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HP Lovecraft's Literary H.P. Lovecraft's Literary "Supernatural Horror" in Visual Culture A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Nathaniel R Wallace December 2014 © 2014 Nathaniel R Wallace. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled H.P. Lovecraft's Literary "Supernatural Horror" in Visual Culture by NATHANIEL R. WALLACE has been approved for Interdisciplinary Arts and the College of Fine Arts by Charles Buchanan Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts Margaret Kennedy-Dygas Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 ABSTRACT WALLACE, NATHANIEL R., Ph.D., December 2014, Interdisciplinary Arts Lovecraft's Literary "Supernatural Horror" in Visual Culture Director of Dissertation: Charles Buchanan H.P. Lovecraft, an early twentieth-century author of supernatural horror, was a materialist who believed that science had diminished the mysteries that previously existed in everyday life. To counteract this development, he felt that the arts could be a viable platform where reality, especially the dimensions of time and space, might be disrupted. His literary approach in achieving this effect was to introduce phenomena to the audience that were complex and vast in scope, potentially creating a sense of the sublime. Two particular elements that characterize such disruptive phenomena are repetition and symmetry. This dissertation considers Lovecraft’s aesthetic theories and his larger body of work in order to establish a theoretical framework concerning disruption which can be applied to visual culture. As a self-described “visually minded” author, Lovecraft’s literary approach bears a close relationship to visual culture, since he often appropriated existing artistic works and incorporated them through description within his literature. To further connect Lovecraft’s literature and visual culture, this dissertation designates certain disruptive tropes within Lovecraft’s oeuvre that may be found in later visual adaptations. Intersecting the dimensions of time and space with elements of repetition and symmetry, this analysis establishes four disruptive tropes: repetition in time (montage), symmetry in time (ideograms), repetition in space (polyocularity) and 4 symmetry in space (non-Vitruvian architecture). The elements of repetition and symmetry work within each respective disruptive trope to undermine anthropocentric notions of time and space. In chapter 1, this analysis establishes the dynamic between first-person point of view, the “inside” and the “outside,” which characterizes the disruptive tropes discussed in subsequent chapters. In chapter 2, Lovecraft’s short story “Pickman’s Model” is analyzed to demonstrate how temporal repetition can result in a fragmentation of the unity of the present. In chapter 3, the inclusion of ideograms in Lovecraft’s work as a means of creating asymmetrical relationships in time is discussed, particularly as it applies to the novella At the Mountains of Madness and the film, Prometheus. Concerning the repetition of form in space, Chapter 4 focuses on Lovecraft’s polyocular fictional bodies and the manner in which multiple focal points within space create anxiety for the audience. Finally, Chapter 5 addresses the asymmetrical relationship between the human body and alien non-Vitruvian architecture described in Lovecraft’s work. 5 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my wife, Sara Berens, my mother, Jadeen Hergenrother, my grandmother, Carol Williams, and my deceased grandfather, James Williams. 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the work and support of my wife and copy editor, Sara K. Berens, as well as the colleagues and friends who helped me put my dissertation together, including Aaron Van Dorn, Dan Jones, Anton Sutandio, Gordon Briggs, Yining Liu, Abobo Kumbalonah, and my dissertation chairperson and Director of the School of Interdisciplinary Arts, Dr. Charles Buchanan. Finally, I would like to give thanks to Mark Wojciechowski, Marty Wojciechoski, Adam Wills and Chip Linscott for all of your help and support. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Dedication ........................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 6 List of Figures ................................................................................................................... 10 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 13 Prior Studies .................................................................................................................. 20 Lovecraftian Images .................................................................................................. 20 Lovecraft’s Problematic Relationship to Race.......................................................... 22 Lovecraft and the Burkean Sublime.......................................................................... 24 The Visual Qualities of Speculative Realism ........................................................... 25 Lovecraft’s Relationship to Visual Culture .................................................................. 27 Textual Reading ............................................................................................................ 32 Lovecraft’s Disruptive Tropes: Form and Function .................................................... 33 Lovecraft’s Disruptive Tropes in the Visual Arts ......................................................... 36 Chapter Summary ......................................................................................................... 39 Chapter 1: The “Inside” of H.P. Lovecraft’s Supernatural Horror in The Visual Arts .... 43 “The Outsider” and the First-Person Point of View ..................................................... 48 First-Person Perspective: From Literature to Images ................................................... 52 Repetition and “The Outsider” ..................................................................................... 58 Landscape and Architecture Through the Point of View of the “Inside” ..................... 61 “Outside” Images in “The Outsider” ............................................................................ 66 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 75 Chapter 2: Lovecraft’s Temporal Model: Disruptive Montage ........................................ 79 The Structure of “Pickman’s Model” ........................................................................... 81 The Ghoul as Model ..................................................................................................... 84 Pickman’s “Sequence of Paintings” ............................................................................. 90 Pickman’s Colonial Sequence ...................................................................................... 95 Pickman’s ‘Modern Studies’ ...................................................................................... 104 The “Unequivocal Representation” in “Pickman’s Model” ....................................... 107 8 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 112 Chapter 3: Lovecraft’s Disruptive ideograms: The Mise-En-Abyme and Time ............ 115 “That Monstrous Chapter of Prehuman Life:” At the Mountain of Madness ............. 117 Aetiology of the Speculative ....................................................................................... 120 Asymmetrical Time: Human vs. Deep Time ............................................................. 123 Mise-En-Abyme: Multiple Points of View ................................................................. 126 Humanity: A Diminished History .............................................................................. 129 Ideograms and the Alien Film Franchise .................................................................... 131 Ideograms in Prometheus ........................................................................................... 134 Worshipping of an Alien God ..................................................................................... 135 Deep Time and Space ................................................................................................. 139 From Ideograms to Holograms ................................................................................... 142 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 147 Chapter 4: The Cosmic Gaze: Polyocularity in H.P. Lovecraft-related Visual Culture 149 Lovecraft’s Polyocular Bestiary ................................................................................. 152 Triocular Vision of The Great Race of Yith ............................................................... 155 Pentocular Vision: The Elder Thing/Elder One .......................................................... 163 Hexocular Cthulhu ...................................................................................................... 167 The Many-Eyed Shoggoth from
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