Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown Page #7

---

so there is no incorrect way to pronounce it, because there is no correct way to pronounce it

despite Lovecraft's effort to wave a rich narrative

"The Call of Cthulhu" was initially rejected by "Weird Tales"

this was common practice of the anthologist editor Farnsworth Wright

especially when presented with a story as original as Lovecraft's creation

one of Lovecraft's tricks of course was, was to take the rejected story sit on it for a little while

sent it back to Wright saying I've made the changes you asked for, having not done a single thing with it

and more often but not apparently, Wright would fall for this trick

"The Call Of Cthulhu" was eventually printed

in February 1928's issue of "Weird Tales"

Lovecraft's fee for such a seminal work of fiction, 165 dollars

as Lovecraft's writing began to blossom, so did the man

I vastly regret the absence of traditional accomplishments

fencing, horsemanship, military service caused by my early ill health

and lack of appreciation of the quality of the well-roundedness

Lovecraft began to entertain his friends once more

including them on long walks through Providence and other New England excursions

Lovecraft was even beginning to evolve a form of tolerance toward the outsiders around him

especially the many cultures now living in Providence

in February of 1927, it was time for his writing to expand as well

"Charles Dexter Ward" is the novel in which he applies

all these sense of structure to that long walk and the effect is tremendous

The beginning of Ward's madness is a matter of dispute among alienists

Dr Lyman, the eminent Boston authority, places it in 1919 or 1920

this is certainly borne by Ward's altered habits

especially by his continual search through certain grave dug in 1771

the grave of an ancestor named Joseph Curwen"

Joseph Curwen was an obscure individual

who flight from Salem to Providence around 1761

now the first odd thing about Joseph Curwen

was that he did not seem to grow much older than he had been on his arrival

at length, when over fifty years had passed since the stranger's advent

and without producing more than five years' apparent change in his face and physique

the people began to whisper more darkly

alchemy and the black arts proved to be Curwen's secret

I think one of the flaws in that story, and maybe only a flaw to me, is that

he uses this kind of pseudoscience that is actually a little bit beneath Lovecraft's acumen, it's a

it explains the mysterious and horrifying events by reference to certain essential Saltes

and by the lyke Method from the essential Saltes of humane Dust, a Philosopher may,

without criminal Necromancy, call up the Shape of any dead Ancestour"

and that's a little third grade, it's like bad science fiction

a band of raiders confront the doom man and his unhallowed wizardry

that night was never remarked on again

until Charles Ward learned of his descent from Curwen, in 1918

and continued his ancestor's experiments

connecting the past with the present, summoning the unspeakable to life

it's almost like a detective story, you know

Dr Willet is really discovering what happened to Charles Dexter Ward

discovering about Curwen, about the unfortunate accidents

from the efforts to basically bring demons down from the stars

and when they didn't have all the pieces, when they didn't have all the remains, you know

terrible awfulness would be brungup and they'd had to be put somewhere, of course

I wasn't quite sure why they just didn't destroy them, but maybe it was for sport, who knows

it's one of those case where his detractors say what he's writing about "unspeakable horrors"

and simply telling as that, they are unspeakable

in fact that's only get out at the moment when Dr Willet looks down the well and see something

that Lovecraft actually certainly found a metaphor for it

that's "tremendously" more than just the "unspeakable": that's the cosmic in bodily form

though completed, the lengthy tale of Charles Dexter Ward was never typed or submitted

he just left it in a drawer, he didn't think it was worth a bothering with

it was the first draft amazingly I believe "The Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath" was also

how he didn't see the meridian in this stuff, it's just amazing

I don't think he was built to write longer narratives

He went as far as he could that way and it did press the envelope

some of the those letters are really rather long

but they are also "inert" in the certain way that a novel can not afford to be

there was another tale written during this time on which Lovecraft held an entirely different opinion

"The Colour Out Of Space" is just a great science fiction movie

um, story, it should be a movie

although I don't know how you'll do the colour, it's unlike anything we seen, I don't know what that is

There is a type of story where you go to the minimal setting:

a household or a farm a far field, and you

unleash upon them a cosmic melody, you know, a cosmic curse

it all began in 1882, with a meteorite

and by night all Arkham had heard of the great rock that fell out of the sky

and bedded itself in the ground beside the well at the Nahum Gardner place

they had uncovered what seemed to be

the side of a large coloured globule embedded in the substance

the colour, which resembled some of the bands in the meteor's strange spectrum

was almost impossible to describe

and it was only by analogy that they called it colour at all

and "The Colour Out Of Space" it is as the story has it

just a colour out of space, it's literally indescribable in prose terms

it's something that almost impossible to even detect

it's something that so incredibly insidious, there is no escaping from it

except by geographically removing yourself as far as you can from the place

by the next harvest, flora and fauna are found deformed

and the Gardner family is infected with unexplained madness

6

it happened in June, about the anniversary of the meteor's fall

and the poor woman screamed about things in the air which she could not describe

in her raving there was not a single specific noun

she was being drained of something

something was fastening itself on her that ought not to be

it wasn't just the meteorite, it was something that inside the meteorite

That begins to spread and poison the landscape and mutate the landscape and the people

it's one of those stories that Lovecraft moves into physical gruesomeness

the effects on the unlucky family that in the farm house

but it passes beyond that into absolute awesomeness, a kind of real transcendental quality of terror

the best Lovecraft had achieved

though "The Call Of Cthulhu" looked to the stars

"The Colour Out Of Space" was clearly set in the realm of science fiction

for this very reason, Lovecraft submitted his tale to the new journal "Amazing Stories"

though they would eagerly publish this story in September of 1927

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes