《七咒赋》 / The Seven Geases

《七咒赋》 / The Seven Geases is one of the main Clark Ashton Smith / C.A.史密斯 stories summarized in 73.虚境奇谭：恐怖+幽默=最好的克苏鲁. The episode treats it as the strongest example of Smith’s horror-comedy: a proud official named Ralibar Vooz disrupts a sorcerer’s ritual, is cursed, and is repeatedly transferred from one supernatural recipient to another because none of them wants or needs him.

The story’s comedy depends on cosmic demotion. 萨托古雅 is too full to accept the offering, Atlach-Nacha is busy weaving, snake people treat the human as already-studied material, and other older beings reject him for practical reasons. The human victim becomes less important each time he is passed along.

Key Claims

• The story turns cosmic horror into Horror-Humor Weird Fiction by making supernatural beings act with deadpan practical constraints.
• Its central joke is also Anti-Anthropocentric Satire: the human is not precious prey but inconvenient surplus.
• The repeated transfer structure is a form of Absurd Rationality because the impossible premise is handled with procedural logic.
• The episode contrasts the story’s lack of conventional victory, romance, or heroic arc with Weird Tales / 诡丽幻谭-style editorial expectations.

Connections

• Clark Ashton Smith / C.A.史密斯 and 《虚境奇谭》 - author and book context.
• 萨托古雅 and 伊波恩 - Smith mythos figures connected through the episode’s Hyperborea material.
• Horror-Humor Weird Fiction, Anti-Anthropocentric Satire, and Absurd Rationality - core concepts illustrated by the story.
• Cthulhu Mythos / 克苏鲁神话 and Cosmic Horror - broader field.