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the course of HP Lovecraft's life was altered by an unfortunate madness
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in April of 1893, his father
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a commercial traveler from the vicinity of Boston
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was on business in Chicago
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it was there that Winfield Scott Lovecraft
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experienced the general paralysis of the insane
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Winfield's violent hallucinations
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were soon placed him in Butler Hospital
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his troubled wife, Susan Phillips Lovecraft
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was forced to return home to her family in Providence, Rhode Island
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with Susie was her two-year-old son,
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Howard Phillips Lovecraft
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today, the man readers of weirdfiction known as HP Lovecraft
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is ranked alongside America's best writers
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He defined the themes and obsessions of 20th century horror
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and as we chug on into the 21st century, he doesn't seem to be going away
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he let drop away all the trappings of what is called "horror"
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and he moved into some narrative peculiar to himself, invented his own genre really
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Lovecraft tells you about the scale of man in the cosmos
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and also he is really the most articulate about saying, there isn't any indifference from the ancient gods to man
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Lovecraft takes that optical empty to the cosmos
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If you could think of a kind of supernatural horror fiction
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it's almost certain that at some point in his career
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Lovecraft applied himself to it
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and when he got it right that he often did, nobody could beat him
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��
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these are the unspeakable names of the Old Ones
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the very heart of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos
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a loosely connected canon, which has gone on
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to became one of literature's most influential creations
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I don't know that Lovecraft ever set down initially and went: "I'm going to grow a grand mythos"
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I think that, yes it begins
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and then everything else sort of fits in it
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it's a very complex sort of inbreeding of mythologies and what
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essentially the pitch would be what, things much older than mankind
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things much older than earth are gazing upon on us
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with indifference and cruelty
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those Old Ones were gone now hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world
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until the time when the great priest Cthulhu
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from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise
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and bring the earth again beneath his sway
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these kind of being are you know that demons coming from hell
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there are these wired tentacle creatures coming from other worlds into ours
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and that they have been banished and that they will return someday and regain what was once theirs
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the Old Ones of the universe, the Old ones of the Cosmos
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so that's force beyond us that we are incapable of controlling and that force
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there is the universe that is vaster than we could ever comprehend
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prior to Lovecraft, if you read horror, if you read ghost stories
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you'll always have a vision of a world which is fundamentally hospitable:
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"god is looking after you��"god is looking after the good people"
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good people will probably survive horror stories or ghost stories or whatever
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Lovecraft redefined things
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He took it away from the ghost story away, from the gothic and into this vision
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of a malign world, this place surrounded by
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evil mad horrible monstrous things always trying to get in
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who frankly don't really care about us
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But what lied in an old world xenophobic gentleman
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to write these tales of unknown abominations and cosmic gods
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where bay and tranquil river blend
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and leafy hillsides rise
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the spires of Providence ascend against the ancient skies
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and in the narrow winding ways that climb o'er slope and crest
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the magic of forgotten days may still be found to rest
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I AM PROVIDENCE
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the Phillips' house at 454 Angell Street
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was a vast-stage of old American values
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Lovecraft's family was very well to do
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and I believe they consider themselves to be of the Providence aristocracy
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the Phillips line goes back very far in Providence history all the way
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as early as the late 17th century
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the Lovecraft side originates in England, and you could trace that all the way back to about the 15th century
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there were Lovecrafts or Lovecrofts in Devon
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he was a truly, almost a "Mayflower"specimen
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preserved in the formaldehyde of New England you know
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and he was an Anglophile that definitely did not get laid much you know
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and the guy that was an alien amongst us, in the sense that he was not a very masculine child
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after Winfield's death from syphilis on July 19th 1898
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young Howard was all Suzie Lovecraft had left
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she mothered her child incessantly
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so much so, that she was known to make friends stoop when walking hand-in-hand with her son
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for fear his arm would be pull from its socket
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despite her over attention
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Suzie Lovecraft's near puritanical views restrained any physical affections toward her son
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Lovecraft would later admit to his only wife
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that this form of mothering was a devastating to him
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his grandfather Whipple Phillips, was a very impressive industrialist
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Lovecraft remembers Whipple telling him oral ghost stories
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at the age of 4 or 5
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he tutored him in a number of other ways, trying to take an interest into his education
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in the attic was an immense library presumably collected by his grandfather
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and Lovecraft went up there as a boy with a candle secretly and started reading these old books
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and fell in love with the 18th century
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Lovecraft is more than a product of his time
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he is a product of a couple of centuries earlier, so he was born out of time
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one of the important things for the 18th century was the code of a gentleman
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to live as a gentleman with dignity and honesty and integrity
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he read the literature of the 18th century and the early 19th century and said
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"I want to be like those people I want to be like Alexander Pope"
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��who wrote poetry just for the love of it"
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I've always had this subconscious feeling
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that, everything since the 18th century is unreal or illusory
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a sort of grotesque nightmare or a caricature"
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Lovecraft learned a lot in his grandfather's house
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in fact that all the learning that he had I think came from there
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his schooling was intermittent at best apparently he had various of
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nervous melody that had kept him out of school
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this was a time before education was mandatory
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you didn't have to send your child to school if you didn't want to
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at the age of 8 he would became filled with burning love of chemistry
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shortly there after that he discovered astronomy, which I think was an even more important influence he says
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it was through astronomy that he gained a sense of the boundlessness of the universe
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and the insignificance of humanity within the cosmos
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there's a phrase that generally I only encountered it when talking when reading or talking with people like paleontologist or geologist
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the kinds of "Deep Time" which is pretty alien to most people, most people tend to
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think of history and terms of��years��
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"Deep Time" is that time before, before the comprehension of man
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the geological time
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is a way of thinking about it where you are working on a time scale where you talk about things like mountains are pushed up in row, continent shift
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spices evolve and became extinct
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but it is not something you could process
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humanity was limited to earth
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which made humanity itself small and threatened and fragile, so because
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he was a frightened and fragile being himself
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he populated that emptiness with monsters
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frequent visits to the attic gave Susie the impression that
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her son was trying to hide from the world and others
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that he was a vulnerable child and comfortable with himself
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the relationship of Susie Lovecraft with her son was problematical at best
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clearly she loved him but I think because of what had happened to her husband, Lovecraft's father who had died of syphilis
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I think she developed some weird love-hate relationship with Lovecraft
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called him hideous, said to a neighbor that he had hideous face and that's why
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he wouldn't go outdoors much
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Susie repeated these opinions enough times that her son actually grew to believe them
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insecurity mixed with classical tendencies
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segregated young Lovecraft from others his age
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but this solitary childhood, only kindled his imagination
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I used to be tormented constantly with a peculiar type of recurrent nightmare
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in which a monstrous race of entities, called by me 'Night-Gaunts'
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usedtosnatch me up by the stomach, they carried me up through infinite leagues of black air
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over the towers of dead and horrible cities
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with vast aggregations of night-black masonry
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embodying monstrousperversions of geometrical laws
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feeding his taste for the macabre
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was the recent discovery of tales by Edgar Allan Poe
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Lovecraft is the most significant descendant of Poe
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and you can see that heritage most clearly in those early stories that
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evoke affects such as those in "The Tell-Tale Heart", say
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"The Tell-Tale Heart" could have been written by Lovecraft
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he may have wanted to be a little like Edgar Allan Poe
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but he went into a whole different direction with his imagination
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you know Poe talked about how short stories should be
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everything should be there to create one particular affect
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whereas Lovecraft I think goes for much moresort of a bigger canvas somehow than Poe did
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in his teenage years, Lovecraft would attempt quiet a few of stories in the Poe style
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most however, were destroyed by Lovecraft
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I think too many writers are too hard on themselves had to be said that,
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you know Lovecraft epitomized this trend
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and I actually thinks that there's one positive thing to be bought from that, he was a great writer
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I think you know, any writer who feels down about their own work
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should read Lovecraft's comments about his own work
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he almost never has a good thing to say about his own work
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this may be a kind of version of what he perceived as "good manners"
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because there's no doubt that he would have thought
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it's very ill-mannered to praise his own work
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I think that Lovecraft was full of insecurities at that time, he really didn't know what to pursue in terms of a career
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maybe he didn't feel that he needed a career
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at least in terms of the money because he felt that the money would always be there
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but shortly there after he discovered that the money wasn't gonna be there
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in 1904, Whipple Phillips was already suffering from poor investments
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in a failed dam project
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the stress of it all no doubt tribute to his death on March 28th, 1908
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the house on Angell Street was sold
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the library that schooled Lovecraft for 12 years went with it
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he loved that place, it was there he knew the only security he ever had
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even though with only 3 blocks away, the new home Susie had picked for her son was an unknown country
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though high-school would offer some enjoyment
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Lovecraft was vexed by the subjects that escaped him
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Lovecraft said he had a full scale nervous break-down
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we don't really know what that means
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I personally believed that it was the result of his discovery that
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his lack of knowledge or lack of proficient in mathematics
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prevented him from pursuing a career as astronomer
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in the summer of 1908, he simply left school and never returned
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Lovecraft's reclusion would last from 1908 until 1917
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judging from his letters, this break-down
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had all the remarks of a deep depression
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I shall know human society that had givenmyself too much but a failure in life
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to be seen socially by those who had known me as a youth
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they foolishly expected great things of me
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Lovecraft himself was a pretty crazy person, he was kind of nuts, wondering around
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I don't, I don't mean, I think "eccentric" is a better word
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even for his time, he must have been not only a recluse but an oddity
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he would go out occasionally apparently, and people saw him walking down the street in a raincoat
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with the flapps up to his collar and
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and looking straight ahead not try to make eye contact with anybody
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one activity that endured through this period was his reading
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this exposed Lovecraft to the amateur pulp magazines
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that would one day be the ablert of his own work
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I think amateur journalism saved Lovecraft both as a writer
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and as a human being
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19131914
there was Lovecraft in 1913, 1914 basically rotting away, he clearly didn't know what to do with himself
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and then all of a sudden here was this small world of amateur journalism where there are other
people like him
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trying to be writers but not writing for money
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and I think for that moment, that was important to Lovecraft
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because amateur journalism was a kind of school for writers
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Lovecraft went on to publish his own amateur magazine "The Conservative"
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in its pages he exhibited a strong passion for the beliefs he formed during his isolation
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including a pronouncedxenophobia
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the most alarming tendency observable in this age
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is a growing disregard for the established forces of law and order
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weather or not stimulated by the noxious example of the almost subhuman Russian rabble
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the less intelligent element throughout the world
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seems animated by a singular viciousness
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every artist with every work of art is a product of his or her time
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and he reflected that a lot of very American feelings
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the feelings he had intellectually with beliefs in racism and so on
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are reprehensible they were then as they are now, and yet in a sense
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you can't expect the guy to leap out of his skin at modernsensibilities
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he has this really, this really archaicbudging idea that
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for society to be stable then it had to be homogeneous
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he just didn't like to see the culture he knew go down to drain which he felt would happen
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just by erosion as more and more immigrants came
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sort of a "Pat Buchanan" kind of a thing
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this absolutely genuinely worry of the evils of breeding, of mixed breeding
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and breeding in general I suppose
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you know the evils of taking purity with an almost Aryan sense of pride
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regardless, "The Conservative" attracted fellow amateurs
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both sympathetic and contrary
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they were attracted by Lovecraft's erudite mind
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and as a result Lovecraft developed very close ties
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to a number of these amateur journalists, and these became life-long friends of his
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they exchange many many letters even after they had left the amateur journalism movement
237
00:17:51,043 --> 00:17:53,700
and he kind of found his home in a magazine like that
238
00:17:53,701 --> 00:17:58,501
or another magazine, fan magazines that he wrote for
239
00:17:58,502 --> 00:18:03,926
and he found a lot of like-minded souls out there would read his stuff and really love them
240
00:18:03,927 --> 00:18:09,165
and he developed followers, I mean it's almost like a cult to them and himself
241
00:18:09,166 --> 00:18:15,166
he wrote so many letters in such white heat and such intensity and such length
242
00:18:15,167 --> 00:18:21,167
that it's easy to suppose that he sacrifice stories to his correspondence
243
00:18:21,767 --> 00:18:25,771
12
I believe he had token like over 120000 letters written
244
00:18:25,772 --> 00:18:28,410
and these letters are in short pieces too, I mean
245
00:18:28,411 --> 00:18:34,411
they are copious, and pages and pages of details and notes or suggestions
246
00:18:34,412 --> 00:18:37,010
on how to improve their own writing
247
00:18:37,011 --> 00:18:39,442
as the web of his correspondents grew
248
00:18:39,443 --> 00:18:44,241
it also allowed Lovecraft to test early stories on respected readers
249
00:18:44,242 --> 00:18:49,641
1919
in 1919, an armaturejournal called the "The Vagrant" took notice
250
00:18:49,642 --> 00:18:55,434
"Dagon" was the first of Lovecraft's stories to be printed
251
00:18:58,268 --> 00:19:01,159
a captured sailor escapes German sea-raiders
252
00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:03,768
only to come aground on a stretch of sea bottom forced up ,
253
00:19:03,769 --> 00:19:06,802
by a volcanic upheaval
254
00:19:06,803 --> 00:19:10,418
the region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish
255
00:19:10,419 --> 00:19:13,957
and of other less describable things, which I saw
256
00:19:13,958 --> 00:19:17,843
protruding from the nasty mud of the unending plain
257
00:19:17,844 --> 00:19:22,858
it's got this awful sense of atmosphere that this poor guy
258
00:19:22,859 --> 00:19:24,952
is out in the middle of nowhere
259
00:19:24,953 --> 00:19:28,999
surely doomed with a black sun scouring on, what an image
260
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:33,555
as the sailor explores the riff, he discovers a cyclopean monolith
261
00:19:33,556 --> 00:19:37,602
whose carved surface depicts a race of an ancient fish-man
262
00:19:37,603 --> 00:19:40,435
they were damnably human in general outline
263
00:19:40,436 --> 00:19:42,790
despite webbed hands and feet
264
00:19:42,791 --> 00:19:46,950
shockingly wide and flabby lips,glassy, bulging eyes
265
00:19:46,951 --> 00:19:50,363
and other features less pleasant to recall
266
00:19:50,364 --> 00:19:56,177
Suddenly all hell breaks loose with this huge "Charlie Tuna"character coming out and embracing this monolith
267
00:19:56,178 --> 00:20:01,712
and then at the end what happens is that narrator just demented
268
00:20:01,713 --> 00:20:06,424
he is now on the other side of the world but afraid old Charlie's following him
269
00:20:06,425 --> 00:20:09,386
and he is: "Oh my God! That thing in the window!"
270
00:20:09,387 --> 00:20:13,906
well, has this creature followed him, or is he just plain nuts, we don't know
271
00:20:13,907 --> 00:20:17,150
but either way it's a great little story
272
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:25,000
but you know, you have it there, you've got the creature from the cyclopean creatures from the sea
is virtual Cthulhu in miniature
273
00:20:25,184 --> 00:20:30,990
"Dagon" and other stories from this period would set the Lovcraftianmodel
274
00:20:30,991 --> 00:20:34,573
scholarly people discovering violations of natural law
275
00:20:34,574 --> 00:20:38,000
and being driven towards madness or death
276
00:20:40,349 --> 00:20:46,212
it's also exhibited Lovecraft's use of baroque description and subjective adjectives
277
00:20:46,412 --> 00:20:52,412
one of the clich�� notions of Lovecraft propounded by people don't very like his work, usually
278
00:20:52,413 --> 00:20:58,490
you know is that he only has one style that consisted mostly or partly on the adjectives
279
00:20:58,491 --> 00:21:04,500
��like, um, "Over the eldritch town of Daleech"
280
00:21:04,524 --> 00:21:10,075
the gibbous moon hung illuminating the squamous and batrachians inhabitants��"
281
00:21:10,076 --> 00:21:15,500
what he is saying that is just that, um, you know the moon was nearly full
282
00:21:15,501 --> 00:21:18,000
over the weird town of Daleech, and
283
00:21:18,001 --> 00:21:21,587
everybody who lived there were bloody peculiar frogs
284
00:21:21,588 --> 00:21:30,588
what Lovecraft is, a baroque writer as that he goes in and carefully modulates
285
00:21:31,052 --> 00:21:37,258
these over ripe incredibly complicated physiologies and sentences and style
286
00:21:37,259 --> 00:21:39,885
but it's all his own
287
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:45,501
if you meet Lovecraft for the first time as an adult you do kind of have to learn how to read him
288
00:21:46,500 --> 00:21:50,084
it's not a modern style it's not a strip-down style
289
00:21:50,085 --> 00:21:54,468
it's not a very efficient style and there are many many things about it that is erasable
290
00:21:54,668 --> 00:21:59,651
He will pick a few words and over use them appallingly
291
00:21:59,652 --> 00:22:02,352
"Eldritch", "Gibbous"
292
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:05,873
a lot of his stories are ??? nothing happens
293
00:22:05,874 --> 00:22:08,568
especially nothing happens to the narrator
294
00:22:08,569 --> 00:22:13,200
they are just people who start terrified and they end up terrified
295
00:22:13,201 --> 00:22:15,384
And there are other things you can make fun of him for:
296
00:22:15,385 --> 00:22:19,741
the tendency to write in the first person,
297
00:22:19,742 --> 00:22:21,906
and to keep writing
298
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,907
the ultimate parodic Lovecraftian phrase is
299
00:22:25,908 --> 00:22:29,923
somebody going mad while writing and something's coming up:
300
00:22:29,924 --> 00:22:34,731
"I can hear them now coming up the steps��
301
00:22:34,732 --> 00:22:38,281
��their hellish tentacles are scrumming at the door��
302
00:22:38,282 --> 00:22:43,098
ah, Shub-Niggrath, the beast with a thousand young��fhtagn fhtagn"
303
00:22:43,099 --> 00:22:45,226
and it's done, dot dot dot
304
00:22:45,227 --> 00:22:49,850
you disappear in a burst of ellipsis of italics
305
00:22:49,851 --> 00:22:53,492
it's a style that incredibly anal retentive
306
00:22:53,594 --> 00:22:59,594
and you know this guy went over it and over it and over it until he made the combination that to his taste
307
00:22:59,595 --> 00:23:04,274
which maybe gaudy to some it wasn't a perfectbalance
308
00:23:04,275 --> 00:23:07,098
one thing that influenced this purple style
309
00:23:07,099 --> 00:23:11,737
was Lovecraft's current fascination with the writing of Lord Dunsany
310
00:23:11,738 --> 00:23:17,130
Dunsany wrote these magical little tales of dreamlands and gods and
311
00:23:17,131 --> 00:23:22,726
he has this amazing prose style influenced by the King James bible
312
00:23:22,727 --> 00:23:24,485
and apparently nothing else
313
00:23:24,486 --> 00:23:31,486
Lovecraft was very taken by Dunsany's creation of a mythical pantheon of gods
314
00:23:32,045 --> 00:23:38,500
and Lovecraft eventually admitted that, that's how he come to write the stories of the of the Cthulhu mythos
315
00:23:38,709 --> 00:23:42,988
he took those Dunsanian gods which are setting in a fantasy world
316
00:23:42,989 --> 00:23:48,452
and put them into the real world, and that's how he came up with his own cosmic mythology
317
00:23:48,453 --> 00:23:51,134
though Lovecraft was now a published author
318
00:23:51,135 --> 00:23:54,661
pursuing payment for what was only to be a personal pleasure
319
00:23:54,662 --> 00:23:57,111
was far from his idea of a gentleman:
320
00:23:57,112 --> 00:24:01,326
an existence that enjoy "being " rather than "doing"
321
00:24:01,327 --> 00:24:05,895
his fellow amateurs urged Lovecraft to go against his anti-commercialism
322
00:24:05,896 --> 00:24:09,406
and higher out his skills as a "ghostwriter"
323
00:24:09,407 --> 00:24:16,494
19191920
as an invisible author, Lovecraft would be published many times between 1919 and 1920
324
00:24:16,495 --> 00:24:23,670
with no practical experience in commerce however, Lovecraft charge rates much lower than the standard of the time
325
00:24:23,671 --> 00:24:27,934
15
barely clearing a minimum goal of 15 dollars a week
326
00:24:27,935 --> 00:24:32,125
despitemeager returns, this was a prolific time for Lovecraft
327
00:24:32,126 --> 00:24:36,293
1921 17
by 1921 he had written close to 17 stories
328
00:24:36,294 --> 00:24:39,325
unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood
329
00:24:39,326 --> 00:24:42,044
bring only fear and sadness
330
00:24:42,045 --> 00:24:44,182
wretched is he who looks back upon
331
00:24:44,183 --> 00:24:47,569
lone hours in vast and dismal chambers
332
00:24:47,570 --> 00:24:52,086
with brown hangings and maddening rows of antique books"
333
00:24:52,087 --> 00:24:57,087
the glory of the "The Outsider" is that it is the story of the thing beyond arcane
334
00:24:57,088 --> 00:25:01,088
briefly coming into the file light into that circle
335
00:25:01,089 --> 00:25:03,913
and then fleeing back into the darkness,
336
00:25:03,914 --> 00:25:07,168
A lone narrator emerges from his crumbling castle
337
00:25:07,169 --> 00:25:09,350
after a long seclusion
338
00:25:09,351 --> 00:25:13,406
he comes on to the surface of the earth to find people fleeing in terror
339
00:25:13,407 --> 00:25:17,465
from a monstrous thing that the narrator can plainly see before him
340
00:25:17,466 --> 00:25:20,466
I love the twisted ending so to speak
341
00:25:20,500 --> 00:25:25,440
and the you're reading the story, in the very last line of the story it scares you
342
00:25:25,441 --> 00:25:29,896
I was proud of this guy as he escaped from his catacombs
343
00:25:29,897 --> 00:25:35,328
and the moment that the real people saw him and screamed and he saw his reflection
344
00:25:35,329 --> 00:25:40,817
and in horror he stenches out his hand and touches the mirror Boom! That's the end of the story
345
00:25:40,818 --> 00:25:46,306
"oh my gosh, he is a ghoul, he is a creature from the darkness, now we must go off with him"
346
00:25:46,307 --> 00:25:49,688
and I went back and reread it just to see how he done that
347
00:25:49,689 --> 00:25:58,475
At his best, Lovecraft is as much as an existentialist as Albert Camus would be
348
00:25:58,476 --> 00:26:02,375
I know always that I am an outsider
349
00:26:02,376 --> 00:26:06,404
a stranger in this century and among those who are still men
350
00:26:06,405 --> 00:26:10,805
this is as a strong as a statement about
351
00:26:10,806 --> 00:26:15,137
how I felt it in my teenage years as anything
352
00:26:15,138 --> 00:26:20,351
his writing wasn't may very possibly be disguised autobiography
353
00:26:20,352 --> 00:26:26,430
He does seemed to be somebody who had an unhappy childhood and who felt he was physically repulsive
354
00:26:26,431 --> 00:26:31,975
But did he feel that because of that he was an object of horror, that everybody shunned him
355
00:26:31,976 --> 00:26:37,006
Certainly in terms��his physical appearance he was sort of embarrassed about a number of things
356
00:26:37,007 --> 00:26:43,007
he felt he had this ingrown facial hairs and that he felt that it's a disfiguring factor
357
00:26:43,360 --> 00:26:47,574
so in a way, he's kind of using himself as a jumping-off point
358
00:26:47,575 --> 00:26:51,171
but I think he would come off much more as the weirdo
359
00:26:51,172 --> 00:26:53,904
that Colin Wilson makes him
360
00:26:53,905 --> 00:26:57,872
if he really were like these characters in the stories
361
00:26:57,873 --> 00:27:00,899
ultimately I don't think he was
362
00:27:00,990 --> 00:27:05,947
when Lovecraft emerged from his own isolation, the consensusof the Providence was that
363
00:27:05,948 --> 00:27:08,667
the house on Angell street was one to be avoided
364
00:27:08,668 --> 00:27:12,180
and that Lovecraft and his mother were eccentrics
365
00:27:12,181 --> 00:27:15,396
thought this view could be argued in the case of Lovecraft
366
00:27:15,397 --> 00:27:18,451
Susie was indeed cause for concern
367
00:27:18,452 --> 00:27:21,178
her home life was one of hypertension, where Susie was known to
368
00:27:21,179 --> 00:27:25,683
cause major dramas over the slightest thing
369
00:27:25,684 --> 00:27:27,184
on March 13th, 1919
370
00:27:27,185 --> 00:27:31,027
around the same time her son was emerging as a writer
371
00:27:31,028 --> 00:27:34,339
Susie Lovecraft had been admitted to the same institution that
372
00:27:34,340 --> 00:27:37,601
claimed to her husband years before
373
00:27:37,602 --> 00:27:43,554
Susie Lovecraft passed away on May 24th, 1921, not from nerves
374
00:27:43,555 --> 00:27:46,882
but from a botchedgallbladderoperation
375
00:27:46,883 --> 00:27:49,340
Susie's death was hard on Lovecraft
376
00:27:49,341 --> 00:27:52,282
both emotionally and financially
377
00:27:52,283 --> 00:27:54,249
she left her son a meager estate
378
00:27:54,250 --> 00:27:58,115
which was already meager when she inherited it from her father
379
00:27:58,116 --> 00:28:02,213
that inheritance plus an equally paltry income from ghost writing
380
00:28:02,214 --> 00:28:04,805
barely met Lovecraft's expenses
381
00:28:04,806 --> 00:28:10,690
he made little enough money himself and used to survive by hideous cans of beans
382
00:28:10,691 --> 00:28:17,275
but I have to wonder about Lovecraft whether or not he would have taken any odd job, just to be able to make money and
383
00:28:17,276 --> 00:28:23,977
I don't think he would he had a certain set of standards and again being, you know, he had a love of old pride
384
00:28:23,978 --> 00:28:30,617
that he was a gentleman, he's an author and he was not just gonna take any odd job
385
00:28:30,618 --> 00:28:35,201
����
Lovecraft moved in with his aunts, Lilian Clark and Annie Gamwell,
386
00:28:35,202 --> 00:28:38,145
But aunts were no substitute for a mother
387
00:28:38,146 --> 00:28:40,086
his fiction writing waned
388
00:28:40,087 --> 00:28:43,670
relieve came from Lovecraft's fellow journalists,
389
00:28:43,671 --> 00:28:46,972
"Herber West, Reanimator" actually is a very funny story and
390
00:28:46,973 --> 00:28:49,621
Lovecraft intended it, I think, to be funny
391
00:28:49,622 --> 00:28:53,485
it was commissioned for a humor magazine
392
00:28:53,486 --> 00:28:57,686
5
for which Lovecraft received all of 5 dollars per installment
393
00:28:57,687 --> 00:29:01,639
keep in mind it was a humor magazine called "Home Brew"
394
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:06,576
founded and edited by one of his armature friends, George Julian Houtain
395
00:29:06,577 --> 00:29:10,179
Houtain said: "You can't make them too horrible!"
396
00:29:10,180 --> 00:29:12,424
so clearly Lovecraft is encouraged to write
397
00:29:12,425 --> 00:29:16,720
just the most outlandish flamboyant horror that he could think of
398
00:29:16,721 --> 00:29:20,616
Lovecraft chafed on to the reflections of the episodic writing
399
00:29:20,617 --> 00:29:24,015
19221
still the series debuted on January 1922
400
00:29:24,016 --> 00:29:26,351
under the banner "Grewsome Tales"
401
00:29:26,352 --> 00:29:31,919
later to be titled "Herbert West, Reanimator"
402
00:29:32,066 --> 00:29:33,875
Herbert West
403
00:29:33,876 --> 00:29:36,451
who was my friend in college and in after life
404
00:29:36,452 --> 00:29:39,180
can speak only with extreme terror
405
00:29:39,181 --> 00:29:43,218
Holding with Haeckel that all life is a chemical and physical process
406
00:29:43,219 --> 00:29:46,658
and that the so-called "soul"is a myth
407
00:29:46,659 --> 00:29:50,579
my friend believed that artificial reanimation of the dead
408
00:29:50,580 --> 00:29:53,658
can depend only on the condition of the tissues
409
00:29:53,659 --> 00:29:57,880
I love this sense of atmosphere on the "Herbert West" stories
410
00:29:57,881 --> 00:29:59,431
the sense of flays
411
00:29:59,432 --> 00:30:02,617
evidently were not in the movies but
412
00:30:02,618 --> 00:30:08,350
the sense of history it gives you, a sense of place and context, that is extremely strong
413
00:30:08,355 --> 00:30:14,808
now a lot of people feel that the influenceof ��Frankenstein" is heavy on that story
414
00:30:14,809 --> 00:30:18,766
I disagree, because remember what Victor Frankenstein was doing was
415
00:30:18,767 --> 00:30:24,470
creating an artificial man from different parts of human bodies
416
00:30:24,471 --> 00:30:28,150
what Herbert West is trying to do is reanimated an entire living body
417
00:30:28,151 --> 00:30:30,644
after it has theoretically dead
418
00:30:30,645 --> 00:30:33,182
a very different conception, I think
419
00:30:33,183 --> 00:30:35,508
West's adventures in reviving corpses were not
420
00:30:35,509 --> 00:30:39,727
among Lovecraft's favorite works nor his most profitable
421
00:30:39,728 --> 00:30:44,903
nevertheless, it was a small milestone in his career as a professional writer
422
00:30:44,904 --> 00:30:49,028
during this time, Lovecraft also developed two fascinations
423
00:30:49,029 --> 00:30:51,964
incongruent with his xenophobicpersonality:
424
00:30:51,965 --> 00:30:55,526
Travel and a woman
425
00:30:55,527 --> 00:31:00,998
Lovecraft had been lured away from Providence for a gathering of amateurjournalists in Boston
426
00:31:00,999 --> 00:31:04,577
the prospect of intellectual discourse with his compatriots
427
00:31:04,578 --> 00:31:06,999
was too rich to refuse
428
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:10,183
rare trip soon became a habit
429
00:31:10,184 --> 00:31:12,671
even if Lovecraft preferred to stay within the northeast
430
00:31:12,672 --> 00:31:15,677
where familiar traditions prevailed
431
00:31:15,678 --> 00:31:20,789
on one such visit in 1921, H P Lovecraft met Sonia Haft Greene of New York
432
00:31:20,790 --> 00:31:24,791
1883316
born on 16th, March1883
433
00:31:24,792 --> 00:31:30,134
Sonia was far more experienced in the ways of the world, having being married once before
434
00:31:30,135 --> 00:31:33,070
he met this woman who was a Jewish
435
00:31:33,071 --> 00:31:37,117
one of the things that I found reading the letters, Lovecraft's letters
436
00:31:37,118 --> 00:31:39,089
was how anti-Semitic he was
437
00:31:39,124 --> 00:31:42,961
and the idea he ended up marring a Jewish woman I think is pretty extraordinary
438
00:31:42,962 --> 00:31:47,140
and she must have looked at him with the side she wanted him
439
00:31:47,141 --> 00:31:50,650
he wasn't the worst catch in the world I supposed he had a certain dignity
440
00:31:50,651 --> 00:31:52,883
he was kind of tall and thin and bonny
441
00:31:52,884 --> 00:31:58,309
she is just the opposite of him, she was very out-going and very social, and she sounded like she was fun
442
00:31:58,310 --> 00:32:04,364
and you know she was the one of��as I understand, introduced him to sex
443
00:32:04,365 --> 00:32:09,185
it was the shared passion for the literary however that attracted them most
444
00:32:09,186 --> 00:32:12,098
during one of many moonlit walks together,
445
00:32:12,099 --> 00:32:16,362
Lovecraft and Sonia encountered a weird gruntingnoise in the night
446
00:32:16,363 --> 00:32:19,343
it was an obvious inspiration for one of his stories
447
00:32:19,344 --> 00:32:23,017
but Lovecraft encouraged Sonia to write it instead
448
00:32:23,018 --> 00:32:27,727
this encouragement earned Lovecraft a kiss, his first since childhood
449
00:32:27,728 --> 00:32:31,679
and that, a rare sign of physical affection from his mother
450
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:37,700
Sonia's story became "The Horror at Martin's Beach", and was published in 1923
451
00:32:37,701 --> 00:32:42,140
by that time she had convinced Lovecraft to ��test the waters�� of New York city
452
00:32:42,141 --> 00:32:44,083
with a prolonged visit
453
00:32:44,084 --> 00:32:48,555
she knew that Lovecraft had to be taken out of Providence,
454
00:32:48,556 --> 00:32:54,347
that if he was really gonna had a life that he had to go out into the world, and she knew how talented he was
455
00:32:54,348 --> 00:32:58,934
and she felt if he went to New York, where the magazines were actually published
456
00:32:58,935 --> 00:33:04,599
and could meet some people and he could become a success
457
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,582
but in a growing metropolis teeming with immigrants,
458
00:33:07,583 --> 00:33:12,422
an acute xenophobic like Lovecraft would soon experience problems
459
00:33:12,423 --> 00:33:16,293
for the moment though, Lovecraft had every reason to be hopeful:
460
00:33:16,294 --> 00:33:23,470
Sonia had entered his life, and in March 1923, "Weird Tales" magazine was born
461
00:33:23,471 --> 00:33:27,265
as much as science fiction and fantasy might be marginalized today
462
00:33:27,266 --> 00:33:30,988
it was certainly a lot more marginalized in the 1920s and 30s
463
00:33:30,989 --> 00:33:34,559
"Weird Tales" was very influential as it happened
464
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:42,000
it was the best of all the "pulp" magazines, devoted to weird fiction to horror stories and a certain kind of sci-fi
465
00:33:43,983 --> 00:33:47,822
tales of the fantastic had been increasing in popularity
466
00:33:47,823 --> 00:33:50,607
publisher JC Henneberger saw potential
467
00:33:50,608 --> 00:33:53,255
and dedicating an entire journal to the genre
468
00:33:53,256 --> 00:33:58,053
there was a market there, as little paying as the market might have been,
469
00:33:58,054 --> 00:34:00,828
as marginalized as the magazine might have been,
470
00:34:00,829 --> 00:34:05,143
even though it's being printed on horror paper, it doesn't matter, there is a market there, there are readers
471
00:34:05,144 --> 00:34:07,303
and there was a place for you to start
472
00:34:07,304 --> 00:34:13,479
at the best it was virtually a roll-call of the great pulp fantasy writers
473
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:16,969
and much better than "pulp" implies
474
00:34:16,970 --> 00:34:22,360
many masters of the imaginative fiction got there start in the pages of "Weir Tales"
475
00:34:22,361 --> 00:34:25,280
H.P.Lovecraft was no different
476
00:34:25,281 --> 00:34:29,394
Lovecraft regarded "Weird Tales" as his single market base
477
00:34:29,395 --> 00:34:35,219
it was one magazine he was, well relatively proud to write for even though it has to be said
478
00:34:35,220 --> 00:34:42,220
that he believed that the average ��Weir Tale�� stories possibly below average ��Weir Tale�� stories was not that great
479
00:34:43,730 --> 00:34:47,290
it took a great deal of convincing from Sonia and other friends
480
00:34:47,291 --> 00:34:52,322
but Lovecraft finally relented and sent in a selection of stories
481
00:34:52,323 --> 00:34:59,329
"Weird Tales" bought all 5 submissions, thus began a lifelong relationship
482
00:34:59,330 --> 00:35:04,731
192433
on March 3rd, 1924, Lovecraft embarked on another relationship:
483
00:35:04,732 --> 00:35:07,681
after an aggressive campaign from Sonia
484
00:35:07,682 --> 00:35:10,938
Lovecraft finally asked for her hand in marriage
485
00:35:10,939 --> 00:35:15,075
41 33
the bride was nearly 41, the groom was 33
486
00:35:15,076 --> 00:35:17,832
his aunts were outraged by this
487
00:35:17,833 --> 00:35:21,000
you know, they thought the girl that he married was completely beneath him
488
00:35:21,001 --> 00:35:24,327
at huge risk to a sense of security
489
00:35:24,328 --> 00:35:29,330
Lovecraft would leave Providence to live with his new wife in New York
490
00:35:29,331 --> 00:35:32,325
for a virgin reclusivepuritan moral standard
491
00:35:32,326 --> 00:35:36,178
marriage promised to be an interesting experience
492
00:35:36,179 --> 00:35:39,745
sometimes I feel like that she just must have been something just short of a sane
493
00:35:39,746 --> 00:35:43,506
because what she married, was a guy who refused to work,
494
00:35:43,507 --> 00:35:44,929
except on the stories
495
00:35:44,930 --> 00:35:49,176
this is the one area which I think that Lovecraft really failed as a human being
496
00:35:49,177 --> 00:35:55,203
I think she acknowledged in her own memiors at some point that she felt like she could change him
497
00:35:56,204 --> 00:35:58,763
she couldn't change him
498
00:35:58,764 --> 00:36:06,009
19221924
between 1922 and 1924, Lovecraft's narrative aplord was on another upswing
499
00:36:06,010 --> 00:36:08,850
this included the creation of three reoccurring elements
500
00:36:08,851 --> 00:36:12,354
of Lovecraft's gestating mythology
501
00:36:12,355 --> 00:36:16,338
Miskatonic University
502
00:36:16,339 --> 00:36:18,538
the dark town of Arkham
503
00:36:18,539 --> 00:36:21,626
and literature's most dreadedgrimoire
504
00:36:21,627 --> 00:36:25,312
written by an alter ego from Lovecraft's childhood
505
00:36:25,313 --> 00:36:28,368
one inspired by his reading of the "Arabian Nights"
506
00:36:28,369 --> 00:36:31,064
the mad Abdul Alhazared
507
00:36:31,065 --> 00:36:36,257
the Necronomicon has become this strange sort of combination of
508
00:36:36,258 --> 00:36:39,500
urban legend and bad joke
509
00:36:39,501 --> 00:36:46,002
first of all it existed in the mind of Lovecraft, and then other people used it
510
00:36:46,003 --> 00:36:52,834
it was one of the easiest things��"The Necronomicon of the mad Arab Alhazared"
511
00:36:52,835 --> 00:36:55,835
"Yes, this is the book of all of the forbidden things"
512
00:36:55,836 --> 00:37:00,290
the Necronomicon was a book that collected all manner of summoning spells
513
00:37:00,291 --> 00:37:06,499
spells that would cause the return of the ancient creatures from unknown worlds and dimensions
514
00:37:06,500 --> 00:37:10,614
well the Necronomicon is yet another of those Lovecraftian concepts with, you know
515
00:37:10,615 --> 00:37:13,654
never meant to be fully bodied force
516
00:37:13,655 --> 00:37:18,335
it's a series of references that began imply this much larger tome
517
00:37:18,336 --> 00:37:23,351
with more terrible secrets and Lovecraft couldn't even hint at
518
00:37:23,352 --> 00:37:27,426
so then other people would use it, you got Fritz Leiber, you got Bloch
519
00:37:27,524 --> 00:37:30,024
you got Manly Wade Wellman, and August Derleth
520
00:37:30,025 --> 00:37:33,894
all these other writers putting it into their stuff
521
00:37:33,895 --> 00:37:38,070
so now it feels a little truer, like maybe it ought to exist
522
00:37:38,071 --> 00:37:44,965
another story from this period that can be seen as one of Lovecraft's early best," The Rats in The Walls"
523
00:37:44,966 --> 00:37:48,349
"Rats in The Walls�� was one of two stories that I read when I was a kid
524
00:37:48,350 --> 00:37:53,200
my father bought me a book called "Great Tales of Terror And the Supernatural" and it had
525
00:37:53,201 --> 00:37:59,433
all sorts of stories, two from Lovecraft: "Rats In The Walls" and "The Dunwich Horror"
526
00:37:59,434 --> 00:38:04,500
and he read them aloud to me when I was a kid, it was mind boiling
527
00:38:04,501 --> 00:38:07,146
a gentleman of the De La Poer family
528
00:38:07,147 --> 00:38:10,380
returns to his ancestralestate in England
529
00:38:10,381 --> 00:38:12,814
there he and his black cat, Nigger-man
530
00:38:12,815 --> 00:38:16,731
are disturbed by verminousslitheringbehind the walls
531
00:38:16,732 --> 00:38:21,015
Lovecraft was great at depicting the moment of this
532
00:38:21,016 --> 00:38:27,651
convey by sound or by a fleeting shadow and it really put you there
533
00:38:27,652 --> 00:38:35,062
��
and made you almost empathically experience the moment where you heard the noise behind the woodwork
534
00:38:35,063 --> 00:38:40,089
more than a lot of his stories literally embodies that sense of "Deep Time "
535
00:38:40,090 --> 00:38:46,000
in the sense of as De La Poer is trying to investigate the source of the
536
00:38:46,001 --> 00:38:50,631
of the phenomenon in the house begins to go through this sub-basement down into this
537
00:38:50,632 --> 00:38:54,288
vast subterranean caverns beneath the house
538
00:38:54,289 --> 00:38:58,500
that exploration into the depth of the castle is simultaneously
539
00:38:58,501 --> 00:39:04,021
an exploration into the depth of the past and the horrors that comes out of the history
540
00:39:04,022 --> 00:39:06,375
I seemed to be looking down from an immense height
541
00:39:06,376 --> 00:39:09,629
upon a twilit grotto, knee-deep with filth
542
00:39:09,630 --> 00:39:13,323
where a white-bearded daemon swineherd drove about with his staff
543
00:39:13,324 --> 00:39:16,366
aflock of fungous,flabby beasts
544
00:39:16,367 --> 00:39:19,938
whose appearance filled me with unutterable loathing
545
00:39:19,939 --> 00:39:24,098
Then, as the swineherd paused and nodded over his task
546
00:39:24,099 --> 00:39:28,072
a mighty swarm of rats rained down on the stinking abyss
547
00:39:28,073 --> 00:39:31,722
and fell to devouring beasts and man alike
548
00:39:31,723 --> 00:39:37,136
it's one of the stories where Lovecraft is playing with the classical gothic tropes
549
00:39:37,137 --> 00:39:39,878
you know you have the family with the hidden things
550
00:39:39,879 --> 00:39:44,632
18
you have all of this sort of early 18th century gothic elements to the story
551
00:39:44,633 --> 00:39:49,399
all of these strange stuff about the "Exhume Priory"
552
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:54,177
and this lost world under the cliff there
553
00:39:54,178 --> 00:39:57,858
and these squealingwhite flabby beasts
554
00:39:57,859 --> 00:40:02,524
and the people are - the characters in the stories being descendants from different lines
555
00:40:02,525 --> 00:40:04,997
of the bad guys, that bred these things
556
00:40:04,998 --> 00:40:10,151
and the things having evolved, what a brilliant brilliant work
557
00:40:10,152 --> 00:40:15,152
it's really creepy stuff, it gets under your skin
558
00:40:15,459 --> 00:40:22,685
but I think it's kindda obvious if you turned down the walls of��of any kind of civilized person
559
00:40:22,686 --> 00:40:27,390
behind there something is really abominable works
560
00:40:27,391 --> 00:40:32,640
"Rats" was snatched up by "Weird Tales" in 1924
561
00:40:32,641 --> 00:40:37,328
the first year and a half of Lovecraft's marriage was like a tonic
562
00:40:37,329 --> 00:40:41,136
it was grand, it was a new adventure for him
563
00:40:41,137 --> 00:40:45,760
um��he also made lots of friends there too Frank Long, for example being one of his best friends
564
00:40:45,761 --> 00:40:49,886
works however, even Lovecraft's drive to find it, was limited
565
00:40:49,887 --> 00:40:53,224
I think A: he didn't want a job
566
00:40:53,225 --> 00:41:00,225
and B: He knew that any employment he could find in the city of New York or elsewhere
567
00:41:00,226 --> 00:41:03,481
would be really bruising for him
568
00:41:03,482 --> 00:41:08,216
the longer Lovecraft stayed in New York, the worse his xenophobia became
569
00:41:08,217 --> 00:41:11,225
almost as a retaliation against the immigrant outsiders
570
00:41:11,226 --> 00:41:13,360
flourishing around him
571
00:41:13,361 --> 00:41:19,169
the unrevealingof the grog, so to speak, happened you know because of financial reasons
572
00:41:19,170 --> 00:41:24,728
Sonia lost her hat shop and eventually had to look for work in Cleveland
573
00:41:24,729 --> 00:41:29,848
a job offer was agreed with an enthusiasm by Sonia and lothing from Lovecraft
574
00:41:29,849 --> 00:41:31,755
there was too far from Providence
575
00:41:31,756 --> 00:41:36,286
Brooklyn was unbearable, but at least it was just a train right away
576
00:41:36,287 --> 00:41:41,053
1924
by the end of 1924 Sonia had no choice but to leave for the mid-west
577
00:41:41,054 --> 00:41:42,621
alone
578
00:41:42,622 --> 00:41:45,518
Sonia would be back and forth to support her husband
579
00:41:45,519 --> 00:41:49,093
but her influence over Lovecraft's mood was waning
580
00:41:49,094 --> 00:41:52,253
his ridicule of the melting pot that was the New York city
581
00:41:52,254 --> 00:41:54,997
reach manic even racist levels
582
00:41:54,998 --> 00:41:59,540
I certainly hope to see promiscuous immigration permanently curtailed soon
583
00:41:59,541 --> 00:42:03,889
heaven knows, enough harm has already been done by the admission of limitless
584
00:42:03,890 --> 00:42:08,521
hordes of the ignorant superstitious and biologically injurious scum
585
00:42:08,522 --> 00:42:12,535
of southernEurope and western Asia
586
00:42:12,536 --> 00:42:16,119
for the most part, Lovecraft kept these views to himself
587
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:20,990
knowing full well that his friends and correspondents did not share his views
588
00:42:20,991 --> 00:42:24,991
it wasn't long before his fiction give voice to these demons
589
00:42:24,992 --> 00:42:28,311
Red Hook is a maze of hybrid squalor
590
00:42:28,312 --> 00:42:31,806
near the ancient waterfront opposite Governor's Island
591
00:42:31,807 --> 00:42:35,542
From this tangle of material and spiritual putrescence
592
00:42:35,543 --> 00:42:39,341
the blasphemies of a hundred dialects assail the sky
593
00:42:39,342 --> 00:42:42,395
Policemen despair of order or reform
594
00:42:42,396 --> 00:42:45,300
and seek rather to erect barriers protecting the outside world
595
00:42:45,301 --> 00:42:49,319
from the contagion
596
00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:55,108
I don't think you can ever curlywhat people think or believe with what they write
597
00:42:55,109 --> 00:43:00,109
or at least I don't think you can do it on the one to one basis so beloved
598
00:43:00,110 --> 00:43:05,622
of literary scholarsacademics and amateurpsychologists
599
00:43:05,623 --> 00:43:09,709
for modern standards there is plenty of racism in Mark Twain
600
00:43:09,710 --> 00:43:15,037
there is plenty of racism in Edgar Rice Burroughs, there is plenty of sexism in Edgar Rice Burroughs
601
00:43:15,038 --> 00:43:19,685
you could thought those works were belongings to that time
602
00:43:19,686 --> 00:43:27,630
what I believe that, it's essentially a fossil record of what a gentleman
603
00:43:27,631 --> 00:43:30,631
of New England would think at the time
604
00:43:30,632 --> 00:43:35,273
it's very very easy to look at Lovecraft and go, ok well
605
00:43:35,274 --> 00:43:39,478
you know "Cthulhu" means the female genitalia
606
00:43:39,479 --> 00:43:44,599
or all of these outsiders were really Jews or blacks
607
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:50,263
or you know, this is what the batrachian thing is all about, it's a cunningly disguised racism
608
00:43:50,264 --> 00:43:54,945
he did however made a overly racist statement toward some groups and,
609
00:43:54,946 --> 00:44:00,277
that certainly no surprise back in the 20s and 30s,
610
00:44:00,278 --> 00:44:05,662
and it's too bad, I mean that doesn't make it right, but I just don't think you can take it seriously
611
00:44:05,663 --> 00:44:12,014
it will be funny if we were not so objection, and to a certain understand it still is funny what it is even though it is completelyobjectionable
612
00:44:12,015 --> 00:44:16,018
the sheltered character who took a long long time to grow
613
00:44:16,019 --> 00:44:18,280
or you can say never grow up, that isn't true
614
00:44:18,281 --> 00:44:21,016
and so is that reacting in adolescence fashion
615
00:44:21,017 --> 00:44:27,695
to the streams of people who flooded the street in Brooklyn in "Red Hook" Brooklyn
616
00:44:27,696 --> 00:44:32,989
and I think when he refer to himself as an unassimilatedalien
617
00:44:32,990 --> 00:44:39,442
I think he understood that when he was in New York on some level he understood despite all these detestations
618
00:44:39,443 --> 00:44:41,418
that New York worked
619
00:44:41,419 --> 00:44:47,419
you know, despite his perceptionof it, its horrid chaotic sass pool, it were something that worked
620
00:44:47,420 --> 00:44:49,105
he didn't work
621
00:44:49,106 --> 00:44:52,448
it became clear to his friends that Lovecraft's exile in New York
622
00:44:52,449 --> 00:44:54,809
was leading to a breakdown
623
00:44:54,810 --> 00:44:57,560
some even feared a suicide attempt
624
00:44:57,561 --> 00:45:00,363
help came from Lovecraft's aunts, Lilian and Annie
625
00:45:00,364 --> 00:45:04,693
who found a small home for their nephew back in the safety of Providence
626
00:45:04,694 --> 00:45:08,678
Sonia offered to buy the house for him, but this was not New York
627
00:45:08,679 --> 00:45:11,527
in Providence propriety wouldreign
628
00:45:11,528 --> 00:45:16,943
if Lovecraft could not support his wife, he would distance himself instead
629
00:45:16,944 --> 00:45:22,522
19264
in April of 1926, Lovecraft returned to his beloved city
630
00:45:22,523 --> 00:45:30,257
He was released from Brooklyn and he went back to his immense�� to his almost unimaginably immense relief to Providence
631
00:45:30,258 --> 00:45:35,004
1926
that summer of 1926 was the start of Lovecraft's riches period
632
00:45:35,005 --> 00:45:39,531
it started with an idea he had outlined during those fearful days in New York
633
00:45:39,532 --> 00:45:45,074
an idea which became the most notable addition to Lovecraft's fictional universe
634
00:45:45,075 --> 00:45:50,908
the story of Lovecraft, the first one I read was "The Call of Cthulhu", like most everyone, I would imagine
635
00:45:50,909 --> 00:46:01,820
and it just struck me because it was an combination of cosmology and anthropology and horror that was all melded into one
636
00:46:01,821 --> 00:46:05,964
George Gammel Angell, professor emeritus ofSemtic languages
637
00:46:05,965 --> 00:46:07,807
at Brown University
638
00:46:07,808 --> 00:46:11,102
is mysteriously murdered on the streets of Providence
639
00:46:11,103 --> 00:46:16,799
sometime earlier, Angell had come into possession of a troubling clay sculpture
640
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:20,781
it represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline
641
00:46:20,782 --> 00:46:25,311
but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers
642
00:46:25,312 --> 00:46:27,935
a scaly, rubbery-looking body,prodigious claws
643
00:46:27,936 --> 00:46:33,199
on hind and fore feet,and long, narrow wings behind
644
00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:39,203
the description of the monster is probably better seen on paper
645
00:46:39,204 --> 00:46:41,473
than it would be visualized
646
00:46:41,474 --> 00:46:45,513
there's a thing about Lovecraft, all his creatures are really interesting
647
00:46:45,514 --> 00:46:48,933
when you read them because your imagination starts to work on it
648
00:46:48,934 --> 00:46:55,596
and you keep it amorphous and disgusting with the seafood variety that H P Lovecraft describes
649
00:46:55,597 --> 00:46:58,318
I mean that he must have something about fish
650
00:46:58,319 --> 00:47:03,655
really bothered him, you know squid and octopus and stuff like that
651
00:47:03,656 --> 00:47:08,406
Angell's investigations of the graven image are taken up by his grand nephew
652
00:47:08,407 --> 00:47:13,514
here is this guy, whose always, his eccentric uncle died and he was looking through all his papers and
653
00:47:13,515 --> 00:47:17,706
as I did when Lin Carter died it made it kind of a chore
654
00:47:17,707 --> 00:47:23,070
but you never know what kind of good issue you gonna find and he sees all these crazy things: ��What the hell is he into?��
655
00:47:23,071 --> 00:47:26,875
when you read it's sort of an incredibly clumsy story
656
00:47:26,876 --> 00:47:31,543
here is a lump of this and here is some newspaper reports
657
00:47:31,544 --> 00:47:38,544
and here is a �� it's sort of a part journalism and it's almost anecdote like, and it doesn't really have a plot
658
00:47:38,545 --> 00:47:44,174
it's assembled in fragments, in a very interesting way and also a modernist way
659
00:47:44,175 --> 00:47:50,801
what that technique does, is to suggest an aura of mystery in itself
660
00:47:50,802 --> 00:47:53,881
and before long his intuitive and before long his expecting
661
00:47:53,882 --> 00:47:57,425
the secret agents of Cthulhu to come and get him and
662
00:47:57,426 --> 00:48:01,510
why is he even writing these things since he doesn't want anybody else to know about it
663
00:48:01,511 --> 00:48:03,622
it's about that reoccurring thing in Lovecraft
664
00:48:03,623 --> 00:48:07,149
that fear of science or just human knowledge
665
00:48:07,150 --> 00:48:12,253
going where it doesn't necessarily go ofaccidentally recovering things that
666
00:48:12,254 --> 00:48:17,920
either it was not much point knowing them or knowing them could lead to our destruction
667
00:48:17,921 --> 00:48:23,421
the nephew endeavors to connect the reports of vivid dreams across the world
668
00:48:23,422 --> 00:48:27,422
dark practices in the bayous of New Orleans
669
00:48:27,423 --> 00:48:32,000
and the discovery of a corpse city by a band of innocent sailors
670
00:48:32,035 --> 00:48:34,939
there lay great Cthulhu and his hordes
671
00:48:34,940 --> 00:48:41,144
hidden in green slimy vaults and sending out at last,?after cycles incalculable
672
00:48:41,145 --> 00:48:45,552
the thoughts that spread fear to the dreams of the sensitive
673
00:48:45,553 --> 00:48:50,273
"Cthulhu" is almost like the Paul Revere of all these deities, you know,
[��Paul Revere ]
674
00:48:50,274 --> 00:48:58,023
or the King Arthur waiting to come back, you know and take over
675
00:48:58,024 --> 00:49:01,815
he's just a general evil that existed in another place
676
00:49:01,816 --> 00:49:04,575
but it's like Christianity in the sense
677
00:49:04,576 --> 00:49:08,509
in sense of our creators he's our destroyer
678
00:49:08,510 --> 00:49:13,735
he's kind of another version of the devil I suppose, except thatslimier
679
00:49:13,736 --> 00:49:16,071
as elaborate as this story was
680
00:49:16,072 --> 00:49:19,965
the spelling and the pronunciation of the ancient names was even more so
681
00:49:20,246 --> 00:49:22,846
Cthulhu
682
00:49:23,500 --> 00:49:30,500
of course, the association of the name this is my fourth language
683
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:35,999
Poppy Z Brite makes fun of the way our pronounce "Cthulhu", but I don't know another way
684
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:38,898
look at the way Lovecraft tries to pronounce it I can't pronounce it
685
00:49:38,899 --> 00:49:45,217
many of his colleagues apparently didn't know how to pronounce it, or pronounced it wrongly
686
00:49:45,218 --> 00:49:52,499
1934
and, so finally in a letter in 1934, he tells a colleague, well, it's really meant to be two syllables
687
00:49:52,500 --> 00:49:58,000
you are supposed to put your tongue at the roof of your mouth and cough it out like "Clu-lu"
688
00:49:58,297 --> 00:50:02,553
but he says, you know the name is entirely alien name
689
00:50:02,554 --> 00:50:05,819
not design to be pronounced by human vocal course
690
00:50:05,820 --> 00:50:13,000
the word is only a symbol for something that is entirely beyond the ability for humans to make the sounds
691
00:50:13,001 --> 00:50:18,369
so there is no incorrect way to pronounce it, because there is no correct way to pronounce it
692
00:50:18,370 --> 00:50:22,564
despite Lovecraft's effort to wave a rich narrative
693
00:50:22,565 --> 00:50:25,847
"The Call of Cthulhu" was initially rejected by "Weird Tales"
694
00:50:25,848 --> 00:50:29,784
this was common practice of the anthologist editor Farnsworth Wright
695
00:50:29,785 --> 00:50:34,557
especially when presented with a story as original as Lovecraft's creation
696
00:50:34,558 --> 00:50:40,000
one of Lovecraft's tricks of course was, was to take the rejected story sit on it for a little while
697
00:50:40,001 --> 00:50:45,302
sent it back to Wright saying I've made the changes you asked for, having not done a single thing with it
698
00:50:45,303 --> 00:50:48,803
and more often but not apparently, Wright would fall for this trick
699
00:50:48,838 --> 00:50:51,480
"The Call Of Cthulhu" was eventually printed
700
00:50:51,481 --> 00:50:55,999
19282
in February 1928's issue of "Weird Tales"
701
00:50:56,000 --> 00:51:02,886
Lovecraft's fee for such a seminal work of fiction, 165 dollars
702
00:51:02,887 --> 00:51:06,950
as Lovecraft's writing began to blossom, so did the man
703
00:51:06,951 --> 00:51:10,566
I vastly regret the absence of traditional accomplishments
704
00:51:10,567 --> 00:51:15,494
fencing, horsemanship, military service caused by my early ill health
705
00:51:15,495 --> 00:51:19,760
and lack of appreciation of the quality of the well-roundedness
706
00:51:19,761 --> 00:51:23,312
Lovecraft began to entertain his friends once more
707
00:51:23,313 --> 00:51:27,900
including them on long walks through Providence and other New England excursions
708
00:51:27,901 --> 00:51:32,788
Lovecraft was even beginning to evolve a form of tolerance toward the outsiders around him
709
00:51:32,789 --> 00:51:36,117
especially the many cultures now living in Providence
710
00:51:36,118 --> 00:51:41,625
in February of 1927, it was time for his writing to expand as well
711
00:51:41,626 --> 00:51:44,207
"Charles Dexter Ward" is the novel in which he applies
712
00:51:44,208 --> 00:51:51,019
all these sense of structure to that long walk and the effect is tremendous
713
00:51:51,020 --> 00:51:55,684
The beginning of Ward's madness is a matter of dispute among alienists
714
00:51:55,685 --> 00:52:02,200
Dr Lyman, the eminent Boston authority, places it in 1919 or 1920
715
00:52:02,201 --> 00:52:06,048
this is certainly borne by Ward's altered habits
716
00:52:06,049 --> 00:52:11,549
especially by his continual search through certain grave dug in 1771
717
00:52:11,550 --> 00:52:15,202
the grave of an ancestor named Joseph Curwen"
718
00:52:15,203 --> 00:52:17,682
Joseph Curwen was an obscure individual
719
00:52:17,683 --> 00:52:21,858
who flight from Salem to Providence around 1761
720
00:52:21,859 --> 00:52:24,952
now the first odd thing about Joseph Curwen
721
00:52:24,953 --> 00:52:29,527
was that he did not seem to grow much older than he had been on his arrival
722
00:52:29,528 --> 00:52:34,237
at length, when over fifty years had passed since the stranger's advent
723
00:52:34,238 --> 00:52:39,321
and without producing more than five years' apparent change in his face and physique
724
00:52:39,322 --> 00:52:43,122
the people began to whisper more darkly
725
00:52:43,123 --> 00:52:46,974
alchemy and the black arts proved to be Curwen's secret
726
00:52:46,975 --> 00:52:51,500
I think one of the flaws in that story, and maybe only a flaw to me, is that
727
00:52:51,501 --> 00:52:59,437
he uses this kind of pseudoscience that is actually a little bit beneath Lovecraft's acumen, it's a
728
00:52:59,438 --> 00:53:07,509
it explains the mysterious and horrifying events by reference to certain ��essential Saltes ��
729
00:53:07,510 --> 00:53:13,510
and by the lyke Method from the essential Saltes of humane Dust, a Philosopher may,
730
00:53:13,511 --> 00:53:18,492
without criminal Necromancy, call up the Shape of any dead Ancestour"
731
00:53:18,493 --> 00:53:23,000
and that's a little third grade, it's like bad science fiction
732
00:53:23,001 --> 00:53:27,480
a band of raiders confront the doom man and his unhallowed wizardry
733
00:53:27,481 --> 00:53:29,981
that night was never remarked on again
734
00:53:29,982 --> 00:53:35,035
until Charles Ward learned of his descent from Curwen, in 1918
735
00:53:35,036 --> 00:53:37,505
and continued his ancestor's experiments
736
00:53:37,506 --> 00:53:42,200
connecting the past with the present, summoning the unspeakable to life
737
00:53:42,290 --> 00:53:44,321
it's almost like a detective story, you know
738
00:53:44,322 --> 00:53:49,833
Dr Willet is really discovering what happened to Charles Dexter Ward
739
00:53:49,834 --> 00:53:53,801
discovering about Curwen, about the unfortunate accidents
740
00:53:53,802 --> 00:53:58,348
from the efforts to basically bring demons down from the stars
741
00:53:58,349 --> 00:54:03,349
and when they didn't have all the pieces, when they didn't have all the remains, you know
742
00:54:03,350 --> 00:54:08,850
terrible awfulness would be brungup and they'd had to be put somewhere, of course
743
00:54:08,851 --> 00:54:13,917
I wasn't quite sure why they just didn't destroy them, but maybe it was for sport, who knows
744
00:54:13,918 --> 00:54:19,118
it's one of those case where his detractors say what he's writing about "unspeakable horrors"
745
00:54:19,119 --> 00:54:23,000
and simply telling as that, they are unspeakable
746
00:54:23,001 --> 00:54:28,296
in fact that's only get out at the moment when Dr Willet looks down the well and see something
747
00:54:28,297 --> 00:54:32,797
that Lovecraft actually certainly found a metaphor for it
748
00:54:32,798 --> 00:54:39,121
that's "tremendously" more than just the "unspeakable": that's the cosmic in bodily form
749
00:54:39,122 --> 00:54:44,904
though completed, the lengthy tale of Charles Dexter Ward was never typed or submitted
750
00:54:44,905 --> 00:54:48,983
he just left it in a drawer, he didn't think it was worth a bothering with
751
00:54:48,984 --> 00:54:54,700
it was the first draft amazingly I believe "The Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath" was also
752
00:54:54,701 --> 00:54:59,624
how he didn't see the meridian in this stuff, it's just amazing
753
00:54:59,659 --> 00:55:04,548
I don't think he was built to write longer narratives
754
00:55:04,549 --> 00:55:08,492
He went as far as he could that way and it did press the envelope
755
00:55:08,493 --> 00:55:12,234
some of the those letters are really rather long
756
00:55:12,235 --> 00:55:17,590
but they are also "inert" in the certain way that a novel can not afford to be
757
00:55:17,591 --> 00:55:23,645
there was another tale written during this time on which Lovecraft held an entirely different opinion
758
00:55:23,646 --> 00:55:28,053
"The Colour Out Of Space" is just a great science fiction movie
759
00:55:28,054 --> 00:55:30,375
um, story, it should be a movie
760
00:55:30,376 --> 00:55:36,013
although I don't know how you'll do the colour, it's unlike anything we seen, I don't know what that is
761
00:55:36,014 --> 00:55:40,678
There is a type of story where you go to the minimal setting:
762
00:55:40,679 --> 00:55:45,751
a household or a farm a far field, and you
763
00:55:45,752 --> 00:55:52,035
unleash upon them a cosmic melody, you know, a cosmic curse
764
00:55:52,036 --> 00:55:56,360
1882
it all began in 1882, with a meteorite
765
00:55:56,361 --> 00:56:01,202
and by night all Arkham had heard of the great rock that fell out of the sky
766
00:56:01,203 --> 00:56:06,355
and bedded itself in the ground beside the well at the Nahum Gardner place
767
00:56:06,356 --> 00:56:08,320
they had uncovered what seemed to be
768
00:56:08,321 --> 00:56:12,830
the side of a large coloured globule embedded in the substance
769
00:56:12,831 --> 00:56:17,096
the colour, which resembled some of the bands in the meteor's strange spectrum
770
00:56:17,097 --> 00:56:19,631
was almost impossible to describe
771
00:56:19,632 --> 00:56:24,130
and it was only by analogy that they called it colour at all
772
00:56:24,131 --> 00:56:27,418
and "The Colour Out Of Space" it is as the story has it
773
00:56:27,419 --> 00:56:32,500
just a colour out of space, it's literally indescribable in prose terms
774
00:56:32,501 --> 00:56:35,799
it's something that almost impossible to even detect
775
00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:41,157
it's something that so incredibly insidious, there is no escaping from it
776
00:56:41,158 --> 00:56:45,757
except by geographically removing yourself as far as you can from the place
777
00:56:45,758 --> 00:56:48,758
by the next harvest, flora and fauna are found deformed
778
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:53,489
and the Gardner family is infected with unexplained madness
779
00:56:53,490 --> 00:56:57,458
6
it happened in June, about the anniversary of the meteor's fall
780
00:56:57,459 --> 00:57:02,473
and the poor woman screamed about things in the air which she could not describe
781
00:57:02,474 --> 00:57:06,128
in her raving there was not a single specific noun
782
00:57:06,129 --> 00:57:09,130
she was being drained of something
783
00:57:09,131 --> 00:57:12,492
something was fastening itself on her that ought not to be
784
00:57:12,493 --> 00:57:15,918
it wasn't just the meteorite, it was something that inside the meteorite
785
00:57:15,919 --> 00:57:22,214
That begins to spread and poison the landscape and mutate the landscape and the people
786
00:57:22,215 --> 00:57:27,025
it's one of those stories that Lovecraft moves into physical gruesomeness
787
00:57:27,026 --> 00:57:31,506
the effects on the unlucky family that in the farm house
788
00:57:31,507 --> 00:57:37,999
but it passes beyond that into absolute awesomeness, a kind of real transcendental quality of terror
789
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:41,960
the best Lovecraft had achieved
790
00:57:41,961 --> 00:57:44,794
though "The Call Of Cthulhu" looked to the stars
791
00:57:44,795 --> 00:57:49,610
"The Colour Out Of Space" was clearly set in the realm of science fiction
792
00:57:49,611 --> 00:57:55,190
for this very reason, Lovecraft submitted his tale to the new journal "Amazing Stories"
793
00:57:55,191 --> 00:57:59,106
19279
though they would eagerly publish this story in September of 1927
794
00:57:59,107 --> 00:58:05,621
their lack of payment convinced Lovecraft that he should never stray far from the known quantity of "Weird Tales"
795
00:58:05,622 --> 00:58:11,622
they would be the only magazine he formally submitted to for the rest of his life
796
00:58:13,183 --> 00:58:19,099
1928
during a 1928's excursion to Massachusetts, Lovecraft happened on a ring of stones
797
00:58:19,100 --> 00:58:23,339
oldest of all are the great rings of rough-hewn stone columns on the hill-tops
798
00:58:23,340 --> 00:58:29,874
more generally attributed to the Indians than to the settlers
799
00:58:29,875 --> 00:58:34,124
along with talk of witch blood, the eerie cries of the whippoorwills
800
00:58:34,125 --> 00:58:40,282
and the ever present Old Ones, Lovecraft shaped "The Dunwich Horror"
801
00:58:40,283 --> 00:58:47,065
it was in the township of Dunwich, that Wilbur Whateley was born on the 2nd of February 1913
802
00:58:47,066 --> 00:58:51,853
Lavinia Whateley had no known husband, but according to the custom of the region
803
00:58:51,854 --> 00:58:54,414
made no attempt to disavow the child
804
00:58:54,614 --> 00:59:00,117
there is an inbreeding between, you know, gods and man, and they produced
805
00:59:00,118 --> 00:59:03,618
you know, whatever you produced, you got this ��half-god half-man�� thing
806
00:59:03,619 --> 00:59:08,224
Wilbur Whateley's grandfather is old wizard Whateley
807
00:59:08,225 --> 00:59:14,079
he's an eccentric New England hick, what's his motivation is he trying to end the world
808
00:59:14,080 --> 00:59:18,223
because he is some kind of sadie and nihilist, no, he just needs a few extra bucks
809
00:59:18,224 --> 00:59:25,000
-
And Yog-Sothoth agrees to give him a pirate blossom fee to pimps out his daughter to him
810
00:59:25,095 --> 00:59:31,712
At the age of 10 Wilbur Whateley attained an unnatural size, that of a fully grown man
811
00:59:31,713 --> 00:59:35,749
his facial aspect, too, was remarkable for its maturity
812
00:59:35,750 --> 00:59:39,388
exceedingly ugly despite his appearance of brilliancy
813
00:59:39,389 --> 00:59:43,885
there being something almost goatish or animalistic about his thick lips
814
00:59:43,886 --> 00:59:47,800
large-pored, yellowish skin, coarse crinkly hair
815
00:59:47,801 --> 00:59:50,400
and oddly elongated ears
816
00:59:50,435 --> 00:59:53,000
what troubled the residents of Dunwich even more
817
00:59:53,001 --> 00:59:59,343
was a number of cattle purchased by Old Whateley without ever increasing the size of his stock
818
00:59:59,344 --> 01:00:04,224
and the dreaded something being kept in the upper part of the Whateley farm house
819
01:00:04,225 --> 01:00:08,214
they are twins when they were born to Lavinia and that, you know
820
01:00:08,215 --> 01:00:15,279
one is a normal, mostly normal looking, you know, 8 foot tall goat-ish looking man
821
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:22,262
and a half thing, you know, an invisible half brother which is much more like his father
822
01:00:22,263 --> 01:00:25,925
soon, a mysterious thunder was heard in the woods
823
01:00:25,926 --> 01:00:29,226
livestock and eventually entire family's disappeared
824
01:00:29,227 --> 01:00:33,605
and Wilbur Whateley was discovered breaking into Miskatonic library
825
01:00:33,606 --> 01:00:39,744
in search of a complete "Necronomicon", one that contains the rites for the Old Ones' return
826
01:00:39,745 --> 01:00:44,069
Yog-Sothoth knows the gateYog-Sothoth is the gate
827
01:00:44,070 --> 01:00:47,483
Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate
828
01:00:47,484 --> 01:00:52,348
past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth
829
01:00:52,383 --> 01:00:58,427
"The Dunwich Horror" earned Lovecraft his biggest pay day from "Weird Tales": 240 dollars
830
01:00:58,428 --> 01:01:05,465
but again, Lovecraft failed to capitalize on his success, and would not write for more than a year
831
01:01:05,466 --> 01:01:10,819
this time Lovecraft's reticent was due to a desire for artistic growth
832
01:01:10,820 --> 01:01:17,899
There are my Poe pieces and my Dunsany pieces, but alas, where are my Lovecraft pieces
833
01:01:17,900 --> 01:01:25,500
Lovecraft's writing on the surface appears to be imitations of other writers
834
01:01:25,501 --> 01:01:31,139
if you see the early stories, there is a much more constrain sense of scope
835
01:01:31,140 --> 01:01:38,640
and towards the end of his life he was gaining as a writer I think, and gaining as an artist and as a human being
836
01:01:38,641 --> 01:01:42,039
and his view of the world became more ample
837
01:01:42,040 --> 01:01:47,148
and I think when Lovecraft shed the influence of Dunsany
838
01:01:47,149 --> 01:01:52,500
and started writing like Lovecraft that's when things take off
839
01:01:52,501 --> 01:01:57,792
he was writing much better fiction, he was witting much more contemporary fiction
840
01:01:57,793 --> 01:02:04,137
in many senses, I mean in the sense that the language was more contemporary and the settings were more contemporary
841
01:02:04,481 --> 01:02:11,381
you can even see how some of his descriptions has started becoming more specific, you know
842
01:02:11,382 --> 01:02:17,645
they go from being "unnamable of seen things" to being described as
843
01:02:17,646 --> 01:02:24,775
a cucumber body with thrones or tentacles with proboscis
844
01:02:24,776 --> 01:02:28,663
you know he really started relishing that and
845
01:02:28,664 --> 01:02:35,366
he started to give a sense of dignity and history to these creatures that I think is unique
846
01:02:35,367 --> 01:02:42,367
with Providence as a life line, Lovecraft was emboldened to venture further and further in art and in life
847
01:02:42,368 --> 01:02:45,874
hHis correspondence engaged in healthy discussions
848
01:02:45,974 --> 01:02:47,974
on race, man and civilization
849
01:02:47,975 --> 01:02:51,726
the more Lovecraft exposes himself to other opinions and places
850
01:02:51,727 --> 01:02:55,077
the more his views and phobias began to soften
851
01:02:55,078 --> 01:02:58,806
this self improvement did not extent to his marriage, however
852
01:02:58,807 --> 01:03:03,586
since his return to Providence, Sonia has seen very little of her husband
853
01:03:03,587 --> 01:03:09,716
while she remained in New York for the sake of a career, Lovecraft favored his cherished city
854
01:03:09,717 --> 01:03:16,877
on March 25th 1929, after constant pleads from Sonia, the Lovecrafts filed for a divorce
855
01:03:16,878 --> 01:03:22,340
Sonia went on to Europe, a place Lovecraft had always long to visit but never did
856
01:03:22,341 --> 01:03:29,140
later she moved to California where she remarried and led a full life until 1972
857
01:03:29,141 --> 01:03:33,294
in 1930, Lovecraft had begun work on a new tale
858
01:03:33,295 --> 01:03:40,104
by the time it was published in August of 1931, the changes in Lovecraft could be glimpsed on the page
859
01:03:40,105 --> 01:03:42,488
well you need to celebrate "The Whisperer In Darkness"
860
01:03:42,489 --> 01:03:48,684
because the astronomers now have taken the planetary status away from Pluto
861
01:03:48,685 --> 01:03:52,328
which is to say, you know, ��Yuggoth, Black Yuggoth on the rim��
862
01:03:52,329 --> 01:03:54,436
and in fact, "The Whisperer In Darkness"
863
01:03:54,437 --> 01:04:00,937
this was Lovecraft's reaction to the discovery of a new planet
864
01:04:00,938 --> 01:04:03,938
after a rash of unprecedented floods in Vermont
865
01:04:03,939 --> 01:04:08,362
misshaped cadavers washed up along the river banks
866
01:04:08,363 --> 01:04:11,529
they were pinkish things about five feet long;
867
01:04:11,530 --> 01:04:15,121
with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins
868
01:04:15,122 --> 01:04:20,938
or membraneous wings and several sets of articulated limbs
869
01:04:20,939 --> 01:04:24,034
Albert N Wilmarth, of the Miskatonic University
870
01:04:24,035 --> 01:04:28,412
begins to investigate the origins of these alien things
871
01:04:28,413 --> 01:04:33,379
the blasphemies that appeared on earth, came from the dark planet Yuggoth
872
01:04:33,380 --> 01:04:36,868
but this was itself merely the populous outpostof a frightful
873
01:04:36,869 --> 01:04:40,203
interstellar race whose ultimate source
874
01:04:40,204 --> 01:04:45,043
must lie far outside even the Einsteinian space-time continuum
875
01:04:45,044 --> 01:04:49,999
it's actually one of Lovecraft's most restrained stories, there are very few that runs of agitates
876
01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:54,500
most of it is done as a sense of letters, um, something I imagine
877
01:04:54,501 --> 01:05:00,724
he probably learned, there's some example there from the novel Dracula, which he greatly admired
878
01:05:00,725 --> 01:05:03,947
through the first hand contact with his colleague Henry Akeley,
879
01:05:03,948 --> 01:05:09,000
Wilmarth learns of the dark intention behind the buzzing creatures
880
01:05:09,001 --> 01:05:14,374
what Akeley deems are deadly danger, however turns out to be something else entirely
881
01:05:14,375 --> 01:05:19,206
in the last stage of Lovecraft's career, when he began to write the best stories, in spite there being
882
01:05:19,207 --> 01:05:25,155
what I called "inert" earlier, you can see him taking a different angle of vision
883
01:05:25,156 --> 01:05:28,870
And masters of the heart what is known as "The Mythos"
884
01:05:28,871 --> 01:05:34,820
"The Whisperer In Darkness", probably the first story in which one begins to see this shifting attitude
885
01:05:34,821 --> 01:05:37,500
They are still frightening, and
886
01:05:37,501 --> 01:05:45,072
and when their voices are recorded on tape ,they are intensely scary beings
887
01:05:46,700 --> 01:05:52,700
but they may not be completely inimical to the human race
888
01:05:52,701 --> 01:05:57,571
in fact the fungi from "Yuggoth" wish to expand man's senses
889
01:05:57,572 --> 01:06:01,812
to enable his exploration of the cosmos and its secrets
890
01:06:01,813 --> 01:06:07,299
this process however, involves removing the brain and placing it in a cylinder for the journey
891
01:06:07,300 --> 01:06:12,764
all in the spirit of discovery, but hardly harmless
892
01:06:12,765 --> 01:06:18,831
it's all a scam it's like people today that say, oh there is no problem with these lamofascism
893
01:06:18,832 --> 01:06:21,927
where is the problem, these people are merely misunderstood
894
01:06:21,928 --> 01:06:27,228
now you are wrong, and you better hope you don't pay with your life for this stupidity
895
01:06:27,263 --> 01:06:31,413
and Wilmarth getting sucked into this thing and it isn't even Akeley anymore
896
01:06:31,414 --> 01:06:34,478
His brain's in a can somewhere and he's being
897
01:06:34,479 --> 01:06:40,157
a "led off the path" by the buzzing lobsters and all that
898
01:06:40,158 --> 01:06:44,521
so that you being set up, if you think that's the case
899
01:06:44,522 --> 01:06:51,042
still, "The Whisperer In Darkness" could be seen as a sign of tolerance to come
900
01:06:51,043 --> 01:06:53,781
during the last years of his life
901
01:06:53,782 --> 01:06:59,208
Lovecraft's travels continued to expand his first hand knowledge of changing world around him
902
01:06:59,209 --> 01:07:01,709
he was making up for last time
903
01:07:01,710 --> 01:07:05,016
but this long differed semi-introduction to the world, did not take
904
01:07:05,017 --> 01:07:10,792
as thoroughly as it might have done, had I being chronologically anger
905
01:07:10,793 --> 01:07:15,024
Lovecraft's fans could not keep up with his thirst for growth
906
01:07:15,025 --> 01:07:20,273
ghost writing continued, but it's anonymity was becoming unattractive all the more
907
01:07:20,274 --> 01:07:25,571
1931
so in early 1931 Lovecraft began work on another original story:
908
01:07:25,572 --> 01:07:28,772
A tale of ancient Antarctic horror
909
01:07:28,773 --> 01:07:33,136
it is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this contemplated
910
01:07:33,137 --> 01:07:37,834
invasion of the antarcticwith its vast fossil-hunt
911
01:07:37,835 --> 01:07:41,801
and its wholesale boring and melting of the ancient ice-cap
912
01:07:41,802 --> 01:07:44,302
to deter the exploring world in general
913
01:07:44,303 --> 01:07:51,276
from any rash and overambitious programme in the region of those mountains ofmadness
914
01:07:51,277 --> 01:07:54,277
some of the descriptive passages in "At The Mountains Of Madness"
915
01:07:54,278 --> 01:07:59,180
seemed to me to rank with the great geographical fantasies of literature
916
01:07:59,181 --> 01:08:05,268
actually I just think it's a paintly quality in that novel you probably don't find so much in his other work
917
01:08:05,500 --> 01:08:10,490
it is one of those places where all of the different influences come together
918
01:08:10,491 --> 01:08:16,185
the idea of you are trekking across the ice, it's quite horrible, it's Antarctic
919
01:08:16,186 --> 01:08:21,999
and it is science fiction and you know it's about an incursion by aliens
920
01:08:22,000 --> 01:08:24,805
in the foot hills of this towering cliffs
921
01:08:24,806 --> 01:08:29,373
an expedition discovered the fossil remains of a pre-Cambrian race
922
01:08:29,448 --> 01:08:34,337
found monstrous barrel-shaped fossil of wholly unknown nature
923
01:08:34,338 --> 01:08:37,681
in furrows between ridges are curious growths
924
01:08:37,682 --> 01:08:41,602
combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans
925
01:08:41,603 --> 01:08:44,603
arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth
926
01:08:44,604 --> 01:08:48,946
especially fabled Elder Things inNecronomicon
927
01:08:48,947 --> 01:08:53,485
supposed to have created all earth-life as jest or mistake
928
01:08:53,486 --> 01:08:57,493
one of the most horrific ideas was that
929
01:08:57,494 --> 01:09:02,494
the things that descent us were astounding starting almost dissecting them
930
01:09:02,495 --> 01:09:07,037
you know, that is, that is a revelation of intelligence and curiosity
931
01:09:07,038 --> 01:09:12,400
the sense of curiosity these things have leaving little trails around the equipment down so forth
932
01:09:12,401 --> 01:09:20,169
that was what was so scary to me Something terribly and horrifying chased these men out
933
01:09:20,170 --> 01:09:25,500
you know, something that was supposed to be a fossil record is after them
934
01:09:25,501 --> 01:09:30,012
after the mysterious and utterly violation of the advance team
935
01:09:30,013 --> 01:09:34,925
the survivors of the unfortunate expedition discovered a cyclopean city
936
01:09:34,926 --> 01:09:36,725
hidden among the peaks
937
01:09:36,726 --> 01:09:41,147
there, they learn the tragic history of the star-headed Elder Things
938
01:09:41,148 --> 01:09:43,118
their shaping of life on earth
939
01:09:43,119 --> 01:09:46,552
surviving war with other races of cosmic infinity
940
01:09:46,553 --> 01:09:50,291
and falling prey to their slave race of Shoggoths,
941
01:09:50,292 --> 01:09:56,000
protoplasmic masses, capable of molding their tissues into all sorts of forms
942
01:09:56,001 --> 01:10:00,814
you know in the 60s there's an idea that aliens had come here and had kind of created the human race
943
01:10:01,000 --> 01:10:05,581
but that idea really was old, compared to what Lovecraft had trimmed up:
944
01:10:05,582 --> 01:10:12,597
which is the idea of these battling alien forces, you know on earth, and that man ended somehow inheriting this thing almost by default,
945
01:10:12,598 --> 01:10:17,598
because these two major presences had sort of wiped each other out
946
01:10:17,599 --> 01:10:25,670
the Old Ones in "At The Mountains of Madness��, are scientists they were artists, they were architects
947
01:10:25,671 --> 01:10:29,373
yes, they are tentacled cucumbers with wings but
948
01:10:29,374 --> 01:10:32,874
they are sentiment and intelligent beings
949
01:10:32,875 --> 01:10:37,875
and that sense of intelligence make the evil at work in Lovecraft's story
950
01:10:37,876 --> 01:10:39,375
much more intense
951
01:10:39,376 --> 01:10:45,376
"At The Mountains of Madness" also displayed two new reactions to the fictional "unknowns"
952
01:10:45,377 --> 01:10:47,656
fellowship and empathy
953
01:10:47,898 --> 01:10:51,898
the real imaginative achievement for him
954
01:10:51,899 --> 01:10:59,500
to have seen these threatening beings in a warmer light, eventually He kind of fell in love with them
955
01:10:59,501 --> 01:11:01,523
he's been in love with them all along, actually
956
01:11:01,996 --> 01:11:08,923
the Old Ones they may have been crinoid pickle shaped barrels with wings and starfishes for head
957
01:11:08,924 --> 01:11:12,683
in a bad sense of humor, but they were man
958
01:11:12,684 --> 01:11:14,684
but why is that
959
01:11:14,685 --> 01:11:20,000
because now, they got the rebelled slaves the Shoggoths to worry about
960
01:11:20,001 --> 01:11:26,008
so as Lovecraft seen a different group as same as him
961
01:11:26,009 --> 01:11:28,072
because all people are equal
962
01:11:28,073 --> 01:11:32,336
or he sympathized with them as slave owners who are now on the run
963
01:11:32,337 --> 01:11:38,150
from a even weirder race, so I don't know what that means really, you know, they are not so bad
964
01:11:38,151 --> 01:11:45,046
there's lead a sly guy aim against the opody bad guys
965
01:11:45,047 --> 01:11:50,440
I think there is a huge Lovecraftian influence, a huge "At The Mountains of Madness" Influence
966
01:11:50,441 --> 01:11:52,941
on the first Ridley Scott "Alien"
967
01:11:52,942 --> 01:11:58,740
the idea of a ship that essentially lands on a planet
968
01:11:58,741 --> 01:12:04,007
and they find out there lived city sized ship
969
01:12:04,008 --> 01:12:11,758
and dead ancients in it and something that is very much alive and waiting
970
01:12:11,759 --> 01:12:13,946
and then takes over the humans,
971
01:12:13,947 --> 01:12:19,081
that's essentially you could say very much ��At The Mountains of Madness��
972
01:12:19,082 --> 01:12:26,652
it has influence the story that ��The Thing�� was based on, which was another rip-off of ��At The Mountains of Madness��
973
01:12:26,653 --> 01:12:30,163
so, I think its repercussions are very cinematic
974
01:12:30,364 --> 01:12:34,043
this was the crowning jewel of the "Cthulhu Mythos"
975
01:12:34,044 --> 01:12:37,625
it clearly came out as the crushing blow when Farnswoth Wright
976
01:12:37,626 --> 01:12:42,177
editor of "Weird Tales", rejected it
977
01:12:42,178 --> 01:12:48,219
by then sadly, Lovecraft had really decided that you know he no longer had
978
01:12:48,220 --> 01:12:52,999
any ability to express and convey the kind of thing he wanted to convey
979
01:12:53,000 --> 01:12:59,059
he was to write very little prose fiction for the last few years of his life
980
01:12:59,060 --> 01:13:03,114
thought more stories were attempted over the next few years
981
01:13:03,115 --> 01:13:07,018
most, like "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", were problematic for Lovecraft
982
01:13:07,019 --> 01:13:14,019
Lovecraft himself seemed almost embarrassed by "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"
983
01:13:14,373 --> 01:13:17,873
and I think probably he understood, he undoubtedly understood that it was
984
01:13:17,874 --> 01:13:25,891
in a sense, kind of a reversion, a hearkening back to the same sort of xenophobic prejudices
985
01:13:25,892 --> 01:13:28,472
that he had embraced in his youth
986
01:13:28,473 --> 01:13:31,613
and why is everybody so down on Innsmouth
987
01:13:31,614 --> 01:13:33,820
some of the stories would make you laugh
988
01:13:33,821 --> 01:13:37,123
about old Captain Marsh driving bargains with the devil
989
01:13:37,124 --> 01:13:40,011
and bringing imps out of hell to live in Innsmouth
990
01:13:40,012 --> 01:13:42,534
some of 'em have queer narrow heads
991
01:13:42,535 --> 01:13:47,069
with flat noses and bulgy, starry eyes that never seem to shut
992
01:13:47,070 --> 01:13:49,741
and their skin ain't quite right
993
01:13:49,742 --> 01:13:55,649
these things are creatures that are born looking normal and the older they get, the stranger they become
994
01:13:55,650 --> 01:14:02,650
until eventually their transformation will be complete and they'll slither off into the sea where they will live forever
995
01:14:02,651 --> 01:14:05,996
it's definitely a sort of biological horror story
996
01:14:05,997 --> 01:14:09,497
where you have the break down of the, not just the human society but of the human body
997
01:14:09,498 --> 01:14:15,622
but I think the over writing concern is actually about culture, you have
998
01:14:15,623 --> 01:14:19,485
the culture of the "Deep Ones"coming up and over the decades
999
01:14:19,486 --> 01:14:23,173
eating away the culture of Innsmouth and so that finally Innsmouth will vanish
1000
01:14:23,174 --> 01:14:28,382
there is to be sure a kind of racist or xenophobic under current to that story
1001
01:14:28,383 --> 01:14:34,883
but I think it's very subtle and very indirectly expressed
1002
01:14:34,884 --> 01:14:39,349
I'm now begin to think it must be one of Lovecraft's one or two best stories
1003
01:14:39,350 --> 01:14:44,901
and he does something that you don't see a whole lot of Lovecraft doing: writing action scenes
1004
01:14:44,902 --> 01:14:50,182
I still think the escape from the Gilman Hotel is a marvelous action scene and running across
1005
01:14:50,183 --> 01:14:56,883
and running into the parade of horrific frog-fish things
1006
01:14:56,884 --> 01:14:59,186
it's it's just wonderful and not the sort of thing that he did a lot
1007
01:14:59,187 --> 01:15:05,028
Lovecraft never formally submitted "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" for publication
1008
01:15:05,029 --> 01:15:09,180
partially, Lovecraft marginalized himself
1009
01:15:09,181 --> 01:15:13,019
cause he was never become merry of his own work
1010
01:15:13,020 --> 01:15:17,194
but I think readers and critics neglected to see
1011
01:15:17,195 --> 01:15:19,731
the imagination worked behind what he wrote
1012
01:15:19,732 --> 01:15:25,276
it would be a few more years before modern tastes turned in his favor
1013
01:15:25,277 --> 01:15:29,347
at the end of 1935, New York agent Julius Schwartz
1014
01:15:29,348 --> 01:15:34,188
was able to sound the previously rejected "At The Mountains Of Madness";
1015
01:15:34,189 --> 01:15:36,189
thanks to the efforts of Donald Wandrei,
1016
01:15:36,190 --> 01:15:39,436
"The Shadow Out Of Time", sold soon after,
1017
01:15:39,437 --> 01:15:45,543
giving Lovecraft his highest combined payday a total of 595 dollars
1018
01:15:45,544 --> 01:15:50,422
by the end of 1936, just as success seemed a possibility
1019
01:15:50,423 --> 01:15:53,407
Lovecraft's health began to diminish
1020
01:15:53,408 --> 01:15:57,390
in many ways I think if Lovecraft had preserved his health
1021
01:15:57,391 --> 01:16:02,900
he would have become a well-known writer in the 40s and 50s, if he had lived that long
1022
01:16:03,126 --> 01:16:07,621
I think Lovecraft really dead at the pinnacle of his talent
1023
01:16:07,622 --> 01:16:13,493
Lovecraft had been suffering from a small collection of ailments, including digestive trouble
1024
01:16:13,494 --> 01:16:19,994
by the time he submitted to a doctor's diagnosis, the cancer has spread through his small intestine
1025
01:16:19,995 --> 01:16:25,169
H.P.Lovecraft died on the morning of March 15th, 1937
1026
01:16:25,170 --> 01:16:28,170
he was 46 and a half years old
1027
01:16:32,035 --> 01:16:36,035
although he knew himself celebrated in a small circle
1028
01:16:36,036 --> 01:16:39,683
he never broke through to the public in any sense at all, and
1029
01:16:39,684 --> 01:16:46,713
therefore when he died he would have been justified and thinking himself as a failure or as a very very obscure writer
1030
01:16:46,714 --> 01:16:51,100
if it weren't for Lovecraft's disciples he would have been forgotten
1031
01:16:51,101 --> 01:16:56,169
it was people like Derleth and Robert Block and so forth that kept Lovecraft alive and
1032
01:16:56,170 --> 01:16:59,920
they went out and actually got his books published
1033
01:16:59,921 --> 01:17:03,877
in 1939, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei
1034
01:17:03,878 --> 01:17:06,901
two of Lovecraft's most earnest supporters
1035
01:17:06,902 --> 01:17:10,949
achieved what known had been able to do in Lovecraft's life time:
1036
01:17:10,950 --> 01:17:14,717
they founded "Arkham House" and released a selections of stories entitled
1037
01:17:14,718 --> 01:17:18,409
"The Outsider And Others" by HP Lovecraft
1038
01:17:18,410 --> 01:17:23,947
well "Arkham House" came into being virtually out of Lovecraft's death, I mean
1039
01:17:23,948 --> 01:17:29,578
almost immediately on the news of Lovecraft's death reaching August Derleth
1040
01:17:29,579 --> 01:17:33,705
it existed initially to publish Lovecraft
1041
01:17:33,706 --> 01:17:38,930
and then continued with an astonishing record as a small press
1042
01:17:38,931 --> 01:17:43,883
falling down a bit and decided to do more Lovecraft and then indeed to do
1043
01:17:43,884 --> 01:17:51,873
and more of the other great writers form ��Weird Tales�� Fritz Leiber for instance And Donald Wandrei himself
1044
01:17:51,874 --> 01:17:57,987
you know the "Arkham House" books became, for the most part incredibly valuable incredibly quickly that was sought after by book collectors
1045
01:17:58,103 --> 01:18:04,087
not because they were rare, but because they were good
1046
01:18:04,088 --> 01:18:09,031
for certainly over a decade or more there was no publisher other than the ��Arkham House��
1047
01:18:09,032 --> 01:18:11,607
specialized in mainly supernatural horror and
1048
01:18:11,608 --> 01:18:15,136
very small snatch in science fiction
1049
01:18:15,137 --> 01:18:19,263
it was a cheap, disposable literature
1050
01:18:19,264 --> 01:18:21,764
and "Arkham House" was one of the very first places
1051
01:18:21,765 --> 01:18:26,817
to actually say some of these stuff needs to come out, respectably
1052
01:18:26,818 --> 01:18:29,318
since the success of "Arkham House"
1053
01:18:29,319 --> 01:18:33,573
many writer have continued to expand "The Cthulhu Mythos"
1054
01:18:33,574 --> 01:18:37,674
in fact this was a practice Lovecraft encouraged when he was alive
1055
01:18:37,675 --> 01:18:39,528
it's part of the Lovecraft game:
1056
01:18:39,529 --> 01:18:44,922
it's you know, it's like, you get it, and you want to add to it and passed it on
1057
01:18:44,923 --> 01:18:48,482
and it's been part of the Lovecraft's game from the very beginning
1058
01:18:48,483 --> 01:18:54,569
that Firtz Lieber's, the Bloch's, umall of these people and August Derleth
1059
01:18:54,570 --> 01:19:00,025
they took a little of this, took the story added to it, passed it on
1060
01:19:00,026 --> 01:19:02,216
and so then we started doing it
1061
01:19:02,217 --> 01:19:07,200
the problem when I was a teenager was, you know I read Lovecraft, I thought, this is how you'll do it
1062
01:19:07,201 --> 01:19:12,263
but unfortunately what I meant by this to myself was, you know, this is how you limited it
1063
01:19:12,264 --> 01:19:17,174
and were still, I'm the one never been more than twenty miles away from Liverpool, in England
1064
01:19:17,175 --> 01:19:22,522
I've set these stories in Massachusetts,you know, in Arkham and places like that, in Kingsport
1065
01:19:22,523 --> 01:19:26,528
and it was painfully obvious that I've never been very far from Liverpool
1066
01:19:26,529 --> 01:19:29,383
particularly when the, the rustics opened their mouth
1067
01:19:29,384 --> 01:19:33,884
if you read story like "The Mist", King's novel, that's pure Lovecraft
1068
01:19:33,885 --> 01:19:39,863
it's about these tentacle things breaking through from some other dimension
1069
01:19:39,864 --> 01:19:44,364
and terrorizing grocery store guests in Maine
1070
01:19:44,365 --> 01:19:49,652
that's pure Lovecraft, I am sure
1071
01:19:49,653 --> 01:19:53,084
I did this story called "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar"
1072
01:19:53,085 --> 01:19:59,117
in which I have two Loveraftian spices complaining about Lovecraft as a writer
1073
01:19:59,118 --> 01:20:04,707
but the truth is, that we only parody things that have life
1074
01:20:04,708 --> 01:20:12,643
there is no point in parodying something dead, there is no point in parodying something in which one has no interest
1075
01:20:12,644 --> 01:20:16,034
and there is no point parodying or making fun of something that doesn't matter
1076
01:20:16,035 --> 01:20:21,778
and almost 100 years after his death, Lovecraft still matters
1077
01:20:21,779 --> 01:20:25,251
and it is a passion that continued to this day
1078
01:20:25,252 --> 01:20:28,176
even in the face of criticism
1079
01:20:28,177 --> 01:20:32,575
well, there's always gonna be a kind of snobbery about supernatural horror fiction I think
1080
01:20:32,576 --> 01:20:38,576
you know, I mean the writer needs to be dead for maybe 100 years before he is fully taken and associated
1081
01:20:38,577 --> 01:20:42,248
every creator that dwells in the genre, must assume
1082
01:20:42,249 --> 01:20:46,753
his work will not be appreciated as if he was doing ��straight�� stuff
1083
01:20:46,754 --> 01:20:48,778
it's been ghettoized
1084
01:20:48,779 --> 01:20:55,311
it's really not the proper the proper occupation of a serious writer
1085
01:20:55,312 --> 01:20:58,926
I mean look at what happened with Stephen King with that war with him years ago
1086
01:20:58,927 --> 01:21:03,470
people, I mean they started to put him down, cause he wasn't writing serious stuff
1087
01:21:03,471 --> 01:21:06,971
it's very easy for us now to forget
1088
01:21:06,972 --> 01:21:11,350
in a world in which you know, as a fantasy horror science fiction whatever the hell I am, author
1089
01:21:11,351 --> 01:21:16,985
my books are gonna come out in the hum back just like anybody else is and
1090
01:21:16,986 --> 01:21:23,196
they gonna be on shelves like anybody else is, that didn't used to be the case
1091
01:21:23,197 --> 01:21:27,337
but I think probably at the moment we saw Lovecraft
1092
01:21:27,338 --> 01:21:30,737
in the Penguin Modern Classics I think
1093
01:21:30,738 --> 01:21:36,953
there is no question whatsoever that is fully established and about time too
1094
01:21:36,954 --> 01:21:44,855
he is being translate into something like 25 languages around the world, from Czech to Polish
1095
01:21:44,856 --> 01:21:48,726
to Japanese, Korean there's a Bengali edition
1096
01:21:48,727 --> 01:21:53,526
a lot of people had kind of being introduced to Lovecraft without even knowing it was Lovecraft, you know, you've got things like
1097
01:21:53,527 --> 01:21:59,486
you know, "Hellboy", which is you know which is borrowing very heavily you know from the Lovecraft mythos
1098
01:21:59,487 --> 01:22:06,753
and even things like "Pirates Of The Caribbean", Davy Jones looking like you know, he had just crawl out of Lovecraft's
1099
01:22:06,754 --> 01:22:08,721
you know, looks like "Cthulhu"
1100
01:22:08,722 --> 01:22:12,016
you look around these days and you got the plush Cthulhu phenomenon
1101
01:22:12,017 --> 01:22:16,624
you get Cthulhu slippers, you get funny Cthulhu hats
1102
01:22:16,625 --> 01:22:20,280
one of the things I think is so amazing is, I've met a group of people who
1103
01:22:20,282 --> 01:22:24,245
were into playing these Lovecraft "The Call Of Cthulhu" games and so forth
1104
01:22:24,280 --> 01:22:28,351
and they know all of the Lovecraft creatures but they had never ever read Lovecraft
1105
01:22:28,352 --> 01:22:30,029
and they don't know what his other stories were
1106
01:22:30,030 --> 01:22:35,469
his images are so utray and ghastly and macabre and colorful
1107
01:22:35,470 --> 01:22:39,509
that they influenced all kinds of rock n' roll bands
1108
01:22:39,510 --> 01:22:44,077
I think he also, literally appeals to the outsider
1109
01:22:44,078 --> 01:22:49,077
and the person who is not well-accepted in society, who is a little bit of a loner
1110
01:22:49,112 --> 01:22:54,077
I think one of the reasons of Lovecraft is so popular today
1111
01:22:54,078 --> 01:23:00,578
is that his view which is a very dark one, you know that man is lucky to be ignorant
1112
01:23:00,579 --> 01:23:05,449
I think it's what he used to say Because if he knew the truth he could either go crazy or he would kill himself, it's one that
1113
01:23:05,450 --> 01:23:07,950
everyone can relate to these days
1114
01:23:07,951 --> 01:23:14,451
Every election, you'll see the bumper sticker saying: "Vote for Cthulhu! Why settle for the lesser evil!"
1115
01:23:14,452 --> 01:23:18,379
such is Lovecraft's fame, that some occultists insist that the Cthulhu mythos
1116
01:23:18,380 --> 01:23:21,339
is no myth
1117
01:23:21,340 --> 01:23:26,786
I know every religion begins as the delusion of one or two people
1118
01:23:26,787 --> 01:23:32,187
and once enough people sign on, it's become the world view and as if you can inhabit in it
1119
01:23:32,188 --> 01:23:37,245
and live everyday life and no longer seemed sane and
1120
01:23:37,246 --> 01:23:41,397
when you are one of the very few who have believed in it there is a kind of intensity
1121
01:23:41,398 --> 01:23:45,172
that results in unbalanced character and that sort of
1122
01:23:45,173 --> 01:23:48,673
what I'm afraid of with cultists that
1123
01:23:48,674 --> 01:23:52,999
actually believed there are Old Ones
1124
01:23:53,000 --> 01:24:00,300
I think that every time somebody comes out with a world that's fully flashed on as Lovecraft creates
1125
01:24:00,301 --> 01:24:05,033
you are bound to find people that will start to speak in Klingon
1126
01:24:05,034 --> 01:24:09,129
or dressing like a "hobbit" to go to the supermarket or
1127
01:24:09,130 --> 01:24:16,201
believed they could really channel in a couple of Old Ones into their living room
1128
01:24:16,202 --> 01:24:22,500
You know and I believe that somebody have actually even died trying to evoke some of the Ancient Gods
1129
01:24:22,501 --> 01:24:25,858
I knew people that handled "Star Wars" this way
1130
01:24:25,859 --> 01:24:31,500
they were so absorbed in it, one of them wished it were true, you could tell
1131
01:24:31,501 --> 01:24:37,884
and another believed it was all true in a parallel world
1132
01:24:37,885 --> 01:24:41,308
and you know you began to go off to the deep den
1133
01:24:41,309 --> 01:24:47,437
so ,you know, I would defiantly not advised to put too much money or effort into
1134
01:24:47,438 --> 01:24:54,560
invoking that"Shoggoth" into the kitchen but, it's up to you
1135
01:24:54,561 --> 01:24:58,901
The oldest and strongest emotion of man kind is fear
1136
01:24:58,902 --> 01:25:04,812
and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown
1137
01:25:04,813 --> 01:25:07,278
we live in a world in which
1138
01:25:07,279 --> 01:25:12,774
even if you don't know who "Cthulhu"is,even if you've never read any Lovecraft
1139
01:25:12,775 --> 01:25:15,375
you can kind of get the jokes
1140
01:25:15,376 --> 01:25:21,666
and well certainly far too many people not limits me imitating him too closely
1141
01:25:21,667 --> 01:25:25,363
he also had a profound influence on people divers as
1142
01:25:25,364 --> 01:25:31,818
Fritz Leiber, as Poppy Z Brite, Caitlin Kiernan, T.E.D Klein you name it
1143
01:25:31,819 --> 01:25:37,319
for me what the brilliance of Lovecraft, what so important about Lovecraft is, um
1144
01:25:37,320 --> 01:25:40,545
Is simply his imagination
1145
01:25:40,546 --> 01:25:47,692
it's incredible, to think that this guy who was this recluse living in this you know little house
1146
01:25:47,693 --> 01:25:55,204
In Providence, Rhode Island ends up spawning you know essentially modern-day horror
1147
01:25:55,205 --> 01:25:57,275
it's the duality of Lovecraft:
1148
01:25:57,276 --> 01:26:02,796
it's the fact that people can take the ideas almost as the basis of a religion
1149
01:26:02,797 --> 01:26:07,692
People can take the ideas from a serious academic point of view
1150
01:26:07,693 --> 01:26:10,517
or for a writing point of view and then you can
1151
01:26:10,518 --> 01:26:14,884
Then if you are just drawing great big monsters
1152
01:26:14,885 --> 01:26:17,720
Lovecraft has waiting for you to
1153
01:26:18,721 --> 01:26:23,721
1154
01:26:23,722 --> 01:26:28,722
1155
01:26:29,000 --> 01:26:32,122