This week: Mythos of the Unknowable Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Greetings, and welcome to this week's edition of the WDC Horror/Scary Newsletter. Join in the search for that which lurks just past the corner of your eye.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
(Edgar Alan Poe}
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear,
and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is
fear of the unknown."
(H.P. Lovecraft) |
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Greetings,
We are not alone in this universe. We know that, and one writer, in particular, has focused our attention and, along with the Master, (Mr. Poe, of course), has created visions horrific that have spawned generations of gelatinous, tentacled, flesh-eating creatures that humans cannot ever completely annihilate and must, however, engage.
H.P. Lovecraft refined this style of story-telling into his own mythos that involved a set of supernatural, pre-human and extraterrestrial elements. He took some of the atmosphere from Poe, and evoked for his readers a sense that ordinary life was a thin shell over a reality which was so alien and abstract in comparison that merely contemplating it would damage the sanity of the ordinary person.
Lovecraft's work was also insular, focusing on the rural feel of his home turf in New England, and those following in his footsteps continue to maintain the sense of things humans were not meant to know, although they are closer to the surface of ordinary life outside cities, but also, today, are found in crowded urban mean streets. Check out "The Horror at Red Hook" by way of example.
What we find as recurring themes in Lovecraftian horror are:
 A sense of misanthropy. The focus is not on characterization of humans, who occupy but a small place in the vast universe of alien, often superior, beings.
 A preoccupation with gelatinous or non-corporeal bodies. In place of blood and bone and corpses we find gelatinous substances, such as slime and ooze either external or from within a corporeal body. (Consider if you will, "The Blob.")
 Lovecraftian heroes are detached, isolated individuals, often scholars or educators of some kind.
 Helplessness and hopelessness reverberate throughout the story. The 'heroes' may cause the maleficent forces some damage, but the victory is temporary, and the price paid is high. The heroes and subjects are unable to just run from the extra-terrestrial beings, but are driven to fight or try to subdue or, perhaps, understand it, to their detriment.
 The characters never completely understand what's happening to them, or what's going on about them, though they try. They remain vulnerable and, again, compelled ot continue the quest for understanding.
Lovecraftian horror has become a standard in literature of horror, incorporating elements of fantasy, adventure, history, and mystery. We will look further at its evolution, but 'till the next time, read on for some good chillers by members of our Community and see if you are also 'compelled' to follow suit with a story or verse of your own.
Write On !
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Check out some of the denizens of 'otherworlds' envisioned by members of our Community and related in prose and verse ~ once you've entered, let them know if you, also, were compelled to stay
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I thank you for this brief respite in the relative safety of your home ~ don't look too closely at the floorboards, you don't know what you will find beyond the creak and, what's that shiny spot inbetween.
Until we next meet,
be wary of that which lurks
just past the corner of your eye,
there's something there, waiting
for a mortal to stop on by 
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading |
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Horror/Scary: July 15, 2020 Issue [#10275]
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