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Reader and Collector, v. 3, issue 6, January 1946
Page 23
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23 There can be little doubt that his was not a normal youth, at any time. His writings are lacking in reference to friendshi , except that of animals and old servants, love, except when necessary to the plot, sex, except when presented as an attribute of degenerated minds of slobbering beasts. Causes for this neglect may have been personal to Lovecraft, but it is now a generally accepted custom in fantastic fiction to overlook these usual motives in plots. For love they substitute the desire for knowledge, usually forbidden knowledge. Despite his deficiencies, Lovecraft's prose and poetry both carry much emotional appeal and grandeur. Like Poe, he states that the object of fantastic literature is the emotion aroused. He writes: The one test of the really weird is simply this - whether or not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes and entities on the known universe's utmost rim.3 This definition carries out the mythological by presenting a cosmology and vital symbolism of powerful forces. But as the strength of mythology is not built on a single tale but upon the unity of many, so Lovecraft fashioned a broad background into which his tales fitted. It is this same background that can be found in much American fantastic writing. How well he succeeded in unifying his stories is shown by Francis T. Laney's statements at the beginning of what he calls "The Cthulhu Mythology, a Glossary," included in The Outsider. In this glossary he puts in some sequence the various races, Gods, and landmarks that occur most frequently in Lovecraft's, and his followers', works. He writes: The dean of authors in the field of the macabra might almost be referred to as a Mahomet of the supernatural, since the rites of evocation and conciliation in the fabled Necronomicon and the steady processional of mighty, cosmic powers shape up into as plausible a theology as anything in the Koran. Of Lovecraft's sources for this incredible feat, Laney says, although the Cthulhu Mythos is "rightfully credited" to Lovecraft, that E. A. Poe, Arthur Machen, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Chambers, Clark Ashton Smith, ________________ 3. Lovecraft, The Outsider and Other, p. 511
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23 There can be little doubt that his was not a normal youth, at any time. His writings are lacking in reference to friendshi , except that of animals and old servants, love, except when necessary to the plot, sex, except when presented as an attribute of degenerated minds of slobbering beasts. Causes for this neglect may have been personal to Lovecraft, but it is now a generally accepted custom in fantastic fiction to overlook these usual motives in plots. For love they substitute the desire for knowledge, usually forbidden knowledge. Despite his deficiencies, Lovecraft's prose and poetry both carry much emotional appeal and grandeur. Like Poe, he states that the object of fantastic literature is the emotion aroused. He writes: The one test of the really weird is simply this - whether or not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes and entities on the known universe's utmost rim.3 This definition carries out the mythological by presenting a cosmology and vital symbolism of powerful forces. But as the strength of mythology is not built on a single tale but upon the unity of many, so Lovecraft fashioned a broad background into which his tales fitted. It is this same background that can be found in much American fantastic writing. How well he succeeded in unifying his stories is shown by Francis T. Laney's statements at the beginning of what he calls "The Cthulhu Mythology, a Glossary," included in The Outsider. In this glossary he puts in some sequence the various races, Gods, and landmarks that occur most frequently in Lovecraft's, and his followers', works. He writes: The dean of authors in the field of the macabra might almost be referred to as a Mahomet of the supernatural, since the rites of evocation and conciliation in the fabled Necronomicon and the steady processional of mighty, cosmic powers shape up into as plausible a theology as anything in the Koran. Of Lovecraft's sources for this incredible feat, Laney says, although the Cthulhu Mythos is "rightfully credited" to Lovecraft, that E. A. Poe, Arthur Machen, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Chambers, Clark Ashton Smith, ________________ 3. Lovecraft, The Outsider and Other, p. 511
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