H.P Lovecraft ( Howard Phillips Lovecraft) born Aug. 20th 1890 was an American writer from Providence, Rhode Island. He prolifically wrote novels and short stories which were sometimes described as fantastical or macabre and pioneered the movement of Gothic tale of terror writing in the 20th century.
Lovecraftian horror is defined as a subgenre of horror fiction which is conceptually synonymous with cosmic horror. This type of horror focuses on the danger of the unknown and the terror which can stem from horrific beings or occurrences which we cannot see, rather than the gory, graphic side of other horror genres. “the monsters in Lovecraft’s tales aren’t the true horror. The true horror and essential element of Lovecraft’s tales is the sense of helplessness and insignificance of humanity that the existence of the monsters signify.” Lacroix, (April 6th 2020) This is the true defining quality of Lovecraftian horror, which brings a philosophical quality to the discussion of horror and terrifying things. More mainstream genres of horror focus on amplifying the shock factor and emphasising violence as a way of increasing adrenaline. Some interpretations will suggest that horror is a way of facing the ugly side of human nature and that explicit content is a reflection of the sides of ourselves we do not wish to face. When it come to H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horror though, there is a testament to existentialism, as human life is seen as pointless and futile, in comparison to the vast and unknown landscape of cosmic knowledge. Lovecraft established a strong understanding of fear in his work, distinctly when it came to cosmic fear which differs from physical fears or fear of the gruesome. In the article The Outsiders and Others the following is said about cosmic horror : “that most terrible conception of the human brain—a malign and particular suspension of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguards against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.’’ Lovecraft (1939) Stableford, (2007) P, 66.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1936) is a horror novella by H.P. Lovecraft, forming a part of the Cthulu Mythos, telling the story of a malign undersea population. The story is set in New England, the protagonist being a young student who is on an antiquarian tour of New England, and hears of a horrifying story about aquatic monsters who can interbreed with humans to produce amphibian hybrids. Some critics believe that there might be a personal connection between the cosmic horror portrayed in The Shadow Over Innsmouth and H.P. Lovecraft himself. Both of his parents had been admitted to mental hospitals, where they had stayed until the end of their lives, this suggesting that there was a genetic history of mental illness in Lovecraft’s family. Having such a personal experience of watching his family go through debilitating mental illnesses most probably projected a serious fear onto H.P. Lovecraft when it came to phycological issues. Losing ones sanity or control over their minds is a terrifying leap into the unknown and is the kind of fear associated with cosmic horror. Mental illness is something that can’t always be seen and lacks a sense of physicality, making it a force of horror which differs from the obvious visual forms. When the narrator is shown things that exist outside his perception of reality, his mind begins to deteriorate, and mental illness ties in with the terrifying creatures and unknown qualities of existence.
The Colour Out of Space (1927) is a short story written by H.P. Lovecraft, featuring an unnamed narrator, set in Arkham Massachusetts. The narrator is trying to piece together the story of a place called the “blasted heath” in the wild hills of Arkham. It is revealed that a meteorite had crashed into that place, changing the landscape grotesquely, affecting the vegetation, mutating the animals and causing the humans to die. H.P. Lovecraft’s intention was to create a story about an alien that was truly alien, because of its mysterious manifestation and elusive entity. He had become disillusioned by stories which featured aliens which took form in illustrated, human perception fuelled ways. An entity from a different planet, or simply just from the cosmos is something beyond our limited earthly perception, and H.P Lovecraft wished to demonstrate the true terrifying quality of this.
| “It was a scene from a vision of Fuseli, and over all the rest reigned that riot of luminous amorphousness, that alien and undimensioned rainbow of cryptic poison from the well—seething, feeling, lapping, reaching, scintillating, straining, and malignly bubbling in its cosmic and unrecognisable chromaticism.” H.P. Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space. | |
| References : Stableford, B. (2007). The cosmic horror. Icons of Horror and the Supernatural, 66-96. The Editors of the Encyclopedia of Britannica, (2020. Aug.16) H.P. Lovecraft https://www.britannica.com/biography/H-P-Lovecraft LaQroix, P, (2017) What is Lovecraftian Horror? https://eldritchpaths.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/what-is-lovecraftian-horror/ The Shadow Over Innsmouth (2020) https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/The_Shadow_Over_Innsmouth The Color Out of Space (2020) https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Colour_Out_of_Space# | ~ e” |
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