H. P. Lovecraft & The Darkest Horror

 

LovecraftIt being Halloween week, we’ve had some fun discussing horror writing and film, from Edgar Allan Poe‘s horror of death to the theological horror of The Exorcist. I enjoy both genres immensely, but I’ve come to a late appreciation for H.P. Lovecraft (1890 -1936), who did as much to shape the genre in the 20th Century as Poe did in the 19th.

Lovecraft lived most of his life in Southern New England, with a short stint in New York City during his brief and profoundly unhappy marriage. Born into relative privilege of a 19th Century sort, he never really earned a living, getting by on his inheritance and the pittance his writing brought in. Introverted and unwilling to promote himself, he died in obscurity of stomach cancer in 1936, his work having never gained any attention outside of pulp magazines.

Like most horror writers, Lovecraft is extraordinarily uneven: many of his stories are incredibly derivative, some of them are outright silly, and there’s strain of racism throughout his work that would be more offensive if it weren’t so transparent, gratuitous, and dated (besides the regular derogatory comments about blacks, Lovecraft can never resist the opportunity to take a jab at the Portuguese). Moreover, Lovecraft’s characterizations are generally very weak — it’s unusual for a character from his stories to make much of an impression — and the number of named women in his work could likely be counted on a single hand.

At his best, however, Lovecraft creates a world of cosmic horror based around the premise that the Universe isn’t about us; that even our deepest, most heartfelt, and most profound struggles are — quite literally — beneath the notice of the true forces of space and time. Truth may set you free in Christianity, but it drives you mad in Lovecraft’s worldview. In the opening to the “The Call of Cthulhu” — his most famous story and, arguably, his best — Lovecraft’s narrator reflects on making just such a discovery:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

In contrast, one of the central conceits of the Abrahamic faiths — and Christianity in particular — is that God cares a great deal about us and that we are the focal point of physical Creation: we are uniquely made in His image; He speaks to us, either through prayer, in person, or through angelic messengers; through our actions the world was irrevocably damaged; through His taking our form and dying on the cross, it was restored, etc. God is subject of the Universe, but we are its object.

But while stories like the “The Call of Cthulhu” feature some knowable and named monster, god, or alien race — all, rather amusingly, with some connection to Massachusetts or Rhode Island — his “The Color Out of Space” features an utterly mysterious killer. The plot is minimal: a mysterious meteor lands in rural Massachusetts and something escapes from it. Within a year, not only has the landscape surrounding the impact site been corrupted and destroyed, so have the lives and sanity of the family who owned the nearby farm.

What makes the story so terrifying — besides the gruesome nature of the deaths — is how inscrutable whatever  got out of the meteor is: not only is its nature mysterious, it’s not even clear whether it has a will. The effects of its presence are consistent with something evil, but its lack of motive or evident gain from its actions are perplexing. It could be torturing intently, but it might just as well be unaware and uninterested in the lives it destroys.

The darkest form of atheism posits that — outside of the noises in our minds — the Universe is silent: there is no Purpose, no Plan, only matter and energy acting upon natural forces. In his fiction, Lovecraft goes further, suggesting that there may well be a cosmic song — only we’re not even part of the chorus, let alone carrying the melody.

Many of Lovecraft’s works are available for free online, and there are multiple free or near-free eBook versions. My first introduction to him was this superb reading of “The Call of Cthulhu.”

Image Credit: Lovecraft Wiki user Xardwen.

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  1. blank generation member Inactive
    blank generation member
    @blankgenerationmember

    Carey J.:Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. Because someone had to say it.

    Your pronunciation is impeccable.

    • #31
  2. Carey J. Inactive
    Carey J.
    @CareyJ

    blank generation member:

    Carey J.:Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. Because someone had to say it.

    Your pronunciation is impeccable.

    Thank you.

    • #32
  3. user_554634 Member
    user_554634
    @MikeRapkoch

    Thanks for bringing Lovecraft back into the light Tom. I read many of his stories when I went through my scyfy/horror phase in Junior High. I haven’ thought of him in years, but now I’ll take a look again.

    • #33
  4. St. Salieri Member
    St. Salieri
    @

    Danny Alexander:This is an excellent post — thank you so much for contributing it.

    I’m actually from MA (born in Boston, raised in a “Metro West” suburb, and currently back in MA again), and it’s intriguing to learn that the occasional MA and/or RI setting turn(s) up in Lovecraft’s stories.

    Have you had any chance to obtain and/or peruse this volume, and if yes, what are your thoughts?

    http://www.amazon.com/New-Annotated-H-P-Lovecraft/dp/0871404532/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414783182&sr=1-1&keywords=klinger+annotated+lovecraft

    At risk of sounding like a troglodyte, I have to say that I’m hugely frustrated that there seem to be zero quality cinematic (and DVD-transferred) adaptations of Lovecraft’s oeuvre out there — unless I’ve overlooked something.

    Incidentally, I have the same feeling re cinematic (and DVD-available) adaptations of Poe — I don’t want to grit my teeth through the Vincent Price camp stuff, other live-action adaptations strike me as lacking any faithfulness to the originals either, and I’m not interested in animation versions.

    Have I overlooked any thing in this area too?

    Tom, what a great post thank you!  You made me pick up my mostly unread copy of Lovecraft.

    Danny,

    The field is strangely weak, I don’t know why a good film adaptation of Poe hasn’t been done since the advent of sound and the widespread use of color.  Although campy, I do like some of the Vincent Price films.  For the more tongue-in-cheek original stories they work well, and for others they at least feel like their was some understanding of Poe.

    There is an interesting, if flawed retelling of Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” in G. W. Griffith’s The Avenging Conscience.  It is probably the most original of the Poe adaptations, and the most successful one as a film that doesn’t rely on mood alone.  Although, it is set in the contemporary world (1914) and so the Gothic element is lost, there is darkness and madness to spare.  But being a Griffith film, and being made in 1914, there is a desire to rationalize part of the premise of the tale and the ending is far too hopeful for my taste.  It was all just a dream – yuck!  I actually like this film a lot, and it is in many ways the first great American silent horror film, but most people will no longer find it compelling.

    There are two interesting film adaptations of The Fall of the House of Usher I can recommend.  One is a very atmospheric and dark French silent film from 1928, the other was an American film, also of the same year.  Both were for their time avant garde productions, combining interesting art direction with unique camera work.  The American film is short and reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, so you may find the non-realistic sets and acting off putting, it is really about the mix of noir-ish lighting and camera effects.

    In the French version La chute de la maison Usher the atmospherics take center stage, Jean Epstein directed, with Luis Bunuel involved as well, and Poe’s “The Oval Portrait” was combined to help fill out part of the plot.  It is also not about the characters but the world that surrounds them.

    I think there is merit in all of these films, and I don’t really care for the early 20th century avant garde, but if you don’t enjoy silent films, I’d give these three films a pass.

    There was a British independent film from 1949 that people either tend to love or hate.  It is a difficult film to obtain in a decent print.  I’ve only seen it on TCM the sound quality was poor, even by British industry standards, but it has loyal followers.  I found it boring, I didn’t hate it, but I thought it lacked a sense of what the original story was trying to say, and the live locations failed to even remotely resemble what is described in the story.

    • #34
  5. user_1030767 Inactive
    user_1030767
    @TheQuestion

    Michael Sanregret:E.g. Bran Mac Morn, Howard’s Pictish hero, would use “Cthulhu” as a curse word,

    I misremembered.  He said, “R”lyeh,” (Cthulhu’s resting place) not “Cthulhu.”

    • #35
  6. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:“The Color Out of Space” features an utterly mysterious killer. The plot is minimal: a mysterious meteor lands in rural Massachusetts and something escapes from it…

    What makes the story so terrifying — besides the gruesome nature of the deaths — is how inscrutable whatever got out of the meteor is: not only is its nature mysterious, it’s not even clear whether it has a will. The effects of its presence are consistent with something evil, but its lack of motive or evident gain from its actions are perplexing. It could be torturing intently, but it might just as well be unaware and uninterested in the lives it destroys.

    Home sick on a rainy Halloween night, I decided to give this one a listen. Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I didn’t find it terrifying.

    First, a color composed of “shining bands unlike any known colours of the normal spectrum” just doesn’t sound all that scary. (Or plausible – what are the wavelengths of these shining bands apparently visible to the human eye yet totally foreign to it?) Being frightened by an unusual spectrum is… like being frightened of non-Euclidean geometry –which Lovecraft was apparently frightened of, too.

    What he describes doesn’t sound convincingly “alien” or “unnatural” to me. The ill-effects sound like organic disease writ large (if a pathogen were able to blight not only people also all the other animals and plants it came in contact with). We already sometimes find ourselves perplexed by the question of what naturally-occurring infectious agents have to gain from making us as ill as they do. A mysterious color from space poses us no new problems in this regard.

    • #36
  7. user_409996 Member
    user_409996
    @

    I liked this treatment of the Cthulu Mythos:

    • #37
  8. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Michael Sanregret:

    Michael Sanregret:E.g. Bran Mac Morn, Howard’s Pictish hero, would use “Cthulhu” as a curse word,

    I misremembered. He said, “R”lyeh,” (Cthulhu’s resting place) not “Cthulhu.”

    That’s r’lyeh interesting.

    Eh?  EH?!

    These are the jokes, folks…

    • #38
  9. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    blank generation member:Eldritch…eldritch…horror.

    Paul Theroux has an anecdote about being on a train where he’s reading a biography called Lovecraft and the other passengers think he’s reading a “book about sexual technique”.

    Waiting for the screen adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness.

    It was called Prometheus.

    Actually, on second thought, a better comparison would be to Alien vs. Predator, if instead of being hunted by the creatures the protagonists merely heard them in the distance and got so scared that they immediately ran away…

    • #39
  10. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Hank Rhody: Eh, Lovecraft doesn’t do it for me. He tells one story, over and over again.

    So does my father. YOU HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST MY FATHER?!

    • #40
  11. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    Misthiocracy:

    blank generation member:Eldritch…eldritch…horror.

    Paul Theroux has an anecdote about being on a train where he’s reading a biography called Lovecraft and the other passengers think he’s reading a “book about sexual technique”.

    Waiting for the screen adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness.

    It was called Prometheus.

    Actually, on second thought, a better comparison would be to Alien vs. Predator, if instead of being hunted by the creatures the protagonists merely heard them in the distance and got so scared that they immediately ran away…

     I accidentally oversaw part  of Prometheus  on a fellow passenger’s iPad a year ago. I thought “If the head in the microwave explodes, I’ll know this movie is a dog with fleas.” The head exploded.

    But on Lovecraft and the atheist conceit that knowledge of man’s relative insignificance in the cosmos, well, thanks guys, but we already had the Bible to tell us that (Job, Ecclesiastes, Psalm 8, Psalm 102, Psalm 103, Psalm 144, etc.).

    • #41
  12. user_494971 Contributor
    user_494971
    @HankRhody

    Misthiocracy:

    Hank Rhody: Eh, Lovecraft doesn’t do it for me. He tells one story, over and over again.

    So does my father. YOU HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST MY FATHER?!

    John Wayne only ever made one movie.It was John Wayne being John Wayne. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t the best. In Lovecraft’s case though, it’s one story I don’t need to hear again.

    • #42
  13. user_494971 Contributor
    user_494971
    @HankRhody

    Midget Faded Rattlesnake:

    First, a color composed of “shining bands unlike any known colours of the normal spectrum” just doesn’t sound all that scary. (Or plausible – what are the wavelengths of these shining bands apparently visible to the human eye yet totally foreign to it?) Being frightened by an unusual spectrum is… like being frightened of non-Euclidean geometry –which Lovecraft was apparently frightened of, too.

    The John Carter books have this problem too; the martian prisms can separate out an eight and ninth color. I believe one of those colors has the property of repulsion, they use it to power their airships. First time I came across it I asked that wavelength question. Second time my reaction was more “nothing else about these stories is that plausible. Ignore it and move on.”

    • #43
  14. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    Hank Rhody:

    Midget Faded Rattlesnake:

    First, a color composed of “shining bands unlike any known colours of the normal spectrum” just doesn’t sound all that scary. (Or plausible – what are the wavelengths of these shining bands apparently visible to the human eye yet totally foreign to it?) Being frightened by an unusual spectrum is… like being frightened of non-Euclidean geometry –which Lovecraft was apparently frightened of, too.

    The John Carter books have this problem too; the martian prisms can separate out an eight and ninth color. I believe one of those colors has the property of repulsion, they use it to power their airships. First time I came across it I asked that wavelength question. Second time my reaction was more “nothing else about these stories is that plausible. Ignore it and move on.”

    Fakey science to advance a plot or add “local color” is one thing. Expecting scientific oddities to be inherently frightening is another. “I know what would make this scene more scary – some non-Euclidean geometry!” just isn’t a thought that would occur to me. It’s almost as if Lovecraft’s real fear is the Fear of Science.

    Which, now that I think of what Tom quoted above, might be exactly what Lovecraft was afraid of:

    The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

    • #44
  15. user_1030767 Inactive
    user_1030767
    @TheQuestion

    Midget Faded Rattlesnake: It’s almost as if Lovecraft’s real fear is the Fear of Science. Which, now that I think of what Tom quoted above, might be exactly what Lovecraft was afraid of: The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

    I watched the series “How the Universe Works,” and I actually was astounded at how big the universe is, which surprised me since I teach science, and I thought I knew the universe was big, but I didn’t quite get how big.  I didn’t realize that there are “structures” of which galaxies are the building blocks, like the Great Sloan Wall.

    None of it really proves anything about God or the meaning of human life, but trying to imagine things too big to imagine can be unsettling.

    • #45
  16. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    Michael Sanregret:None of it really proves anything about God or the meaning of human life, but trying to imagine things too big to imagine can be unsettling.

    Unsettling? It’s exciting. Exhilarating. I guess that counts as unsettling, but unsettling in a good way. Even if it were unpleasantly unsettling, how bad could it be compared to the unsettling wickedness and inadequacy that lurks within the human heart?

    • #46
  17. user_653084 Inactive
    user_653084
    @SalvatorePadula

    Your comment about Lovecraft’s views on the Portugese reminded me of this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDg07hd0BhQ

    • #47
  18. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    I have intimate experience with non-Euclidian geometry. My great-grandparents house was laid out and constructed by a local genius and there isn’t a plumb line or a square corner in the entire structure. That is only mildly disconcerting.

    Sixty years later another master of the arcane wired the place for electricity. In attempting some minor repairs, I connected what I thought was a ground line to ground, and the milk house light came on. I’m still trying to suss that one out. An inter dimensional gate is one possibility.

    • #48
  19. Julia PA Inactive
    Julia PA
    @JulesPA

    Tom Meyer, Ed.: It could be torturing intently, but it might just as well be unaware and uninterested in the lives it destroys.

    Tom Meyer, Ed.: The darkest form of atheism posits that — outside of the noises in our minds — the Universe is silent: there is no Purpose, no Plan, only matter and energy acting upon natural forces. In his fiction, Lovecraft goes further, suggesting that there may well be a cosmic song — only we’re not even part of the chorus, let alone carrying the melody.

    As a musician, the experience of and response to the sound patterns that form our ideas of melody and chorus, suggests to me the actual presence of a Purpose and a Plan. That is part of the deliberate creative force embedded in humans.

    Those of us who believe there is a Purpose and a Plan might suggest that intently torturing and destroying the living would be a symptom of moral evil, not neutrality or disinterest. Though the idea of such a creature is indeed one of the darkest horrors I can imagine.

    • #49
  20. Tom Meyer Member
    Tom Meyer
    @tommeyer

    Hartmann von Aue:  I accidentally oversaw part  of Prometheus  on a fellow passenger’s iPad a year ago. I thought “If the head in the microwave explodes, I’ll know this movie is a dog with fleas.” The head exploded.

    Watching Prometheus is an experience of Lovecraftian terror.

    • #50
  21. Nathaniel Wright Inactive
    Nathaniel Wright
    @NathanielWright

    Given that I live in Glendale, the home of the company who made the silent “Call of Cthulhu” movie, I would prefer that a link to their website be given rather than a link to a YouTube video from which they see no revenue.

    • #51
  22. Nathaniel Wright Inactive
    Nathaniel Wright
    @NathanielWright

    I’d also like to point out that the art used on this post was done by Michael Kormarck and is copyright Fantasy Flight Games. Fantasy artists don’t make mad money, so if you like the art pick up a print from Michael.

    • #52
  23. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Hank Rhody:

    Midget Faded Rattlesnake:

    First, a color composed of “shining bands unlike any known colours of the normal spectrum” just doesn’t sound all that scary. (Or plausible – what are the wavelengths of these shining bands apparently visible to the human eye yet totally foreign to it?) Being frightened by an unusual spectrum is… like being frightened of non-Euclidean geometry –which Lovecraft was apparently frightened of, too.

    The John Carter books have this problem too; the martian prisms can separate out an eight and ninth color. I believe one of those colors has the property of repulsion, they use it to power their airships. First time I came across it I asked that wavelength question. Second time my reaction was more “nothing else about these stories is that plausible. Ignore it and move on.”

    There are three ways to resolve this conundrum in a sci-fi/fantasy setting:

    1. Magic. In the Discworld novels there is an eighth colour, called “octarine”, which is the colour of magic (coincidentally, the title of the first book in the series).
    2. Extra Dimensions.  The electromagnetic spectrum we are able to perceive exists only within our four-dimensional universe. The Cthulhu mythos makes many references to multi-dimensional non-euclidean geometry. There’s no reason that “multi-dimensional non-Newtonian optics” couldn’t also be a thing in the Cthulhu universe.
    3. Colours of the mind.  In the real world, humans actually can perceive colours which cannot exist in nature. For example, Stygian Blue. It’s the colour you see when you close your eyes after staring at something yellow. The only place it exists is in your brain. (Source.)
    • #53
  24. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Hank Rhody:

    Misthiocracy:

    Hank Rhody: Eh, Lovecraft doesn’t do it for me. He tells one story, over and over again.

    So does my father. YOU HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST MY FATHER?!

    John Wayne only ever made one movie.It was John Wayne being John Wayne. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t the best. In Lovecraft’s case though, it’s one story I don’t need to hear again.

    • #54
  25. C. U. Douglas Coolidge
    C. U. Douglas
    @CUDouglas

    My totally existing cop buddy introduced me to H. P. Lovecraft in high school. He started reading Lovecraft at about age 14. This weekend he posts pictures of his nine-year old perusing an illustrated catalogue of creatures of the Cthulhu mythos and reading At the Mountains of Madness.

    Parenting at its finest!

    • #55
  26. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    I’m surprised that no one has brought up this Lovecraftian masterpiece: Dunwich Horror starring Sandra Dee and Dean Stockwell

    That would be the laughably bad Dunwich Horror starring Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee. “Oh, Buffy, could you take the Necronomicon back to the graduate library for me?”

    • #56
  27. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    Misthiocracy:

    1. Colours of the mind. In the real world, humans actually can perceive colours which cannot exist in nature. For example, Stygian Blue. It’s the colour you see when you close your eyes after staring at something yellow. The only place it exists is in your brain. (Source.)

    Sure, there are lots of ways the human eye perceives color that are different from the way, say, a camera “perceives” color. (Color-correction to make what the camera “saw” resemble more closely what the photographer saw is pretty fascinating, actually.) Our eyes are amazingly adapted to adjust for ambient light, to pick out extra contrast in certain colors (greens) and not others…

    The way our eyes experience color “fatigue” (or habituation) turns out to be quite useful, even though it produces some optical illusions. But…

    If these chimerical colors are produced by naturally-adapted brains and eyes, how can they be said to not exist in nature? ;-)

    • #57
  28. Tom Meyer Member
    Tom Meyer
    @tommeyer

    Ah, The Conqueror.

    I love John Wayne, but I can’t shake the feeling that everyone involved in the gawd-awful production deserved the radiation poisoning they (likely) got.

    • #58
  29. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Midget Faded Rattlesnake: If these chimerical colors are produced by naturally-adapted brains and eyes, how can they be said to not exist in nature? ;-)

    Friggin’ platonists…

    ;-)

    • #59
  30. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Hartmann von Aue:I’m surprised that no one has brought up this Lovecraftian masterpiece:

    That would be the laughably bad Dunwich Horror starring Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee. “Oh, Buffy, could you take the Necronomicon back to the graduate library for me?”

    I’ve seen worse movies.

    • #60
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