitty got stuck. For he had some good ideas, but they got lost in his books. Practically every one of his efforts starts out all right, but he unwaiveringly got botched up with a lot of nonsense that would have filled the waste continued on next page
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