Question (2): What is the philosophy of cosmicism and how is it used to convey a sense of dread in both The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Colour out of Space?
The literary philosophy of cosmicism was brought into being by the American author H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft wrote horror stories, he specifically liked writing about occult phenomena, including such themes as spirit possession and alien miscegenation. This philosophy of cosmicism encapsulates this idea around humans being fairly insignificant compared to a much larger intergalactic existence. This knowledge causes humans to face just how unimportant and small they are compared to the entire universe and that realisation instills fear which typically causes a psychological transformation or breakdown to occur (Wikipedia, n.d.). Stableford (2007, p. 66) states “At first glance ‘‘cosmic’’ seems to be used here merely as a replacement term for ‘‘supernatural,’’ but the substitution also implies a particular psychological attitude to the supernatural”.
This philosophy of cosmicism is used to convey a sense of dread in the 2019 film adaptation of Lovecrafts ‘The Color Out of Space’. This film utilizes an unknown force simply named ‘the color’. This unknown force begins to control the Gardner family, making them act and do things that are unexplainable. For example, when Theresa is preparing dinner she absentmindedly chops off two of her fingers (Stanley, 2019). Many more inexplicable things happen, and due to unknown knowledge this leads to the family and extended town folk becoming more and more fearful for their lives. At the peak of the film ‘the color’ finally reveals itself as a thing that originates from another planet which is inhabited by intergalactic beings (Stanley, 2019). This narrative follows closely the philosophy of cosmicism and that sense of dread that the unknown brings. As Lovecraft (1934) once famously stated “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” (The H. P. Lovecraft Archive, n.d.).
This philosophy of cosmicism also extends throughout many other works of Lovecraft’s notably ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’. In ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ Lovecraft utilizes the same kind of celestial beings that are unknown to the rest of the world but only known to residents of Innsmouth. The town of Innsmouth came upon some tough times and they began to sacrifice townspeople to ‘the deep ones’ as they are referred to in exchange for economic stability. However, these sacrifices were abolished and ‘the deep ones’ became angry and killed over half the village’s population. This led to the production of hybrid offspring (Wikipedia, n.d.). This is another common theme of Lovecraft’s cosmicism philosophy. This idea of cultic worshiping and the fraternisation between human and celestial (Stableford, 2007). Following on, after the main character learns the truth of this forbidden knowledge he manages to escape Innsmouth. It is not till much later in his life that he learns that he too has ‘the deep ones’ blood within him (Wikipedia, n.d.). This deliberately slow transition from human to celestial into something unknown is fear inspiring. This theme of the unknown instilling fear into the characters involved in his narratives is common of Lovecraft’s cosmicism philosophy.
References
Stableford, B. (2007). The cosmic horror. Icons of Horror and the Supernatural, 66-96.
Stanley, R. (Director). (2019). Colour Out of Space [Film]. SpectreVision.
The H. P. Lovecraft Archive. (n.d.). Supernatural horror in literature. Retrieved, September 2, 2020, from https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx
Wikipedia. (n.d.) Cosmicism. Retrieved September 2, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmicism#:~:text=The%20philosophy%20of%20cosmicism%20states,face%20of%20an%20incomprehensibly%20large
Wikipedia. (n.d.). The shadow over innsmouth. Retrieved September 3, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_over_Innsmouth
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