DMR Books recently published--with great pride--the centennial edition of A. Merritt's classic novel of heroic fantasy, The Ship of Ishtar. The Ship of Ishtar was first published in Argosy All-Story almost exactly a century ago. Since then, it has influenced countless authors, been published in a myriad of editions and has sold millions of copies. The DMR edition carries on this proud tradition. For those curious regarding my thoughts about it, here is the link.

Other than myself, there are still numerous fans of Merritt's classic novel out there. Some of them write blogs. James Maliszewski, proprietor of the Grognardia website is one of those stalwarts, a champion of Merritt's work for over fifteen years. When the DMR Books edition was first released, he posted not one, but two, blog entries concerning The Ship of Ishtar. I will not only be commenting on James' posts but also the commenters on his posts. Some of those comments are quite interesting.

To kick things off, Maliszewski first re-posted his review of The Ship of Ishtar from fifteen years ago. I remember reading it at the time and being impressed by his insights. James begins it well:

"Nearly all of the authors whose works I highlight in this space each week are those whose fame was once greater than it is today. There are exceptions, of course -- Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft being two good examples -- but contemporary fame often brings with it misunderstanding, with the author's stories and ideas reduced to mere caricatures. For good or for ill, Abraham Merritt has avoided that fate, his works largely unknown today, despite the fact that he was arguably the most popular fantasy and science fiction writer before World War II. Dying suddenly of a heart attack in 1943 probably didn't help Merritt's career, but it's still almost inexplicable to imagine how the author of Seven Footprints to Satan, Dwellers in the Mirage, and The Moon Pool, never mind The Ship of Ishtar could be so obscure today."

John Kenton kickin’ death-priest ass on the Ship of Ishtar. Virgil Finlay art.

Merritt was, quite possibly, the most popular fantasy and science fiction writer before World War II. Readers in Argosy and All-Story tended to rate Merritt's tales higher than those of Edgar Rice Burroughs. From scanty evidence, it would appear that Merritt's novels sold at least as well as ERB's in the book market. However, Burroughs was a full-time writer who cranked out the product. Merritt was more of a perfectionist and he held down a full-time job at the American Weekly--for which he was paid handsomely.

In my opinion, Merritt's obscurity comes down to two factors. One is that he hated sequels and never created a true 'series' character. Look at the market today. Any novel/story purporting to be about 'Conan' will get some readers. The same goes for some hack cranking out more 'Mythos' trash. The second reason is that there really seems to have been some concerted effort to destroy Merritt's reputation in the post-war years. It was so powerful and entrenched that even huge fans of Merritt--like Jack Williamson, C.L. Moore, Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett--rarely stood up in his defense, all the while writing stories in his style.

James goes on to say:

"The Ship of Ishtar was originally released as a six-part serial novel over the course of November and December 1924 in Argosy All-Story Weekly. These parts were then collected into a hardcover in 1926, but in abridged form, excising some chapters and rearranging the text. It's this incomplete version of the story that's been reprinted again and again over the decades, with only (I believe) a single 1949 edition including the full text of the novel. The new centennial edition of DMR Books follows Merritt's preferred version of the text, as well as including vintage illustrations."

Maliszewski edited this slightly from his original version to give a shout-out to the DMR Books centennial edition. Many thanks, amigo. As far as the "full text", the only hardcover edition that published it was the Borden in 1949. However, the mighty Famous Fantastic Novels published Merritt's preferred text in 1948. 'Inside baseball' stuff. The DMR Books edition includes all of the gorgeous Virgil Finlay illos from both Famous Fantastic Novels and the Borden edition.

The rest of James' review is full of worthy points. Read them there, at the Grognardia website.

Let's move on to the commenters.

First on-deck is "THOMAS". He shows up with all guns blazing. Let's take a look:

'Maybe it isn't read much because it has sentences like the following in it. When Kenton first lays eyes on the main girl character, we read his evaluation of her: "In the hollow of her throat a dimple lay; a chalice for kisses; empty of them and eager to be filled." (In Chp 3 of the centennial edition). I read that quote to my wife, and she said "Ew. That literally made me feel like gagging. It is an over the top description of male urge." Interesting reaction. For me, it seems to imply a mindset that the female body wants such attention without the consent of the person, and thus it seems to fall prey to the "objectification" critique people speak of these days. Anyway, I'd guess a lot of people would find such dialog to be offensive, or in bad taste.'

"HuckSawyer" responded:

'I'm not sure when or how the world reached the point of complete intellectual insanity.
Just for (I daresay) fun, replace Her Throat with His XYZ and suddenly the voicing changes and men get blamed again for somehow projecting or whatever the contemporary predatory term constitutes.
Fifty Shades of who the eff cares.
Here is how it is, for most of us - I mean men - over the age of about 35, all over the world. Like all adults with children and professions and Now & Later bills and community obligations, there isn't a lot of extra time to play games.
Here is what happens: You're attractive (maybe it's an attractive car, or a huge hot fudge sundae) or some feature about you catches my eye. Sure, maybe I am a monster, and I notice your breasts or your hair or your perfume or your Fendi handbag that I should have bought my wife in Hilton Head in 2022. Biology.
That lasts about one and a half seconds, tops. I am a grown man with mature responsibilities. If I convey appreciation in a way that doesn't mesh with the precise recipe of the moment for how it should be received, gosh I'm sorry. I am not leering at you. There is no sly grin and wink. It is a brief and largely impersonal acknowledgment.
Then I move on to calculating escalation costs for Long Term Care Insurance for my parents and wondering if my idiot son got his oil changed and tires rotated and somehow my wife is apoplectic that our daughter at university hasn't been in contact for 12 straight hours and EFF the lawnmower is a new guy and ran over a sprinkler head and now I look like that neighborhood clown who casts water all over the sidewalk instead of my lawn. And worse, that I'm not aware of it.
I have less than two seconds to waste time being aware of you. It is at best a passing glance clouded with real-world responsibilities.
Grown men - grown people - acknowledge briefly and move on. That is all it is, nothing more. Making it more yields a waste of your time, not mine.'

Love versus Death. Art by the immortal Virgil Finlay.

Bravo, Huck! I have to say I'm disappointed "THOMAS" didn't mention that when his wife voiced her stunningly brave repudiation of the Patriarchy, that the entire neighborhood erupted in a spontaneous convulsion of clapping. That would've been the cherry on top of a totally real incident.

A commenter by the brave moniker of "Unknown" weighed in:

'It's telling, to me, that all the men responding here are so quick to overlook or dismiss Thomas's wife's response to that piece of writing.
I see a clear issue with the description of the woman's dimple as "eager to be filled" with kisses - it's taking away her agency, her right to ask for or refuse kisses. The implication is that if Kenton were to kiss her dimple, he would simply be responding to its eagerness, and wouldn't need to ask for the woman's permission.'

Gimme a frikkin' break. For one thing, Sharane had been without any romantic male attention for a very long time--exactly how long is relativistic. As it turns out, she had been hoping for such a man while fighting the toxic male acolytes of Nergal for an extended period during which many women would've just surrendered. Kenton--like any young, healthy man confronted with a superlatively attractive woman--instantly fantasizes about getting intimate with her. Not 'raping' her. Getting intimate. 'Making love' to her.

Sharane--like most healthy women--was eager for a good man to share her life and its struggles with.

"THOMAS" then bravely returns to the digital battlefield:

'Exactly. Thanks for commenting, Unknown. I know a lot of women and I listen to them, and you nailed the issue. We all need to be careful to not use language that makes implications that make women feel like prey. In a world in which 1 in 5 women have been abused (according to one statistic) we should bend over backwards to be careful about the language we use. If we're insensible of how our language can be interpreted, we should learn.'

Thank you so much for your second lecture, THOMAS. Also, thank you for knowing and listening to "a lot of women". I thank you especially for all the rest of us apeish men who have never known nor listened to "a lot of women".

For the record, back in 2009, the eighty-fifth anniversary edition of The Ship of Ishtar came out. I did my part to promote it. My gf at the time asked me for my copy and read it. My next girlfriend ended up doing the same thing.

Let me preface this by saying that neither were my wives and that both were successful professionals in their fields. What were their reactions? Both really liked it--we discussed their favorite parts--but both were disappointed by the ending. Neither ever brought up Kenton stealing away Sharane's "agency".

SPOILER!: The Ship of Ishtar does not have the standard 'romance novel' ending.

I learned to read very early in a household containing my mother and two sisters. I've also had "a lot"--to paraphrase THOMAS--of girlfriends. When deprived of literature of my choice, I've never had a problem with checking out romance novels. Some of them are pretty good. Pretty spicy with decent action scenes. I would assume that they are something like what the "New Edge" sword-and-sorcery guys envision. The prose in nearly all of them is very much like that passage criticized by "THOMAS". What about those women, "THOMAS"? What about their "agency"? #BelieveAllWomen

"HuckSawyer" also mentioned Fifty Shades of Grey. Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

'Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world, including those of the United Kingdom and the United States. The series had sold over 125 million copies worldwide by June 2015, while by October 2017 it had sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. The series has been translated into 52 languages, and set a record in the United Kingdom as the fastest-selling paperback of all time.'

The success of Fifty Shades of Grey was solely due to women voting with their purses. No boyfriend/husband commanded that they buy it. And yet, those strong, independent, empowered women made it an historic, international best-seller.

I would certainly not want to imply that women demand one thing while actually wanting something else, but the well-nigh eternal success of romance novels and--especially--Fifty Shades of Grey makes a thoughtful person wonder.

What "THOMAS", in another display of stunning bravery, did not point out is that Sharane is a healthy, beautiful woman in her prime who has been fighting courageously--along with her fellow Ishtar priestesses--against unspeakable evil for thousands of years (relativistically speaking). Why would she not be yearning for a brave, attractive man? She finds that man in John Kenton, someone who has foregone a comfortable life and gone through hell to win her.

"THOMAS" doesn't seem to understand that literally thousands of romance novels and books like Fifty Shades of Grey demonstrate what women actually want out of fiction.

While THOMAS' strong, independent, empowered wife might not have appreciated him reading a quote from The Ship of Ishtar, I must speculate if, say, Brad Pitt or Luigi Mangione met her on the sidewalk and said, "The hollow of your throat is a chalice for kisses; empty of them now, but eager to be filled," as to what her reaction would be. Would she instantly say, " "Ew. That literally made me feel like gagging."? I sincerely wonder about how that would turn out.

However, let me abase myself and admit that I cannot know the mind of any woman, let alone speak for any woman. All I can do is list the women in the fields of fantasy and science fiction who have admitted their admiration for and the influence of A. Merritt upon them. Here you go:

C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, C.J. Cherryh, Sheri S. Tepper, Robin McKinley, Ardath Mayhar, Eileen Kernaghan and Elizabeth Hand.

How is that not a perfectly good list of The Women Who Made Fantasy/Science Fiction? Did they all "internalize misogyny"? If so, doesn't that negate their fiction? Instead, how about “THOMAS” and his hypothetical 'wife' just BTFO?

Asking for a friend.