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26 February 1994 : Text File #13 Mongoloid Telecom
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'THE LEGACY OF H.P. LOVECRAFT:
THE INFLUENCE AND MEANING OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS'
by Az A. Thoth
H.P. Lovecraft was a writer virtually unknown during
his lifetime, except to a small circle of correspondents and
the core readership of several pulp magazines, most
importantly Weird Tales. Since the time of his death,
however, the works of Lovecraft and his contemporaries have
become important and influential pieces in the horror and
fantasy genre. Lovecraft's works, primarily his Cthulhu
Mythos, inspired many young authors with whom he
corresponded. Amongst those he encouraged, inspired, and
influenced, were Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Frank Belknap
Long, and August Derleth. He also impacted the writing
styles of several already established contemporaries, most
importantly Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. In
later years, Lovecraft's influence would appear in British
writers J. Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley in 1964 and 1971
respectively. Stephen King, too, has written for several
collections of Mythos stories. The Cthulhu Mythos setting
has not been the only element of Lovecraft's writing that
has survived the fifty-seven years since his death. His
unique style and story-telling technique has resurfaced time
and time again in the works of those he has inspired. It
took years after his death for Lovecraft's work to gain the
attention of the critics, but once it did, it began a debate
that has ranged to the extremes of praise and degradation,
as well as given rise to varying interpretations of
Lovecraft's theme. One thing that is not argued, however,
is that H.P. Lovecraft had a profound impact upon the horror
genre, and the stories have never been quite the same.
The works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, more
commonly referred to as HPL, are widely regarded as being
amongst the most influential stories written in the horror
and fantasy veins. There are those who have gone so far as
to say that "in terms of imitation and inspiration,
Lovecraft may well have had more influence on other writers
than any contemporary except Ernest Hemingway."
To discuss the influence of an author on the
writings of others, one must first examine that author's own
works. In the case of HPL, his most famous and influential
stories were those which were included in what August
Derleth has popularly termed the Cthulhu Mythos. Though it
has also been called by others, perhaps more accurately, the
Yog-Sothoth Cycle or Lovecraft Cycle of Myth, for the sake
of continuity it will herein be referred to as the more
widely recognized Cthulhu Mythos, or as simply the Mythos.
The Mythos is characterized primarily by the
existence of a pantheon of cosmic gods and god-like beings,
of which Lovecraft created three major types: the Outer
Gods, the Great Old Ones, and the Elder Gods. The Outer
Gods are presented as being the distant rulers of the
universe, rarely having anything to do with humanity. This
is in contrast to the Great Old Ones, which are immense
alien things, less supernatural than the nearly omnipotent
Outer Gods, which have come to be imprisoned both on the
earth and throughout the universe. The Elder Gods are the
least commonly referred to, and are perhaps rivals of the
Outer Gods, though usually they appear indifferent towards
mankind, and weaker than the Outer Gods. In addition to
the presence of these vast beings, stories of the Cthulhu
Mythos almost unfailingly take place, or at least begin,
within the setting of Lovecraft's own fictitious New
England, where he created such towns as Arkham, Innsmouth,
Dunwich, and Red Hook, and even his own college, Miskatonic
University.
While a definite consistency is present in all of
Lovecraft's Mythos writings,
it would be a mistake to assume that the Cthulhu
Mythos was a planned development in Lovecraft's work.
There is everything to show that he had no intentions
whatsoever of evolving the Cthulhu Mythos until that
pattern made itself manifest in his work...
Over time, as the Mythos became apparent in Lovecraft's
work, he began to encourage other writers to add to it,
resulting in stories by numerous contemporaries and
correspondents, including previously established authors
such as Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, along with
aspiring young writers like August Derleth, Frank Belknap
Long, Fritz Leiber and even a teenage Robert Bloch.
Lovecraft's other works fall into two categories,
those which take place in the Dreamworld, and the other,
mostly early tales, consisting of more traditionally set
horror stories. Some of these early tales were quasi
imitative of Poe, "the Outsider perhaps most closely
emulating Poe's style and subject matter." Others were
ghost stories, like "The Rats in the Walls" or "In the
Vault."
The tales of the Dreamworld often interconnect with
the tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, and contain references to
members of the Mythos gods, as in The Dream-Quest of Unknown
Kadath, wherein the hero Randolph Carter encounters "the
Other Gods and their crawling chaos Nyarlathotep."
It is the Cthulhu Mythos, though, that has assured
Lovecraft's place as a master of the horror genre. For, as
Robert Bloch states while introducing a Lovecraft volume,
While imaginary worlds abound in modern fantasy, few of
today's writers set their sagas in Poictesme,
Perelandra, or Middle Earth. But stories and novels
based on the Mythos continue to proliferate.
In the decades since his death, Lovecraft has become
"the object of a small but tenacious cult." He inspired
many of his contemporaries to add to his Mythos, and
gradually it has grown. It has been estimated that as many
as hundreds of authors, amateur and professional alike, have
continued to expound upon Lovecraft's concepts to date.
Among those influenced by Lovecraft have been
several writers who would "in turn become influential
writers of fantasy and science fiction." Of these would
most prominently be numbered Bloch, Long, Leiber, and
Derleth.
Robert Bloch, best known as the author of the novel
Psycho, was the youngest member of the Lovecraft Circle. He
began his professional writing career at the age of
seventeen, at the encouragement of Lovecraft, with whom
Bloch had been corresponding for the previous two years. The
two had been in contact since Lovecraft had replied to a fan
letter Bloch had written him upon reading about Lovecraft in
the letters section of an issue of Weird Tales. During
his long career, Bloch has written several stories in the
vein of the Cthulhu Mythos, including "The Shambler From the
Stars," which was in fact a pastiche on Lovecraft in which a
thinly disguised HPL is eaten by an invisible creature, much
as one of Lovecraft's characters, Abdul Alhazred, was
devoured in public by invisible demons. This story began a
series of three short stories in which the two authors took
turns murdering or devouring the other. Bloch has since
stated that it was Lovecraft who inspired him to write at
all, with the encouragement HPL gave him through their
letters. "[Lovecraft] encouraged me; to the point
where I was determined that I was somehow going to do some
writing myself. . . . H.P. Lovecraft was my university."
Another writer influenced and encouraged by
Lovecraft, who would himself become an influential writer of
fantasy, was Fritz Leiber. Leiber is best known for his
stories around the two characters Fafhrd and the Grey
Mouser. Even in these stories, of fantasy rather than of
horror, Lovecraft's influence can be seen, as in the story
"The Sunken Land" which features at its end a rather
"Lovecraftian creature..." or rather, race of creatures.
They are remindful of Lovecraft creations in that they, like
the Deep Ones of several Lovecraft stories, inhabit a sunken
city which, as in the original "Call of Cthulhu," rises
again for some supernatural purpose. Much like Bloch,
Leiber was, as an early writer, encouraged by Lovecraft,
upon HPL's reading of Leiber's first serious effort,
"Adept's Gambit."
Frank Belknap Long was one of the few young writers
who corresponded with Lovecraft and actually met the man in
person. As with the previous two authors, Lovecraft
encouraged the young Long to write, and in fact helped to
get several of Long's first stories published in Weird
Tales, a fact Long himself acknowledges, saying
"[Lovecraft]...insisted that the stories had been judged and
accepted with objective impartiality. But I knew
better." Long's contributions to the ever-growing
Mythos included such stories as "The Hounds of Tindalos" and
"The Space Eaters," the latter story having been called by
Gahan Wilson "perhaps the best evocation of that particular
horror of indifferent cosmic violation . . . not written by
HPL himself."
Lastly among those writers most dramatically
influenced by Lovecraft was August Derleth. Derleth, along
with Donald Wandrei, founded Arkham House Publishers after
Lovecraft's death, with the initial purpose of keeping
Lovecraft in print. The first book of Lovecraft stories
ever was compiled, The Outsider and Others, was edited by
Derleth. Later, using notes Lovecraft had left behind,
Derleth completed many stories, which he published under
both names as posthumous collaborations. And while many
have disagreed with Derleth's attempts to create a pantheon
of good gods from the previously obscure and indifferent
Elder Gods, it is generally acknowledged that it was Derleth
who was responsible for "keeping Lovecraft in print and
available to the public in the decades following HPL's
death."
Lovecraft influenced many other young writers of the
time, Robert Bloch saying on the subject that "some of us
knew him at the time, or discovered him later, as a writer,
but to all of us I think he was a very important
influence." For some of these young writers, Lovecraft
had a very direct influence in that he did revisions of
their stories, revisions and ghostwriting having been
Lovecraft's only work outside of his own writings, which
alone did not allow him to make a living. Among those
Lovecraft did revisions for were Hazel Heald and Zealia
Bishop. In addition to the beginning writers of the day,
Lovecraft also had a marked effect on several already
established professional authors, most notably Clark Ashton
Smith and Robert E. Howard. Both writers added stories to
the body that was becoming the Cthulhu Mythos: Smith such
stories as "Ubbo-Sathla" and "The Return of the Sorcerer,
Howard stories including "The Black Stone." Both men were
also long-time members of Lovecraft's circle of
correspondents.
A sort of Cthulhian revival occurred several decades
after Lovecraft's death, when two British writers, first J.
Ramsey Campbell and then Brian Lumley, began writing new
stories for the Cthulhu Mythos, simply "transplanting the
myth-pattern to the English countryside and adding milieus
of their own. . . ."
Even the best selling horror author of all time,
Stephen King, has been influenced by Lovecraft. According
to an article in Magill's Survey of Popular Fiction, "At
age twelve, a young Stephen King found, amidst his father's
old books, a book of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft. In
a short time, horror stories became an obsession."
King, too, has added to the Cthulhu Mythos, among his
contributions being the short story "Crouch End."
Lovecraft influenced many writers with the setting
of his Cthulhu Mythos, but his influence has not been
limited to merely the inclusion of cosmic gods and New
England place-names. Lovecraft stated that all of his
stories were based on a common theme, and that
All my stories, unconnected as they may be, are based
on the fundamental lore or legend that this world was
inhabited at one time by another race who, in
practicing black magic, lost their foothold and were
expelled, yet live on outside, ever ready to take
possession of this earth again.
It was this theme that Lovecraft attempted to develop
through the Mythos, and which has been further utilized by
many other authors contributing to the Mythos.
It was more than just the content of the stories
Lovecraft told however, that made them unique; it was the
way in which these stories were told. Lovecraft utilized
setting and an historical quality in his narrative to make
his stories so thoroughly believable. Among the array of
occult props Lovecraft used was a veritable library of
forbidden books, including the dreaded Necronomicon of Abdul
Alhazred and the Unnausprechlichen Kulten of von Juntz.
In his writing, Lovecraft also consistently focused
on setting over characterization. This was an important
detail in the development of his theme, in that it shows
mankind's insignificance in the vastness of the universe.
The one aspect of his characters that Lovecraft
did emphasize, however, was their motivation. "Call of
Cthulhu" is a letter of warning, as is "The Statement of
Randolph Carter." At the Mountains of Madness is an
historical account of an Antarctic expedition by its only
survivor, and serves as a warning as well. This creates an
often urgent quality in the tone of the narrator, which
pulls the reader along towards Lovecraft's nearly
omnipresent shock ending.
The shock ending was a trait very common in all
Lovecraft's stories, and especially in the stories of the
Mythos, as in "The Statement of Randolph Carter," where the
narrator hears from the depths of a subterranean sarcophagus
the exclamation of: "You fool, Warren is DEAD."
This final exclamation can be found in several of the Mythos
stories written by other authors as well, including Robert
E. Howard's "The Black Stone," which ends with italics for
emphasis: "what nameless shapes may even now lurk in the
dark places of the world?"
All these elements of storytelling; the occult
props, the urgency of the narration, and the shock ending;
combine with Lovecraft's artificial pantheon to create one
of the most influential types of horror story in the genre,
the Cthulhu Mythos story.
Since their discovery by critics since his death,
the meaning of the Mythos has been debated. Three ideas
have become prominent, one of them having been stated by
Lovecraft himself, another developed by Derleth, and the
third relating to the analytical theories of Psychologist
Carl Jung.
While interpretations of the Mythos have varied,
most feel, as Lovecraft himself stated, that the Mythos is
meant to show the insignificance of man in the bleak
universe. When in discussing his theme Lovecraft mentions
the beings on the outside, these beings have no regard for
humanity as anything more than an annoyance. The stories
are terrifying for their stark hopelessness. There is to be
no intervention of good on behalf of the hero, he is alone
in his fight against evil. This situation is perfectly
represented in a Dreamworld tale that at times crosses over
to become a fringe member of the Mythos, The Dream-Quest of
Unknown Kadath. In this novel, the hero, Randolph Carter,
searches for his golden city, even journeying to forbidden
Kadath in the cold wastes beyond Leng. He is opposed by an
Outer God, Nyarlathotep, and is defenseless against the
other's vast powers. No intervention comes on his behalf,
though he prays to what seem to be representatives of the
Elder Gods. When man is saved in a Lovecraft story, it is
by blind luck, as in "The Call of Cthulhu," where Great
Cthulhu's rise from sunken R'lyeh is thwarted by a powerful
storm. In "The Festival," the main character is alive at
the end thanks only to a "drifting spar that accident sent
to save [him]. . . ."
Another interpretation of the Mythos is that of
August Derleth, who saw a biblical parallel, stating that
"there exists in Lovecraft's concept a basic similarity to
the Christian Mythos, specifically in the expulsion of Satan
from Eden and the power of evil." This analysis seems
to fall apart on closer examination, however, as, unlike in
the Christian Mythos, the Cthulhu Mythos contains no true
representatives of good, the Elder Gods being described as
being indifferent towards man, at best, and more often shown
as being rather weak deities, as in The Dream-Quest of
Unknown Kadath, where they are lost in the city dreamt of by
Randolph Carter. Derleth, in his own stories and the
posthumous collaborations, later altered the nature of the
Elder Gods to more closely fit his own variation on
Lovecraft's theme.
Lastly, Lovecraft's Mythos has been interpreted into
the theories of Jung psychology. To outline Jung theories,
The human psyche is divided into consciousness and
unconsciousness. The ego is the center of
consciousness, and it relates to the outside world
through the persona. . . . The Unconscious . . .
includes the personal unconscious, comprising forgotten
and repressed material, and the vast unfathomable ocean
of the Collective Unconscious . . . primitive instincts
and emotions . . . .
Within the Unconscious are the Shadow and the Anima, or Soul
Image. The Shadow is the evil of the subconscious, always
threatening to obscure the morality of the ego. The Shadow
makes itself known in dreams and nightmares primarily,
though it occasionally breaks into the consciousness causing
instances of insanity. Everyone has a Shadow, and the more
it is repressed by the conscious ego, the larger and darker
it becomes. Dirk W. Mosig uses the Jung theories to
interpret many of Lovecraft's stories, which lend themselves
well to the interpretations. Mosig outlines several Mythos
stories, and how they fit into Jung. Among those he
discusses is "Pickman's Model," in which the Unconscious is
represented by a subterranean maze of tunnels. The Shadow
is the unsuspected darkness existing in the middle of the
normal, rational world, or the consciousness. The character
Pickman, who is found to be a ghoulish changeling and not
human at all, is therefore the Shadow personified. He
returns, in the end, to the subconscious, back into the
underground caverns. The narrator is terrified by the
realization that the paintings of Pickman, horrible and
bestial as they are, are in fact real, and ever present in
man's Collective Unconscious.
In addition to the varying interpretations of
Lovecraft's fiction, the critical reception has also been
varied. Lovecraft has been hailed as "the Copernicus of the
horror story . . ." and he has been deemed a
"talentless hack." In short, critical responses to
Lovecraft have varied to both extremes.
H.P. Lovecraft created a new kind of story, and a
new way of telling it. Through his Cthulhu Mythos he
influenced unknown numbers of writers, and especially many
of those with whom he corresponded and encouraged. Of those
writers he inspired, several went on to become major
literary figures in their own right, especially Robert
Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Frank Belknap Long, and August Derleth.
He even influenced writers who were already well-known
professionals, like Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith.
As the years passed, the true range of his influence became
apparent with the emergence of a second generation of Mythos
story writers, including J. Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley,
and Stephen King. They have utilized his settings, they
have utilized his style, and have continued the creation of
one of the largest bodies of collective fiction in
existence. And while critics and scholars debate the true
meaning and value of his writings, it cannot be denied that
H.P. Lovecraft was one of the most influential writers of
fiction of the twentieth century.
ENDNOTES
1Robert Bloch, forward to The Dunwich Horror and
Other Tales H.P. Lovecraft (Sauk City: Arkham House
Publishers, Inc., 1989), xviii.
2Sandy Petersen and Lynn Willis, Call of Cthulhu
(Oakland: Chaosium Inc., 1992), 65-66.
3August Derleth, forward to Tales of the Cthulhu
Mythos H.P. Lovecraft (New York: Ballantine Books, Inc.,
1969), xi.
4Petersen and Willis, Call of Cthulhu, 186.
5Ibid.
6H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
(New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, 1990), 119.
7Bloch, forward to The Dunwich Horror, xviii.
8Ursula LeGuin, "New England Gothic," in Twentieth
Century Literary Criticism, vol. 22, ed. Dennis Poupard
(Detroit: Gale Research, 1981), 213.
9Petersen and Willis, Call of Cthulhu, 186.
10Sharon K. Hall, ed. Twentieth Century Literary
Criticism, vol. 4, (Detroit: Gale Research, 1981), 264.
11Robert Bloch, Acceptance Speech for Lifetime
Achievement, in First World Fantasy Awards, ed. Gahan
Wilson (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977), 49.
12Ibid., 49-50.
13Richard Gid Powers, forward to Night's Black Agents
Fritz Leiber (Boston: Gregg Press, 1980), xii.
14Frank Belknap Long, The Early Long (Garden City,
N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975), xiv.
15Gahan Wilson, ed., First World Fantasy Awards
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977), 10.
16Petersen and Willis, Call of Cthulhu, 186.
17Robert Bloch, Acceptance Speech for Lifetime
Achievement, 47.
18August Derleth, forward to Tales of the Cthulhu
Mythos, xi.
19Thomas C. Schunk, "Stephen King," in Magill's
Survey of American Literature, vol. 3, ed. Frank N. Magill
(North Bellmore: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1986),
1067.
20H.P. Lovecraft, "Notes on the Writing of Weird
Fiction," in Short Story Criticism, vol. 3, ed. Sheila
Fitzgerald (Detroit: Gale Research, 1989), 257.
21H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness (New
York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, 1990), 184.
22Robert E. Howard, "The Black Stone," in Tales of
the Cthulhu Mythos, ed. August Derleth (New York:
Ballantine Books, 1969), 82.
23H.P. Lovecraft, The Tomb and Other Tales (New York,
N.Y.: Ballantine Books, 1992), 26.
24August Derleth, forward to Tales of the Cthulhu
Mythos, vii.
25H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,
135.
26Dirk W. Mosig, "Toward a Greater Appreciation of
H.P. Lovecraft: The Analytical Approach," in First World
Fantasy Awards, ed. Gahan Wilson (Garden City: Doubleday &
Company, Inc., 1977), 290.
27Ibid., 291.
28Ibid., 293.
29Fritz Leiber, "A Literary Copernicus," in Short
Story Criticism, vol. 3, ed. Sheila Fitzgerald (Detroit:
Gale Research, 1989), 257.
30Edmund Wilson, "Tales of the Marvelous and the
Ridiculous," in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, vol.
4, ed. Sharon K. Hall (Detroit: Gale Research, 1981), 268.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bloch, Robert. Acceptance Speech for Lifetime Achievement.
In First World Fantasy Awards, ed. Gahan Wilson,
46-52. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc.,
1977.
________. Forward to The Dunwich Horror and Others,
H.P. Lovecraft. Sauk City: Arkham House
Publishers, 1979.
Derleth, August. Forward to Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos,
H.P. Lovecraft. New York: Ballantine Books, 1969.
Hall, Sharon K., ed. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism,
vol. 4, 265-267. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981.
Howard, Robert E. "The Black Stone." In Tales of the
Cthulhu Mythos, ed. August Derleth, 63-82. New
York: Ballantine Books, 1969.
LeGuin, Ursula. "Cult of Cthulhu." In Twentieth Century
Literary Criticism, vol. 22, ed. Dennis Poupard,
213. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981.
Leiber, Fritz. "A Literary Copernicus." In Short Story
Criticism, vol. 3, ed. Shiela Fitzgerald, 257-60.
Detroit: Gale Research, 1989.
Long, Frank Belknap. The Early Long. Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975.
Lovecraft, H.P. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. New
York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, 1966.
________. Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. New York, N.Y.:
Ballantine Books, 1969.
________. "Notes on the Writing of Weird Fiction." In Short
Story Criticism, vol. 3, ed. Sheila Fitzgerald, 257.
Detroit: Gale Research, 1989.
________. At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales. New
York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, 1990.
________. The Tomb and Other Tales. New York, N.Y.:
Ballantine Books, 1992.
Mosig, Dirk W. "Toward a Greater Appreciation of H.P.
Lovecraft." In First World Fantasy Awards, ed.
Gahan Wilson, 290-298. Garden City: Doubleday &
Company, Inc., 1977.
Petersen, Sandy and Lynn Willis. Call of Cthulhu. Oakland:
Chaosium Inc., 1992.
Powers, Richard Gid. Forward to Night's Black Agents, Fritz
Leiber. Boston: Gregg Press, 1980.
Schunk, Thomas C. "Stephen King." In Magill's Survey of
American Literature, vol. 3, ed. Frank N. Magill,
1067-1081. North Bellmore: Marshall Cavendish
Corporation, 1982.
Wilson, Edmund. "Tales of the Marvelous and the
Ridiculous." In Twentieth Century Literary
Criticism, vol. 4, ed. Sharon K. Hall, 268-69.
Detroit: Gale Research, 1981.
Wilson, Gahan, ed. First World Fantasy Awards. Garden
City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977.
`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'
Distorted Digital Erection February 1994 Text File #13
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