Stylistic Study of Lovecraft's Fiction Writings: Sentiment Analysis Based On
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Stylistic study of Lovecraft's fiction writings: Sentiment analysis based on Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions Working Paper (January, 2021) Jose Luis Arroyo-Barrigüete Abstract This paper, at the intersection of literary studies, computational linguistics and psychology, analyzes Lovecraft's literary production throughout his career as a writer of weird tales. Fifty- four writings from the period 1905-1935 have been studied by applying the computational techniques of sentiment analysis and following a methodology that is structured in three stages. In the first stage, each of the writings is analyzed, identifying the relative percentage of emotions conveyed on readers according to Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions. Once this process is completed, a hierarchical cluster analysis is carried out to identify homogeneous groups of works. Finally, a statistical analysis is carried out. The results point to three different conclusions. First, the quantitative analysis confirms that there exists an intimate connection between the sentiments of fear and sadness in Lovecraft’s writings, which generates an intense emotion of despair. Second, the vast majority of his works can be grouped into two different patterns as far as sentiments are concerned. Finally, there seems to be a relationship between the identified patterns and the evolution of Lovecraft's style; that is, there is a temporal evolution toward much darker works, which are dominated by negative emotions. Keywords: Lovecraft, weird tales, the Cthulhu Mythos, computational linguistics, sentiment analysis, Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions. -1- 1. Introduction Not only has Lovecraft's work had an enormous impact on popular culture (Smith, 2016), inspiring everything from films and comics to music and video games, but both his work and the figure of Lovecraft himself have aroused great interest in the academic community. This has resulted in the development of the most diverse research and even the existence of academic journals dedicated to the study of Lovecraft’s works, such as Lovecraft Studies (1980-2005) and Lovecraft Annual (2007-present). All his fictional works are usually grouped into three different stages: the Macabre (1905-1920), the Dream Cycle (1920-1927) and the Cthulhu Mythos (1925- 1935). However, it is ‘impossible to categorize the stories by their dates of creation, as they overlap, while containing elements that thematically fit a different cycle. Another issue is also that the Dream Cycle and the Cthulhu Mythos share many aspects and themes, blurring the line between the categories further’ (Zbořil, 2015: 48). Certainly, as will be analyzed later on, although there is a more or less clear difference between the works corresponding to the period 1905-1920 and later ones, the distinction between the Dream Cycle and the Cthulhu Mythos is rather less clear. Lovecraft’s stories ‘combine elements of the Gothic tradition with science fiction, fantasy and even some details that could be recognized in detective stories’ (Pérez de Luque, 2013: 111), and many of these stories share the insignificance of the human race as a sign of identity (Harman, 2008). As Houellebecq notes in relation to Lovecraft, ‘Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration […]. Everything will disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movement of the elementary particles’ (2019: 40-41). Certainly, as a preeminent Lovecraft authority, S. T. Joshi notes, ‘Lovecraft never passes up an opportunity to diminish human achievements’ (2014c, unpaginated), and the superiority of alien civilizations is -2- manifested in many ways, from physiological to intellectual (Joshi, 2016: 339). Closely linked to this idea, in Lovecraft's stories, humanity often finds itself surrounded by mysteries that escape its mere understanding, precisely reinforcing this idea of insignificance. Thus, starting from an atmosphere of darkness and melancholy (Norman, 2013), it would seem that Lovecraft seeks a combination of feelings of insignificance, despair and fear. Certainly, emotions play a key role in Lovecraft's work, for as the author himself points out, ‘Therefore we must judge a weird tale not by the author’s intent, or by the mere mechanics of the plot; but by the emotional level which it attains at its least mundane point’ (Lovecraft 2013[1935]: 2). However, to carry out a rigorous analysis in this regard, it is necessary to frame the study of these feelings in one of the existing conceptual frameworks in the field of the psychology of emotions, and in our case, we have chosen Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions (Plutchik, 2009). In the case of Lovecraft, and as will be seen with the quantitative analysis developed below, the dominant primary feeling is fear, followed by sadness and trust, and their combination in dyads, which produces the feelings of despair and submission (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Main sentiments in Lovecraft´s works according to Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions (Source: Prepared by the author based on Plutchik, 2009) -3- 1.1 The Sentiment of Fear The dominant emotion in Lovecraft's work is fear, as well as other emotions (dyads) that are associated with it, such as submission and despair. It is not a physical fear, but it is based on ‘a certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer’ (Lovecraft 2013[1935]: 2), which, as Mastropierro (2009: 95) points out, has its origin in ‘the abysmal difference, distance, between his characters and the universe that surrounds them’. This distance makes human beings unable to understand the mysteries that surround them, thus reinforcing the idea of their insignificance. The problem, from a literary point of view, consists precisely of how to ‘depict with mere words that which forever lies beyond the sphere of the known’ (Mariconda, 1991: 189). As Stableford remarks (2007: 71), ‘The entire tradition of cosmic horror fiction can be regarded as a heroic but doomed attempt to rise to that challenge: to communicate the uncommunicable’. Certain elements are systematically used by Lovecraft to generate this peculiar feeling of fear. Andronova and Torhovets (2019: 49) highlight that Lovecraft used epithets ‘in order to transfer the dark, mysterious and sinister atmosphere of his unique literary world by appealing to the reader’s feeling of disgust, repulsion and fear’, appealing to sight, smell and hearing. Certainly, Lovecraft attempts to induce a sensory experience in the reader, with sight being the most used sense, followed by hearing and smell: touch seldom occurs, and taste is completely absent (Hölzing, 2011). With respect to sight, mathematics and, in particular, geometry are used ‘to help build the mood for which he was striving’ (Hull 2006: 10), describing abnormal structures or strange dimensions to create an intimidating atmosphere. References to uncanny mathematics, beyond our ability to comprehend, create a feeling of ‘mathematical insignificance’, which contributes to enhancing the cosmic insignificance inherent in Lovecraft's philosophy (Look, 2016). As -4- Ingwersen (2014: 57) points out, the concepts of curved space and unfathomable dimensions are recurrent motifs in Lovecraft's worlds, which this author calls ‘the horror of geometry’. These influences must be sought in the scientific developments of the moment, including Einstein's theory, about which Lovecraft felt enthusiastic and that is based on the idea of non-Euclidean geometries. Art is another element that appears recurrently with the intention of generating the emotion of fear. Ralickas (2008: 314) indicates that there is an ‘intimate connection shared by art, the effect of cosmic horror, and the nihilistic, anti-humanist perspective of Lovecraft’s fiction’. In fact, in Lovecraft's work, ethnic objects such as statuettes, idols or fetishes ‘are usually indicators of things far worse than mere murder’ (Hefner, 2014: 667-668). Additionally, in these descriptions, we also find another of the signs of identity in Lovecraft's style, which emphasizes the limitations of language in describing objects since they show ‘seismic torsion with their own qualities’ (Harman, 2012: 27). As far as the sense of hearing is concerned, Lovecraft's work contains numerous allusions to sounds, always characterized by their unpleasant nature, which represents the total terror of the unknown (van Elferen, 2016). Perhaps the most characteristic element of Lovecraft's work is his teratonyms (Robinson, 2010: 127), built on the basis of ‘sounds-patterns that lie outside English phonetics or run contrary to the phonotactics of the language to result in anti-aesthetic constructions’. There exists a preponderance of low and back vowels that speakers perceive as dark, heavy, ugly, hostile, etc. (Clore, 1998: 35. Cited in Robinson, 2010). These teratonyms are undecipherable or unpronounceable, reinforcing, again, human limitations. Finally, we find that the sense of smell is less considered than the previous senses because as Burke (1767: 156) points out, ‘No smell or tastes can produce a grand sensation, except excessive bitters and intolerable stenches’. There exists a link between evil forces and smell, or -5- an association of smell with fear and disgust, as Lovecraft frequently ‘describes inorganic matter (e.g., stone) in a way that suggests organic corruption or similar processes. Generally, these are accompanied by nauseating smells’ (Hölzing, 2011: 183). Perhaps the clearest example of this connection