Crom Your Enthusiasm (Intro)

By: Joshua Glenn
August 2, 2015

During the cultural era we know as the Thirties (1934–1943, not to be confused with the calendrical 1930s), literature’s sci-fi and fantasy genres entered what critics and fans at the time called a Golden Age. When it comes to science fiction I’m skeptical of that designation; but when it comes to fantasy, it’s difficult to argue that the 1934–1943 era has ever been equaled, before or since.

Science fiction’s Radium Age (1904–33) era was eclipsed, during the Thirties, by the pulp sci-fi of up-and-comers like Robert A. Heinlein, Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague de Camp, C.L. Moore, and Jack Williamson. During the same era, many of these early Golden Age sf writers, along with the Weird Tales troika (Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith), not to mention British scholars (T.H. White, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien) and various other talents, wrote the ground-breaking fantasy that is the subject of HILOBROW’s CROM YOUR ENTHUSIASM series, this month.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, if the Nineteen-Teens gave us adventures that were romantic and uncanny, and the Twenties adventures that were wised-up and hardboiled, then the Thirties offered up a dialectical synthesis of these modes. The twenty-five adventures about which twenty-five of HILOBROW’s contributors will write, over the course of this month, are at one and the same time romantic and wised-up, uncanny and hardboiled. Thirties fantasy lit is an extraordinary juggling act, one that has inspired the best fantasy writers of subsequent decades.

PS: Although I’d intended to restrict the focus of this series to REH-style heroic sword-and-sorcery fantasy, I finally decided that it would be a shame not to include the occult fantasy, high fantasy, and science fantasy of the 1934–1943 period as well.

Enough preamble! Here’s the CROM YOUR ENTHUSIASM lineup: Erik Davis on Jack Williamson’s DARKER THAN YOU THINK | Sara Ryan on T.H. White’s THE SWORD IN THE STONE | Mark Kingwell on C.S. Lewis’s OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET | David Smay on Fritz Leiber’s THIEVES’ HOUSE | Natalie Zutter on Robert E. Howard’s QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST | James Parker on J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE HOBBIT | Adrienne Crew on Dion Fortune’s THE SEA PRIESTESS | Gabriel Boyer on Clark Ashton Smith’s ZOTHIQUE stories | John Hilgart on H.P. Lovecraft’s THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD | Barbara Bogaev on William Sloane’s TO WALK THE NIGHT | Rob Wringham on Flann O’Brien’s THE THIRD POLICEMAN | Dan Fox on Hergé’s THE SEVEN CRYSTAL BALLS | Flourish Klink on C.S. Lewis’s PERELANDRA | Tor Aarestad on L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt’s THE ROARING TRUMPET | Anthony Miller on H.P. Lovecraft’s THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH | Suzanne Fischer on E.R. Eddison’s MISTRESS OF MISTRESSES | Molly Sauter on Herbert Read’s THE GREEN CHILD | Diana Leto on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s TARZAN AND THE LION MAN | Joshua Glenn on Robert E. Howard’s THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON | Andrew Hultkrans on H.P. Lovecraft’s AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS | Lynn Peril on Fritz Leiber’s CONJURE WIFE | Gordon Dahlquist on H.P. Lovecraft’s THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME | Adam McGovern on C.L. Moore’s JIREL OF JOIRY stories | Tom Nealon on Fritz Leiber’s TWO SOUGHT ADVENTURE | John Holbo on Robert E. Howard’s CONAN MYTHOS.

I’m grateful to this series’s contributors, particularly so to John Holbo — who semi-jokingly suggested the name in the first place. Thanks also to Martin Estey, who in the early ’80s handed down a huge box of fantasy novels to his younger cousin. I should also acknowledge the influence of my father, who read the works of T.H. White, L. Frank Baum, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Arthur Ransome to his seven children.

Enjoy!

CROM YOUR ENTHUSIASM series

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MORE LIT LISTS on HILOBROW: 200 Greatest Adventure Novels (1804–1983) | Best Adventure Novels (1984–2013, notes only) | 100 Best Radium Age Sci-Fi Novels (1904–1933) | 75 Best Golden Age Sci-Fi Novels (1934–1963) | 75 Best New Wave Sci-Fi Novels (1964–1983) | 75 Best Diamond Age Sci-Fi Novels (1984–2003) | 55 Best Scientific Romances (1864–1903) | Best 19th Century Adventure (1805–1903) | 101 Science Fiction Adventures | 70 Crime Adventures | 65 Fantasy Adventures | 61 Espionage Adventures | 40 Atavistic & Historical Adventures | 25 Frontier & Western Adventures | 20 Avenger & Artful Dodger Adventures | 20 Apophenic & Treasure Hunt Adventures | 20 War & Ruritanian Adventures | 18 Picaresque Adventures | 10 Robinsonade & Survival Adventures. ALSO: BEST SIXTIES YA & YYA (1964–1973) | THE OUGHTS: 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913. THE TEENS: 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923. THE TWENTIES: 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933. THE THIRTIES: 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943. THE FORTIES: 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953. THE FIFTIES: 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963. THE SIXTIES: 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973. THE SEVENTIES: 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983. THE EIGHTIES: 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993. THE NINETIES: 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003. I’ve only recently started taking notes towards a list of the Best Adventures of the EIGHTIES, NINETIES, and TWENTY-OUGHTS. | Best Scottish Fabulists | Radium-Age Telepath Lit | Radium Age Superman Lit | Radium Age Robot Lit | Radium Age Apocalypse Lit | Radium Age Eco-Catastrophe Lit | Radium Age Cover Art (1) | SF’s Best Year Ever: 1912 | Cold War “X” Fic | Best YA Sci-Fi | Hooker Lit | No-Fault Eco-Catastrophe Lit | Scrabble Lit |

Crom Your Enthusiasm (Intro)

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