Short Story 3 title correction: The Grave Secret

David Stockhoff · 01 May 2012, 22:14 · from 2012-May.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Tue, 01 May 2012 18:14:38 -0400
Subject: (urth) Short Story 3 title correction: The Grave Secret
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A Cthulhu Mythos story by Clark Ashton Smith, THE RETURN OF THE 
SORCERER, may have been the origin of this one. Working as a translator 
for a John Carnby, the narrator reads from the original Arabic Necronomicon:

'It is verily known by few, but is nevertheless no attestable fact, that 
the will of a dead sorcerer hath power upon his own body and can raise 
it up from the tomb and perform therewith whatever action was 
unfulfilled in life. And such resurrections are invariably for the doing 
of malevolent deeds and for the detriment of other's. Most readily can 
the corpse be animated if all its members have remained intact; and yet 
there are cases in which the excelling will of the wizard hath reared up 
from death the sundered pieces of a body hewn in many fragments, and 
hath caused them to serve his end, either separately or in a temporary 
reunion. But in every instance, after the action hath been completed, 
the body lapseth into its former state.'

This is of course exactly what happens to the protagonist of The Grave 
Secret.

On 4/4/2012 2:03 PM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> That must have been before science fiction was able to afford editors. ;)
>
> On 4/4/2012 1:43 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
>> "The Grave Secret" is basically a good _Weird Tales_ entry for the
>> classic 30s/40s incarnation of that magazine.
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 10:38 AM, David 
>> Stockhoff<dstockhoff at verizon.net>  wrote:
>>> The Grave Secret is not a serious story, and yet is not so bad in 
>>> some ways.
>>> Detailed, but clumsy. I'd be proud of it if it were mine, but I'd 
>>> clean it
>>> up first. And it could be funnier; it gestures toward humor but does 
>>> not
>>> achieve it.
>>>
>>> And silly too. How did the ghost perform the necessary magic? Best 
>>> not to
>>> think about it.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 3/25/2012 1:03 AM, Marc Aramini wrote:
>>>> My apologies, the third story is "the Grave Secret"
>>>>
>>>> Story #4 is "The Dead Man"
>>>>
>>>> Anyone who asked to receive the stories but did not please let me 
>>>> know.
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