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“Ubbo-Sathla”Clark Ashton Smith(1973)
Clark Ashton SMITHwas one of several writers who
occasionally set their stories within the Cthulhu
Mythos created by H. P. LOVECRAFT. Smith had cre-
ated more than one recurring setting of his own, in-
cluding the prehistoric civilization of Hyperborea,
which he links to Lovecraft’s creation in this tale.
Like many of Smith’s stories, the plot is secondary
to the images and concepts he describes, which is
not surprising given his background in poetry. The
initial protagonist is Paul Tregardis, a contemporary
man who finds a strange crystal in a curio shop and
identifies it as a magical artifact mentioned in The
Book of Eibon,a fictional tome Smith created in the
fashion of Lovecraft’s Necronomicon.
According to the manuscript, the jewel was
used by a Hyperborean sorcerer named Zon
Mezzamalech to explore the past in search of the
technology used by a race of ancient godlike be-
ings who once ruled the Earth, analogous if not
identical to those in Lovecraft’s mythos. While
contemplating this Tregardis falls into a stupor
during which his personality is briefly supplanted
by that of the sorcerer, although Tregardis has
no memory of this afterward. Although he vows
never to touch the crystal again, it lures him
into further trances, during which he regresses
ever further, losing his original identity and fol-
lowing Zon Mezzamalech back to a time before
humanity evolved on Earth. Their combined
personality merges with many others as the pro-
cess continues, finally ending with a glimpse of
an amorphous protoplastic shape that is the

source of all other forms of life on Earth. The

process so completely absorbs Tregardis that at

the end even his physical body is translated to

another existence.

The theme is clearly that there are some

things about which we are better left ignorant. Al-

though Tregardis indulges simple curiosity rather

than any overt desire to acquire power, he is

doomed simply by virtue of having interposed him-

self among forces too powerful to control. This is a

common outcome in Smith’s fiction, which is de-

signed to deflate our opinion that the universe is

our playground.

“The Ultimate Egotist”Theodore Sturgeon

(1941)

Although this story comes from early in the ca-

reer of Theodore Sturgeon and is missing the

skillful plotting and scene construction that

would mark his later work, it is one of his clever-

est ideas, and the author’s obvious enthusiasm for

his subject shines through the sometimes awk-

ward construction. Woodie, the narrator, is so

proud of himself that he believes everything in

the world and everyone in it is effectively just a

figment of his imagination, existing simply to

make his life more interesting. One day he tells

his girlfriend, Judith, that anything he refuses to

believe in will simply not exist. An argument en-

sues, friendly at first, with Judith attempting to

convince him that the fact that Siam exists even

though he has never seen it proves his theory