‘The Treader of the Dust’ – Clark Ashton Smith
Page Count: Eight Pages.
It feels like a little while since I last visited any of the worlds of Clark Ashton Smith and with the way my reading has been going just recently, I figured that maybe another short trip would do me some good. And it did, but I’ll tell you about that in a minute. In the meantime…
In the triumvirate of Lovecraft, Howard and Smith, someone was always going to be left holding up the rear but it always feels a little unfair that Smith was the unlucky recipient of the third place ‘trophy’. Lovecraft may have come up with the concept of Cosmic Horror but Smith is the better storyteller, in this setting (and funnily enough, ‘The Treader of the Dust’ is a Mythos tale), and I feel like he deserves a little more credit for that. Anyway…
My attention span is shot at the moment so when I saw that ‘The Treader of the Dust’ was only a few pages long (all of eight pages), I knew it was the read for me. I found ‘The Treader of the Dust’ in the ‘Lost Worlds’ collection but you can also find it in ‘The Emperor of Dreams’ (Fantasy Masterworks) and there’s also a reading on Youtube which I’ve included below.
‘The Treader of the Dust’ is another of Smith’s cautionary tales about the perils of meddling in the affairs of creatures that exist far beyond our comprehension. It’s also a reminder that if you have already had second thoughts and left the scene, the absolute worst thing you can possibly do is return a few days later. That’s what Sebastian does and the second he returns to his mansion, it’s no spoiler to say that his fate is assured. And what a fate that is… Smith lays it all out in plain sight for the reader with a chain of clues that Quachil Uttaus has visited (and isn’t too far away, even now) but Sebastian is the only person who doesn’t realise. You can see Sebastian’s fate a mile off but that’s fully intended. The result is a nice head of tension that builds up until it’s almost unbearable, I found myself actually yelling at Sebastian to get out but that was never going to happen, not when Smith clearly has a lesson to teach us.
To be honest, you were never going to see me summoning eldritch gods, in the first place, but the eventual arrival of Quachil Uttaus made sure of that. I’m not going to say too much here other than that Smith really paints a chilling picture of a cosmos that we can barely wrap our heads around and that’s before Quachil Uttaus makes it’s appearance. What an amazing note to end this tale on.
Don’t take my word for it though. Like I said up the page, I came across a reading of ‘The Treader of the Dust’ on Youtube and have included it here for your listening pleasure, you’re welcome ;o)
It feels like a little while since I last visited any of the worlds of Clark Ashton Smith and with the way my reading has been going just recently, I figured that maybe another short trip would do me some good. And it did, but I’ll tell you about that in a minute. In the meantime…
In the triumvirate of Lovecraft, Howard and Smith, someone was always going to be left holding up the rear but it always feels a little unfair that Smith was the unlucky recipient of the third place ‘trophy’. Lovecraft may have come up with the concept of Cosmic Horror but Smith is the better storyteller, in this setting (and funnily enough, ‘The Treader of the Dust’ is a Mythos tale), and I feel like he deserves a little more credit for that. Anyway…
My attention span is shot at the moment so when I saw that ‘The Treader of the Dust’ was only a few pages long (all of eight pages), I knew it was the read for me. I found ‘The Treader of the Dust’ in the ‘Lost Worlds’ collection but you can also find it in ‘The Emperor of Dreams’ (Fantasy Masterworks) and there’s also a reading on Youtube which I’ve included below.
‘The Treader of the Dust’ is another of Smith’s cautionary tales about the perils of meddling in the affairs of creatures that exist far beyond our comprehension. It’s also a reminder that if you have already had second thoughts and left the scene, the absolute worst thing you can possibly do is return a few days later. That’s what Sebastian does and the second he returns to his mansion, it’s no spoiler to say that his fate is assured. And what a fate that is… Smith lays it all out in plain sight for the reader with a chain of clues that Quachil Uttaus has visited (and isn’t too far away, even now) but Sebastian is the only person who doesn’t realise. You can see Sebastian’s fate a mile off but that’s fully intended. The result is a nice head of tension that builds up until it’s almost unbearable, I found myself actually yelling at Sebastian to get out but that was never going to happen, not when Smith clearly has a lesson to teach us.
To be honest, you were never going to see me summoning eldritch gods, in the first place, but the eventual arrival of Quachil Uttaus made sure of that. I’m not going to say too much here other than that Smith really paints a chilling picture of a cosmos that we can barely wrap our heads around and that’s before Quachil Uttaus makes it’s appearance. What an amazing note to end this tale on.
Don’t take my word for it though. Like I said up the page, I came across a reading of ‘The Treader of the Dust’ on Youtube and have included it here for your listening pleasure, you’re welcome ;o)
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