Thirty-one Days of Lovecraft: Day 25

I have been busy the past two weeks. I've made two round-trips to Billings (three hours, each leg), flown out to Oregon, spent a few days on the coast, presented at a conference in Billings (second trip) and then, of course, have my regular teaching duties. As a result, I have fallen behind in Lovecraft. My goal is to still finish the anthology this month, although at this point, that will necessitate 100 page days. And yet, as busy as I've been and the task that I've laid before me, it pails in comparison to what was done by Randolph Carter and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

Thirty-one Days of Lovecraft: Day 10

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die....

In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

Ah yes, boys and girls, it's Cthulhu day.

Thirty-one Days of Lovecraft: Day Nine

I did a lot of reading to get back on track and learned that Lovecraft did NOT like New York. Like, at all. He did like twisted tales of horror though, so perchance it evens out? Read on for some Lovecraft analysis and a poem of my own!

Thirty-One Days of Lovecraft: Day Six

I thought, given that the stories are getting longer that I might do a post on a single story. So, today, I'm looking at Herbert West - Reanimator after the jump.

The Stand and LotR: Part One

I had a full day of teaching and so I didn't get to read any Lovecraft. But, I wrote a rather lengthy comparison of The Stand and The Lord of the Rings last spring. So, I've got your literary analysis covered. Enjoy part one, in which Stephen King explains why the Fellowship didn't just throw the One Ring away:

Thirty-one Days of Lovecraft: Day One

I read over my page target for day one. Already a sign of madness? Perhaps... Let's see how things went on Day 1 of Thirty-One Days of Lovecraft.

If you read this anthology (HP Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction) from page one, you find Lovecraft's fiction in chronological order. This means that if you are expected to become scared right away, you're not in luck.


This isn't to say that there aren't some spine tingling passages in the opening 45 pages. The entity that speaks at the end of "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" says some chilling things. Things like, "How little does the earth-self know of life and its extent! How little, indeed, ought it to know for its own tranquility! Of the oppressor I cannot speak. You on Earth have unwittingly felt its distant presence-you who without knowing idly gave to the blinking beacon the name of Agol, the Daemon-Star."

In the opening few stories, I think Beyond the Wall of Sleep is by far the best, because it starts to really get into what Lovecraft is known for: cosmic horror. And the cosmos is horrific because it does not care about mankind. From the introduction, written by S.T. Joshi, "...Lovecraft, in a major departure from the previous horror tradition - and, in many ways, from the entire Western literary tradition which habitually if unconsciously stressed the centrality of human beings to the cosmos - would emphasize the insignificance of humanity in a universe that appears to be boundless both in space and time." To Lovecraft, man is so insignificant that we don't even know we're being oppressed by an ancient entity from beyond the stars. We can't comprehend what is going on.

The first story is "The Beast in the Cave" which is not bad considering it was written by a 15-year-old boy. But still, given what we know is coming in the anthology, the twist of the beast being a man and the narrator being rescued after a short time is a bit of a let down. But, as the stories progress, they get more and more nuanced and better. Take, for instance, "The Tomb" a story that has Poe's influence all over it. A boy obsessed with a burial tomb, who comments on his own unreliability as a narrator, who learns secrets from the past by communing with the dead, is a fun tale. It isn't scary, per se, if only because the narrator seems ok with what's going on.

Contrast this with "Dagon", which begins with the narrator saying he's going to commit suicide because he's been driven mad by what he saw. Or "Polaris" in which the North Star drives someone mad. These stories I can get behind because, well, if the narrator is distressed, then I'm distressed.

Madness count: Slow early on, but could make an argument for the narrator going mad in "The Tomb". "Dagon", "Polaris", and "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" all feature people going mad. A character in "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" goes so mad, on account of being possessed by a cosmic entity, but his body can't handle it and he dies. In "Dagon" the narrator commits suicide to stop feeling things.

Is that racist? Not too racist early on. "Polaris" does speak of "squat, hellish, yellow fiends..." but it's referring to a fictional race of aliens, so I don't know that I'd call it racist. Granted, it's not as if authors haven't hidden behind fictional races to say some pretty nasty things about people. (See also, Tolkein's Dwarves are maybe Jews?)

I did have to re-read the beginning of "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" a few times to make sure that I was correct in the ethnicity of Joe Slater, the person that will go insane and die from being possessed by a cosmic entity. He's an inbred person of Dutch Heritage living in the Catskill Mountains. However, Lovecraft writes some very unflattering descriptions of him throughout. Slater is, a "repellent scion of a primitive colonial peasant stock" and "pitiably inferior in mentality and language alike". Before he dies, the entity says of him, "He is better dead, for he was unfit to bear the active intellect of cosmic entity. His gross body could not undergo the needed adjustments between ethereal life and plant life. He was too much of an animal; too little of a man..." Again, this isn't racist for two reasons: 1) Lovecraft is writing about a white man and 2) I think we can give Joe Slater a pass because bearing the active intellect of a cosmic entity is probably very hard. Still, reading this and knowing of Lovecraft's racism still left me a bit uncomfortable during the story.

Up next: Memory, Old Bugs, The Transition of Juan Romeo, The White Ship, The Street, The Doom that Came to Sarnath, The Statement of Randolph Carter, The Terrible Old Man, The Tree, The Cats of Ulthar.

I'm reading more than 35 pages so that when I inevitable don't read for a day, I'm not way behind. See you tomorrow!

Thirty-one Days of Lovecraft: Pre-read

I decided that this October would be a good time to read some Lovecraft. A few years ago, I purchased "HP Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction" from Barnes and Noble. It has been taunting me ever since. I've always wanted to read it, but for whatever reason, I opted not to. 

Until now.

Before I begin reading, I thought I would write out what I know about Lovecraft and what to expect.

For someone who owns a Cthullu plush I have read only a few Lovecraft stories (and the call of the Cthullu is not one of them). As someone who enjoys science fiction, I feel embarrassed that I haven't read more. Time to rectify the situation.

So, what do I know about Lovecraft? I know that Lovecraft was an influential author of science fiction and cosmic horror. His writing helped to elevate the genre of science fiction. From what I think I know, a lot of his horror stems from man confronting an uncaring universe and uncaring cosmic entities.

I also know that Lovecraft was racist, extremely racist. This has been evident from the little reading that I've done, and from numerous scholars. Does that negate his writing? Does it taint his influence? I don't know.

One could argue that horror literature as a genre has a lot to owe to HP Lovecraft, though sometimes that homage has racist overtones. A novel that I really want to read, Lovecraft Country, uses racism as an evil as bad as anything Lovecraft concocted. I will probably read this in November.

Ultimately, the ability to separate Lovecraft's racism from the cosmic horror he writes will come down to an individual reader. Some can probably push it a way, some cannot. Neither of these is a "correct" reading of Lovecraft, or any author. It also would be unfair to make Lovecraft out to be the author with the most baggage. Hemingway, one of my favorite writers, is misogynistic.

Anytime you read an author from a different era, there will be a clash of values. This does not excuse Lovecraft's racism, nor is his racism just a product of our more modern times.  It is worth examining though.

That is what I hope to do.

Each day, I will read 35 pages. By doing so, I will finish the book by the end of the month. I will try to write updates. I'll also put up what's coming next in case anyone wants to follow along or has read stories.

First up: Introduction, The Beast in the Cave, The Alchemist, The Tomb, Dagon, A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson, Polaris, Beyond the Wall of Sleep.

I Read: Ready Player One

First off, let me just say that having a Kindle is awesome. My fiance, who is also awesome, gave me one for Christmas. I've already read two novels on it (1984 the other, which I suppose I could review). It took me about three days to get through Earnest Cline's Ready Player One.

The novel is set in the year 2044 and the Great Recession has ravaged the United States. Gasoline is so expensive that no one drives anywhere. Most people live in "stacks", which are stacks of mobile homes placed on top of one another. Poverty is high, crime is high (at one point, the main character actually purchases a gun from a vending machine), and while there is still a government, one gets the impression that corporations are in charge.

Things are, how do I put this delicately, horrible.

Except for the OASIS, a computer simulation that makes the Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft seem like Pong. At its most basic, a person can use a pair of gloves and a visor to enter this virtual reality. At its most complex, you can use "immersion rigs" and full body suits to simulate everything that one can encounter as they enter this virtual world where anything is possible.

The OASIS has everything, including a public school system, which Wade Owen Watts (W.O.W. in case you didn't get that this book is about a MMORPG) is educated in. Commerce takes place there. Wade is raised by his aunt, whom he does not like and uses the OASIS to escape. This is one part where the book could probably do more to explain. Other than a brief appearance, Wade's aunt isn't seen and so we never get a sense as to why Wade hates her. Not much is given into life in the Stacks other than its bad.

What time Cline doesn't spend writing about the world life, he spends talking about the OASIS. When the book opens, the creator of the OASIS has died. When he did so, a game within OASIS started to find three easter eggs began. The first person to finish this game would get the creator's wealth and then be in charge of the OASIS. When the story opens, its been five years and no one has made any progress.

There are a lot of people that are looking. There are the "grunters" egg hunters, that are self-financed and obsessed with solving the problem. Then there's the corporate-based "sixers" who are bound and determined to gain control of the OASIS and then charge people for it. If all these gamers had to pay for the OASIS, they might have to go outside!

So, this hunt for the egg consumes the world. And the clues to the game are found in an almanac left behind by the creator of the game and his obsession with the 80s. Seriously, its almost annoying how 80s all of this book is. If you were a teenager in the 80s, you would love this book.

I suppose I should be rooting for Wade, but I spend most of the book feeling sorry for him. He's watched certain movies dozens of times, he's watched each episode of Family Ties multiple times, at one point, he goes six months without going outside or seeing another actual human being. He does have a love interest with another grunter, but that goes through the fairly predictable arc of interest from Wade, casual hanging out that is misinterpreted by Wade, a public "break-up", self-loathing by Wade, and then finally some reconciliation.

I did enjoy the book, its an easy read. But I think more into either why the world is in this state or more about it in general would help paint the picture as to why Wade and everyone else escapes into the OASIS.

I read: The Hunger Games

At the suggestion of my fiance, and because they're making a movie out if it I decided to read "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. The books are quite popular as a young adult series, and it was easy to see why with a quick reading. It took me three days to finish the 374-page book, partly because it was an easy read, but mostly because the whole concept was fascinating to me.

In a nutshell, the book takes place in the future where North America has been decimated by something (the book alludes to a combination of war and natural disaster, but doesn't get to specific.) Out of this, a new country, Panem is formed. Panem consists of the Capital and 13 districts. A rebellion against the Capital breaks out, District 13 is destroyed and the Capital becomes your typical highly oppressive ruling city that bestows little or no freedom on its people. And then, just to be dicks, they like to remind the 12 districts of whose in charge by each year selecting two children to come to the Capital and compete in the Hunger Games, in which the 24 children compete to the death in a televised event.

This is, to me, beyond fucked up, which is one of the reasons why I enjoyed reading it so much. I kept wondering how we got to this point as a society. Yes, its fiction, but I still want to know why it happened!

Possibly to keep the reader guessing about some of the grander aspects of this society, the book is told from the first person perspective of Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl who volunteers to go to the Hunger Games so her sister, who was selected, does not have to. I'm guessing whatever Katniss knows about the history of Panem and North America she knows from school, and given that this is an especially cruel dystopian society, that information is probably skewed majorly. So, even if she said "this is what happened" (she does not) one would have to take it with a grain of salt.

I don't read young adult books often, but I can see the appeal of this story, especially with teenage girls. Katniss is a character who takes care of herself, is determined to live by her rules (even at home, she breaks the rules of the country by hunting game to provide for her family), but at the same time finds that she has conflicting emotions about the male tribute from her district Peeta. Peeta is very much in love with Katniss, though she spends most of the book either oblivious to this or trying to deny that its happening. The denial is brought upon by two things: one, Peeta is from a higher social class (at least as much as he can be given the dynamics of the society in which they live) and two, according to the rules she may have to eventually kill him if she's to win. We don't get Peeta's perspective on this, which is unfortunate, because I think he could have some pretty awesome insight as to how the Games work and how he feels about Katniss.

The book details a lot about how those emotions come into play, and I can see how younger girls might relate to Katniss. At least, as much as one can relate to someone whose playing in a nationally televised death match. But, the characters are good, with the minor characters serving as a good reminder as to how hard life is outside of the Capital or how warped of a view those who live inside of it have on the rest of society (most of the characters from the Capital are a support team for Katniss, serving to make her look fashionable and good for the media before, during, and after the Hunger Games).

I'll read the second book in the series soon. It was a nice easy read, especially compared to the books in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" Series (Game of Thrones). And if you don't think that there are some posts to come from those books planned, you're mistaken.

I read: Desiree's baby

For my Lit class I read the short story Desiree's Baby by Kate Chopin. If you want to read it, you can do so here. To summarize, the main character, Desiree, is adopted by a creole couple, then marries at a young age to a man named Armand. They have a baby, though it is of mixed heritage. Armand accuses Desiree of being not white, and says that she should take up her mother's request that she move back home. At the end, it is revealed that Armand is the one of mixed heritage.

My thoughts....

~ I felt that Armand had a suspicion all along that he was of mixed heritage. I feel that's why he was especially cruel to his slaves. He seems to be a person who takes pride in power and control (he refers to his family name as the oldest and proudest in Louisiana) and feels he needs to exercise that control over his slaves. He was kinder with the birth of his son, but after finding the letter his mother wrote and realizing he could no longer deny his identity, he became cruel again.

~There is some symbolism in the book. The outside of the home reflects that the estate is not what it had been in the past. This reflects the darker mood of Armand, who treats his slaves cruelly and is not fair to his own wife.

~Chopin can be very subtle with how she describes characters. One telling passage that jumped out on me after I read it a couple times was the description of how Armand fell in love with Desiree. "That was the way all the Aubignys fell in love, as if by pistol shot." Its possible this foreshadows that Armand's father had fallen in love with a slave and had a child with her.

~Desiree gets treated very badly for a character who is innocent. She is abandoned as a baby, enters into a marriage with a husband she fears (at least when he is angry) and is essentially thrown out of the house when her husband realizes that he is of mixed race. Desiree, as far as I can tell, hasn't done anything wrong to warrant these "punishments" (one could argue if being abandoned is a punishment, as she did end up in a loving home). I think that the racial theme in the story is the most evident, the theme of gender inequality may be the bigger theme. Even though Desiree denies it (and most likely is correct, though her racial makeup is never identified other than she is whiter than Armond) she can do nothing about it other than meekly leave the plantation. She is shamed by the accusations and does not go back to her mother, but instead into the wilderness and is not seen again. Desiree felt that even though she did nothing wrong, she could not face society. Chopin points out both racial and gender inequalities in this story and also shows how the two can overlap.