The extra-terrestrial ‘gods’ and cursed histories that would emerge from these stories now form the cornerstones of Lovecraft’s unique mythology: the Cthulhu Mythos. In later tales, such as the iconic ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ and ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’, Lovecraft reaches into the cosmos, bridging the divide between horror and science fiction. 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 Another early piece, ‘The Outsider’ – a tragic and emotive evocation of loneliness and desolation – follows a man’s escape from his castle in a desperate search for human contact, but the loathsome truth he discovers destroys his mind. ‘“Great God! I never dreamed of THIS!”’ screams occultist Harley Warren in ‘The Statement of Randolph Carter’, as he begs his companion to bury him alive. Through their investigations into the unexplained, they tug at the thin threads that separate our world from another of indescribable horror. In stories written in the gothic tradition, narrators recount their descent into madness and despair. This collection spans Lovecraft’s literary career, and charts the development of his ‘cosmicist’ philosophy the belief that behind the veil of our blinkered everyday lives lies another reality, too terrible for the human mind to comprehend.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |