English Language and Literature

Home , Dream Cycle, Miskatonic University, Necronomicon, Thomas Bulfinch

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

Jan Zbořil

H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos

Master‘s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD.

2015

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author‘s signature

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor, Supervisor: doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor,

PhD, for his patience and understanding.

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

1. The Author 7

1.1 Biography 8

1.2 Dreams and Horrors 16

1.3 Philosophy 19

2. Cthulhu Mythos 23

2.1 Fear of the Unknown 33

2.2 Religion 36

2.3 Necronomicon 39

2.4 Beings 47

2.5 Tales 48

2.5.1 ―The Call of Cthulhu‖ 49

2.5.2 ―The Dunwich Horror‖ 54

2.5.3 At the Mountains of Madness 58

2.5.4 The Shadow over Innsmouth 61

Conclusion 65

Works cited 68

Introduction

In comparison to my BA thesis which dealt with the most critical and crucial differences between Stephen King‘s Shining and Stanley Kubrick‘s famous movie adaptation, I have decided to deal solely with works of a single man, coincidentally

Stephen King‘s predecessor and virtually his mentor, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who is by some considered to be the most essential literary writer of the horror genre, and the leading author of and on the supernatural fiction of the 20th century. One of the aims of the following is to examine Lovecraft‘s personal life, upbringing and interests, as well as the development of his relationships with others, and to strive to postulate what has lead to his renown. Some of the secondary sources will shine a light on the development of Lovecraft‘s youth, and can provide not only Lovecraft‘s own notes, scraps, and even descriptions of his dreams and nightmares, but also specific catalysts and inspirations throughout his life, from melancholy and pessimism influencing directly his ways of writing style and storytelling, to his delicate sense for the primal fear of the unknown, or the hunt for forbidden esoteric knowledge, so abundantly used in his tales. I would also like to briefly describe his literary philosophies like Cosmicism and apathetic agnosticism, which are used frequently not only in his works, but also in many of his letters to close friends, for example Robert E. Howard or August Derleth, with whom he began a wider circle of writers corresponding together, most of which later started adding stories to the Cthulhu Mythos. I will also examine Lovecraft‘s personal psychological problems, and the influence of his dreams and nightmares on both his life and literary works, with detailed description of his affliction. The first part then finishes with the analysis of Lovecraft‘s opinions and philosophies, mainly in the context of his literary creation.

In the second and main part of the work I will explore Lovecraft‘s most famous creation, the world of the Cthulhu Mythos itself. Firstly, I will analyze the

Mythos in depth along with its origins and development, concentrate on certain elements and patterns of Lovecraft‘s world-building that are shared by most of his stories, and examine Lovecraft‘s opinion on fear and its direct use and causality in literature. Lovecraft‘s relationship with religion and its influence on his works, or lack thereof, will also be evaluated. I will then examine an artefact of the forbidden lore long forgotten belonging to the Mythos, the Necronomicon, and map its development throughout Lovecraft‘s works in detail. The final part of the work focuses on the close analysis of several of the stories of the Cthulhu Mythos. I will only work with

Lovecraft‘s own stories, disregarding the works of the other members of the Lovecraft circle, specifically some of the ―Cthulhu Mythos‖ cycle of his bibliography. Due to author‘s preference for writing short stories rather than novels, I will concentrate on the essential stories of the Mythos upon which the core of the research will be build. I will moreover briefly examine some of the Lovecraftian entities in the analysis of the stories, as they are an integral part of the Mythos.

1. The Author

A person of legendary status, considered by many to be the creator of the modern horror genre, and the true master of the fear of the unknown, Lovecraft is considered an expert of the written word as well, as his domain was the purple prose, almost taking pleasure in enlarging on progressively more and more congested overly long and descriptive paragraphs, employing infrequently used and rare words, constructing a unique and memorable atmosphere. He is widely considered possibly the greatest of all writers of horror fiction and the macabre, on a par with Edgar Allan Poe himself, a person whom he admired for his entire life. Many critics doubt Lovecraft‘s genius and consider his works to fall short, and he is sometimes criticized for artistic imbalance, characterless style, or topical simplicity. Lovecraft‘s playfulness with language, however, breathes life into his works, a distinct, deeper and more personalized atmosphere. While his name may not be as widely known among the general public, many authors admire Lovecraft and were directly influenced and inspired by him. Lovecraft was an antiquarian recluse and he loved books above all things, even over the people around him, which is probably the reason he was so literate and capable of being so overly verbose.

Even so, it is notable that Lovecraft is one of the most overlooked American authors of the horror literature. Nevertheless, his creations became the symbol of the weird and terrifying, such as Cthulhu, a cosmic entity of unimaginable and seemingly limitless power lying in wait in the ruins of a sunken city at the bottom of the South

Pacific Ocean, and the legendary Necronomicon, a grimoire of dark powers bound in human skin, containing forbidden knowledge man was not meant to know.

Most of his stories take place in a single universe, sharing fictional locations, slightly twisted laws of nature, beings and even gods created by Lovecraft, and constructing a single unified cosmos.

1.1 Biography

Howard Phillips Lovecraft has with time become the leading writers of weird fiction. Most of his life is described in various works, although the richest sources are

Lovecraft‘s own letters. As such, what follows will work closely with the Selected

Letters to map his life, his personality, his life perspective, and the development of his stories and ideas. Lovecraft was a very keen writer of personal letters, and was known for writing sometimes even more than twenty letters a day. This will be followed by the writings of Sunand Tryambak Joshi, mainly I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H.

P. Lovecraft, which is a revision of Joshi‘s previous biography A Dreamer And A

Visionary; H. P. Lovecraft In His Time, which is considered by many the definitive

Lovecraft biography.

Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island, to

Winfield Scott Lovecraft, a travelling salesman of rare jewels and precious metals, who worked for Gorham & Co., Silversmiths, of Providence, and Sarah Susan Lovecraft, a daughter of Whipple Van Buren Phillips, a wealthy American industrialist. Lovecraft always considered his parentage important and persistently tried to discover whatever he could about his ancestry (Providence 10). As such, he revelled in the idea of being a member of the English gentry, as through his maternal side he could trace his roots to

17th century, directly to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. According to Joshi, the name

Lovecroft could be traced to the middle of the 15th century; however, whether the name was actually related to the writer himself is debated (Providence 1). Lovecraft was

8 always very keen to maintain racial purity, and quite fond of ascertaining his ancestry, which was ―of unmixed English gentry‖ (Providence 6). Nevertheless, it was noted by

Joshi that it is very possible that Lovecraft had merely fantasized and ‗wished‘ for his noble ancestry to be true rather than there being any factual evidence. This may had been one of the causes of his racialist tendencies, formulating views on racial division in the age of fifteen, and keeping prejudices for most of his life (Providence 55).

In 1983, his father suffered from an illness that impelled him to be moved to the

Butler Hospital, where he later most likely died of paresis, a type of neuro-syphilis, in

1898, as the scarce remaining evidence suggests (Providence 13-14). After his father‘s hospitalization his mother took him to Providence, to be raised in the house of her father

Whipple, her mother Robie Alzada Place Phillips, and her two sisters Lillian Delora

Phillips and Annie Emeline Phillips, as her father was able to provide them with a comfortable life and everything they needed. It was actually his grandfather Whipple who had made the uttermost impact on Lovecraft‘s life and influenced him most, as he became the boy‘s father figure (Providence 17). He was also an enthusiastic traveller, and often entertained his grandson with tales of his adventures and experiences.

However, most importantly, it was he that interested Lovecraft in the path of literature and weird tales, or gothic horror through the form of stories made up.

From a very young age he was closely connected to the world of the written letter, and was always fascinated by the worlds of distant exotic lands of enthralling cultures (Providence 18). One that had a great impact on Lovecraft‘s writings was

Arabian Nights, one of his first beloved books, as he writes to his friend Robert E.

Howard:

Then again – how many dream-Arabs have the Arabian Nights bred! I ought to know, since at the age of 5 I was one of them! I had not then encountered Graeco-Roman myth, but found in Lang‘s Arabian Nights a gateway to glittering vistas of wonder and freedom. It was then that I invented for myself the name of Abdul Alhazred, and made my mother take me to all the Oriental curio shops and fit me up an Arabian cornerin my 9

room. Had I not stumbled upon Graeco-Roman myths immediately afterward, my sense of dream-placement might easily have been with the Caliphate of Baghdad. (Letters IV 8)

It was the vivid child inspiration of the exotic Arabian Nights that gave birth to ‗Abdul

Alhazred,‘ which was at first his pseudonym, but became a prominent figure of

Lovecraft‘s mythos decades later, as he is often mentioned or alluded to in his works and letters, and is credited for, and widely known to readers because of the creation of

Lovecraft‘s most famous artefact, the legendary ‗Necronomicon,‘ a tome of forbidden knowledge and measureless power.

Lovecraft‘s curiosity towards Arabian culture was soon superseded by his interest ins ancient Greek culture (Letters IV 8), as Lovecraft acquired the Illiad and the

Odyssey for children, and the Age of Fable written by Thomas Bulfinch of the cycle of his Mythologies. However, the young boy had already found out about the magic of weird tale, specifically the stories of his grandfather, and his discovery of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The young boy came across the adventurous series of poems at the manor house of a close friend of the Lovecraft family. He became immediately fascinated by the impressionistic expressions and the accompanying illustrations, as marked in some of his letters:

Fancy … the discovery of a great atlas-sized gift-book leaning against the mantel & having on the cover gilt letters reading ‗With Illustrations by Gustave Doré‘. The title didn‘t matter—for didn‘t I know the dark, supernal magic of the Doré pictures in our Dante & Milton at home? I open the book—& behold a hellish picture of a corpse-ship with ragged sails under a waning moon! I turn a page … God! A spectral, half- transparent ship on whose deck a corpse & a skeleton play at dice! By this time I am flat on the bearskin rug & ready to thumb through the whole book … of which I‘ve never heard before … A sea full of rotting serpents, & death-fires dancing in the black air … troops of angels & daemons … crazed, dying, distorted forms … dead men rising in their putrescence & lifelessly manning the dank rigging of a fate-doomed barque … (Providence 18)

Possibly inspired by James Cook‘s journey through the Pacific Ocean, a shocking and overly expressive retelling of the poem, may have had influenced Lovecraft in more

10 ways than one, as he took a liking to the dark and the morbid, as well as the frequent use of the requirement for the suspension of disbelief by the audience.

In 1896, when Lovecraft was five, his maternal grandmother died, and her death cast him into unease and mental turmoil, and he started suffering from bad dreams

(Letters I 34–35) after which his overly protective mother strove to rescue him from his frequent state of melancholy and despondency. In the same year he was taken to Rhode

Island, as it seems the family was endeavouring to ‗cure‘ or at least partially help him to relieve his downhearted moods and bad dreams (Providence 20).

From early childhood, Lovecraft suffered from various illnesses, some of which seemed to develop from his mental state, assisted by frequent nightmares. This was not a very pleasant experience for a child; in fact, a rather terrifying one. It is likely it had a lasting effect on Lovecraft‘s state of mind; nevertheless, he did develop a skill for remembering his dreams very clearly, and wrote down long verbose notes on them the first thing after awakening. As such, he was only scarcely present at school, which may also have later been one of the factors for his social ineptitude and his preference of solitude (Providence 63). He devoted most of this time to reading and writing literature, and he widened his horizons by taking some new scientific interests, such as study of chemistry and astronomy. In the following years he began publishing his own scientific and astronomic journals that he was giving to close friends. He was given a column in the rural magazine The Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner on astronomy; and afterwards began contributing to distinct magazines as well, such as The Providence Tribune or The

Providence Evening News (Providence 49, 87).

When Lovecraft was fourteen, his grandfather died, and the remaining family lost the inheritance and the family fortune; as a result, the whole family was cast into the descending spiral of a pecuniary predicament, and their birthplace was lost.

Lovecraft would more or less live most of his life in poverty since. He supposedly even contemplated suicide (Providence 122). His mental state had always been fluctuating.

He never managed to finish school, as he underwent a psychological collapse during the summer in 1908, and was forced to abandon his studies. Lovecraft alludes to this in some of his letters, even if only slightly (four statements, made from 1915 to 1935):

In 1908 I should have entered Brown University, but the broken state of my health rendered the idea absurd. I was and am a prey to intense headaches, insomnia, and general nervous weakness which prevents my continuous application to any thing. (Letters I 9)

In 1908 I was about to enter Brown University, when my health completely gave way— causing the necessary abandonment of my college career. (Letters I 40–41)

After all, high-school was a mistake. I liked it, but the strain was too keen for my health, and I suffered a nervous collapse in 1908 immediately after graduating, which prevented altogether my attending college. (Letters II 110)

My health did not permit me to go to the university—indeed, the steady application to high-school gave me a sort of breakdown. (Providence 62)

It is not known exactly what the catalyst was that caused such a reaction was, however

Lovecraft had trouble adjusting to ordinary life after that. Joshi considers the reasons behind this: some of the sources he managed to find claim that Lovecraft suffered from seizures, possibly triggered by psychological imbalance and sudden anxiety; others allege he once fell on his head from the roof of a house that was under construction

(Providence 63).

After some time of withdrawal from the public, keeping to himself and hiding from the world, he finally managed recover, and wrote several letters to The Argosy magazine among other, even quite aggressively, and by slowly gaining the attention of a number of amateur writers, up until the point he was asked to become a member of the

United Amateur Press Association, a collective of amateurish authors, where he soon after became the official editor, and the head of the Department of Public Criticism

(Providence 76). Lovecraft soon began publishing his own magazine The Conservative,

12 and he also wrote many poems and essays, and edited the stories of others. Moreover, by that time Lovecraft had already started his exchanging letters with a wide range of people. Lovecraft loved correspondence, and was most of his life keeping it alive, writing copious amounts of letters. He considered it rude not to answer a letter, or to answer with but a merely austere and brief letter (Selected Papers on Lovecraft 60). He was known for writing several letters each day, up to twenty, sometimes even more, and many of them were found and published after his death. It has been estimated that

Lovecraft may have written more than eighty seven thousand letters (Providence ix). As a result, Lovecraft began writing not for himself anymore, but for others. He probably loved correspondence so much precisely because of the lack of physical presence of others and his being comfortable with such indirect contact – thusly, having an invisible audience to observe the development and evolution of his writing style and talent. At this point in Lovecraft‘s life, his intellect, his talent for literary writing and more importantly his enthusiasm for literature, and shortly after he became a respectable, esteemed, and reputable name in the area of the amateur writing.

Around this time Lovecraft was also working on one of the very first literary attempts to create a complete and comprehensive survey of the evolution of the horror genre in literature in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature. This essay was prompted at the instigations of his friend William Paul Cook; but even when created by compulsion, it became one of the most important works of the horror genre. It was published in 1927, but Lovecraft continued working on it irregularly until his death, and thus several reworkings and additions were added afterwards. Nevertheless, even while working on the comprehensive survey only sporadically, the essay demonstrates

Lovecraft‘s subjective and personal views, rules, and his demands on the literature of the genre. He also renewed his active interest in the literature, after the ‗break‘ during

13 his withdrawal from the society, although interestingly he did consider himself an essayist and a poet, rather than a literary author. In the period that followed, his friends urged him to continue writing, up until 1917, when he got to the point when he once more began writing, and never really discontinued ever again.

Due to his long term interest as well as personal involvement, Lovecraft attempted to continue the traditions of the established gothic novel and the literature of horror and the macabre in general. Nevertheless, he did not start writing professionally: even when he did try, writing did not earn him enough money to live, this partially being due to the genre he chose to write. Furthermore, he contributed mainly in magazines outside of the mainstream read by the general public, such as The Weird

Tales and The Amazing Stories magazines, which had also a negative reaction on receiving Lovecraft‘s work as a whole, and he was considered merely a small time author of the genres of horror and the weird tale, which were also perceived as nothing more than pulp and second-rate and subsidiary to others, with Lovecraft himself also regarded as such, even when he published steadily, but scarcely. He made a living mostly as a freelancer editor and rewriter.

In 1921 his mother died, and Lovecraft experienced darker dreams more frequently terrorizing his sleep, all of which is reflected in his subsequent works. On

July 4th, about a month after his mother‘s funeral, he attended a meeting of the amateur writers‘ society and journalists in Boston, and met Sonia Haft Green. She was very different from him, social and outgoing. Lovecraft kept their communication mostly by correspondence at first, except for a few visits he made, and after three years they married. Unfortunately the couple was struck with misfortune, and while Lovecraft had some of his works accepted by magazines and published, his writing ultimately proved to be not enough to make money. Soon after, the marriage began to crumble, as the

14 couple was forced to split due to Sonia‘s developing health issues, the continuous search for employment, and Lovecraft‘s growing disgust towards New York, where the couple had moved. The couple then came to live separately, almost nine months after the wedding, and as Lovecraft did not finish school and had more of an intellectual nature, it was almost impossible for him to take part in the modern society. He became even more depressed, melancholic, and lonely; and, after two years of some difficult times, he managed to move back to Providence, where he went back to writing. Maybe it was due to the change of environment, the disappearance of the inimical inhabitants lumped together in modern and hectic New York, or the peaceful environment and being taken care of by his mother‘s sisters, but at this point he began concentrating on writing, and throughout the following years came to create his most famous and crafted works. He, however, continued struggling through life with no real recognition or literary success, despite continuing to write stories until 1936, a year before his death.

Lovecraft was struck with a chronic kidney disease called Bright‘s disease for several years near the end of his life, and ultimately died of cancer of the intestines. On March

15th of 1937 he succumbed to the illness. The epitaph engraved on his gravestone has the words ―I Am Providence‖ (Providence Journal) It derives from the following:

I will be dogmatic only to the extent of saying that it is New England I must have—in some form or other. Providence is part of me—I am Providence … Providence is my home, & there I shall end my days if I can do so with any semblance of peace, dignity, or appropriateness … Providence would always be at the back of my head as a goal to be worked toward—an ultimate Paradise to be regain‘d at last. (Providence 236)

Thus, Lovecraft seemed mostly ‗existing‘ rather than enjoying life, being mostly negative and pessimistic, living his life aimlessly, mostly downhearted and devoid of happiness, which reflected heavily in his works. Throughout his life, he did not experience a single book publication, and was denied and refused many times, which concluded in him not holding the work of his whole life in high regard.

1.2 Dreams and Horrors

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was for the overwhelming majority of his life subjected to dreams, both positive and negative, that had influenced him in his personal life and his outlook on the world, as well as his works. As such, they could actually be considered one of the greatest influences on his writing as a whole. The next section will briefly examine the development of Lovecraft‘s psyche, together with the evolution of his literary works.

One of the first recorded cases of Lovecraft‘s dreams having an actual effect on his state of mind was the death of Robie Alzada Place Phillips, his grandmother, in

1896, when he was five and a half. As Joshi states in his books, it is, however, most likely that it was not the death of a deceased family member themselves, but rather the impact on the living ones (Providence 19), whose now terrifying appearance, attire, and warped behaviour cast the little boy into discomfort and anxiety:

The death of my grandmother plunged the household into a gloom from which it never fully recovered. The black attire of my mother & aunts terrified & repelled me to such an extent that I would surreptitiously pin bits of bright cloth or paper to their skirts for sheer relief. They had to make a careful survey of their attire before receiving callers or going out! (Letters I 34–35)

Lovecraft‘s recollection of these times seems slightly overdramatic, but it is apparent it had a lasting effects on him as a child. The atmosphere of the whole family was bereft of life and joy, and their conduct changed beyond recognition. Such a thing must be almost incomprehensible for the mind of five years old boy, who, moreover, practically never knew his father. All of this only sprung his vivid imagination into overdrive; and, as he recollected almost two decades later, they scarred him deeply. Such dreams, showing only terror and anxiety, reflected in the boy‘s development (Providence 19).

It is considered a fact that Lovecraft suffered from a rare sleeping disorder, a parasomnia called ―night terrors,‖ that usually happen to a very few percentage of

16 children. The disorder itself commonly signifies a burst of a single or multiple short dreams of extremely terrifying content, throwing the dreamer into a state of sudden uncontrollable panic, anxiety, dismay, and even screaming or rapid erratic movements, such as flailing their arms or sleepwalking, most often accompanied with heavy sweating, hyperventilating, and strong irregular heart palpitations (Kids‘ Health). In the majority of cases, these episodes end with a sudden awakening by means of bolting upright in bed and screaming, or even bursting out of bed and running towards the exit of the room, resulting in confusion and uneasiness. Frighteningly, the person is also often awakened by their own screams. Unfortunately they do not respond positively to comforting and soothing, but interfering or somehow disturbing the person suffering from night terrors merely intensifies the effects above, inducing all the more a dreadful and frightening experience (Mayo Clinic).

Due to Lovecraft‘s keen awareness and consciousness of his dreams, his imagination was able to run wild, as it was fuelled frequently by fresh nightmares. He later used these dreams directly, transforming them into original dreadful stories; but, at the same time, these very same images only made him all the more scarred, melancholic and ‗broken.‘ As said above, Lovecraft‘s terrors were very vivid, while he himself was constantly aware of them and remembered almost all of them – a feat fairly unique and infrequent amongst the general population. As a young boy Lovecraft suffered heavily, terrorized by nightmarish swarms of monstrous creatures that would get their claws on him and abduct him to places unknown, as he explains:

And then it was that my former high spirits received their damper. I began to have nightmares of the most hideous description, peopled with things which I called ‗nightgaunts‘— a compound word of my own coinage. I used to draw them after waking (perhaps the idea of these figures came from an edition de luxe of Paradise Lost with illustrations by Doré, which I discovered one day in the east parlor). In dreams they were wont to whirl me through space at a sickening rate of speed, the while fretting & impelling me with their detestable tridents. It is fully fifteen years—aye, more—since I have seen a ‗night-gaunt‘, but even now, when half asleep & drifting vaguely along over a sea of childhood thoughts, I feel a thrill of fear … & instinctively struggle to

keep awake. That was my own prayer back in ‘96—each night—to keep awake & ward off the nightgaunts! (Letters I 34–35)

These ‗nightgaunts‘ were described in his poem as having a hazy and ambiguous creature of humanoid figure, with arms ending with long talons, and a large spiked prehensile tail that is used to ‗tickle‘ their prey until they give in. They have no faces, but parade two curved horns that turn inwards. They are also of slender build, while their whole bodies are completely covered in pitch-black. They are covered by think skin that is smooth yet sticky, flexible and elastic. Furthermore they boast a pair of huge bat-like wings of skeletal structure with a thin membrane of skin, while they move and fly entirely soundlessly (―Night-Gaunts‖). Lovecraft described them once more in a letter sent to Virgil Finlay, a year before his death, in 1936: ―black, lean, rubbery things with bared, barbed tails, bat-wings, and no faces at all‖ ( (Letters V 335). One can easily imagine such beasts haunting the darkness of sleep, truly the stuff of nightmares.

It is apparent Lovecraft‘s dreams served as a direct inspiration in his works;

Lovecraft utilized his night terrors in his works, as the helplessness of the main characters who are powerless against creatures beyond comprehension and the laws of nature, features that would be present in vast majority of his stories. The ‗nightgaunts‘ first appear in a poem of the same name, Night-Gaunts, and then also make in the short novel The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, a part of Lovecraft‘s Dream Cycle about the titular city, where ‗Great Ones,‘ the gods of dreams, live, while they venerate one such deity, Nodens, as explained in another short story, The Strange High House in the

Mist. These huge gargoyles are both thematically and visually so dissimilar from the usual monsters and beasts of tales of the night, that it is little wonder that the stories are so wondrous and interesting.

After a brief reflection, the dreaming of such strange unearthly monsters goes hand in hand with a place where their swarms would flock to, and in The Dream Quest

18 of Unknown Kadath Lovecraft formulated the idea of a complete world. This sphere consisted of an alternate universe containing not only cities, but also civilizations; a dimension accessible to ‗regular‘ human beings only through dreams. In this uncanny place, previously unseen beings, gods, and creatures live and survive, and yet they still affect the world of ours. This dimension is actually almost entirely a reflection of the

‗real‘ tangible world, altogether with merely slightly warped continents, constellations, and the rest of the cosmos.

The impact of dreams and nightmare on Lovecraft‘s creations was palpable, as, besides that, some of his tales were direct retelling of his nightmares, such as ―The

Doom that Came to Sarnath‖ (1919), and ―The Statement of Randolph Carter‖ (1919), which would introduce a character that would appear in his other stories later.

1.3 Philosophy

While the stories developed slowly, constructed on the basis of his night terrors and eerie fantasy, and while his life was sequentially falling apart, he contested the human race turning for the better. One of his main interests in life had always been pure science and astronomy, which he started studying in 1902, and he actually admits that it was the realization of the measureless immensity of the universe and the smallness of the importance of time as a concept that concurrently both frightened and excited him, with ―the idea of nihilism at its most violent: an image of humankind as tiny and in comparison to the infinitely large world outside the small span of human perception‖ (Philosopher-Warrior), and as he contemplated on the advantages and disadvantages of science in relation to the awareness of the universe and the irrelevance of humanity, but also its psychological impact on human mind:

There is a real restfulness in the scientific conviction that nothing matters very much; that the only legitimate aim of humanity is to minimise acute suffering for the majority, and to derive whatever satisfaction is derivable from the exercise of the mind in the pursuit of truth. [...] The secret of true contentment … lies in the achievement of a cosmical point of view. (Letters I 87, 112)

Lovecraft had become convinced that the pursue of astronomy alone could realize and grasp the full meaning of the ratio of the universe to Earth, which is underlined and confirmed by thoughts in his works, for example in the opening lines of his most famous short story, ―The Call of Cthulhu‖:

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. (Tales 167)

As such, Lovecraft became certain that only people familiar with astronomy could experience the true horror of it; to become even slightly aware of the infinity of a space so vast it reveals the irrelevance of the human race, its story, historical events, inventions, art, and even the Earth itself, a speck of dust in the desert, while we do not know anything about everything in the whole universe that has nothing to do with us directly. Astronomy had been implemented into his life and beliefs slowly but firmly, and he developed original yet radical views, as notable in an essay ―A Confession of

Unfaith‖: ―I had formed in all essential particulars my present pessimistic cosmic views.

The futility of all existence began to impress and oppres me; and my references to human progress, formerly hopeful, began to decline in enthusiasm‖ (Against Religion

8). Lovecraft entertained the idea that there is no actual known god, or any divine being in general, and was also interested in the concept of ignoring the laws of nature, also possibly being limited to our planet, as they are usually adopted in the stories of different worlds also. Lovecraft pretty much turned the unimportance of the human race

20 and everything related to it into a philosophical idea, and these thoughts served as a basis for all of his stories, in some way or another (Providence 244).

However, Lovecraft also tried to ‗soothe‘ the radicalism of this idea by claiming that things people do are important and really do matter, even if merely on a human scale, without any importance or impact on the things of a greater scale. Nevertheless, this is partially contradicted by his opinions in general, favouring the notion that there is really no future for the ultimately doomed human race, very likely approaching the potential and probable wasteland around the corner. This is actually truly underlined by two facts. Firstly, Lovecraft‘s perspective of life and opinions were quite bleak and not at all encouraging, however, he was still able to become somewhat adjusted into society, even if he was eccentric. Secondly, his style of writing – some would call it evocative, overblown, rhetorical, and flamboyant – nevertheless, it works well with the types of stories Lovecraft was creating, as he confirms in some of his letters, for example to the editor of Weird Tales, Farnsworth Wright:

Now all my tales are based of the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large. To me there is nothing but puerility in a tale in which the human form – and the local human passions and conditions and standards – are depicted as native to other worlds or other universes. To achieve the essence of real externality, whether of time or space or dimension, one must forget that such things as organic life, good and evil, love and hate, and all such local attributes of a negligible and temporary race called mankind, have any existence at all. Only the human scenes and characters must have human qualities. These must be handled with unsparing realism, (not catch-penny romanticism ) but when we cross the line to the boundless and hideous unknown – the shadow-haunted Outside – we must remember to leave our humanity and terrestrialism at the threshold. (Letters II 150)

These ideas generally seem to completely betray and contradict the basis of human moral and ethical life, but maybe this is the reason why they are so thrilling and critically acclaimed. Also, Lovecraft‘s philosophy does have its rules, and adamantly obeys them, as he strived to retain the most possible amount of realism and authenticity, principally in the issue of characters and their individual perception, but also slightly in

21 world-building, intensifying the atmosphere and twisting fabrications into truth

(Philosopher-Warrior).

These nihilistic opinions are used directly in his stories, often following average men who, with time, realize that they are no match for the beings they are battling. A divine omnipotent who that would eventually save humanity at the last hour does not exist; and there is no ‗good versus evil‘ conflict. ‗Old Ones,‘ these beings, were not banished. From time to time they do visit our planet; there is nothing that can stop them from unleashing hell on Earth; and there is almost nothing that can even hinder or inconvenience them. Moreover, they are not omnipotent with divine powers; they are simply very ancient entities with forces beyond the comprehension of small and limited human minds, but also completely indifferent to the lives of ordinary people.

(Providence 246). As such, the staple idea of Cosmicism is the stressing of inconsequentiality of not only the protagonists, but also the whole human race in general, who lack any purpose or greater motive.

2. Cthulhu Mythos

In the following chapter I will firstly concentrate on certain elements and patterns of Lovecraft‘s world-building that are shared by most of his stories, then examine an artefact of great power belonging to the Mythos, the Necronomicon, and conclude with the analysis of several of the most prominent stories of Lovecraft‘s universe.

The epic mythology Howard Phillips Lovecraft created has influenced the world in many ways, and continues being developed and expanded by many writers and artists to this day. With time, Lovecraft‘s stories have slowly but surely been becoming increasingly more intertwined, and in some of the later stories, it is insinuated that the stories genuinely build upon each other. Some notes and hints may seem ambiguous whether or not they are of the same universe, but Lovecraft admittedly often did similar things on purpose, in order to disorient the reader, to disconcert and thrill them. The unity, cohesion of the stories, and their sense of belonging are moreover ultimately confirmed in some of Lovecraft‘s letters to his friends, as for example one to Harold S.

Farnese, where he stated:

You will, of course, realize that all my stories, unconnected as they may be, are based on one fundamental lore or legend: that this world was inhabited at one time by another race, who in practicing black magic, lost their foothold and were expelled, yet live on outside, ever ready to take possession of this earth again. (Providence 246)

As such, they may not seemingly belong to a single conjoined universe, but rather be following the same patterns, ideas, and ruts still. As a matter of fact, they actually do, complementing each other, even if only in indications. The creation of the mythology originally came up from adapting the idea Lovecraft discovered in the literature of Lord

Dunsany, as he claims in his essay, ―Some Notes on a Nonentity:‖

[...] from whom I got the idea of the artificial pantheon and myth-background represented by "Cthulhu", "Yog-Sothoth", "Yuggoth", etc. - gave a vast impetus to my weird writing; and I turned out material in greater volume than ever before or since. [...] My stories of the 1920 period reflect a good deal of my two chief models, Poe and Dunsany, and are in general too strongly inclined to extravagance and overcolouring to be of much serious literary value. (―Some Notes on Nonentity‖)

The expression ‗Cthulhu Mythos‘ was not in fact a creation of Lovecraft‘s mind, and did not see the light of day long until after his death. The term was coined by his close friend August Derleth, who tried to take up the mantle, and attempted to continue developing his friend‘s legacy. Later he created many stories, together with other of their friends, expanding upon the universe of the Mythos, which does in fact generally refer to the whole augmented universe of several authors of the Lovecraft circle, such as

C. S. Lewis or Robert E. Howard. Furthermore when some of his friends showed interest in using parts of Lovecraft‘s mythology in their creations, he supported the idea and urged them to (Providence 365)

Lovecraft developed his own world with deities; nevertheless, in contrast to

Lord Dunsany‘s counterpart, it had no hierarchy, rules, or order whatsoever, while the stories sometimes even contradict themselves, as Lovecraft deliberately made several elements of his stories inaccurate to induce a more chaotic perception. Thus the original expression Lovecraft came up with for his own mythology was ‗Yog-Sothothery,‘ an amalgam of the name Yog-Sothoth and the word sorcery, possibly referring to Lord

Dunsany‘s ―invention of gods in The Gods of Pegana (Providence 299); other times he alluded to ―The Colour out of Space‖ as one of the ―athmospheric episodes of ‗The

Arkham Cycle,‘‖ and noted that ―The Dunwich Horror‖ belongs to ‗The Arkham Cycle‘

(HPL Encyclopedia 50), after the central town of his mythology. The entity Yog-Sothoth was intended by Lovecraft to be the primary figure of this alien mythology, being the original being as old as the universe itself, while possessing some of the most powerful abilities; an entity titled ‗the cosmic gatekeeper,‘ potent enough to create inter-

24 dimensional gateways for enabling the arrival of the other Old Ones into our space

(Dream World 120). He also remarked to Clark Ashton Smith in his letter that Yog-

Sothoth is one of the ―ingredients of the Miskatonic Valley myth-cycle‖ (HPL

Encyclopedia 51). A variation of August Derleth‘s denomination is first mentioned in his essay, ―H. P. Lovecraft: Outsider,‖ where he refers to ―The Cthulhu mythology‖ and recalls trying to convince Lovecraft to call his collection the ―Mythology of Hastur,‖ a mysterious supernatural entity from stories of both Robert W. Chambers and Lovecraft.

With time, the expression of ‗The Cthulhu Mythos‘ passed to common usage in the literary public as ‗the‘ official term of the topic, and became an iconic symbolization of

Lovecraftian tales of horror in general.

August Derleth made many changes in his stories that break away from

Lovecraft‘s themes and process of thoughts, fundamentally altering the foundation of the original stories, generally lacking both the purpose of their psychological impact and the instilling fear of the vast insignificance of our existence. These changes were very essential, meandering from the depth of the terror instilled deep inside the original stories. Derleth, who was in contrast to Atheistic Lovecraft, an obdurate Christian, introduced heavily conspicuous religious themes into his works, and furthermore implemented benevolent entities of the Mythos that actually take an interest in humanity and genuinely strive to protect it. These ‗Elder Gods,‘ as he decided to entitle them, stand directly against the regular Lovecraft inventions, the original beings, who now actively seek to destroy humanity, instead of not really caring and disregarding it most of the time, coexisting negligently. The American writer and poet Richard L. Tierney reflects further on the topic and analyzes the differences in more depth in his article

―The Derleth Mythos:‖

Lovecraft, of course, did the groundwork. He invented most of the gods, demons and servitors – and, above all, he provided the spooky, Gothic atmosphere necessary to the genre. Yet it seems to me that it was Derleth who established the concept of a "Mythos" to comprehend all the Lovecraftian concepts. Lovecraft himself seems never to have entertained such a concept. His outlook on the supernatural and the cosmos seems to have been basically dynamic – it was constantly developing throughout his life. Derleth's attitude on the other hand was largely static; he appreciated Lovecraft's concepts but cared less for developing them than for systematizing them. His efforts were interesting but less than successful from an aesthetic point of view. This is not to say that Derleth's work was unaesthetic but merely that, in my opinion, his basic outlook was non-Lovecraftian and his attempt to carry on the Lovecraft tradition left out something vital. (―The Derleth Mythos‖)

Derleth furthermore developed a system for the now expanded pantheon of deities, with a strict hierarchy and structural order, thus completely omitting Lovecraft‘s fondness for chaos and entropy. He was one of the main causes of incoherence of the Mythos, due to these variations.

Lovecraft‘s stories were usually stand-alone short stories without any apparent connection to any of the others, only seemingly bound to a single universe on a larger scale, but some of the narratives were directly related, and some characters even make more than one appearance. It could be speculated that Lovecraft was running away from his dreams, but with time had come to embrace them, and began writing them down, as a way of confronting them. According to some of his letters, Lovecraft firstly strove to conquer his bad dreams and night terrors by writing them down and using them as a foundation for more fleshed out stories later, but without any regard for the others. He sequentially realized however that he was unwittingly and inadvertently creating a unified world, and afterwards began to purposefully constructing tales by designing a dark world with no hope of salvation the humankind.

According to Donald Tyson‘s categorization of the Mythos in his book The

Dream World of H. P. Lovecraft, all of the stories taking place either in the Dreamlands and those playing out in New England, are inherently a part of the Cthulhu Mythos

(Dream World 123). The mythological setting of New England features generally in the

26 fictitious small towns of Arkham, Dunwich, Kingsport, Innsmouth, The Miskatonic

Valley, the Miskatonic river running through it, and the revered Miskatonic University

(Dream World 123). The Mythos also includes Lovecraft‘s works alluding to the

Necronomicon, or the entities called Old Ones. A single sub-group of the Old Ones are the species labelled the Elder Things, as they are relatively more important in the context of the development of the human race. They are allegedly accountable for scientifically and artificially constructing the human race with genetic engineering, for both being an easily reproduceable and self-sustainable/ing universal food supply, and as a weird cosmic joke, sometimes perceived as both, as confirmed in At the Mountains of Madness (Dream World 120).

Probably the most interesting part of Lovecraft‘s mythos is the nature of it in general. He wanted to purposely construct a synthetic universe, complete with a cluster of new locations and deities in particular that would actually be similar to the pantheons of Ancient Greece and Rome. Nevertheless, Lovecraft fabricated the core world that would be completely original, and unlike anything that already existed. Furthermore he is personally credited with the overwhelming majority of the core original world and ideas. He was not using any outline of previously already created foundations of someone else, but built a whole universe, with no subsisting laws and limitations, particularly in order for it to conform more to ancient and bygone legends.

In a quite long letter to his friend Frank Belknap Long, Jr., Lovecraft speculates about the obsolescence and relatability of the non-contemporary stories, and the context of their era and the setting, as well as the experience of its people. Many of stories told were written as a reaction to an event or atmosphere of the times, making the audience of future times hardly able to properly embrace them and enjoy them fully, without the particular perspective or the proper understanding of the contextual references.

Lovecraft also mentions aspects of the situation as staple in regards to a worthy experience, while people claiming to genuinely embrace and accept the life and emotions of a literary work of another era are merely insufferable fools admitting their ignorance of the depth and nature of life in general. He emphasizes the setting and the climate, such as the political or economic features, as well as ―the customs, beliefs, living conditions, or historic background,‖ contrasting with the inability of an appropriate emotional and contextual response (Letters III 309). Nevertheless, he also admits that there naturally ―are vast areas of experience and feeling in common, based on physical impulse and other identical stimuli; so that we cannot call all phases of elder art obsolete,‖ but there are still elements needed to be taken into account, as a child cannot relate to its great-grandfather‘s stories of war or political views (Letters III 309-

310). He continues with Illias and the contemporary readers, stating that they are unable to even be interested in it, while contrasting this with the presentation of Odyssey’s themes as more timeless. Even a knowledge of Odyssey does not entail being Greek or medieval however. There were no modern relatable tales; Lovecraft, thus, attempted to created his own mythological stories in the context of the modern era (Letters III 310).

Lovecraft‘s writing style includes overly long baroque descriptions and subjective adjectives, and his stories are practically built around the protagonists‘ emotions. He favours the depth of the depiction of the moment‘s event, making the reader involved and almost empathical to the experience. As the author Ramsey

Campbell puts it in the documentary Fear of the Unknown: Lovecraft Documentary:

―he‘s writing what may very possibly be a disguised autobiography.‖ This is supported by the American writer and poet Charles Baxter, who claims in his article ―The Hideous

Unknown of H. P. Lovecraft‖ in The New York Review of Books:

Lovecraft‘s true staying power as a writer can be attributed to his chilling depictions of death-in-life, the one subject in which he could claim genuine expertise. Even Coleridge‘s efforts in that direction seem halfhearted by comparison, though as literature they are incontestably greater. In some sense Lovecraft does not write about 'horrors' at all but about the worst kinds of clinical depression, the feeling that one is dead but not dead enough to achieve real rest. Nothing gives pleasure, nor can any form of pleasure be imagined. (―The Hideous Unknown‖)

It would be logical to assume that Lovecraft‘s alluring perceptive playfulness with words stems from his history of various psychological disorders and traumas, and especially of his uneasy childhood and family tragedies. It is, thus, very likely he was drawing from his own emotions – such as solitude, despair, and the uprootedness – making the protagonists‘ emotional response all the more genuine, while understandably helping him to come to terms with his own horrors of the past by using them as a literary device.

In some of his letters, such as in the previously mentioned one to Frank Belknap

Long, Jr., or a distinct one to Clark Ashton Smith, he is reflecting on the structure and essence of various literary genres and speculates about their defining traits, the requirements for them to work effectively, and the proper substance needed for the achievement of the desired impact. He also contemplates on literary evolution in the context of human perception of ―authentic emotional values,‖ but also the necessary changes of its perspective (Letters III 291). He continues to claim that all biological life is inherently bound to inescapable sadness in the face of the cosmic extreme and omnipresent decay, with all the ―jauntiness and [...] carelessly generalized humour as essentially cheap and mocking,‖ while happiness is in contrast cheap and disgusting

(Letters III 292). The only reasonable way to ―face the cosmos and its essential sadness

[...] is with resignation – eyes open to the real facts of perpetual frustration, and mind and sense to be alert to catch what little pleasure there is to be caught during one‘s brief instant of existence‖ (Letters III 292), while the knowledge of the inescapable fate, in turn, frees our perception towards cheerful experience in contrast to its opposite,

29 readying us to enjoy life while we can. The literary development has however changed, not inducing the proper emotional response, or as Joshi puts it: ―much of prior literature has ceased to be vital to us because we can no longer share, and in some cases can only remotely understand, the values that produced it‖ (Providence 298). Lovecraft says this himself: ―sentimental romance, loud heroics, ethical didacticism, etc. – are so patently hollow as to be visibly absurd & nonusable from the start‖ (Letters III 293). For

Lovecraft, literature has lost its way along with its true purpose; it has stopped being provocative enough to usher the rebirth of writing; and has become a sterile lifeless husk without any valuable content, constantly repeating long discovered literary tropes.

Lovecraft also contemplates his own creation and its position, nevertheless striving to analyze its value and position in regards to society, modern literature, and topical correlations:

I really agree that Yog-Sothoth is a basically immature conception, & unfitted for really serious literature. [...] I consider the use of actual folk-myths as even more childish than the use of new artificial myths, since in the former one is forced to retain many blatant peurilities & contradictions of experienced which could be subtilised or smoothed over if the supernaturalism. [...] The only permanently artistic use of Yog-Sothothery, I think, is in symbolic or associative phantasy [...]; but there is another phase of cosmic phantasy [...]; personal limitations regarding the sense of outsideness, [...] that burning & inextinguishable feeling of wonder & oppression which the imagination experiences upon its restrictions against the vast abyss of the unknown. This has always been the chief emotion in my psychology; [...] And what, if not a form of non-supernatural cosmic art, is to pacify this sense of revolt—as well as gratify the cognate sense of curiosity? (Letters III 293-294)

Lovecraft did not regard his works as being of any considerable value, but it was a way of earning additional income, as well as recreating relatable horror stories by means of putting the embodiment of his nightmares on paper, which he thought could be a way of its potentially gaining literary worth, but not quite as much as others‘:

It is now clear to me that any actual literary merit I have is confined to tales of dream- life, strange shadow, and cosmic ―outsideness‖. notwithstanding a keen interest in many other departments of life and a professional practice of general prose and verse revision. Why this is so, I have not the least idea. I have no illusions concerning the precarious status of my tales, and do not expect to become a serious competitor of my favourite weird authors. (―Some Notes on Nonentity‖)

The horrors of Lovecraft‘s childhood, particularly his social uprootedness due to his psychological disorders and ambivalence, the bullying by his mother and others, influenced him heavily, as he never recovered from low self-esteem, which was, in addition, assisted by his general unhappiness throughout his life and his lack of success.

Nevertheless, Lovecraft stayed adamant about his literary expression, and never let himself be conquered by commercial failure:

The only thing I can say in favour of my work is its sincerity. I refuse to follow the mechanical conventions of popular fiction or to fill my tales with stock characters and situations, but insist on reproducing real moods and impressions in the best way I can command. The result may be poor, but I had rather keep aiming at serious literary expression than accept the artificial standards of cheap romance [...] I doubt if I could ever succeed well in the ordinary kind of science fiction. (―Some Notes on Nonentity‖)

Furthermore, Lovecraft never really made subsequent changes to his works, as he was always relentless about staying true to his character and the nature of his literary worth, refusing to ever sell out in order to please critics and readers, for when a writer changes his creations, ideas, and personal opinions, how can he call himself an original writer, and not a puppet obeying how everyone dictates?

In a letter to Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft once again offers his notions on literary genre, this time about fantasy in particular, as a proper depiction of genre can serve as a catalyst for the imaginative mind of the audience:

My conception of phantasy, as a genuine art-form, is an extension rather than a negation of reality. Ordinary tales about a castle ghost or old-fashioned werewolf are merely so much junk. The true function of phantasy is to give the imagination a ground for limitless expansion, and to satisfy aesthetically the sincere and burning curiosity and sense of awe which a sensitive minority of mankind feel toward the alluring and provocative abysses of unplumbed space and unguessed entity which press in upon the known world from unknown infinities and in unknown relationships of time, space, matter, force, dimensionality, and consciousness. This curiosity and sense of awe, I believe, are quite basic among the sensitive minority in question; and I see no reason to think that they will decline in the future—for as you point out, the frontier of the unknown can never do more than scratch the surface of eternally unknowable infinity. (Letters III 196)

Lovecraft was fascinated by the unknown and its possibilities, and the understanding and the combination of his dark experience and his philosophies enabled him to

31 fabricate a unique and peculiar world that will possibly keep expanding as long as there is literature. As he contemplates on the literature of the genre as such, it should be:

Realistic and atmospheric - confining its departure from Nature to the one supernatural channel chosen, and remembering that scene, and phenomena are more important in conveying what is to be conveyed than are characters and plot. The "punch" of a truly weird tale is simply some violation or transcending of fixed cosmic law - an imaginative escape from palling reality - hence phenomena rather than persons are the logical ―heroes‖. Horrors, I believe, should be original - the use of common myths and legends being a weakening influence. Current magazine fiction, with its incurable leanings toward conventional sentimental perspectives, brisk, cheerful style, and artificial "action" plots, does not rank high. (―Some Notes on Nonentity‖)

The horror genre and weird tales should, thus, keep focusing on a proper presentation, should avoid repeating stories and plots already told, and should be striving to be original and inventive, improving and refreshing the literature significantly, without rehashing old ideas ingrained heavily in the mind of general public. In addition to his originality and literary dynamism, Lovecraft‘s stories are attractive particularly because he never constructed a complete mythology, while at times even deliberately contradicting himself; in addition, he seldom answered questions concerning the interconnection of his world, and when he did, it was mostly to his close friends. He rather left the readers guessing, the world full of holes, in order to keep the mystery and uncertainty dramatically vivid. The whole of Lovecraft‘s mythology is simply a board with a puzzle with quite a fair amount of pieces missing, adding to the atmosphere as well.

Tyson also adds a comparison with the English writer, philologist, and Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien, as there were no other writers of the twentieth century, who managed to set such a huge foundation of engaging yet still coherent universes for modern literature of the Western civilization (Dream World 132). Tolkien was creating a complete world intentionally with the purpose of a reconstructive basis for the future

Western fantasy genre, while he had everything planned and devised from the very start.

In contrast, Lovecraft was writing stand-alone stories with no intended bond and only as

32 the number of his works increased and his mythology developed, did he begin intentionally to construct a more unified world, and so what began as merely an inadvertent transcription of his bad dreams and vivid imagination was in time transformed into a complex and provocative mythology, yet without any solid hierarchy, rules, or structure. Furthermore Tolkien offers a mythology based on extensive studies of linguistics and the history of Nordic and Germanic mythologies, with fabulous fairytale-like adventures, songs and fully fleshed out history. Lovecraft, on the other hand, was deriving aspects of his works from his understanding of science.

He was also interpreting personal tales of horror and his own night terrors, dealing with the darkness and the mysterious unknown over which there is no power, while his whole mythology offers very limited information about anything; providing only alleged assumptions of questionable origins, found only on artefacts, walls, and in tomes from times long forgotten.

2.1 Fear of the Unknown

Since the dawn of mankind, fear has consistently been an aspect of existence.

The opening lines from ―The Call of Cthulhu‖ basically establish the main theme of

Lovecraft‘s world: ―The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown‖ (Supernatural Horror in Literature).

Primal fear – the apprehension of the unknown being one of the very first emotions of humankind – is easily explainable by general human nature, as what is not known and familiar conceives fear instinctively. He was convinced that there is nothing scarier than the limitless and exuberant imagination of the human mind, always imagining the worst possible option and outcome in the particular situation. In addition, there is a small

33 portion of people who desire the thrill of mystery and the unknown, seeking new possibilities of experience.

Rather than exploring and deconstructing the mind and thoughts of the protagonists and characters related to them, Lovecraft began quite progressively for his time focusing on not only the galaxies, universes, and alternate dimensions, but also the depths of the Earth, its soil and the oceans, and most importantly the thick impermeable darkness of them all. In addition, one of Lovecraft‘s staple instruments was not actually describing the monsters that hide in the dark, but emphasizing the overflowing surge of emotions and in a sort of over-the-top way illustrating the intensity the psychological impact on the characters. In his essay from 1937, ―Notes on Writing Weird Fiction,‖

Lovecraft accentuates the advantages and disadvantages of the various characterizations of portrayal and the distinct types of rendering it:

Atmosphere, not action, is the great desideratum of weird fiction. Indeed, all that a wonder story can ever be is a vivid picture of a certain type of human mood. The moment it tries to be anything else it becomes cheap, puerile, and unconvincing. Prime emphasis should be given to subtle suggestion – imperceptible hints and touches of selective associative detail which express shadings of moods and build up a vague illusion of the strange reality of the unreal. Avoid bald catalogues of incredible happenings which can have no substance or meaning apart from a sustaining cloud of colour and symbolism. (―Notes on Writing Weird Fiction‖)

Sometimes created as a deconstruction of a certain genre or theme, Lovecraft builds up every tension in the story with deliberately cautious, yet playful, use of words in a purple prose to a shocking climax of surprising events. In the essay, Lovecraft emphasizes the importance of visualization and the purpose of detail in every picture, from atmosphere to architecture, while a proper depiction of ‗time‘ is crucial, being part of the most ―dramatic and grimly terrible thing in the universe‖ (―Notes on Writing

Weird Fiction‖).

Lovecraft‘s later works, such as ―The Shunned House‖ (1924), At the Mountains of Madness (1931), or ―The Shadow out of Time‖ (1934-1935), became sequentially

34 more focused on science, as Lovecraft tried a new direction in his writing; to terrify the audience by establishing the story in reality, and by the depth of the scientific justification of the supernatural, rather than by being completely subjected to fictitious rules and laws. Lovecraft however does not change the pattern radically; he emphasizes it. As Joshi writes, At the Mountains of Madness is Lovecraft‘s ―most ambitious attempt at ‗non-supernatural cosmic art‘; it is a triumph in almost every way,‖ as it develops his universe – for example, finally confirming that the entities such as the Old Ones are not actual gods, but rather alien beings (Providence 303). By adopting this unique fashion, he merged science fiction together with the supernatural, which he moreover supported by the supposed facts of his time, being presented as explainable by logical thinking and acknowledged by various kinds of the particular sciences as genuine and factual.

Lovecraft did, in fact, do scientific research; he went to extraordinary measures to have most of the statements or assumptions that he used in his stories representing the actual truth, and having their foundations in scholarly evidence. These were thusly scientifically proven, documented, and were convincingly and widely considered definitive truths; however, since Lovecraft‘s time, some of those scholarly statements have been proven false and disproved, due to technological advancements and new scientific evidence and findings.

According to Lovecraft, the unfamiliar and the mysterious are inextricably intertwined within the horror genre and weird fiction; hence it is difficult and unreasonable to fabricate a ―convincing picture of shattered natural law or cosmic alienage or "outsideness" without laying stress on the emotion of fear‖ (―Notes on

Writing Weird Fiction‖).

2.2 Religion

Religion, an integral compound of human history, was in a way always based on fear of the unknown and unexplainable powers around them. Religions of various deities were also always a part of its cultural development, be it in the form of nature, or gods and beings of diverse appearance and abilities. However, it was also the reason of many political and differential conflicts, under the pretence of the potential falling out of favour with the gods, utilizing it to keep others in line, or destroying those of different faiths and views. Some individuals who use the fear of these entities to control others possess more power over them, but are still at the mercy of faith. Nevertheless, fear was always an integral aspect of religion, being a tremendous and inseparable part.

Even in this day, people are obliged not to sin or oppose god; otherwise they will be subjected to feeling the wrath of these gods, an eternity of torment and suffering; being completely at their mercy, as they judge each individual‘s actions, potentially destroying any who they find unworthy or displeasing.

There is no room for religion in the Cthulhu Mythos however. In Lovecraft‘s world, both God and the Devil are dead. Religious fervours are ignored, overlooked, and forgotten. There are no powers of abstract omnipotent beings, overseeing the world‘s events and keeping order; there is no good and there is no evil. There is merely the infinite universe, and humanity is not alone. The entities of Lovecraft‘s Mythos may be called Gods, entities arranged in sundry circles considering their stages of power and age, but gods they are not. They do however seem to be, as their unfathomable powers go beyond the comprehension of the limited human mind, and thus they are perceived as such. Consequently, it is possible that any mention of classic religious gods and devils in Lovecraft stories potentially allude to extra-dimensional beings (Dream World

123). They are called the ―Old Ones,‖ although it is an expression that indicates both a

36 sole entity as well as various distinct species in general. Furthermore the mere presence of some of the more powerful beings is enough to warp not the mind and perception of humans, but also reality itself, and therefore it is quite difficult for them to be considered as anything other than gods. Unconditional worship and zealous violence are aspects of religion that are also present, in the forms of several cults venerating the

Mythos‘ creatures, nevertheless they are mere instruments, blindly doing their bidding, usually dealing with damage control and covering tracks, or tying up the few remaining loose ends.

Donald Tyson also categorizes Lovecraft‘s work by analyzing its ‗modern‘ aspects, like the direct contrast of Lovecraft‘s atheism to Christian religion, mainly contrasting ‗god‘ with one of Lovecraft‘s most prominent beings, Azathoth, an Old

One. He explores their differences and correlations, even when Lovecraft is strived not to use any religious themes in his mythology. As already said, there is no conventional god that would be recognized by any traditional religion:

Lovecraft‘s ‗God‘ is a ―mockery of the Christian deity. His name among men is Azathoth. Whereas the God of Christians sits enthroned in light at the apex of the orderly cosmos, Azathoth sits on a black throne at the center of the swirling vortex of chaos. Whereas the Christian deity is omniscient, Azathoth is a mindless idiot. Whereas the Christian God notices and grieves for the fall of the least sparrow, Azathoth keither knows nor cares about any suffereing in the universe. He is the God of randomness, the God of chamce, the God of meaninglessness. (Dream World 30)

Together with Azathoth, most of the other beings of the Mythos however do not try to enslave and destroy the human race, nor do they try to help it, unlike those in most other supernatural or science fiction stories. They plainly do not care. To them the evolution of humankind was an insignificant event that happened mere moments ago; they do try to interact with humanity occasionally nonetheless, while other entities simply continue with their existence, not being hindered by the unimportant humans. Earth is merely one of the places they visited and ruled for a time, and where some of them laid down to rest. Humanity itself has no greater a destiny and no hopes of survival.

Lovecraft at some point became intrigued by the German philosopher Friedrich

Nietzsche, and some elements of his philosophy could be linked to Lovecraft‘s works and were expanded upon: The Old Ones may have been worshipped as gods and reviled as devils, but they are beyond good and evil; it is the narrow human mind that bestows them with these mythical and unearthly statuses. Lovecraft was deliberately prudent in making a point of the differences in how the Old Ones are seen by the human mind, and what they genuinely are (Dream World 130).

It should be noted that each of those beings has different plans which often go against one another, and it is usually a matter of luck to see which will succeed first; some of them even support their plans by crossbreeding with human women, creating a mixed progeny that assists them in their plans and intentions. Generally speaking however, there is no room for good endings in Lovecraft‘s world; some of those entities may not have plans with human species per se, but they do have plans with our world.

They are striving to come back to Earth, take over it, and establish themselves as its true masters once more, annihilating its inhabitants in the process. Tyson compares another aspect of religion with this: the apocalypse. He mentions the catastrophic visions of

Judeo-Christianity and Gnosticism, as the world became a tattered wasteland, poisoned by the living. Lovecraft‘s creations in this case would be the vindictive angels of the book of Revelation; however the Old Ones are not interested in humanity‘s faults and sins, for they simply do not matter to them (Dream World 135).

Entities denominated as the Old Ones as a rule are beings that long precede not only human history, but also the very existence of our planet, and their name in turn emphasizes their antiquity (Dream World 119). Their presumed history has immemorial been recorded by human cultists committed to their cause, and certain dark tomes of forbidden knowledge, the best example of which is the Necronomicon.

2.3 The Necronomicon

In many Lovecraft‘s works there is a mention of various occult books of times long forgotten, comprised of forbidden knowledge, dark rituals, and ways of summoning portals to other dimensions. Some of those Lovecraft references are actual existing tomes about the supernatural and the uncanny, while others were mere fictitious fabrications. Standing out of all of them is the Necronomicon, an infamous grimoire of the dark arts universally known even to those that have no idea who H. P. Lovecraft or what the Cthulhu Mythos is, as Neil Gaiman puts it in the documentary Fear of the

Unknown: Lovecraft Documentary:

The Necronomicon has become the strange combination of an urban legend and a bad joke. First of all it existed in the mind of Lovecraft, and then other people used it, it was one of the easiest things, ‗The Necronomicon of the Mad Arab‘ the book of all of the forbidden things. (Fear of the Unknown)

In the following chapter I will examine the artefact‘s birth, some of its relevant occurrences throughout Lovecraft‘s works, and some of the powers it offers its users, often misusing it without the full knowledge or realization of its potential.

It is arguable whether its very creation was influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, who was one of Lovecraft‘s main influences, or if it was simply an instrument used to either further the plot or to support and expand the universe of the writer‘s world that developed naturally during Lovecraft‘s writing. One of Poe‘s examples could certainly be The Raven: ―Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...‖ (The Raven). The main influence on the Necronomicon was however clearly the book Arabian Nights, from which the

Necronomicon was directly originated. Lovecraft originally envisioned the

Necronomicon differently from its definite version; it was supposed to be a more modern and darker version of the Arabian Nights, only combined with a travel journal through the exotic Arabian lands. With time, the book began to change, ultimately

39 becoming the tome of knowledge man was not meant to know (―History of the

Necronomicon‖).

The official version of its history is transcribed in Lovecraft‘s essay written in

1927, ―History of the Necronomicon,‖ which was intended to finally delineate the

‗alleged‘ historical events that took place throughout its existence. The creation of the ancient tome is also more informally described in letters to almost all of his friends; he wrote to his friend Harry O. Fischer for example:

The name ―Abdul Alhazred‖ is one which some adult (I can‘t recall who) devised for me when I was 5 years old & eager to be an Arab after reading the Arabian Nights. Years later I thought it would be fun to use it as the name of a forbidden-book author. The name Necronomicon...occurred to me in the course of a dream. (February, 1937)

The supposed author of Necronomicon was this Arabian man, and the book itself was written in 730 in Damascus, just a few years before his death. That man was Abdul

Alhazred, universally known ‗the Mad Arab,‘ or the mad poet of Sanaá, while the originally given name of the artefact of doom was Al Azif; ―azif being the word used by

Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) suppos‘d to be the howling of daemons‖ (―History of the Necronomicon‖), and also ―the chittering of insects [...], the drone of beetles‖ (Wanderings xvii). Only later the Latin equivalent of its name, the

Necronomicon, passed into common usage. Its name is an amalgam derived from the words ‗nekros‘ for corpse, ‗nomos‘ for law; there are also disputes if the word ‗eikon,‘ for image, was used, or whether this was just a misrepresentation of the Latin term. As such, the name Necronomicon could be translated as ‗The Image of the Law of the

Dead,‘ or in other words ‗The History of the Names of the Dead,‘ a fitting name for such a dark tome; a name which came to Lovecraft in one of his dreams (―Cults of

Cthulhu‖ 20). A mere plain list of names of those who have passed is not quite as a thrilling concept, but each ‗name‘ is actually a designation for an evocation of a distinct effect, a spell of the ancient deities worshipped by blood-cults of deranged followers.

The Necronomicon supposedly begins with ―The Testimony of the Mad Arab,‖ which maps Alhazred‘s journeys throughout the Babylon‘s ruins, the catacombs of

Memphis, and the vast deserts of Arabia, but also contains extensive knowledge about many of the Lovecraft mythology‘s entities and their magical abilities. The idea had sprung to his mind when he was a mere child, as he claims in a letter to Robert E.

Howard:

The Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred is likewise something which must yet be written in order to possess objective reality. Abdul is a favourite dream-character of mine—indeed that is what I used to call myself when I was five years old and a transported devotee of Andrew Lang‘s version of the Arabian Nights. A few years ago I prepared a mock-erudite synopsis of Abdul‘s life, and of the posthumous vicissitudes and translations of his hideous and unmentionable work Al Azif...—a synopsis which I shall follow in future references to the dark and accursed thing. Long has alluded to the Necronomicon in some things of his—in fact, I think it is rather good fun to have this artificial mythology given an air of verisimilitude by wide citation. I ought, though, to write Mr. O‘Neail and disabuse him of the idea that there is a large blind spot in his mythological erudition! (August 14, 1930)

Such a construct served as filler – simply a tome for most of the information concerning the Mythos in-universe – while the book‘s development as a literary device was fluid, due to the book‘s scarce occurrence. Lovecraft had been preparing for an extensive history of the tome and its creator for some time, while its importance had only increased with the growing number of Lovecraft‘s stories.

Alhazred has in the ―Testimony‖ claimed to have seen the infamous city Irem, also known as City of Pillars, and ―to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind (―History of the Necronomicon‖). He was apparently even able to discover the truth behind humanity‘s existence, its legends and traditions, as well as to encounter some other- worldly entities, the Old Ones, by chance, but it left permanent damage on his psyche

(―History of the Necronomicon‖). In the end, he will presumably not be known as a genius and a studied writer of dark knowledge, but rather a deranged wanderer, ―an indifferent Moslem, worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and

Cthulhu,‖ however he was said to have been ―seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses,‖ and the essay thereafter continues mapping the tome‘s fate, as well as its various transcriptions and translations (―History of the Necronomicon‖).

One of the main purposes of the Necronomicon is opening the ancient gates to other dimensions, locations of a different time and space, enabling the horrors from the other-worldly places to be summoned into our space to reign free and master over Earth once more. Without it, they are trapped in their own dimension with no known possibility of their arrival. This makes the Necronomicon a very dangerous object to hold, not only because some parts of the knowledge make the reader go insane, but also due to the various deranged and fanatical cults that endeavour to possess the tome for their own perverse ends, without concern for the safety of the existence of the human race. The book also contains secret knowledge about many of the other-worldly beings, artefacts long forgotten, or various magical rituals, invocations and chants of vague powers with peculiar consequences.

The foremost reference to the tome was in the short story ―The Hound‖ (1922), when the protagonists, a pair of grave-robbers, discover an ancient amulet:

Alien it indeed was to all art and literature which sane and balanced readers know, but we recognised it as the thing hinted of in the forbidden Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred; the ghastly soul-symbol of the corpse-eating cult of inaccesible Leng, in Central Asia. All too well did we trace the sinister lineaments described by the old Arab daemonologist; lineaments, he wrote, drawn from some obscure supernatural manifestation of the souls of those who vexed and gnawed at the dead [...] We read much in Alhazred‘s Necronomicon about [the amulet‘s] properties, and about the relation of ghouls‘ souls to the objects it symbolised; and were disturbed by what we read. (―The Hound‖)

The protagonists are familiar with the book, and have consulted it before they have attempting to excavate their targeted tomb of a fabled tomb raider. One of the protagonists is tore apart by the original owner of the amulet, and the other is revealed to have committed suicide at the end of the story, which is established by a suicide note

42 at the very end. In ―The Hound‖ the Necronomicon was used as a mere tome possessing the knowledge about a powerful artefact, but its further importance to the Mythos was already palpable from the narrator‘s words.

The second occurrence of the Necronomicon is in a short story ―The Festival‖

(1923). An entertaining thing about Lovecraft is that he strove for realism and its proper portrayal in conjunction with a dose of magic and fantasy. He engaged in referencing the book beside genuine existing tomes, just as in his short story ―The Festival‖ (1923):

[...] when I sat down to read I saw that the books were hoary and mouldy, and that they included old Morryster‘s wild Marvells of Science, the terrible Saducismus Triumphatus of Joseph Glanvill, published in 1681, the shocking Daemonolatreia of Remigius, printed in 1595 at Lyons, and worst of all, the unmentionable Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, in Olaus Wormius‘ forbidden Latin translation; a book which I had never seen, but of which I had heard monstrous things whispered [...] So I tried to read it, and soon became tremblingly absorbed by something I found in that accursed Necronomicon; a thought and a legend too hideous for sanity or consciousness. (―The Festival‖)

The title of the Necronomicon has, with time, become so iconic, so entrenched into

Western society and culture that many people sincerely started believing it to be real.

Some have been trying to demonstrate this by searching for Lovecraft‘s listed sources and references of the Necronomicon, which, according to some, was not a tome of spells and rituals, but rather a dark history book, mapping the experience with the Old Ones throughout human existence.

Chronologically speaking, it can be assumed generally that Lovecraft had chosen to use the tome as filler and a crutch rather than a construct of greater relevance, as its occurrence became scarcer and casual, with sole mentions having no bearing on the plot. The tome was briefly alluded to in some other works here and there, while some of them put more focus on other occult books instead. However, the most important to the plot, the most detailed, and the most informative occurrence about its contents is in the short story ―The Dunwich Horror‖ (1928), about twin brothers, who are actually crossbreeds of a human woman and one of the most powerful Old Ones, preparing for

43 the arrival of their other-worldly master. One of the brothers is deformed with an accelerated growth, while the other one is a monstrous entity resembling its ‗father.‘

They strive to acquire the Latin copy of the tome in order to successfully open the portal, but ultimately fail, as a librarian thwarts their intentions with blind luck, and a spell acquired from the Necronomicon. I will however examine the depth of the story more in the following chapter, due to its direct connection to one of the Old Ones.

In the novella At the Mountains of Madness (1931), the Necronomicon is once again heavily featured – interestingly, a story that could be classified more as science fiction rather than horror. In the work, the tome referenced many times, usually in the context of comparison, mention, or a memory:

Something about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing Asian paintings of Nicholas Roerich, and of the still stranger and more disturbing descriptions of the evilly fabled plateau of Leng which occur in the dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. I was rather sorry, later on, that I had ever looked into that monstrous book at the college library. (Tales 485)

Dyer and Pabodie have read Necronomicon and seen Clark Ashton Smith‘s nightmare paintings based on text, and will understand when I speak of Elder Things supposed to have created all earth-life as jest or mistake. (Tales 500)

Of all existing lands, it was infinitely the most ancient. The conviction grew upon us that this hideous upland must indeed be the fabled nightmare plateau of Leng which even the mad author of the Necronomicon was reluctant to discuss. (Tales 524)

These viscous masses were without doubt what Abdul Alhazred whispered about as the ―shoggoths‖ in his frightful Necronomicon, though even that mad Arab had not hinted that any existed except in the dreams of those who had chewed a certain alkaloidal herb. (Tales 541)

The references to the Necronomicon and the information provided in Mountains cannot boast particular length or substance, but they bind the mythology together, while assisted by the academic support of science, but also references existing art. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Lovecraft has changed the pattern of his stories slightly, implementing science as a justification for the supernatural. The book is used similarly in the short story ―The Dreams in the Witch House‖ (1932). The fact that the

Necronomicon is still present in such stories is somehow more unnerving than detailed descriptions of the tome‘s contents.

The Necronomicon is featured only occasionally after Mountains, but was already established as a major part of the mythology. As said before, Lovecraft preferred to leave the readers guessing, not to present every detail of the whole, which is ultimately also true for the dark tome. This notion is supported by many others – for example various authors and artists – such as Neil Gaiman, Robert M. Price, or even

Guillermo del Toro, in the documentary Fear of the Unknown: Lovecraft Documentary:

So then other people would use it [...] all the other writers putting it into their stuff. So now it feels a little truer, that maybe it ought to exist [...] The Necronomicon is yet another of those Lovecraftian concepts that was never to be fully bodied, it's a series of references, that again implied a much larger tome, with more terrible secrets that Lovecraft could hint at. (―Fear of the Unknown‖)

The issue with the mystery of the Necronomicon is that the other writers use it for their own ends, as claimed previously. Any subject remains more mysterious when only parts of it are revealed, rather than being fully fleshed out.

Lovecraft frequently liked to confuse and bewilder others; some of the sources he used to support the Necronomicon’s content, and by extension its existence, were genuine and he did manage to trace them and use them as a foundation; others were nevertheless purely fictitious, as he maps the artificial materials in a letter to Willis

Conover:

Now about the ―terrible and forbidden books‖—I am forced to say that most of them are purely imaginary. There never was any Abdul Alhazred or Necronomicon, for I invented these names myself. Robert Bloch devised the idea of Ludvig Prinn and his De Vermis Mysteriis, while the Book of Eibon is an invention of Clark Ashton Smith‘s. The late Robert E. Howard is responsible for Friedrich von Junzt and his Unaussprechlichen Kulten... [...] As for seriously-written books on dark, occult, and supernatural themes— in all truth they don‘t amount to much. That is why it‘s more fun to invent mythical works like the Necronomicon and Book of Eibon. (July 29, 1936)

Either by disregarding the truth or by a lack of knowledge about Necronomicon’s origins, people work extensively on establishing its authenticity, linking Lovecraft‘s

45 references to Akkadian and Sumerian texts and Mesopotamian mythologies, devising its development to fit the context of history, arguing that Lovecraft truly knew the book, and fabricated his own version accordingly. There is, however, evidence where

Lovecraft made very clear that it is a fictional creation, mainly from his extensive letters to his friends such as William Frederick Anger:

Regarding the dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred—I must confess that both the evil volume & the accursed author are fictitious creatures of my own—as are the malign entities of Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, &c. Tsathoggua & the Book of Eibon are inventions of Clark Ashton Smith, while Friedrich von Junzt & his monstrous Unaussprechlichen Kulten originated in the fertile brain of Robert E. Howard. For the fun of building up a convincing cycle of synthetic folklore, all of our gang frequently allude to the pet daemons of the others—thus Smith uses my Yog-Sothoth, while I use his Tsathoggua. Also, I sometimes insert a devil or two of my own in the tales I revise or ghost-write for professional clients. Thus our black pantheon acquires an extensive publicity & pseudo-authoritativeness it would not otherwise get. We never, however, try to put it across as an actual hoax; but always carefully explain to enquirers that it is 100% fiction. In order to avoid ambiguity in my references to the Necronomicon I have drawn up a brief synopsis of its ‗history‘... All this gives it a sort of air of verisimilitude. (August 14, 1934)

It is logical that over-zealous fans would like for such a challenging and thrilling world to be true. In the end however, regardless of the wishful thinking and endless longing, the Necronomicon is merely a fictional instrument of an imaginative author to further his literary ideas. Even though Lovecraft did want the Necronomicon to be presented as a genuine work, it was meant to be true only for the purposes of a better reception of the

Cthulhu Mythos, and never concealed the truth about the Necronomicon, as he gladly explained its true nature and development to anyone who would listen.

The true magic of the literary construct such as the Necronomicon in the Cthulhu

Mythos was mainly its ambiguous nature; there were not many direct passages of transcripts from the tome throughout Lovecraft‘s works, only references, as well as the consequences of using it, and the importance it holds in regards to the fate of the whole universe. Its mystery remains its most valuable and effective power, while its contents and potential impact it has on the fragile human mind are too terrifying to imagine.

2.4 Beings

One of the most important aspects of the Cthulhu Mythos is its various entities.

Some of them perceived as gods and venerated accordingly, mainly because of their sheer power, seemingly unlimited to the unimaginative human mind. Lovecraft created a mythological pantheon of beings that vary in appearance, abilities, nature, and intentions. The expression ‗Old Ones‘ that Lovecraft created signifies both whole species of identical extraterrestrials and individual entities that do not have anything in common appearance-wise, even when all of them are directly related. The Old Ones are also divided into a few subgroups, such as the Outer Gods, the ancient, most powerful entities, and the Old Ones, usually serving them one way or another. There is a great number of distinct beings throughout Lovecraft‘s stories; however I will only reference some of them in the following chapter. One of the most interesting facts regarding the

Mythos is that Lovecraft mostly created and developed these entities first, and then constructed the events of his stories accordingly.

The appearance of the most powerful Old Ones is and always will be inaccurate, because their bodies are of a structure so alien it is completely incomprehensible to the delicate human mind, unable to fully grasp their true appearance and its bizarreness without breaking. Their powers are not limitless; they are demi-godlike creatures with abilities beyond comprehension of our narrow perception and understanding. Each of these entities still possesses a power so immense they are basically capable of not only annihilating all biological life, but also swallowing whole worlds and planets, and potentially, terrifyingly, destroying the entire universe itself as well. The most dreadful realization comes from the fact that they would probably not even notice.

2.5 Tales

Throughout his life, Lovecraft underwent certain phases of writing, and thus bulks of his stories focus on various aspects. These phases are generally divided into three categories: ―The Macabre‖ (1905-1920), inspired by E. A. Poe, ―The Dream

Cycle‖ (1920-1927), inspired by Lord Dunsany, and ―The Cthulhu Mythos‖ (1925-

1935), considered Lovecraft‘s original period. It is however impossible to categorize the stories by their dates of creation, as those 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.

Lovecraft described the pronunciation of Cthulhu as ―Khlûl′-hloo,‖ claiming that

―the first syllable pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, hence the h represents the guttural thickness‖ (Selected Letters V 10–11). He further stated that this is simply the approximate form that the human vocal apparatus can come to reproducing the syllables of an alien language (Crypt of Cthulhu).

I have chosen a selected few of Lovecraft‘s stories in the context of his influence on the literary world. I will firstly offer a brief synopsis of the stories, and then analyze them in the context of the Mythos.

―The Call of Cthulhu‖ is crucial in comprehending both Lovecraft‘s intentions in the context of the mythology and several of his main themes, as, by this point, he intentionally began developing the single shared universe; it is also the first one to feature the titular Cthulhu, and is one of Lovecraft‘s most famous stories. It will thus be the first on the list.

2.5.1 ―The Call of Cthulhu‖

The story of the tale is quite simple. It is composed of three related parts, as the late Francis Wayland Thurston retells his story. He continues investigating an interesting case that was started by his grand-uncle Angell, a professor of ancient and obscure inscriptions who died under mysterious circumstances. Among his relative‘s possessions are his notes, and there he discovers information about a powerful cosmic entity, the titular Cthulhu, along with a seemingly modern bas-relief with a carving of its supposed appearance. Apparently a sculptor created it after his nightmares, as the notes of Thurston‘s grand-uncle claim. When Angell had visited the sculptor, he also talked about his other dreams, such as a journey throughout ancient ruins of a city unlike any other of human origins.

The second part focuses mainly on a police investigation of various disappearances throughout the region, leading to the discovery of a cult that has been sacrificing the kidnapped victims, worshipping an idol that turns out to be the Cthulhu entity, which is allegedly several centuries old.

The final part deals with Thurston finding a newspaper clipping about a lone survivor of a derelict ship, a Norwegian second mate of a six-manned schooner, Gustaf

Johansen. Thurston discovers his journal, documenting the final moments of the crew.

They encountered a yacht full of cultists that attacked them without warning, but they managed to prevail. They however lost their ship, and continued their journey on the yacht, ultimately discovering an uncharted island. This is revealed to be the ruins of the city from the sculptor‘s dreams, the sunken city R‘lyeh in the South Pacific, which has risen from the bottom of the ocean due to an earthquake. They accidentally woke the monstrous Cthulhu, from its deep slumber, but Johansen managed to drive it back to sleep by ramming the ship into it. The journal suggests Johansen went mad from the

49 experience, just as his last crewmate before his death, but was killed soon after, as it is implied other cultists caught up with him and finished the job. The narrator himself feels his mind has undergone a shock and is not certain he is still sane.

The importance of ―The Call of Cthulhu‖ is its being ―the first significant contribution to what came to be called the ‗Cthulhu Mythos,‘ [as it] contains nearly all the elements that would be utilized in subsequent fiction‖ (Providence 243-244). It carries one of the first appearances of an Old One, starting Lovecraft‘s official pantheon, disregarding any existence of traditional gods while ignoring moral codes and the concept of good and evil, and it features Cosmicism, emphasizing the irrelevance and worthlessness of the human race, and the futility of its efforts. ―The Call of

Cthulhu‖ directly underlines the insignificance of mankind‘s current dominance; it is nothing but temporary. The human race will not be completely annihilated though, but it will be both enslaved and kept for food. The main idea is that even if the whole human race knew about this imminent danger lying dormant, there would be nothing to could do to avert it. The story also emphasizes the importance of dreams of both the context of the Cthulhu mythos and to Lovecraft personally, using them directly as a ―transmission of occult knowledge (―Cults‖ 9), and accentuating their impact on a human mind.

Another typical aspect of Lovecraft‘s Mythos in the story is the narration. In many of his stories the narrator retells events that have already happened, or reads notes of people that are missing or dead. Additionally, the narrator of ―The Call of Cthulhu‖ did not himself experienced anything, but is merely a spectator of the events. His own narration, however, is a sort of apocalyptic log, as he fears for his life, suspecting the same thing that happened to Johansen will happen to him. The reader can then in retrospect realize that the note at the very beginning of the story stated ―Found among

50 the papers of the late Francis Wayland Thurston‖ (Tales 167), finding out he was right and the cultists killed him also, because he knew too much.

The Cthulhu entity is a cosmic beast, a Great Old One; however it is merely a lesser being of the Mythos. Its powers are somewhat limited in contrast to others, as it is bound to Earth, trapped. Cthulhu does not really appear in other stories, but its appearance is so iconic it became a symbol of the Mythos. Just like other similar beings, it has travelled through space and time, and ruled the Earth since the sun was young.

Together with others, it had created sort of a society, but was forced to go to ‗sleep,‘ centuries before the evolution of mankind, as the stars‘ alignment became poisonous to them (Necronomicon: Wanderings 88). They however cannot die, and secretly lie in wait in eternal rest in ruins of their city.

When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R'lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious surrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them [...] and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him. (Tales 181-182)

Even if the Old Ones need to ‗sleep‘ until these requirements are met and the stars will come to angles that do not matter to them, they can still perceive outer world and affect humans in vicinity, seeking outside help for an evocation that would free them from the protective barrier that prolongs their slumber, and they would be able to reign over

Earth once again. Thus the first cults dedicated to their worship were born that

would never die till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom. (Tales 182-183)

The cults are still active to this day, serving relentlessly in order to join them and serve them directly and being put above the rest of humanity when the human race will be

51 conquered; they want to bring the event nearer. This also highlights the absence of morality and ethics of Lovecraft‘s world, as humans themselves will become monsters, possibly perceived as similar in nature to the Old Ones.

Cthulhu is a crucial entity of the Old Ones sleeping on Earth; a key to their awakening, because it is their High Priest, as he it the ―initiator of the dream-visions sent forth to mankind from the tomb-city of R‘lyeh [...] representing the Abyss of the subconscious or dreaming mind‖ (―Cults‖ 16). This is also the way the sculptor was affected, being psychically adept more than others, as the sunken city arose and Cthulhu was able to establish a telepathic link. Cthulhu furthermore possesses knowledge to opening the portals to the original dimension, ushering the arrival of additional Old

Ones. Cthulhu is however only a single entity, and is not necessarily similar to the other

Old Ones that do not wake, while even their worshippers do not know about their appearance:

Mankind was not absolutely alone among the conscious things of earth, for shapes came out of the dark to visit the faithful few. But these were not the Great Old Ones. No man had ever seen the Old Ones. The carven idol was great Cthulhu, but none might say whether or not the others were precisely like him. (Tales 181)

Even when vast majority of the Old Ones are directly related, all being fathered by a single being, Azathoth, each of them are of completely different appearance, with the exception of a few species.

Cthulhu itself is a huge being of incomprehensible power. The audience does not witness its full potential, however its mere awakening starts to either warp reality, or the perception of reality in a considerably large area, breaking not only the laws of nature in the vicinity, but also the minds of many of the people watching its awakening, while also driving people more psychically adept all around the world irreversibly insane.

Cthulhu will inevitably wake up again, ushering the apocalypse for the human race, shaking the very foundations of the world. If fully awakened, it is possible to say even

52 this single entity could potentially be powerful enough to destroy Earth, and then instead of dying it would possibly be shattered also, but would simply travel through space to another world, and reform when the stars would align right. During the story it was awoken by mistake while the stars were not right, leaving it weakened and easier to deal with. Cthulhu and other Old Ones are ―not merely removed from us in distance through normal space, but occupy dimensions so strange that their very substance can scarcely exist in our reality. For example Cthulhu‘s gelatinous body needs no food to sustain it, and when broken apart, reforms itself‖ (Dream World 123). Being of other- worldly origins, Cthulhu‘s form is partially of ectoplasm, and does not entirely exist in our plane. Its appearance is briefly described in the story:

If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful [...] This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence. (Tales 168, 176)

Furthermore it has three eyes on each side of its head, and ―his head cannot be described without horror [...] as his crown throbs and moves with watery softness for he has no skull‖ (Wanderings 89). Lovecraft presumably wanted to make it all the more alien, by giving it six eyes and making its head a formless mass rather than it having a solid shape, without any humanly physiognomy. Additionally its whole body seems to consist of a more fluid form rather than solid, and is almost impossible to describe accurately.

Our world is not in danger of invasion of sinister beings that would come; they are already here. There are accounts of many worlds that are inhabited by extraterrestrial beings, and while there are thousands, possibly millions of these entities on Earth, our world is not extraordinary in any way. There are simply that many beings throughout the whole universe, that our planet is simply one of the worlds they dominated aeons ago, making the danger of everyday life all the more threatening:

―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 deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age‖

(Tales 167). The issue is furthered by the fact that even when Johansen managed to drive Cthulhu back to the bottom of the ocean, it did not die and is still very much alive, waiting for its time once again. Even when Johansen managed to drive Cthulhu back to sleep and stave off the destruction of mankind, it was a mere delay; it will happen eventually, and it is inevitable.

2.5.2 ―The Dunwich Horror‖

The previous short story focused on ancient beings already being in our world, just waiting for their time to come in deep slumber. ―The Dunwich Horror‖ serves the audience a more ‗conventional‘ type of invasion, as it deals with cross-breeding and attempts of direct opening of inter-dimensional portal for the Old Ones to come.

The story is about a family, the Whateleys of a small back-woods town

Dunwich, helping the Old Ones take our world. Lavinia Whateley, a rare female character in Lovecraft‘s works, gave birth without a husband to a strange-looking child,

Wilbur. The boy was known to have an accelerated growth, and became a grown adult during ten years. Wilbur and his mad grandfather, who tutored him in dark rituals and witchcraft, are trying to obtain the Necronomicon, to control some kind of an invisible monster on their farm, and to summon a portal in other dimension. Wilbur‘s grandfather and mother die, and he attempts to steal a local copy of the dark tome from the library of the Miskatonic University, but is killed by a guard dog. The monster, apparently invisible, breaks free from the Whateley farmhouse and wreaks havoc on Dunwich. The

54 librarian and some of his friends manage to stun and ultimately kill the being with the help of the Necronomicon, revealing it was Wilbur‘s brother.

In contrast with ―The Call of Cthulhu‖ the Whateleys are not a part of any cult, but are individuals attempting to achieve their own goals. If they succeeded, unknown beings would invade our world and transform it to their image. Among the characteristics of the Old Ones to come is their repulsion towards humanity, and its mere existence is insulting to them, a sort of hindrance in the way of their goals with our world (Dream World 135). Furthermore the family is perceived as outsiders rather than a part of the society; it is likely Lovecraft used his own experience in creating the characters‘ isolation and anxiousness.

Yog-Sothoth, a Greater Old One, one of the first original beings created in the universe, has chosen to destroy humanity and invade the human world from within, replacing Cthulhu as the threat behind the events of the story, all the more inconspicuously. Not only is it vastly more powerful than Cthulhu, it is not bound to

Earth or limited to a ‗physical‘ form, but is rather more abstract. It is however not present in the story, but rather attempts to infiltrate the human society by breeding with human women with the help of human warlocks, fathering ―hybrid offspring that will aid them in their purposes‖ (Dream World 134). If the portal would be opened, the Old

Ones would annihilate the planet completely together with all biological life, except for the hybrid beings, remaking the world to its former image of their rule, and relocating it to their dimension. Human bodies are unable to withstand such physical and psychological pressure, and Yog-Sothoth‘s ‗gate‘ would tear them apart. The hybrids are genetically accustomed to such changes, bearing semblance to the Old Ones in some way, as they try to initiate the arrival of this new world.

The titular Dunwich Horror is an inhuman child of Latvinia and Yog-Sothoth, just as Wilbur. The Horror however inherited the monstrous side of its parents rather than the human side, being presumably identical to the other Old Ones to come:

By Their smell can men sometimes know Them near, but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from man's truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is Them. They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. (Tales 385)

Throughout the story the Horror is perceived as invisible, however it does not use any masking device, camouflage, or magic. It is rather the very structure of its body, so unlike anything of this world that human senses simply refuse to transmit its true form, leaving it invisible to the naked human eye (Dream World 129): ―Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen‖ (Tales 385). Just as in ―The Call of Cthulhu,‖ Lovecraft emphasizes the differentness of other-worldly beings, as human minds are not developed enough to properly perceive them, and not strong enough to withstand their true form. As such, the only way of grasping their form is by likening their appearance to diverse shapes and references, if at all. Wilbur, a hybrid that was born from a human, is revealed after his death to have no human features besides his face and arms; no skeleton or skull, and his remains disintegrate soon afterwards (Tales 391).

The universe of the stories is conjoint, and Cthulhu does lie still in South Pacific.

As said before, it is only a matter of time which Old Ones will manage to usurp the planet first. The Mythos is thus developed further by branching the history and events of the universe. ―The Dunwich Horror‖ also offers the most prominent appearance of the

Necronomicon, as it is physically present in the story. In contrast to other Lovecraft‘s stories, it directly impacts the plot progression, serving as a catalyst, and having a crucial role in the story, as the librarian translates its some of its passages from Latin.

There are even direct extracts from the tome, having a disturbing impact on his mind, as he gets gradually more uneasy and anxious. One of the extracts delineates the history of the Old Ones and the universal truths of their existence regarding our world:

Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again [...] Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. (Tales 385)

At first glance these extracts may seem like ramblings of a mad man, but they should be perceived as what they are; transcriptions of prophetic dreams written centuries ago by a man that was driven mad by their sheer intensity and never-ending occurence. Other mentions of the Necronomicon’s text in ―The Dunwich Horror‖ are of unknown language, consisting of unpronounceable words and syllables unlike any of human origins.

―The Dunwich Horror‖ may seem to move slightly closer towards the traditional defence against a monstrous ‗evil,‘ but in the great scheme of things its grandness fades.

There is no greater destiny for the human race, Earth does not belong to it, and it was not here first, as confirmed in an extract from the Necronomicon:

Nor is it to be thought [...] that man is either the oldest or the last of earth's masters, [...] The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. [...] Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again. (Tales 385)

It is a matter perspective, as this could be ultimately perceived as a simple useless struggle, as mankind is the inferior species without any capability of defence, merely delaying the inevitable. Until such time, human race will continue to exist as an equivalent of pests running amok in an abandoned place, but ultimately unable to change their fate. While in ―The Call of Cthulhu‖ the danger was present in our world and physically detectable, the threat ―The Dunwich Horror‖ deals with a scheme of

57 siblings to opening the portal to another dimension; the portal itself is not visible or detectable by any means, and is localized by the Necronomicon. Foiling of such plans would thus depend on blind luck, which it moreover does.

2.5.3 At the Mountains of Madness

The story is about a Miskatonic scholarly expedition on scientific research in

Antarctica, because a previous group apparently discovered strange and eerie ruins of an unknown city with the help of new scientific devices. The expedition unearths frozen ancient extraterrestrial life-forms that once ruled the stars, a slave race that annihilated them, and also find out about the history of the human race as well as of the particular species of the Old Ones, from hieroglyphs on the walls of the ruins. Some of the frozen entities however thaw, come back to life, and the protagonists are forced to deal with their awakening.

The novella that is considered as Lovecraft‘s ―most ambitious attempt at ‗non- supernatural cosmic art‘‖ is his attempt at scientific justification for the whole mythology, but does not break his usual patterns, but rather underlines the point

(Providence 301). At the Mountains of Madness emphasizes the ‗demythologizing‘ aspects of Lovecraft‘s works and exposes the truth: the tales of legends are merely an explanation of previous genuine experience (Providence 301). Main character, William

Dyer, states at the beginning of the story: ―Doubt of the real facts, as I must reveal them, is inevitable; yet, if I suppressed what will seem extravagant and incredible, there would be nothing left‖ (Tales 481). There are no facts that could be omitted, even if not many people may believe the truth, as the story seems at times exaggerated for the general public to simply accept. Lovecraft thus cleverly urges the reader to suspend their belief from the very first lines.

The story blends together the most intriguing aspects of Lovecraft‘s narratives: the story puts an emphasis on atmosphere rather than action; there is an omnipresent sense of imminent danger, various alien entities of different eras are present, and the protagonists discover knowledge and encounter beings that could potentially drive men mad. In addition, the novella creates a link to the rest of the Cthulhu Mythos. Most of previous stories were ambiguous with no explanation, but kept a rather ‗supernatural‘ feeling to them. At the Mountains of Madness on the other hand strives to view and explain everything as scientifically based, and offers new insights at the whole Mythos retrospectively. The story is however told by an erudite scholar, who may have been reinterpreting the events with science, while ironically contemplating on the idea that the Elder Things modified their history themselves.

There are various extraterrestrial entities in the story: the central Old Ones are a species titled the Elder Things, and a slave-race the Elder Things created to help them with physical tasks and construction, the Shoggoths. There are also other races that waged wars on the Elder Things in the past, thus the Old Ones trying to invade our world in other stories are replaced. Firstly by the star-spawn of Cthulhu who are identical to their master and who built the city of R‘lyeh, and then the crustacean and fungi-like race of Mi-Go; an advanced race of scientists exploring the universe, looking for new subjects to experiment on, extracting their organs. The Elder Things are described in the story:

Can‘t decide whether vegetable or animal [...] Six-foot [...] Dark gray, flexible, and infinitely tough. [...] membranous wings of same color [...] Like arms of primitive crinoid [...] a total of twenty-five tentacles [...] Head thick and puffy [...] with three-inch flexible yellowish tubes projecting from each point [with membrane, revealing] glassy, red-irised globe, evidently an eye. (Tales 498-499)

Clearly of alien origins, the Elder Things are supposedly the very first beings that came to Earth aeons ago, as they were expanding over many planets throughout the whole

59 universe (Harms 384). In At the Mountains of Madness Lovecraft finally confirms the assumptions that the ‗gods‘ and beings presented in the mythology were actually of extraterrestrial origins, rather than supernatural (Providence 301). It expands the

Mythos by introducing new distinct types of Old Ones, who do not share the same goals or conviction of others. As the protagonists delve deeper into the ruins, they discover more hieroglyphs, and learn of the rise and fall of the alien civilization of the Elder

Things that created an advanced society, even with art or economy:

Furnishing their homes [but] leaving all the wall spaces free for decorative treatment. Lighting, [...] was accomplished by a device probably electro-chemical in nature. Both on land and under water they used curious tables, chairs and couches like cylindrical frames - for they rested and slept upright with folded-down tentacles - and racks for hinged sets of dotted surfaces forming their books. (Tales 544)

Such a society was probably created as analogous to human race as possible, in order to seem sympathetic and affable to the readers, especially in contrast to other species in the

Mythos that are usually hostile to our very existence; the novella thus presents a unique insight into the life of a more benevolent Old Ones and their culture.

The Elder Things are implied to have constructed all life on Earth through biological engineering, while the human race was a mere failed experiment that mutated further long after the Elder Things were frozen in the ruins of their city. They also designed a slave race of Shoggoths, to be their workers and general help:

Normally shapeless entities composed of a viscous jelly which looked like an agglutination of bubbles, and each averaged about fifteen feet in diameter when a sphere. They had, however, a constantly shifting shape and volume - throwing out temporary developments or forming apparent organs of sight, hearing, and speech in imitation of their masters, either spontaneously or according to suggestion. (Tales 546)

The Shoggoths were non-sentient amoeba-like constructs that became expendable assets for the underwater assistance in the life of the Elder Things; a sort of obedient biological tool with no mind. The Shoggoths however with time gained sentience through mutation and evolution and began to defy their masters, resulting in deterioration and decay of the Elder Things‘ civilization:

Reproducing by fission and acquiring a dangerous degree of accidental intelligence, presented for a time a formidable problem. They had always been controlled through the hypnotic suggestions of the Old Ones, and had modeled their tough plasticity into various useful temporary limbs and organs; but now their self-modeling powers were sometimes exercised independently, and in various imitative forms implanted by past suggestion. They had, it seems, developed a semistable brain whose separate and occasionally stubborn volition echoed the will of the Old Ones without always obeying it. (Tales 546)

The Shoggoths ultimately proved to be too much to handle, and managed to dominate the civilization of the Elder Things due to their tenacity and large numbers, while in the end they both froze in the latest ice age. The Elder Things are thus not to be feared, but rather to be respected and sympathized with, being a marvellous, advanced, and almost friendly race. In the novella, the Shoggoths are ultimately the most threatening danger to the very existence of the human race, as through mutation they adapted to become the sturdiest and most resilient beings, striving to expand and multiply limitlessly. A mere thought of such beings frozen somewhere, possibly thawing at any moment is typical and in accordance with Lovecraft, as the potential doom is imminent.

Additionally the ending is depressing also, as the whole original expedition is dead; the protagonist is most likely attempting to prevent another expedition from going to the Antarctic, and the colleague that accompanied him was driven mad by the experience.

2.5.4 The Shadow over Innsmouth

The novella deals with a half-empty small ramshackle port town of Innsmouth in

New England that a young student on a genealogical journey through the country visits by chance. He starts discovering that something sinister is going on in Innsmouth, and by encountering the old town drunkard he learns of the town‘s history and secrets.

Apparently a wealthy merchant and a sea captain Obed Marsh struck a deal with strange fish-like creatures called the Deep Ones, and provided women to breed with for a

61 supply of gold and abundant amounts of fish for fishing; the hybrid children would appear human, but would transform to the same fish-like creatures completely during adulthood. Fearing he knows too much, the inhabitants of Innsmouth decide to kill him, and he is left no choice but to flee, eventually managing to escape the town. In the final part however he realizes that he began transforming also, and ultimately embraces his roots and returns to join their ranks.

A direct invasion of our world by hostile entities is replaced in this case by a more subtle and gradual approach – assimilation. No one notices small inconspicuous towns throughout the country, where the secret crossbreeding takes place, as the invaders gain worshippers and expand their numbers, slowly but surely getting ready for overtaking the world, to assimilate even more . Ordinary people are tempted by greed and success by these ancient beings, who do not need to rush as they do not age, while committing their descendants to the same fate. They can be perceived as lucky, for they would not be annihilated with the rest of the human race and would live in the new world as its kings; they are however possibly losing free independent thought, being indoctrinated by their transformation. When the narrator realizes his body is changing, he at first contemplates suicide, but makes up his mind; he begins dreaming about the tempting life at the bottom of the ocean as well as meeting his ancestors, feeling drawn to the virtually immortal life and joining in the worship of the Old Ones. Throughout the story it is revealed that some of his relatives died in mysterious circumstances, although it is implied that the change does reprogram the individual‘s minds to be more acceptable of the situation, and willing to do the bidding of the ‗hive.‘ (Tales 651). This makes the assimilation even more dark and eerie, as not only the hybrids are unable to fight their eventual change except for few moments before the changes settle in, they begin to perceive their transformation as a tempting and exciting option involuntarily.

The hulking inhabitants of Innsmouth, not yet fully transformed into the Deep

Ones are titled by the narrator as having the ―Innsmouth look,‖ as described: ―it [...] makes you crawl [...] queer narrow heads with flat noses and bulgy, starry eyes that never seem to shut, and their skin ain't quite right. Rough and scabby, and the sides of the necks are all shriveled or creased up. Get bald, too, very young‖ (Tales 591). They are gradually adapting to the upcoming life deep beneath the sea, and are generally hiding in their boarded up houses when they cease to appear human; that is why the town is seemingly almost empty. The inhabitants, just as the Deep Ones, are members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, founded by Obed Marsh. The cult worships not only

Cthulhu, but also two of its servants of the Old Ones, Dagon and Hydra, who also appear in other stories.

The town‘s inhabitants are recluse and taciturn, antagonizing any visitors and avoiding attention of others. The story practically reeks of alienation, as the audience through the eyes of the narrator feels the hostility and isolation with no one to turn to, and in return the narrator is disgusted by the inhabitants of the town, and ―expects us to share his revulsion at [their] physical grotesqueness‖ (Providence 306). The dissimilarity to ‗ordinary‘ human appearance usually inspires at the very least curiosity, but can also breed antipathy and rejection, emphasizing any distinction of what is familiar and ‗safe.‘ This turns men cautious and distrustful, building up the barrier between distinct cultures. When the culture is clearly hostile though, the consequences can be disastrous for all sides, potentially fatal. The crossbreeds of Innsmouth however always try to suppress and contain any information leakage, killing everyone prying around and meddling in their affairs, guarding their secrets without a care of how their small back-woods town is perceived. The Shadow over Innsmouth thus features heavily the elements of racial segregation, and also seems to emphasise the negative impact of

63 crossbreeding on psychological consistency. One of the more subtle aspects is also the importance of retaining the ‗racial purity‘ which would be destroyed by the mixing of distinct races. As Joshi puts it, the story is ―Lovecraft‘s greatest tale of degeneration

[and] clearly a cautionary tale‖ (Providence 305). Lovecraft also uses overly detailed and descriptive accounts of Innsmouth‘s state of decay and filth, implying that the consequences of both the isolation of a small closed society and the decline of its moral and ethic values ultimately have direct impact on living conditions and the appreciation of life and society in general. The inhabitants however do not care simply because sooner or later they will move to the underwater city, becoming immortal.

Due to Lovecraft‘s racist tendencies, it is possible to perceive the novella as a social commentary on the division of races; nonetheless Lovecraft‘s consistency and relentlessness in regards to the literary value and artlessness of his works may just as well disprove such claims. Nevertheless, it is likely that Lovecraft was inspired by his early opinions on racial division and its supposed ‗hierarchy‘ and the effects of crossbreeding on quality of the resulting individuals; this does not automatically mean that he used minorities as a template for the purposes of the story and illustration of such ‗experiment‘ though. In the end it is up to the reader to make his own conclusion; nevertheless, the story remains a classic Lovecraftian tale of thrilling atmosphere with a surprising twist near the very end, rightfully being one of his more famous works.

Conclusion

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a one-of-his-kind writer; master of the written word, using the descriptive purple prose to perfectly portray the fear and dread of his characters, as well as the surroundings, further rendering the atmosphere also. This in turn often invokes general feeling of uncertainty and anxiety in the audience; furthermore everyone can also find elements to their liking due to the vast diversity of

Lovecraft‘s stories and their themes. The aim of my work is simply the exploration and mapping of the Cthulhu Mythos from its birth, Lovecraft‘s influence of his personal life on its development, and the analysis of some of its more apparent themes and patterns.

As demonstrated in the first portion of the thesis, Lovecraft experienced nothing but tragedy and misfortune throughout his life, which led to his adopting certain opinions and philosophies subsequently used in his literature, as established with the majority of his personal letters to friends and close ones being preserved for both history and the interest of the evolution of such a figure of the literary world. I intended to accentuate the events that led to the creation of the writer, as well as some of his psychological issues, nervous imbalance, and general anxiety. He was never seeking fame, but rather only recognition and respect; he never became a part of ‗modern‘ society, preferring calm and peaceful environment, practically living life as a recluse and keeping to himself. He was however very social through the medium of written letters, gaining new friends and maintaining close contact for decades, in addition to perfecting his writing style. Whereas his life brought him only grief and disappointment, his dreams were reeking of fear, filled with further torment. The never- ending suffering in both day and night however gave birth to one of the most original and imaginative minds of literature, as well as the creation of Cosmicism, a new and unique philosophy of the insignificance and eventual futility of mankind‘s actions.

Lovecraft is therefore rightfully perceived as a true master of horror, and is together with Edgar Allan Poe regarded as its creator.

The second part deals with the Cthulhu Mythos, Lovecraft‘s creation of a single universe of interconnected tales. The thesis firstly delineates Lovecraft‘s opinions on fear and its use, as in his mind there is nothing more dreadful than the unknown, due to human mind‘s always expecting the worst regarding individual subjective horrors.

Lovecraft thus abundantly engaged in descriptions most vague and shallow with only a few exceptions, and kept the character as well as the reader vigilant and attentive, fearing what may come. The thesis then continues with Lovecraft‘s supposed relationship with religion and the lack thereof, mapping the usage of certain themes and their mockery to further his works.

The work however mostly focuses on certain elements crucial to the context of the whole mythology, offering analysis of some of his well-known stories, where the depiction of the more common themes and patterns in context of the whole Mythos is most glaring, such as the preparation for the overthrow of the human race, the ambiguity of supernatural and its later scientific justification, or the issues of perception of different races. Some of his works are vastly more complex than it seems, with detailed background and subtle insinuations while gradually constructing the whole mythology; thus with more of his works read, the greater the urge to reread the older stories to assemble the pieces together in order to create a bigger picture, and pay more attention to less obvious patterns and ideas. Similarly as the protagonists of many of his stories are ultimately killed by their curiosity and lust for the forbidden knowledge, the readers can easily become obsessed with Lovecraft‘s creation, and cannot help but hanker after more of his works henceforth. His engaging depiction of atmosphere is timeless, and will continue to thrill readers in the future, while his mythology will

66 continue to grow and inspire others of all kinds of media. The analysis should therefore offer the basic understanding of Lovecraft‘s ideas and philosophies at the very least, thus possibly bringing more attention to the author in general.

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Résumé in English

Howard Phillips Lovecraft started as a relatively unknown editor, rewriter, and amateur writer, and did not gain much recognition during his life. Due to actions taken by his friends however his name will live forever, as they managed to start a publishing house and immortalize his works, and also expanded upon his legacy in the form of a mythology of original ideas and unique struggle for mere human existence.

Nonetheless, with time his natural talent managed to capture the attention of many readers, bringing wider audience and establishing quite a large following; he ultimately became world-famous author with unforgettable stories and entrancing atmosphere, influencing countless artists throughout distinct kinds of media.

My thesis offers an analytical exploration of the author‘s life and his works, divided into two main chapters, with several sub-chapters each, covering the respective topics in detail.

Firstly the author is introduced concisely, and the following portion then deals with the author‘s work. At first H. P. Lovecraft‘s life is mapped, together with his opinions and philosophies. The second part outlines the form of his creation, the

Cthulhu Mythos, and examines its complexity and its development. The stories of a small number of the author‘s selected works are briefly summarized, followed up by a more critical analysis.

The conclusion recapitulates and valorizes the author‘s life in the context of its influence on his literary works, and emphasizes the impact of his mythology.

Resumé v češtině

Howard Phillips Lovecraft byl zpočátku relativně neznámý editor, přepisovatel a amatérský spisovatel, a nezískal za života přílišného uznání. Díky opatřením jeho přátel bude jeho jméno žít navěky, jelikož se jim podařilo založit nakladatelství a zvěčnit tak jeho díla, ale také rozšířit jeho odkaz v podobě mytologie, plné originálních myšlenek, a unikátního usilování o samotné bytí. Nicméně v průběhu času jeho přirozený talent vyzískal pozornost mnoha čtenářů, přilákal širokou veřejnost, a vybudoval si tak poměrně velikou základnu fanoušků; nakonec se stal světově známým autora nezapomenutelných příběhů a strhující atmosféry, ovlivňujíc nespočet umělců napříč všemi druhy médií.

Má práce nabízí analytický průzkum autorova života a díla, rozdělena do dvou hlavních kapitol s několika podkapitolami, které se detailně věnují příslušným tématům.

Prvně je stručně uveden autor, přičemž následující část se věnuje jeho dílu.

Nejprve je zmapován jeho život, spolu s názory a stanovisky. Druhá část poté nastiňuje podobu jeho díla, mýtu Cthulhu, a analyzuje její komplexnost a její vývoj. Děj několika vybraných povídek je prvně krátce shrnut, po čemž následuje kritická analýza díla.

Závěr shrnuje a hodnotí život autora v kontextu vlivu na jeho literární tvorbu, a zdůrazňuje jeho dopad na zmíněnou mytologii.