Week 6 Question

According to Joshi (2007), a tale from the Cthulhu Mythos has several defining features that occur regularly throughout Lovecraft’s work. What are these features and how are they used in The Shadow Over Innsmouth? Furthermore, can you see any of these features being used in The Colour out of Space?

There are six recurring themes and features that appear within the majority of tales with the  Cthulhu mythos, however I will only be discussing five of these. The first is the theme of anti-anthropocentrism and misanthropy. Lovecraft (1927) said himself, “All my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large”.  Though the gods and creatures within this mythos are frightening by themselves, it is what they represent that it the consistent underlying fear. Freud (1955) stated his writing is “an “ego-disturbance”, where the very sense of ourselves in the world and our place is attacked”. This theme is especially prevalent in ‘The Colour Out Of Space’. The entire premise and event was a vast concept. Whatever this phenomenon was, it was beyond any human’s comprehension, being able to bend space and time. Humans seem like nothing compared to these beings and their planet.

The second feature that appears in many of these tales are viscerate textures. Specifically, protean semi-gelatinous substances, such as slime and tentacles over typical horror tropes such as blood or claws (Wikipedia, 2020). In ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’, the Deep Ones seem to have features fitting this profile, being described in the book as “shiny and slippery”. In ‘The Colour Out Of Space’, the grass eventually becomes tentacle-like, grabbing at our protagonists and trying to pull them down. Also in the film, when Theresa Gardner is mutating with her son, her body seems to be semi-gelatinous, and when Nathan Gardner kisses her, her saliva has become slime-like.

The third common feature is the outsider archetype. Protagonists often have academic intents. However, they tend to be reclusive and socially isolated (Joshi, 2006). This is evident in both studies. The protagonist in ‘The Shadow Over Innsworth’ is a lonely individual, and he is actually not named in the story (though it was later revealed to be Robert Olmstead). In ‘The Colour Out Of Space’ there are multiple layers of isolation. The whole family is in an isolated location, deep in the woods and many miles from help. Within the family dynamic, Lavinia is isolated from her family, precisely because she wishes to escape her family’s isolation and live in a city-like environment. In terms of an academic backround, Ward Phillips, the lone survivor of the incident is a hydrologist and has attending university.

The fourth feature is the feeling of hopelessness. Humanity is not alone in the universe and neither religion nor science is any match for the scale of horror (McConeghy, 2020). Any victories are temporary, and a price is usually paid for these small victories. In both of these stories, they don’t defeat anything, the only reason characters survived is because these lifeforms decided not to. They could have been easily killed, and in ‘The Colour Out Of Space’, the entire family was. In ‘The Shadow Over Innsworth’, though he survived, it turns out he is the very creature he despised, and there is nothing he could do about it.

The final feature is the recurring theme that these creatures are not meant to be discovered, and the comprehension of these are damaging to the point of insanity. McConeghy (2020) says “When Lovecraft’s characters meet an elder god, they want to look away but cannot. They are transfixed by what they cannot rationalize. Moreover, faced with a non-rational experience, they go mad trying to understand it.”. When characters comprehend these creatures, they realize they are not who they think they are. They do not live where they think they live. This moment drives them insane, because they realize they are going nowhere and realistically amount to nothing (Freud, 1955). In ‘The Shadow Over Innsworth’, the protagonist sees The Deep Ones and cannot comprehend it, so he faints. In ‘The Colour Out Of Space’, Nathan Gardner cannot comprehend the events, and as a result turns insane.

References

Joshi, S (2006). The Cthulhu Mythos.

McConeghy, D (2020). Facing the Monsters: Otherness in H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and Hellboy. Vol. 11, no. 2. Religions. Retrieved from http://apps.webofknowledge.com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/InboundService.do?customersID=EBSCO&mode=FullRecord&IsProductCode=Yes&product=WOS&Init=Yes&Func=Frame&DestFail=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.webofknowledge.com&action=retrieve&SrcApp=EDS&SrcAuth=EBSCO&SID=F363IvfSRmNKAdb1JW9&UT=WOS%3A000519615300030

Wikipedia (2020). Lovecraftian Horror. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraftian_horror