FINNEY, Charles G(randison)

(1905-1984)

   US newspaperman and writer, based in Arizona, who spent the years 1927-9 with the US infantry in Tientsin, China; an oriental influence pervades most of his work. His novels and stories, though FANTASY rather than sf, have been influential throughout the field,especially his famous The Circus of Dr Lao (1935), filmed insensitively as The Seven Faces of Dr Lao (1963). CGF's work was a strong influence on RayBRADBURY in particular, as the latter's anthology, The Circus of Dr Lao and Other Improbable Stories (anth 1956), demonstrates. The novel depicts the effect upon a small Arizona town of Dr Lao's circus, which is full of mythical beasts and demigods, all of whom actually live within his tents: they are simultaneously pathetic and awe-inspiring, and the townspeople soon find themselves acquiring unwanted self-knowledge as they confront the caged GODS. The erotic intensity of these confrontations is remarkable. The Magician out of Manchuria (1976 UK) - which first appeared under that title in The Unholy City (omni 1968) along with a revised version of The Unholy City (1937) - is set in China, and agreeably lightens the message of Lao. The Unholy City itself is a somewhat unwieldy allegory. The Ghosts of Manacle (coll 1964) assembles much of CGF's short fiction.

   JC

   Other works: Past the End of the Pavement (1939), associational.

   See also: MYTHOLOGY.