The Martian Horrors of Clark Ashton Smith, Part 1

 

cover art by Frank R. Paul

Read/Watch 'em In Order #182

In 1931, Wonder Stories had an Interplanetary Plot contest. A reader could send in a plot for a story involving another planet, with the chance of winning money AND having the plot expanded into a full-blown story by one of Wonder Stories regular writers. Johnston got 25 bucks and Clark Ashton Smith got a paycheck for turning Johnston's plot into a story.

"The Planetary Entity," sometimes reprinted as "Seedling of Mars," saw print in the Fall 1931 issue of Wonder Stories Quarterly.

Now I am a huge fan of Smith's work. His dark fantasy and horror stories are written with style, wit and a wonderful fondness for obscure words.

But when I decided to review the four C.A.S. stories involving Mars, it meant starting with the first one published. I'd never read "The Planetary Entity" before and was curious to do so.

And the story just falls flat. Maybe--being someone else's idea--Smith's heart wasn't in it. I don't know. But where his stories are normally a joy to read, this one (dispite being only novella-length) took me three days to work through. I didn't dislike it, but it didn't engross me and I found myself easily distracted from it. 

In addition to the plodding nature of the prose, I had a few problems with the story that means I won't be able to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to experience it spoiler-free, click HERE to read it before continuing on. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my opinon.

An unmanned ship from Mars land on Earth. When a party of scientists, politicians and reporters climb aboard, the ship takes off and takes the to Mars.

They discover that the one life form on Mars is a giant plant stretching itself around the planet. They ship takes them to a sort-of central mode for the plant, which includes a couple of enormous eyes and the ability to build more ships.

The plant learns to communicate with the humans. It wants to set up a teleportation device on Earth that would send him water. In exchange, he'll teach the humans advanced science and social skills, ending war and bringing a utopia on Earth. But the plant compares itself to a god and talks of humans being his servant.

Half the scientists want to go for this. The other half is suspicious and manages to bring the ship back to Earth. Soon, civil wars are waging across the Earth. Finally, people in the pro-plant faction are given transport to Venus, where they eliminate the Venusian dinosaurs and set up a transmitter to send water to Mars.

On Earth, a giant seed crashes and a plant quickly grows to engulf the planet, emitting a gas to wipe out anti-plant humanity. 

And--well, that's it. Are the humans on Venus happy? Are they allowed personal freedom? Are they under the rule of the plant? Do they regret the planetary genocide carried out back on Earth? I dunno! The story fails to dive deeply (or even superficially) into the issues being raised. 

It's all very unsatisfying. But Clark's future Martian stories, set on another version of Mars, will be very, very satisfying (as well as bizarre). Next week, we'll see what we think of one of them.