Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown Page #9

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where is the problem, these people are merely misunderstood

now you are wrong, and you better hope you don't pay with your life for this stupidity

and Wilmarth getting sucked into this thing and it isn't even Akeley anymore

His brain's in a can somewhere and he's being

a "led off the path" by the buzzing lobsters and all that

so that you being set up, if you think that's the case

still, "The Whisperer In Darkness" could be seen as a sign of tolerance to come

during the last years of his life

Lovecraft's travels continued to expand his first hand knowledge of changing world around him

he was making up for last time

but this long differed semi-introduction to the world, did not take

as thoroughly as it might have done, had I being chronologically anger

Lovecraft's fans could not keep up with his thirst for growth

ghost writing continued, but it's anonymity was becoming unattractive all the more

so in early 1931 Lovecraft began work on another original story:

A tale of ancient Antarctic horror

it is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this contemplated

invasion of the antarcticwith its vast fossil-hunt

and its wholesale boring and melting of the ancient ice-cap

to deter the exploring world in general

from any rash and overambitious programme in the region of those mountains ofmadness

some of the descriptive passages in "At The Mountains Of Madness"

seemed to me to rank with the great geographical fantasies of literature

actually I just think it's a paintly quality in that novel you probably don't find so much in his other work

it is one of those places where all of the different influences come together

the idea of you are trekking across the ice, it's quite horrible, it's Antarctic

and it is science fiction and you know it's about an incursion by aliens

in the foot hills of this towering cliffs

an expedition discovered the fossil remains of a pre-Cambrian race

found monstrous barrel-shaped fossil of wholly unknown nature

in furrows between ridges are curious growths

combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans

arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth

especially fabled Elder Things inNecronomicon

supposed to have created all earth-life as jest or mistake

one of the most horrific ideas was that

the things that descent us were astounding starting almost dissecting them

you know, that is, that is a revelation of intelligence and curiosity

the sense of curiosity these things have leaving little trails around the equipment down so forth

that was what was so scary to me Something terribly and horrifying chased these men out

you know, something that was supposed to be a fossil record is after them

after the mysterious and utterly violation of the advance team

the survivors of the unfortunate expedition discovered a cyclopean city

hidden among the peaks

there, they learn the tragic history of the star-headed Elder Things

their shaping of life on earth

surviving war with other races of cosmic infinity

and falling prey to their slave race of Shoggoths,

protoplasmic masses, capable of molding their tissues into all sorts of forms

you know in the 60s there's an idea that aliens had come here and had kind of created the human race

but that idea really was old, compared to what Lovecraft had trimmed up:

which is the idea of these battling alien forces, you know on earth, and that man ended somehow inheriting this thing almost by default,

because these two major presences had sort of wiped each other out

the Old Ones in "At The Mountains of Madness, are scientists they were artists, they were architects

yes, they are tentacled cucumbers with wings but

they are sentiment and intelligent beings

and that sense of intelligence make the evil at work in Lovecraft's story

much more intense

"At The Mountains of Madness" also displayed two new reactions to the fictional "unknowns"

fellowship and empathy

the real imaginative achievement for him

to have seen these threatening beings in a warmer light, eventually He kind of fell in love with them

he's been in love with them all along, actually

the Old Ones they may have been crinoid pickle shaped barrels with wings and starfishes for head

in a bad sense of humor, but they were man

but why is that

because now, they got the rebelled slaves the Shoggoths to worry about

so as Lovecraft seen a different group as same as him

because all people are equal

or he sympathized with them as slave owners who are now on the run

from a even weirder race, so I don't know what that means really, you know, they are not so bad

there's lead a sly guy aim against the opody bad guys

I think there is a huge Lovecraftian influence, a huge "At The Mountains of Madness" Influence

on the first Ridley Scott "Alien"

the idea of a ship that essentially lands on a planet

and they find out there lived city sized ship

and dead ancients in it and something that is very much alive and waiting

and then takes over the humans,

that's essentially you could say very much At The Mountains of Madness

it has influence the story that The Thing was based on, which was another rip-off of At The Mountains of Madness

so, I think its repercussions are very cinematic

this was the crowning jewel of the "Cthulhu Mythos"

it clearly came out as the crushing blow when Farnswoth Wright

editor of "Weird Tales", rejected it

by then sadly, Lovecraft had really decided that you know he no longer had

any ability to express and convey the kind of thing he wanted to convey

he was to write very little prose fiction for the last few years of his life

thought more stories were attempted over the next few years

most, like "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", were problematic for Lovecraft

Lovecraft himself seemed almost embarrassed by "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"

and I think probably he understood, he undoubtedly understood that it was

in a sense, kind of a reversion, a hearkening back to the same sort of xenophobic prejudices

that he had embraced in his youth

and why is everybody so down on Innsmouth

some of the stories would make you laugh

about old Captain Marsh driving bargains with the devil

and bringing imps out of hell to live in Innsmouth

some of 'em have queer narrow heads

with flat noses and bulgy, starry eyes that never seem to shut

and their skin ain't quite right

these things are creatures that are born looking normal and the older they get, the stranger they become

until eventually their transformation will be complete and they'll slither off into the sea where they will live forever

it's definitely a sort of biological horror story

where you have the break down of the, not just the human society but of the human body

but I think the over writing concern is actually about culture, you have

the culture of the "Deep Ones"coming up and over the decades

eating away the culture of Innsmouth and so that finally Innsmouth will vanish

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