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 Eight

As we move into Day Eight, the Mythos gets set up a little more and there's just some general creepiness. After the jump!

Thirty-one days of Lovecraft: Day Seven

I don't know how or why I came up with this

Full disclosure, I did not get to my reading target today. Instead, I'll give you something incredibly nerdy. Here is some original writing, a Lovecraftian take on the Eagles song 'Tequila Sunrise'.

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.

Thirty-one Days of Lovecraft: Day 5

Sketch based off of 'The Other Gods'.

Yeah, I didn't read on Day 4. Who cares? Let's talk about how good of a writer Lovecraft is 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 3

In Day Three, Lovecraft takes a common motif in his writing and makes it much more intimate. Plus, what lies beyond out comprehension? Spoiler alert: it is terrifying!

Thirty-One Days of Lovecraft: Day 2

Day 2 saw some of the best writing that I've seen so far in Lovecraft, but also some of the worst. Read on, dear reader, if you dare!

My Truck and Coheed

In short, for the murders of those I court
I bless the hour that holds your fall
I will kill you all
                 -Coheed and Cambria, The Crowing

“We carried on, unnoticed
 Thinking that all dreams were ours for the taking”
                   -Coheed and Cambria, Atlas

Not going to lie, Claudio's hair is another reason why I love the band.

 My Truck and Coheed 

I think just about everyone has “their band”. I also think just about everyone has “their car”. Both are equally statements about who we are. Both are equally marketed to us. And while, I would not go so far as to say that your band and your car make you who you are, I think they go along way in demonstrating that.

I found both my car and my band at the same time. It was 2005. I had been driving a 1985 Nissan Dodson Pickup. Now, I loved this truck, despite the fact that it 1) did not have a functioning radio, let alone CD player; 2) had no air conditioning; 3) had no cruise control; 4) had very little in terms of horsepower; and 5) suffered from a continually slipping generator belt which either caused a loud squealing noise to come out of the engine or make it impossible to start.

I loved that truck for the simple reason that it was my first vehicle. It was my first taste of freedom. And it did (generator belt issues notwithstanding) run really well. I drove it to school, gave friends rides home, and when I graduated high school, made the 2,000 mile trek from Lake Stevens, WA to Carbondale, IL. No radio, no A/C, no problem. I simply rolled down the window and sang songs that I knew from memory.

A person’s first vehicle is also a sanctuary of sorts, and it’s where one’s musical tastes can shine. The 1985 Dodson was probably the oldest car in the student lot at high school, and I am even more sure it was the only one without a functioning audio system. I couldn’t even listen to the radio. This did not seem to deter friends from wanting a ride, and my truck was often full of four kids and we chatted away to pass the time.

So, it wasn’t until 2005 that I upgraded that I was able to find that musical sanctuary. My parents purchased for me a 2000 Nissan Frontier. It was black. It was higher up than the Dodson. It was bigger. And, it had a functioning audio system.

2005 was a big year of change for me. After two years of living on campus at Southern Illinois University, I moved off campus into an apartment. I was to have my own room. I had to cook on my own. I could keep my own hours without worrying about waking a roommate. And I also got really, really, really into Coheed and Cambria.

Lacking for a musical sanctuary, my musical tastes in high school were tame. I liked classic rock. Journey, Foreigner and U2 were my go-to bands, and this more or less reflected the tastes of my Dad (though, I am more fond of U2 than he is). I could really only listen to music in my room, and not having an iPod or anything like that, I played it fairly safe.

But now, there was no need for that. One of my roommates introduced me to Coheed, and the rest, they say, is history. It’s possible that any band I was introduced to during that year could have become my favorite, because now I could play music in my truck, sing along with reckless abandon.

Coheed and Cambria, for the uninitiated, is a “concept band”. While some bands will complete a “concept album”, in which the songs tell a story, Coheed’s entire discography was a continuation of the story. The story that they tell, without getting into the specifics is a very violent space opera, which follows the main character Claudio in his quest to avenge his murdered parents, Coheed and Cambria.

It also rocks.

For me, it was the perfect band to break into and declare independence from my old self. It was much harder rock than I was used to, the songs were gloriously violent, and maybe above all else, they were mine.

Coheed and Cambria gets some radio play, but I’ve never really considered them to be “big”. I had friends who liked them, but for the most part when I talk about them, I get blank states or, “oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of them.”

As the years went on, I bought more and more of their albums. I purchased the four-disc “Neverender” Live Shows. When Afterman: Ascension came out, it ended up in my truck’s CD player for months until Descension came out. I did listen to other bands, but the one that by far got the most play in the truck was Coheed and Cambria.

In the fall of 2014, I got to listen to Coheed in my truck for the final time. In the midst of all of this, I had changed careers, I had gotten married, and my wife and I were headed to Bozeman to trade in the Nissan Frontier for a Nissan Rogue. It wouldn’t be my truck, but our car. My wife doesn’t like Coheed, and I don’t care for country music, and so our road trips are usually soundtracked with podcasts. As I drove down Montana 16 to pick her up in Glendive, I took full advantage and blasted Second Stage Turbine Blade the whole way.

Of course, bands change as well. In October of 2015, Coheed released The Color Before the Sun, which departed from the Armory Wars saga, and was a stand alone album. The songs did not refer back to anything, they could just be taken as they were. The album was good, I have listened to it several times (even in the car, usually when driving by myself). But, far and away, my favorite song on The Color Before the Sun is ‘Atlas’. Atlas is a song that Claudio Sanchez penned to his newborn son. I really think it’s a beautiful song, and his love for his son really comes through in the piece. The song really resonated with me a year later, when Kodi and I learned we would have our first child. That was when the lines near the end of the song really started to mean something to me. The last verse, repeated once is this:

 There's no running away from what's been done, here
 Will you sink with the ship, or will you burn it down?
 Now, give us the man that you've been hiding
 'Cause this is your, this is your life, this is your life, now

 To me, this line, which seems on its face to be kind of violent and out of place in a song dedicated to your newborn, is actually a really touching reminder to Claudio, and to any dad. It’s time to be responsible. There’s no running away from it, it’s a big moment in your life. It’s up to you to make the most of it. Will you sink with the ship, or will you burn it down, is basically asking if the father will stay or destroy what he’s built. If there’s any doubt to the answer to that question, it’s answered in the next line. “Give us the man that you’ve been hiding” is a call for the man inside to come out. The man who will take responsibility, to provide, to do right by mother and child, that person needs to come out. The line,”This is your life now” probably does not need much of an explanation.

I listen to Atlas from time to time, and it has become one of my favorite Coheed and Cambria songs. It is by far the one I can connect to the most. Each time I listen to it, I feel something slightly different.

Coheed is going back into the Armory Wars. Vaxis Part One: Unheavenly Creatures is set to come out this week. I have loved the songs that have been released, and Unheavenly Creatures is such an insanely fun song, that it’s reminded me of all the reasons I loved the band in the first place. That song in particular has a sort of Favor House Atlantic vibe to it, The lyrics are fun, the pace is fast, the vocals are loud, the melody is unique. I sometimes felt during the Afterman albums that the band was taking themselves to seriously, and the songs weren’t as fun as they could be. I think that the Armory Wars deals with big issues and themes, and some seriousness is needed (it is about war, after all) but, one of the things that made Coheed work was that they clearly were having fun with their work. Their songs weren’t all dreary and nihilistic, there was a hopeful vibe to a lot of their stuff, and above all it was music that was simply fun to listen to.

I think the best example of this, might be The Crowing, which is quoted above. It’s a song about fulfilling destiny, and doing what needs to be done. And the way in which vengeance is promised is downright poetic.

I’m glad that Coheed is finding its groove once again, and I hope it continues. As for me, I might just have to find some reason to go on some solo road trips. There’s just something about the combination of the open road and Coheed that I can’t seem to resist.

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.