Summer Reading List No. 5-Strange Gods, edited by Roger Elwood

Strange Gods is an anthology of science fiction stories about religion. The editor was Roger Elwood (1943-2007). The cover artist was Charles Moll, about whom it's hard to find much of anything on the Internet. The book was published in 1974 by Pocket Books.

There are twelve stories in Strange Gods. The thirteenth at the table is an introduction by George Zebrowski (b. 1945). My favorites are the opening story, "High Priest" by J.F. Bone (1916-2006); "The Director" by James Howard (possibly a pseudonym); and the closing story, "Musspelsheim" by Richard A. Lupoff (1935-2020). "High Priest" is a post-apocalyptic story. "The Director" is dystopian, the other side of the Apocalypse-Dystopia (or fire-and-ice, or circle-and-arrow) coin. "Musspelsheim" is something different.

Barry N. Malzberg (I wrote about him last time) is represented twice in Strange Gods, once under his own name and again under his pseudonym K.M. McDonnell, which is Mr. Malzberg's tribute to C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner. Virginia Kidd (1921-2003) is here, too, with a poem. She was married to James Blish (1921-1975) for a time. You have seen his name in this blog lately, too.

I'll write only about "Musspelsheim" by Richard A. Lupoff. The late Mr. Lupoff is known for his work on Edgar Rice Burroughs, but his story in Strange Gods is obviously in the mode of  H.P. Lovecraft. The prose style is different, and that's good. No one should try to write like Lovecraft. His style was his and his alone. Nonetheless, "Musspelsheim" is Lovecraftian in tone and structure. There is even a a list of books, obscure and not, arcane and not, perhaps real and not, in its pages (pp. 186-187). "Musspelsheim" takes place in the then-modern day of the 1960s or 1970s. It involves technology, specifically sound technology. That might be a Lovecraftian touch as well.* There is fascinating detail here on a topic that might otherwise have been mind-deadingly dull for the reader: this is science fiction for audiophiles, and it reads almost like non-fiction, like an article from Rolling Stone or The New Yorker. (There is a description of a rock group in Mr. Lupoff's story. Could they be the Rolling Stones?) The ending is also Lovecraftian, though perhaps more positive, being suggestive of a positive transcendence.** I would not call "Musspelsheim" a great science fiction story, but it is an interesting story. You might even call it extraordinary. And if you want to call it a pastiche, it was at least done in the right way.

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*"Musspelsheim" makes me think of Lovecraft's "Cool Air" or "The Statement of Randolph Carter."

**On the other hand, the subject of the story, named Poletsky, may have just gone off the deep end. And it occurs to me now that "Musspelsheim" has similarities to The Great Gatsby, too: Poletsky as Gatsby.  

Strange Gods, edited by Roger Elwood (1974), with cover art by Charles Moll, illustrating "High Priest" by J.F. Bone.

Text copyright 2021, 2023 Terence E. Hanley