
Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927) - networked
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx
======
Procrastes
He was definitely ahead of his time in some ways. He predicted and distilled
the creed of reactionary fundamentalism in 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
deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." \-- The Call of
Cthulhu

~~~
panzagl
I would have loved to read Lovecraft's reaction when we did unlock knowledge
capable of destroying mankind with the atom bomb...

~~~
aaronem
Well, we didn't, did we? We could make an unholy mess with nuclear weapons,
but hubris aside, we can't kill ourselves with them.

Lovecraft survived to the very verge of the atomic age, and it shows in his
writing; one of Azathoth's epithets is "nuclear chaos". In other words, he
took it about how his writings would lead you to expect.

~~~
panzagl
He missed the really good stuff though (fission, etc). It's one thing to say
'the end is nigh' another to actually have it come relatively close to
happening.

~~~
aaronem
He knew about radioactivity; fission was theorized well before it was
discovered, and his circle of sf/fantasy nerds was precisely the sort which
would both know about what was then still a relatively obscure branch of
physics, and contemplate at length its possible implications.

It sounds like you're fumbling toward the question of what Lovecraft would've
made of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Obviously there's no way to know for certain,
but I think Charlie Stross has come as close as anyone could in his short "A
Colder War", which is freely available online and quite engaging.

~~~
arethuza
I'm not sure "engaging" is the word I'd use - finding out what Cthulhu _does_
with the souls it eats is rather disturbing.

~~~
aaronem
I said it'd keep your attention. I didn't say it was _nice_.

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sn41
Great essay. I've often seen condescending patronizing critical essays trying
to establish that H. P. Lovecraft was a juvenile hack at writing. This essay
establishes that he is capable of sardonic evaluation, probably even self-
criticism. Moreover, this essay is written in a modern language, which shows
that the (to some, grating) archaic tone of his stories is a conscious choice.

It was due to this essay that I came to hear about Arthur Machen, and Algernon
Blackwood.

As for Lovecraft's _fiction_ , it seems to me that he passed away as he was
maturing as a writer.

Had he (or Edgar Allan Poe) lived longer, wonder what great works they might
have been able to bring into this world!

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rsync
Related, I think ...

I do not play video games at all, but somehow I was lead to the "mass effect"
backstory which is _fascinating_.

I encourage anyone with an hour to kill to read:

[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Reaper](http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Reaper)

[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Sovereign](http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Sovereign)

[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Harbinger](http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Harbinger)

It's quite detailed and entertaining. Yes, I am aware that it is based on some
degree on Lovecraft.

~~~
Raphmedia
I think that you would really enjoy reading Warhammer 40k's lore. It is very,
very huge and very complete. I never played the game at all, but spent
countless hours reading the lore and it's amazing and deep.

[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warhammer_40k_Wiki](http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warhammer_40k_Wiki)

An interesting starting point would be the Horus Heresy:

[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Horus_Heresy](http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Horus_Heresy)

~~~
shostack
Seconded. To give a sense of the awesomeness of the universe, here's a great
description of warp travel in WH40k[1]:

> _" Let me take you through the average Warp travel procedure._

> _The Captain calls down to prep the ship for Warp expedition. At that time,
> 12000 slaves who have never seen the outside of the work galley begin
> shoveling the dead bodies of the previous workers into massive furnaces
> along with whatever hard fuel source they have in storage, like a brutal Mr.
> Fusion. A field of pure psychic FUCK YOU is generated around the ship and
> the blinded, mentally traumatized man inside a metal egg begins screaming
> unendingly as he charts a course through the Warp, which is basically a
> giant ocean of pure emotion in which Unnamed Ones lounge around and fuck
> with humanity by the luxury of simply existing. The ship then plows into the
> miasma of what you could call Hell if you lacked imagination. Pray to the
> Holy Throne the Astropath doesn 't accidentally get you lost, becomes
> possessed by a Daemon, or just explodes like a mushy human pinata from the
> mental stress of being around so much pure CANNOT BE. If the void shields
> even flicker on the 8000 year old vessel (which no one actually understands
> completely how to work), Daemons made of RAPE and LEMON JUICE will crawl
> into our reality and do things you literally cannot imagine to every soul
> aboard. I mean that. The very notion of understanding the completeness of
> the horror the human victims will be witness to would shatter your
> perception of reality and cause your head to explode. Mission clock says
> they were only in the Warp for 5 days. It was 17 months for everyone aboard.
> They also missed their destination by a couple of solar systems and 80% of
> the crew is dead._

> _The Captain turns to his bridge staff and pops the cork on a vintage stock
> of Jherrik Ale and salutes another successful Warp Jump._

> _Welcome to 40K. "_

Wonderfully worded, and as a big WH40k fan/reader I have to say it is also
very accurate.

[1][https://np.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/3jd583/capital_ships...](https://np.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/3jd583/capital_ships_noping_in_everspace/cuoebwt)

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pdkl95
On the subject of Lovecraft:

    
    
        Ghostbusters is the best comedy ever made about
        the limits of the Lovecraftian worldview.
    

[http://www.maxgladstone.com/2014/09/ghostbusting-
lovecraft/](http://www.maxgladstone.com/2014/09/ghostbusting-lovecraft/)

~~~
Delmania
Surprisingly enough, in most of his stories, the chaos from outside is
contained. Notably in the Call of Cthlhu, The Dunwich Horror, and the Case of
Charles Dexter Ward, where people spring into action once the threat has
emerged. The difference between Ghostbusters and Lovecraft's work (outside of
being a comedy) is the reaction. In Ghostbusters, they're presented as flawed
noble heroes, striving against everything to defeat an evil. In Lovecraft's
work, they're presented as individuals who are doing what must be done to
contain the ever-present threat. The difference between Gozer and Cthulhu is
that Gozer is a one time threat, whereas Cthulhu is always there.

------
eponeponepon
I will almost certainly never tire of re-reading this essay. For all his flaws
as a writer and as a person, Lovecraft really knew how to manipulate fear.

~~~
armitron
Flaws? Certainly, but surely insignificant compared to the magnitude of his
thought. Lovecraft was a __genius __at least a century ahead of his time
(Nietzsche is the only other figure that springs to mind).

People still haven't come to terms or even realized what he was talking about,
but if there's something we're blindly racing towards it's that "ultimate void
of Chaos wherein reigns the mindless daemon-sultan Azathoth".

~~~
cjslep
I wouldn't say insignificant. To fully appreciate some of his works, the
reader needs to understand the racist mindset he had and the larger fears he
was playing off of that stemmed from racism.

Do dismiss his flaws would be a disservice for readers and his works alike.

~~~
philh
What does it even mean to say someone's flaws are "insignificant compared to
the magnitude of his thought"? Those two things don't seem like they can be
put on the same scale in order to compare them. What are you two disagreeing
about?

I kind of feel like it's "he had flaws, and he thought well; I like him"
versus "he had more flaws than you make it sound".

~~~
cjslep
> What are you two disagreeing about?

I think we are both supporters of Lovecraft, but I just wanted to say that
sometimes when his racism shows it isn't insignificant: to understand the fear
he is applying the reader needs to know what racist people of that time feared
(ex: voodo).

EDIT: To be clear, I am not trying to say ALL of his fear-invoking was through
racism. In _some_ stories during _some_ of the buildup of terror, the reader
might miss out if unaware.

~~~
armitron
Totally misguided assumption and also entirely wrong.

Read through his letters published by Arkham house instead of making up
stories out of thin air. I suggest you start with Volume IV
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selected_Letters_of_H._P._Love...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selected_Letters_of_H._P._Lovecraft_IV_\(1932%E2%80%931934\)))

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peterwwillis
A really good read, but this thing needs to be reformatted. Hard to parse
giant paragraphs on the web.

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debacle
I wonder, if based on Lovecraft's premise, one could make the argument that
writing, or any work of art, rooted in fear is _easier_ than writing from
other mental states, because of its universality.

