Q)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?
The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1931) is an original, published work of H. P. Lovecraft, and is a part of the Cthulhu Mythos. There are several defining features that form the basis of Cthulhu Mythos, much of which are inspired in Lovecraft’s upbringing and convictions, and are present in The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1931), and The Colour Out of Space (1927)(Joshi, 2007). The Mythos was a result of Lovecraft’s philosophical convictions and the influence of intellectual frenzy of early 20th century; his works reflect his awareness of uncertainty in the knowledge of his time (Joshi, 2007). His convictions acted as a persuasion to challenge beliefs, and passed the notion that norms of humanity have no mere significance in front of looming uncertainty of the universe (Jones, 2020).
The defining features of the Mythos are categorized and explained in four concrete elements: a ‘largely imaginary New England topography – a recurring setting inspired in a number of works (Joshi, 2007). New England in Lovecraft’s works are reminiscent of the seventeenth century which was a haven of religious fanaticism, witchcraft, and invocations – incursions of tampering with the unnatural orders of nature (Joshi, 2007). The fictitious seaport in The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a part of mythical cities loosely based on real places that Lovecraft travelled to and visited (Joshi, 2007). The city Arkham in The Colour out of Space is loosely based on Salem. Aquatic hybrid creatures in Innsmouth (1931) are imagined from Massachusetts’ coastline, and Joshi (2007) asserts that the reservoir in The Colour out of Space could be an influence of the Quabbin reservoir in Massachusetts.
The second feature elaborates on ‘ancient and modern occult books’ of Lovecraftian library (Joshi, 2007). Joshi (2007) explains it as ‘a band of scholars who seek out texts… carry out the spells and incantations… to combat them’. In The Colour out of Space, this feature is not entirely present, but researches of the Miskatonic University venture out to study the strange meteorite. Lovecraft crafts the plot around the knowledge of supernatural horror; alien entities in the particular story are rather inexplicable, misshaped, and incomprehensible compared to human bodily structures (Joshi, 2007). This feature however in Innsmouth (1931) is replicated in the form of the odd townsfolk of Innsmouth, and the Deep Ones in the form of fish that deliver prosperity along with jewellery. The interest in the town’s half humans and objects are analogous of the feature’s explanation of quests ventured in such fictions, which in this case was the narrator (Joshi, 2007).
Third of the concrete elements is the ‘gods’, their human followers,’ and their monstrous ‘minions’ or acolytes (Joshi, 2007). Cthulhu Mythos worked around entities that were known as the ‘Elder Gods’, ‘Great Old Ones’, and ‘Outer Gods’ – beings that ruled the earth long before the existence of humankind (Cthulhu Mythos, n.d.). In Innsmouth (1931), they are reminisced as Deep Ones, inadequate in a manner of description, as the entities are incomprehensible to a human mind (Jones, 2020). Misquoted from Lovecraft, the sheer knowledge of unknown entities or the lack thereof is sufficient for a human to lose control and sense of reality as known (Jones, 2020). This is clearly portrayed in The Colour Out of Space (1927), wherein entities were defined by an odd colour apart from grotesque features.
The last feature elaborates on ‘a sense of the cosmic, both spatial and temporal’ (Joshi, 2007). Tales of Cthulhu Mythos are more firmly linked to science fiction rather than supernatural, however The Colour Out of Space deals with cosmic entities, a strong trait of the feature, that seem to be preeminent origins of intergalactic realms (Jones, 2020; Joshi, 2007). Entities in both The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1931) and The Colour Out of Space (1927) appear to abandon laws of matter; in the form of aquatic human hybrids and the odd parlance of the townsfolk that go against the human ability to comprehend alternative existence. As for The Colour out of Space (1927), the oddity that spread and manifested itself, in whatever encountered its existence in a remote area of the Gardners, was enough to enkindle insanity. A sense of revolt and trepidation carried on in the tale, reiterating the feature that occurs in terms of spatial and temporal dimensions.
References
Cthulhu Mythos, (n.d.). Retrieved from https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos
Joshi, S. T. (2007). The Cthullu Mythos, in Icons of horror and the supernatural: An encyclopedia of our worst nightmares. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Jones, N. (2020). Lovecraftian Horror Video Lecture. Retrieved from AUT Blackboard.
Lovecraft, H. P. (1927). The Colour out of Space. Retrieved from AUT Blackboard.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth – 1931 (n.d.). Retrieved from
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