Cosmicism, as developed by H. P. Lovecraft throughout his fictional and non-fictional writings, decentres the anthropocentric perspective by assuming the essential insignificance of humanity and all ...human experience within a larger and void universe. Here, Schuller argues that there is a dialectical-materialist unconscious lurking beneath the surface of Lovecraftian horror. He proposes a re-reading of Lovecraft's writings that does not relate cosmic horror to the obvious, superficial cosmicism to which Lovecraft himself adhered.
Upon its original release, John Carpenter's The Thing was subject to notoriously scathing reviews. It was spurned by audiences, while critics almost universally rejected what they saw as excessive ...gore. The impulse to characterize The Thing as a monster movie that somehow failed because there was either too much or too little monster is crucial. Here, Broen examines Carpenter's The Thing.
Richard Marsh Baumann, Rebecca
Victorian Studies,
06/2017, Letnik:
59, Številka:
4
Book Review, Journal Article
Recenzirano
Though most often associated with gothic or horror fiction, those works account for a relatively small percentage of his output, nestled among boys' adventure stories (written early under his real ...name, Bernard Heldmann), sensational romances, detective novels, and light comedy. With Richard Marsh (part of the Gothic Authors: Critical Revisions series from The University of Wales Press), Vuohelainen offers a full-length (if short) critical look at the author, focusing on his gothic works through the lens of spatial theory. Vuohelainen also crams Marsh's most radically weird story, "A Psychological Experiment" (1900), into this chapter. Since the story takes place in a hotel, it might fit better into the more original argument of Chapter 2; it also deserves more attention as it is probably the oddest thing Marsh wrote: a tale of revenge in which the avenger torments the man who tried to murder him, first by cutting himself out of an oilskin coat stuffed with living reptiles, and then by forcing his partner onto his knees and frightening him to death with a jack-in-the-box in which Jack has been replaced by a tentacled "creature of the squid class" ("A Psychological Experiment" in The Seen and the Unseen Methuen, 1900, 17).
According to his voluminous correspondence, it never went beyond that verisimilitude and facade of existence, and Lovecraft never even outlined its full, albeit fictive, contents. Lovecraft, for all ...his singular and moving descriptions of occult practices in the secret places of the world, was in reality a skeptic and rationalist with a sense of the solidity of the universe and natural world: "Lovecraft's early studies in the natural sciences, as well as his absorption of the atomism of Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius, led to his espousal of mechanistic materialism" (Joshi, "Introduction" 23). (Lovecraft, Dream-Quest 3) This vision of boundless cosmic horror lying just beyond the thin skin of our material universe, a malevolent chaos waiting to boil into our reality and extinguish all life and rationality, is profoundly affecting. From an analytical standpoint this seems like a very strange admission; while there are many strands of left-hand path, or dark magic, practice in the world, most involve some sort of payoff, usually in the form of power or pleasure (Evans 197).
Known primarily as an author of “weird” tales, H.P. Lovecraft’s signature positioning of his characters’ states of sanity as victims to otherworldly monsters (rather than their physical persons, ...necessarily) represents a remarkably unique trend that is still serving as a point of inspiration for writers and filmmakers alike to this day in genres such as horror, science-fiction, and even the particular Lovecraftian subgenre of cosmicism. It is this eldritch relationship that defines his work and distinguishes it from so many other contemporaneous pulp texts -- his monsters are uncanny, utterly incomprehensible to any sound, scientific mind. It is no coincidence, therefore, that almost all Lovecraftian protagonists represent the scientific/rational/empirical world in some way or another -- they are most frequently scholars themselves, often working to untangle a cosmic mystery that will end in either their retreat or insanity.This imposed angle -- the relationship of science to forces which it cannot possibly hope to measure -- smacks of a particular modernist bent. The new art of the early 20th century, particularly art from the budding phenomenological school of thought, literary and visual alike, grappled with the societal primacy of rationalism (born out of the enlightenment and subsequent industrial revolution) in a similar manner, defying the ability of the empirical sciences to measure any and all apparent phenomena. From this perspective, where the domain of science ended, the domain of art began, its chief objective (one that accompanies the “l'art pour l'art” ideology) to describe by artistic means the “transcendental phenomena” which the world of rationalism could not (or could not, from such a perspective, adequately represent or define). Lovecraft’s historical propinquity to this movement, particularly the explosion of literature following the end of the First World War, cannot be ignored. His fiction makes manifest the conflict of the emotional mind and the physical sciences -- his scholars come into contact with forces they cannot, by the scientific method which has always governed their existence, measure. The resulting schism not only maligns the purported limitless nature of the empirical by imposing cosmic incomprehensibility, but also punishes the ensuing limits in a horrific manner. Lovecraft also makes frequent use of art objects within his fiction (sculptures, bas-reliefs, and even jewelry) -- these art objects often become the only means by which Lovecraftian protagonists (academics) can begin to understand the underlying otherworldly forces which their empirical methods have failed to encapsulate. In this way, while suggesting the larger machinations of the universe are indifferent to the existence of humanity in such a way that erases human agency from any equation of meaningfulness (often leading to madness), Lovecraft also subtly recommends alternative routes to understanding and articulating the “cosmically incomprehensible” by means of art, subjective experience (as opposed to scientific understanding founded upon empirical axioms), and informal folk cultures, rituals, and beliefs.Therefore, it is the aim of this project to describe the way in which Lovecraftian pulp fiction embodies a uniquely modernist reaction to the primacy of rationality and the purported death of the mythical meta-narrative. Through close readings of the short stories The Shadow over Innsmouth and “The Call of Cthulhu” I will highlight these reactionary trends and describe them in comparison to the contemporaneous modernist artistic movements of the early 20th century while also identifying the way in which Lovecraft defers to art objects and, by and large, weaves “replacement” meta-narratives.
Witches and Aliens Card, Jeb J.
Nova religio,
05/2019, Letnik:
22, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Margaret Murray (1863–1963) was a major figure in the creation of professional archaeology, president of the Folklore Society, and advocate for women’s rights. Her popular legacy today is the concept ...of the “witch-cult,” a hidden ancient religion persecuted as witchcraft. Murray’s witch-cult not only inspired Neopaganism but is foundational for author H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. These modern myths cast a long shadow on not only fantastical literature but on paranormal beliefs, preserving outdated elements of Victorian archaeology in popular culture concerned with alternative archaeology and the occult.
The paper deals with the treatment of the Grotesque in the short stories of H. P. Lovecraft and how grotesque is used in Literature and Art. The purpose of this article is to explore the ...representation of grotesque elements in Lovecraft's short stories. Grotesque is mainly an art form and it is used in literature too, in order to present the unusual nature and deformity of the universe. The writers of this genre depict their characters and situations in an unfamiliar manner to evoke interest, terror and strange supernatural experience to the readers. H. P. Lovecraft uses the grotesque imagination to maintain the horror and weirdness of the short stories. Through the environment and characters Lovecraft has portrayed the gruesome nature of the grotesque in his short stories. Keywords: H. P. Lovecraft, Atmosphere, Creatures, Grotesque, Horror, Universe
Esoteric spiritual groups such as the Theosophical Society have had a profound effect on the general public’s understanding of the ancient world and archaeology. This article describes the author’s ...visit as an outside observer to a conference held by the Theosophical Society in America to examine the ways in which the ancient world was represented. While the beliefs of the Theosophical Society and related groups are not always well known to the general public, it is argued that their beliefs have nevertheless had a broad impact on public audiences through adoption in popular culture and films. This article will examine the appearance of esoteric claims about the ancient world in popular fiction, including the writings of H. P. Lovecraft and the Indiana Jones film franchise. If archaeologists are going to engage with public audiences, they need to understand what the public actually thinks of their work.
For his short story 'The Rats in the Walls', Howard Phillips Lovecraft originated four places names: the English village of Anchester and the nearby Exham Priory, in the American state of Virginia, ...the plantation of Carfax and the unspecified Bellview. The principles that guided his design of the names may have come from a variety of possibilities. Since Lovecraft's familiarity with Latin began in his childhood, he would have readily substituted the variant, found as part of British place names.
The essay considers Robert Irwin's philosophical and fantastic representations of the nature of Oriental dreams, nightmares, and storytelling in the medieval city of Cairo during the Mamluk period, ...specifically in 1486. It contends that Irwin forges a link between the medieval Oriental world and contemporary post-modern culture in the West.
