H.P. Lovecraft: Ph'nglui Mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah'nagl Fhtagn--Halloween Greetings From The South Pacific 18 Days

My fear of the unknown at this point was very great

Autumn is a wonderful time to be in New England. The beautiful yellows, reds, oranges of the changing fall foliage. The smell of smoke arising from fireplaces, delicious apple pies, scarecrows, face painting hockey fans. Is there better place to be vacationing during this short respite before the cruel ravages of winter?

So if you have the travel bug in you might I recommend a trip to rustic old Dunwich in North Central Massachusetts. Passing through gorges and ravines of problematical depth, stretches of marshland that one instinctively dislikes, where the fireflies come out in abnormal profusion to dance with the raucous, creepily insistent rhythms of stridently piping bull-frogs, you finally reach a quaint New England town where most of the houses are deserted and falling to ruin with their rotting gambrel roofs. Have a nice cup of coffee with the locals, maybe take the kids up to Wilbur Whateley's old farm. They may have some problems with the local planning board, but there is always plenty of fun activities.

Or if you are in a more nautical mood there is the old whaling town of Innsmouth at the mouth of the Manuxet River. For some reason, people have been down on this place of late, but it is poised to make a comeback through tourism. The downtown has managed to retain its 19th century charms, though perhaps some renovations are in order. Get a cozy room at the Gilman House Bed and Breakfast, take a walking tour with old Zadok Allen, (great for you amateur antiquarians) or take a motorboat out to Devil Reef and get back in touch with the wonders of nature.

You may as well be distracted from the inevitable day when Cthulhu, the gigantic squid deity who lies sleeping, yet influences the world through our dreams, rises from his slumber at the bottom of the South Pacific and enslaves the Earth. Slice the human into ringlets, dip them in batter, deep fat fry and serve with tomato sauce. Believe me, this kind of stress, you don't need. I can tell you, too many times have I been in some Cyclopean landscape or ice blasted barren plateau, when you accidentally have a chance encounter with some crazy, gibbous, so-horrifying-words-can't-describe-it, blind flute-piping abomination from some other planet or dimension. Or giant human size albino Emperor Penguins. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for all the noise. I start to say "would you please shut up" before I realize that the distractions are actually my very own screams. Am I bad. That's the problem with antiquarianism--all that curiosity can land you in some hot water. But hey, the chicks dig it. That's the main reason why I majored in it at old Miskatonic U in nearby legend-haunted Arkham.

My youthful days playing hacky-sack on the Octagon

This is the world that H.P. Lovecraft created in the 1920's and 1930's in his eerie body of literature. Stephen King has often credited him as a major inspiration for his horror stories. And the movie Reanimator is based on one of his short stories.Very often fantastic tales traditionally occurred in ancient or exotic locales, or in other galaxies or dimensions. There is something a little scarier and close to home when the inexplicable happens on your own doorstep. Where not very far below the bucolic veneer of humdrum day to day existence, lie terrors and utter destruction beyond our wildest comprehension. These tales by Lovecraft, like Shadow Over Innsmouth, Dreams In The Witchouse, The Dunwich Horror, and The Tales of Charles Dexter Ward are eminently great reading, especially as we approach the end of October. 

First and foremost, the stories are scary and bizarre. Secondly I enjoy the way he writes, in the way he describes people and real and imaginary landscapes and also in the odd sorts of conventions that crop up in this work. People are always too curious for their own good, and sadly often reach a bad end or at best are granted a temporary reprieve. The lead characters are almost always not sure about what is real and what is a figment of their feverish imagination. And in most cases their mad hallucinations are realities that are beyond the capacity of human understanding. It seems that goodness has a very uphill battle with evil in his tales, and the small victories achieved are probably Pyrrhic.

Calamari's Revenge

One of the oddities of the stories is the absence of women. I don't really know whether that necessarily makes him a misogynist. In these types of adventure/fantasy stories of that time period women often served as foils to the action, being in danger and helpless and needing to be protected and saved by the male hero. In Lovecraft's stories the main characters seem pretty incapable of saving themselves, much less another person (antiquarian may be old-speak for nerd). And when the earth is on the verge of being eviscerated, maybe nobody is getting out of it in one piece. I think that maybe he just couldn't be bothered with another storyline. He was just mainly concerned with that frontier where the human mind encounters the unknown and unbelievable and resulting reaction.

So if you like scary stuff but not too graphic, pick up some H.P. and enjoy yourself.