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Diablerie, v. 1, issue 3, March 1944

Page 15a

truly brought to the fore in his celebrated and undeniably important article Language for Time Travelers. Here was the first in the new, Campbell trend of articles. De Camp never quite touched this one again.
   And there is the de Camp of the humorous, or almost ridiculous problemyarn. First of these was The Merman, & this was followed by many others - - The Blue giraffe, Living Fossil, most of the Unknown tales. At times these problems can become so vexing and intricate, and very often so wordily hand led that they stray close to boredom - - but de Camp can never quite be serious, he always has a chuckle to throw in, and I suppose that's what saves him. 
   All of which, without further hedging, leads to what is undoubtedly de Camp's greatest flop - - The Stolen Dormouse. Right here and now an accusation that has been burning for lo, these many months is going to be made:
   Haste indubitably and without single exception makes waste.
   Viz friend de Camp's letter in July 1941 Astounding:
   "I finally broke down. . .under the strain of working on a short story, an article, and three novels all at the same time. . ."
   Tsk, tsk. Dormouse had the earmarks of being at the very least the finest thing de Camp ever wrote and possibly one of the greatest "wacky" stories ever published. But rush, haste, hurry, carelessness - - call it what you will - - completely crushed any pretenses it may have had. It was developed from a brilliant idea and bristled with delightful new concepts, but it failed utterly and completely to be really funny or to truly impress.
   This same thing is true with much of his work for Unknown - - Lest Darkness Fall was good but hardly merited the terrific praise it received. The Roaring Trumpet was funny in spots, but was altogether too vulgar - - de Camp's humor is at times repugnantly crude - - and interminaably dragged out. Mathematics of Magic was the best of the Harold O'Shea tales. To mention a few other de Camp pieces that appeared in Unk: The Undesired Princess favorably impressed, Solomon's Stone was confused and muddled. Unfamiliarity makes fair judgement of None But Lucifer impossible.
   In short then, de Camp is witty, de Camp is engrossing and interesting, he can on occasion approach brilliance... His stories have a tendency to fizz out in denouement, there is often an impression of L S de C counting pennies as he types - - de Camp is good, but he is not the great writer Hubbard is.
   Hubbard has been particularly good in Unk. His opener, The Ultimate Adventure was of course nothing but a feeler. Slaves of Sleep was easily worth the aclaim it received. Fear was brilliant psychology, brilliantly written by a psychologist; albeit there may be those who will pound a desk and shout, "Not true fantasy!" The Ghoul and The Case of the Friendly Corpse were typically  fantasy and more typically Hubbard, and as such could not possibly miss. Typewriter in the Sky gave to us that quotation that seems to define fantasy and its macabre, cynical outlook so completely: "Up there - - God? In a dirty bathrobe?"
   But above them all stands the master piece of fantasy, Final Blackout. There is no challenge here. Hubbard pushed aside the veil to show us how great stf could be, and none has followed in his footsteps yet. Conversely, de Camp has shown us how humorous it can be, though he probably has not reached the final goal in that direction.
   And considering these two judgements, who are we to - - compare?

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truly brought to the fore in his celebrated and undeniably important article Language for Time Travelers. Here was the first in the new, Campbell trend of articles. De Camp never quite touched this one again. And there is the de Camp of the humorous, or almost ridiculous problemyarn. First of these was The Merman, & this was followed by many others - - The Blue giraffe, Living Fossil, most of the Unknown tales. At times these problems can become so vexing and intricate, and very often so wordily hand led that they stray close to boredom - - but de Camp can never quite be serious, he always has a chuckle to throw in, and I suppose that's what saves him. All of which, without further hedging, leads to what is undoubtedly de Camp's greatest flop - - The Stolen Dormouse. Right here and now an accusation that has been burning for lo, these many months is going to be made: Haste indubitably and without single exception makes waste. Viz friend de Camp's letter in July 1941 Astounding: "I finally broke down. . .under the strain of working on a short story, an article, and three novels all at the same time. . ." Tsk, tsk. Dormouse had the earmarks of being at the very least the finest thing de Camp ever wrote and possibly one of the greatest "wacky" stories ever published. But rush, haste, hurry, carelessness - - call it what you will - - completely crushed any pretenses it may have had. It was developed from a brilliant idea and bristled with delightful new concepts, but it failed utterly and completely to be really funny or to truly impress. This same thing is true with much of his work for Unknown - - Lest Darkness Fall was good but hardly merited the terrific praise it received. The Roaring Trumpet was funny in spots, but was altogether too vulgar - - de Camp's humor is at times repugnantly crude - - and interminaably dragged out. Mathematics of Magic was the best of the Harold O'Shea tales. To mention a few other de Camp pieces that appeared in Unk: The Undesired Princess favorably impressed, Solomon's Stone was confused and muddled. Unfamiliarity makes fair judgement of None But Lucifer impossible. In short then, de Camp is witty, de Camp is engrossing and interesting, he can on occasion approach brilliance... His stories have a tendency to fizz out in denouement, there is often an impression of L S de C counting pennies as he types - - de Camp is good, but he is not the great writer Hubbard is. Hubbard has been particularly good in Unk. His opener, The Ultimate Adventure was of course nothing but a feeler. Slaves of Sleep was easily worth the aclaim it received. Fear was brilliant psychology, brilliantly written by a psychologist; albeit there may be those who will pound a desk and shout, "Not true fantasy!" The Ghoul and The Case of the Friendly Corpse were typically fantasy and more typically Hubbard, and as such could not possibly miss. Typewriter in the Sky gave to us that quotation that seems to define fantasy and its macabre, cynical outlook so completely: "Up there - - God? In a dirty bathrobe?" But above them all stands the master piece of fantasy, Final Blackout. There is no challenge here. Hubbard pushed aside the veil to show us how great stf could be, and none has followed in his footsteps yet. Conversely, de Camp has shown us how humorous it can be, though he probably has not reached the final goal in that direction. And considering these two judgements, who are we to - - compare?