The philosophy of cosmicism developed from the materialistic nature of Lovecraft, an american writer. Lovecraft’s works consisted of cosmic horror stories that integrated weird phenomena of alien miscegenation and astral possession. As a result of Lovecraft’s materialistic nature, the philosophy of cosmicism developed. The philosophy is “a fundamental indifference to humanism and a lack of belief in a God, akin to atheism, recognizes death as an inevitability; for at the center of Cosmicism is a belief in a universe indifferent to the concerns of humankind (Price, “Lovecraft’s Artificial Mythology” 248). According to Lovecraft’s fiction, humans are but part of an ongoing cycle, they are not the last species on planet earth. Lovecraft also states “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” (Joshi, 2007, p. 103).
Lovecraft uses cosmicism to create body horror within the ‘Shadow Over Insmouth’ through ‘the deep ones’. The deep ones are a race of human-fish hybrids that are stripped of their humanity, until they essentially look like fish. They are referred to as the other, following the interbreeding with them. The characteristics of the deep ones include the ability of being immortal. Their features are repulsive with bulging eyes. Reyes describes body horror as “fictional representation of the body exceeding itself or falling apart, either opening up or being altered past the point where it would be recognised by normative understandings of human corporeality.” (Reyes, 2014) The narrator as well as protagonist shares family ties with the ‘deep ones’ which boggles his mind, unable to come to terms with his bond to the ‘other’, resulting in his insanity. (Snyder,2017) Accordingly, cosmiccm is depicted through the protagonist as well as the readers, who experience a feeling of dread as the protagonist despises his transformation into the ‘other’. He begins to question who the other really is, and whether he has been the other all along. The unfathomable is something the readers now have to fathom, they are filled with apprehension when realising they are one with extra terrestrial and gruesome creatures. Once again, Lovecraft makes readers aware of the unknown and the endless unknown creatures, and dread that the unknown brings.
The purpose of cosmicism is to reinforce dread and terror that already exists according to the laws of science. Lovecraft didn’t write supernatural horror as he believed that the cosmos within science was terrifying enough. The Color Out of Space uses cosmicism through hinting at signs and images of death and the unknown. Within ‘The Color Out of Space’ the fate of the patriarch of the Gardner family suggests an outcome worse than the fear of death; the fear of the unknown. (Davis, 2018). The fear of the unknown is exhibited by the meteorite that landed in Arkham, in which residents are completely unaware of its existence or purpose, depicting a force or entity from the unknown; outside the earth. Human beings have limited understanding of the cosmos evidence for the insignificant place we hold in the grand scheme of the universe (Stableford, 2007). The overwhelmingly colorful appearance of the meteor causes destruction through environmental mutations, and feeds off the energy of living things, eventually leading the members of the Gardner family insane to the point of perishing. This sort of event derives from the philosophy of cosmicism in which there is a suggestion that the universes outside of earth contain far more superior entities that humans can not fathom, such as the meteorite. The implementation of colors beseech a hostile cosmic force that is extremely difficult to comprehend on a human-level, thus the first response it is met with is far from fascination, and awe but rather a sense of fear and dread of the oblivion, ultimately resulting in insanity. (Slaten, 2016). This event perfectly sums up feelings of dread and terror, as one tends to feel substantially insignificant in comparison to a universe filled with unknowns that we have no knowledge of.
The fear of the unknown is a recurring theme that Lovecraft uses within his works. His philosophy of cosmicism is used within ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ and ‘The Color Out of Space In order to portray the unknown inevitabilities of the universes, while ingraining terror and dread within the hearts of readers.
References
Lovecraft, H. P. (1927). The color out of space.
Jones, N. (2020). Lovecraftian Horror Video Lecture. Retrieved from AUT Blackboard.
Lovecraft, H. P. (1936). The shadow over innsmouth.
Reyes, X. (2014). Body Gothic: Corporeal Transgression in Contemporary Literature and Horror Film. University of Wales Press.
Wikipedia. (n.d.). The shadow over innsmouth. Retrieved october 5, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_over_Innsmouth
Pop Genres 2020 