Tour de Lovecraft- The Tales

by Kenneth Hite

  But…isn’t the Trapezohedron an awful lot like the Grail? It’s found in a Perilous Chapel, which seems to exist in an Otherworld (“he half fancied that the Federal Hill of that distant view was a dream-world never to be trod by living human feet”), by a young and inexperienced quester who doesn’t even know what he’s looking for. (Not to beat this to death, but “Edmund Fiske,” the Fritz Leiber manque from Bloch’s sequel, has a sort of Gawain-esque irascibility to him, just as “Blake” has a Percival-like simplicity. There don’t seem to be any Galahads in the Mythos.) The Grail vouchsafes visions, specifically processions and hallows, to the quester. (In addition to “processions of robed, hooded figures,” Blake has a vision of Azathoth—the inverse of the Grail’s vision of God.)

  The Grail is tied to some sort of god-king (Haunter/Nyarlathotep), who when the quester finds him, is faint and feeble. (For more Jessie Weston-osity, Blake arrives in the winter, enters the church in spring—“late in April”—and the Haunter emerges at full strength in high summer.) The quester gains wisdom from an old man (either Lillibridge’s skeleton, or perhaps even the Lovecraft-manque from Bloch’s “Shambler”) and returns to the Castle able to answer the questions (after learning the Trapezohedron’s history, Blake sleepwalks back to the church and dreams the truth) and achieves the Grail, being adopted into its lineage and taken into the Otherworld (Blake joins minds with the Haunter and dies); the Grail is taken up into Heaven (dropped into the deepest channel of the Sea, a clear anti-Ascension). Like I say, I have no evidence that this is what Lovecraft means—he doesn’t seem to have owned a copy of Jessie Weston’s pioneering Grail study From Ritual to Romance, I haven’t turned up any evidence that he ever bothered much with Grail lore, and his letters make plain his belief that Arthur was a Britanno-Roman cataphract—but it’s suggestive, as we say in the dark hintings biz.

  Conclusion

  So we’ve finished the Tour de Lovecraft, hopefully in better shape than we started it. As a final thought, I’d say this. Lovecraft combined an epochal imagination with a nearly nihilist philosophy—the two ingredients that together make “cosmic horror.” But more importantly, Lovecraft was a great writer. Of his solo adult works, 17 of 50 are great by almost any standard. (That’s a career .340 average—home run average, that is. And six of those were knocked clean out of the park.) By the time his style fully matured in the mid-1920s, he was almost incapable of turning out a truly bad story. He was a complex writer, who believed (correctly) that both verisimilitude and gothicism depended on intricate structures of both plot and language. A dedicated Anglophone craftsman, HPL is not for the lazy, any more than Faulkner or Borges—or Hawthorne, his great unsung model—are. In his mature phase, he almost never wastes a word: if you can’t figure out why it’s there, that’s your problem, not his. Not all of the mature stories work for all readers—“The Thing on the Doorstep” is probably the weakest of them, and as I’ve intimated before, “The Silver Key” is perhaps best seen as mental attic-cleaning rather than as fiction in the technical sense. But even those two (clearly his weakest post-1925 tales) are structurally sound as drums, and make interesting reading to boot, two desiderata at which far too many short stories fail.

  For all those who say that Lovecraft is all style (and bad style at that) and no substance, why is it that there are no successful pastiches of Lovecraft in his own style? Why aren’t we drowning in stories at least as good as “The Shadow Out of Time” or “The Haunter of the Dark”? Why, if it’s just a matter of piling up “eldritch unnameables,” can’t any journeyman hack with Robert M. Price’s email address manage it? Why can’t even very good craftsmen indeed do it? (August Derleth is no slouch on his own turf, and Robert Bloch and Ramsey Campbell, well, the defense rests.) Why, for that matter, are some of Lovecraft’s stories better than others if all it takes to write like Lovecraft is a thesaurus and a lobster-shack menu? No, in the great works there’s definitely something there, some “adventurous expectancy,” some outside shape scratching “at the known universe’s utmost rim.”

  For all his undoubted skill, knowledge, and perception, I disagree with S.T. Joshi, who sees Lovecraft’s art (and by extension all art?) as ancillary to, or derivative upon, the author’s philosophy. I disagree with Colin Wilson, who sees Lovecraft’s art (and by extension all art?) as ancillary to, or derivative upon, the author’s personality, his “sickness,” if you will. I disagree with attempts to understand Lovecraft’s art as murkily sublimated autobiography. Obviously Lovecraft’s beliefs, his mind, and his unhappy life played their role, just like any artist’s do. But 1920s New England was full of autodidactic Nietzsche wannabes, many of them also neurasthenic, over-coddled, and bankrupt. It only produced one H.P. Lovecraft.

  So I hold that Lovecraft’s art—like all great art—is fundamentally of its own origin. It comes from where it comes, be it genius, or the Muses, or the Gates of Deeper Slumber. As HPL wrote to E. Hoffmann Price in 1934: “Art is not what one resolves to say, but what insists on saying itself through one.” Lovecraft, like all artists, learned to transmit it, to shape it and tame it for our view, as best he could. The proof is in the pudding: Cthulhu (and all that he stands for) has become as Superman, or Sherlock Holmes, or Robinson Crusoe, or Hamlet, or Lancelot, or Jason and the Argonauts—a timeless icon, a myth. Like all myths it can be endlessly interpreted, set on new pedestals or loudly flung away. Without HPL’s craft—and yes, without his “mechanist materialism” and his psychosomatic fish allergies—he could not have revealed Cthulhu to us in just that form. And without his blindness and his lyre Homer couldn’t have sung the words he did, either. But now, Troy burns eternally. And Cthulhu fhtagn.

  Sources and Resources

  THE SACRED TEXTS

  Lovecraft, H.P., The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, edited with an introduction and notes by S.T. Joshi (Penguin Books, 1999).

  Lovecraft, H.P., The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories, edited with an introduction and notes by S.T. Joshi (Penguin Books, 2001).

  Lovecraft, H.P., The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories, edited with an introduction and notes by S.T. Joshi (Penguin Books, 2004).

  THE COMMENTARIES

  Buhle, Paul, “Dystopia as Utopia: Howard Phillips Lovecraft and the Unknown Content of American Horror Literature” [1976], in S.T. Joshi (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  Burke, Edmund, A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful [1757], edited by Adam Philips (Oxford University Press, 1998).

  Cannon, Peter, “HPL: Problems in Critical Recognition” [1990], in James Van Hise, The Fantastic Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft (privately published, 1999).

  Cannon, Peter, “The Influence of Vathek on H. P. Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,” in S.T. Joshi (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  Cannon, Peter, “Sunset Terrace Imagery in Lovecraft,” Lovecraft Studies No. 5 (Fall 1981).

  Carroll, Noël, The Philosophy of Horror: or, Paradoxes of the Heart (Routledge, 1990).

  Carter, Lin, Lovecraft: A Look Behind the “Cthulhu Mythos” (Ballantine Books, 1972).

  Carter, Lin (ed.), The Spawn of Cthulhu (Ballantine Books, 1971).

  Cavallaro, Dani, The Gothic Vision: Three Centuries of Horror, Terror and Fear (Continuum, 2002).

  Colavito, Jason, The Cult of Alien Gods: H.P. Lovecraft and Extraterrestrial Pop Culture (Prometheus Books, 2005).

  Conover, Willis, Lovecraft at Last (Carrollton • Clark, 1975).

  Davenport-Hines, Richard, Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil, and Ruin (Fourth Estate, 1998).

  Davis, Erik, “Calling Cthulhu: H.P. Lovecraft’s Magick Realism,” in Richard Metzger (ed.), The Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult (Disinformation Company, 2003).

  DeCamp, L. Sprague, Lovecraft: A Biography (Doubleday, 1975).

  Dziemianowicz, S
tefan, “Outsiders and Aliens: The Uses of Isolation in Lovecraft’s Fiction,” in S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz (eds.), An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honor of H.P. Lovecraft (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991).

  Frierson, Meade and Penny (eds.), HPL (privately published, 1972).

  Frye, Northrop, An Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton University Press, 1957).

  Frye, Northrop, The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance (Harvard University Press, 1976).

  Godwin, Joscelyn, Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and Nazi Survival (Phanes Press, 1991).

  Hite, Kenneth, Dubious Shards (Ronin Arts, 2006).

  Hoffman, Daniel, Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe (Avon Books, 1972).

  Houellebecq, Michel, H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life [1991], translated by Dorna Khazeni (Believer Books, 2005).

  Joshi, S.T. (ed.), The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft (Dell Publishing, 1997).

  Joshi, S.T., “A Chronology of Selected Works by H.P. Lovecraft,” in S.T. Joshi (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  Joshi, S.T., and Schultz, David E. (eds.), An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honor of H.P. Lovecraft (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991).

  Joshi, S.T., H.P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press, 1996).

  Joshi, S.T. (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  Joshi, S.T., An Index to the Fiction and Poetry of H.P. Lovecraft (Necronomicon Press, 1992).

  Joshi, S.T., An Index to the Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft (Necronomicon Press, 1980).

  Joshi, S.T., Lovecraft’s Library: A Catalogue (rev. ed., Hippocampus Books, 2002).

  Joshi, S.T., and Cannon, Peter (eds.), More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft (Dell Publishing, 1999).

  Joshi, S.T., A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of H.P. Lovecraft (Wildside Press, 1999).

  Joshi, S.T., The Weird Tale (University of Texas Press, 1990).

  King, Stephen, Danse Macabre (Everest House, 1981).

  Leiber, Fritz, “A Literary Copernicus” [1949], in S.T. Joshi (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  Lovecraft, H.P., Collected Essays, Volume 2: Literary Criticism, edited by S.T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press, 2004).

  Lovecraft, H.P., Selected Letters, Vols. 1-5, edited by August Derleth, Donald Wandrei, and James Turner (Arkham House, 1965-1976).

  Lovecraft, H.P., Supernatural Horror in Literature [1936], edited and annotated by S.T. Joshi (Hippocampus Books, 2000).

  Miéville, China, “Introduction,” in H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness: The Definitive Edition (Modern Library, 2005).

  Mosig, Dirk W., “The Four Faces of ‘The Outsider’” [1974], in Darrell Schweitzer (ed.), Discovering H.P. Lovecraft (Starmont House, 1987).

  Mosig, Dirk W., “H.P. Lovecraft: Myth-Maker” [1976], in S.T. Joshi (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  Mosig, Dirk W., Mosig at Last: A Psychologist Looks at H.P. Lovecraft (Necronomicon Press, 1997).

  Nelson, Victoria, “H.P. Lovecraft and the Great Heresies,” in Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets (Harvard University Press, 2001).

  Oates, Joyce Carol, “The King of Weird,” New York Review of Books, Vol. 43, No. 17 (October 31, 1996).

  Oates, Joyce Carol, “Introduction,” in Joyce Carol Oates (ed.), Tales of H.P. Lovecraft (Ecco, 1997).

  Price, Robert M. (ed.), The Horror of It All: Encrusted Gems From the “Crypt of Cthulhu” (Starmont House, 1990).

  Price, Robert M., “HPL and HPB: Lovecraft’s Use of Theosophy” Crypt of Cthulhu No. 5 (Roodmas, 1982).

  Price, Robert M., “Introduction: Lovecraft’s Cosmic History,” in Robert M. Price (ed.), The Antarktos Cycle (Chaosium, 1999).

  Price, Robert M., “Introduction: Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny,” in Robert M. Price (ed.), The Innsmouth Cycle (Chaosium, 1998).

  Price, Robert M., “Introduction: The Other Name of Azathoth,” in Robert M. Price (ed.), The Cthulhu Cycle (Chaosium, 1996).

  Price, Robert M., “Introduction: What Roodmas Horror,” in Robert M. Price (ed.), The Dunwich Cycle (Chaosium, 1995).

  Price, Robert M., “Lovecraft’s ‘Artificial Mythology’” [1991], in S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz (eds.), An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honor of H.P. Lovecraft (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991).

  Rateliff, John D., “Classics of Fantasy: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft,” on the Wizards of the Coast website:

  St.-Armand, Barton L., “Facts in the Case of H.P. Lovecraft” [1972], in S.T. Joshi (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  St.-Armand, Barton L., The Roots of Horror in the Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft (Dragon Press, 1977).

  Schweitzer, Darrell (ed.), Discovering H.P. Lovecraft (Starmont House, 1987).

  Schweitzer, Darrell, The Dream-Quest of H.P. Lovecraft (Borgo Press, 1978).

  Shea, J. Vernon, “On the Literary Influences Which Shaped Lovecraft’s Works,” in S.T. Joshi (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  Shreffler, Philip A., The H.P. Lovecraft Companion (Greenwood Press, 1977).

  Tierney, Richard L., “The Derleth Mythos” [1972], in Darrell Schweitzer (ed.), Discovering H.P. Lovecraft (Starmont House, 1987).

  Waugh, Robert H., “At the Mountains of Madness: The Subway and the Shoggoth,” in Robert H. Waugh, The Monster in the Mirror: Looking for H.P. Lovecraft (Hippocampus Press, 2006).

  Waugh, Robert H., “Landscapes, Selves, and Others in Lovecraft,” in S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz (eds.), An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honor of H.P. Lovecraft (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991).

  Wetzel, George T., “The Cthulhu Mythos: A Study” [1955, rev. 1971], in S.T. Joshi (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  Wilson, Colin, The Strength to Dream: Literature and the Imagination (Gollancz, 1961).

  Wilson, Edmund, “Tales of the Marvellous and the Ridiculous” [1945], in S.T. Joshi (ed.), H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism (Ohio University Press, 1980).

  About the Author

  Kenneth Hite is the multiple Origins Award-winning author, co-author, or designer of over 70 roleplaying game books and supplements, including GURPS Horror, Call of Cthulhu d20, and most recently, Trail of Cthulhu from Pelgrane Press. He has written on the narrative of horror roleplaying in Nightmares of Mine, and on the narrative structure of Call of Cthulhu in the Second Person anthology from MIT Press. His other recent works include the Mythos miscellany Dubious Shards and a children’s book combining Lovecraft and Sendak, Where the Deep Ones Are. His column “Suppressed Transmission” explores the Higher Weirdness in Pyramid magazine, and his column “Lost in Lovecraft” explores Lovecraft Country for Weird Tales. He lives in Chicago with his wife Sheila, the mandatory Lovecraftian cat, seven thousand or so books, and a sense of adventurous expectancy.

  Endnotes

  At http://princeofcairo.livejournal.com should you be interested, and feel free to drop by if you are. ♠

  I also received an invitation from an editor at Weird Tales to present a similar Tour in those hallowed pages; should that proceed as intended, we may return to this well for Tour de Lovecraft 2: The Settings in about a year from now. ♠

  In this survey, I have unfairly slighted Peter Cannon, who shares Price’s (and Lovecraft’s) sense of humor and Joshi’s rigor, and whose 1981 Lovecraft Studies essay “Sunset Terrace Imagery in Lovecraft” is a key work for a symbolist reading of HPL. ♠

  A “Mary Sue” is the generic name for the author’s idealized self-image, especially when used as a character in fan fic
tion. ♠

  Mather had a fine amateur scientific mind, for 1690; an archaeologist, a naturalist, and to the extent of his abilities quite the natural philosopher. He may have been wrong about witches—and even there his error was more in the realm of legal than scientific theory—but he was right about smallpox inoculation. ♠

  Isaiah 34:12: “They shall name it No Kingdom There, and all its princes shall be nothing.” One of the few actual improvements to the poetry of the King James Version made by the RSV. The KJV, normally the gold standard, has this kind of meh line: “They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.” On the other hand, the KJV comes roaring back to kick all kinds of ass in the very next verse: “And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.” I’m a Calvinist; of course I love Isaiah. I’m a writer; of course I love the King James. ♠