Week 6

What is the philosophy of cosmicism and how is it used to convey a sense of dread in The Colour out of Space? 

According to Stableford (2007), Lovecraftian horror is essentially horror that comes from knowledge too great and incomprehensible to bear, and deals with the unchartered aspects of space rather than the mundane human world and the pedestrian evil humans are capable of. Ralickas (2008, page 364) describes cosmic horror as the “fear and awe we feel when confronted by phenomena beyond our comprehension, whose scope extends beyond the narrow field of human affairs and boasts of cosmic significance.”  

The two main philosophies of cosmicism that are used to convey a sense of dread, or fear and anticipation, in The Colour out of Space are how the horror within the story is largely unknown and abstract, and how little we really understand about the cosmos and our own insignificance in it.   

One of the ways that cosmicism is used to convey a sense of dread in The Colour out of Space is through its unknown horror. The horror within cosmicism isn’t necessarily seen, but its presence is felt, and its abstract nature and difficulty in describing its horror makes it that much more terrifying (Stableford, 2007). In the short story, the reader is never told exactly what the evil force is. All we know is that a meteor crashes into the Gardner’s property, after which some sort of blight effects the surrounding soil, poisoning the vegetables, animals, trees and eventually everything around it, turning it into dust. Eventually the whole family is driven to madness and subsequently perish. The Colour out of Space leans heavily on the limited amount of information about the cosmic entity to make it appear more incomprehensible and dangerous to the human protagonists (Slåtten, 2016). Throughout the story we are never told if the meteor brought a single or group of alien entities, the physical characteristics of the alien, or whether it is sentient and came to earth with any purpose (Slåtten, 2016). In the 2019 film adaptation, while we do see the physical form of the alien entity, or the ‘Colour’, it is still portrayed as an obscure threat that we cannot touch. For example, Nathan Gardner is able to shoot and kill the monster his wife and son have turned into, however, the Colour is still present and able to wreak its havoc. The unknown and untouchable nature of the Colour is hugely effective in conveying dread, as it allows the imagination to take over. The creations of our own imagination are often far more horrifying than what we see with our own eyes, and so the fact that the Colour is so obscure makes it even more terrifying (Halldórsson, 2010). 

Another philosophy of cosmicism is our limited understanding of the cosmos, and that humans are ultimately helpless and insignificant in the grand schemes of the universe (Stableford, 2007). We see this in The Colour out of Space, as the Colour is brought from a meteor from another cosmos and serves as a reminder that there are unknown forces and entities that exist outside of Earth. According to Slåtten (2016), the Colour is proof that a cosmic reality exists that is both foreign and horrifying to humans. The knowledge of this reality is not met with positive amazement or fascination, but rather insanity and fear (Slåtten, 2016). The Colour literally turns members of the Gardner family insane until they perish, and rather than investigating and coming to understand the Colour, the people of the town want to flood the area it infected with a dam to try and cover it up. The Colour represents a hostile cosmic force that humans have very little understanding of, and therefore is something they fear (Slåtten, 2016). Halldórsson (2010) argues that the Colour and the events it causes are not acts of evil, but rather go beyond that and are meant to be further than the comprehension of the reader, operating on a different set of laws. All the horrible things that happen to the Gardener family are merely side products of the cosmic force – it didn’t have a specific intention to terrorize this family in particular – reinforcing the insignificance of humans within the cosmos and how we are merely a means to an end (Halldórsson, 2010). All of this perfectly conveys a sense of dread. The revelation of our own insignificance in comparison to the universe is a frightening thought, as we are reminded how futile and powerless we are against forces we have a very limited understanding of (Halldórsson, 2010). 

The Colour out of Space leaves us with unanswered questions about our place in the universe and if we’re ever truly safe from unknown evil. The fact that it leaves us unsure if we ever defeated the evil is truly terrifying, heightening our sense of dread and fear for what’s to come.  

References 

Halldórsson, K. R. (2010). HP Lovecraft. The Enlightenment and connection to the world of Cosmicism [Doctoral dissertation, University of Iceland]. Skemman. https://skemman.is/handle/1946/6241 

Ralickas, V. (2007). “Cosmic Horror” and the Question of the Sublime in Lovecraft. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 18(3), 364-398. 

Slåtten, K. Ø. (2016). Humans in a hostile cosmos: Science, cosmicism and race in HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos [Master’s thesis, University of Stavanger, Norway]. University of Stavanger. http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2400445  

Stableford, B. (2007). The cosmic horror. In Joshi, S. T. (Eds.), Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares (pp. 65-96). Greenwood Publishing Group.