20/08/2020 Shambleau - Wikipedia

Shambleau
"Shambleau" is a short story by American science fiction and
fantasy writer C. L. Moore. Though it was her first professional
sale, it is her most famous story. It first appeared in the
November 1933 issue of Weird Tales and has been reprinted
numerous times. It features one of Moore's best-known heroes,
Northwest Smith, a gun-toting spacefarer, and is a retelling of the
Medusa myth; it looks at themes of sexuality and addiction.

Contents
Plot
Publication history
Response
See also
References
Cover of the pulp magazine Weird
Tales (October 1934, vol. 24, no. 4)
Plot featuring The Black God's Kiss by
C. L. Moore (first of the Jirel of Joiry
On Mars, tough smuggler Northwest Smith encounters a young stories). Cover by Margaret
woman being chased by a mob. Instinctively, he decides to protect Brundage.
her. The crowd identifies her as "Shambleau", but Smith does not
recognize the name. He is surprised when the mob disperses
without violence when he claims her as his own. To his puzzlement, he senses disgust, not hatred,
aimed at him.

When Smith takes a closer look at the woman, he realizes that she is not human, though she is
attractive. Feeling some responsibility for her, he allows her to shelter in his room, while he conducts
his illegal business.

Smith eventually discovers firsthand that a Shambleau feeds on the life-force of others using the
extensible, worm-like appendages it has instead of hair, while addicting its short-lived victims with
pure ecstasy. Fortunately for Smith, his Venusian partner Yarol comes looking for him and finds him
before it is too late. Unlike Smith, he knows what the creature is. Though he himself is drawn to the
Shambleau, he manages to avert his gaze; then, using the Shambleau's reflection in a mirror, Yarol is
able to shoot and kill it. Later, he speculates that the story of Perseus and Medusa had its origins in
the activities of a Shambleau on ancient Earth.

Publication history
Weird Tales. Popular Fiction Population Co. November 1933.
Avon Fantasy Reader #7 (https://archive.org/details/Shambleau19331948) (Online text ed.). 1948.
pp. 3 (https://archive.org/details/Shambleau19331948/page/n3)–28.
Shambleau and Others. Gnome Press. 1953.
The Best of C.L. Moore (paperback ed.). USA: Nelson Doubleday, Inc. 1975.
ISBN 9780345247520.
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The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories (https://archive.org/details/penguinbookofvam00vari/page/2

55) (paperback ed.). USA: Penguin Books. 1987. pp. 255–281 (https://archive.org/details/penguin
bookofvam00vari/page/255). ISBN 978-0140124453.
The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction (https://archive.org/details/wesleyanantholog0000uns
e/page/110) (paperback ed.). USA: Wesleyan University Press. 2010. pp. 110–135 (https://archiv
e.org/details/wesleyanantholog0000unse/page/110). ISBN 978-0-8195-6954-7.

Response
Several commentators refer to the lynching scene that starts the story. Thomas F. Bertonneau
remarks that "Moore's protagonist gets into trouble by rescuing what appears to be a young woman
from a Martian lynch-mob: his sense of the dignity of the persecuted victim leads him to put himself
in danger by opposing the witch-hunters. (Later, Smith has to be rescued from the young woman, who
turns out to be a monster in disguise; victimhood can be a disguise.)"[1]

Bernard Fields adds that, "The disturbing undercurrent is that the lynch mob turns out to have been
right in wanting to kill the 'sweetly made girl'. Smith was wrong in his chivalrous impulse to save her,
and the mob was right to despise him for it."

See also
1933 in science fiction
Shambleau / read by the author, C. L. Moore (https://sites.google.com/site/jeffgilleland/catherine_l
ucille_moore)
Eel Girl (2008), a horror science fiction short film
Harpya (1979), a Belgian short animated film
"Jenifer" (Masters of Horror episode)
Tomie, a Japanese horror manga series

References
1. Thomas F. Bertonneau, "Monstrous Theologies: The Theme of Anti-Sacrifice in the Sci-Fi Pulps"
(http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0601/monstrous.htm) in Anthropoetics 6, no. 1
(Spring/Summer 2000)

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