What is the philosophy of cosmicism and how is it used to convey a sense of dread in The Colour out of Space?
Cosmicism is the literally philosophy developed and used by the American author H.P Lovecraft in his weird philosophic horror fiction. According to Duran (2016) the philosophy of cosmicism that Lovecraft established states that “there is no recognizable divine presence, such as a god, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence, and perhaps are just a small species projecting their own mental idolatries onto the vast cosmos.” In other words; Humans are insignificant in comparison to the cosmos and the cosmos is too significant that it is incomparable to anything.
Lovecrafts used the following principles to produce and create his universe:
- No divine presence in the universe.
- Human beings are insignificant in intergalactic existence.
- Human beings are like insects when referred to on a universe level.
- The universe is ancient including the stars.
- Characters can realize they are too powerless to build change. (Klu, 2019).
Slatten (2016) claims that many critics and scholars believed cosmicism was an important factor in Lovecrafts fictional universe; Cthulu Mythos. The stories are mature horror fiction based on an ancient time where earth was inhabited by something utterly alien-intelligent that was inconceivable and unexplainable to the human mind and science (Slåtten, 2016). Lovecrafts stories are all connected by non-human beings, fictional characters and reoccurring themes that evoke horror by relying on ‘the insignificance of humanity in the universe’ (Slåtten, 2016) and Duran (2016) believes that cosmos horror is also about the human beings physical and mental fragility. Lovecraft professed that ‘All his tales are based foundation of which human laws, interests and emotions have no validity or worth in the vast cosmos’ (Slåtten, 2016). Lovecraft created these stories as he believed that there was much more to the world, life, universe than simple human beings, he was curious for more and hungered to explore the hidden and unknown (Duran, 2016). “Pleasure to me is wonder—the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability” (H.P. Lovecraft Quotes, n.d).
The philosophy of cosmicism conveys a sense of dread in 2019 film adaption of Lovecrafts The Colour out of Space by introducing an extra-terrestrial entitie known as ‘The Colour’ the human family have no knowledge of what it is and what is to come. ‘The Colour’ took control of not only the characters sanity but also the film as a whole. What I mean by this is that ‘The Colour’ became the central character of the film and everything that happened, the sequences and the people in the film all became revolved around it. This initiated fear the characters couldn’t anticipate what would happen and neither could the audience. This leads me to the deforming of organic matter, this was completely unexpected and very intense to watch. Something people assumed to be insignificant and nothing ended up being powerful, monstrous and terrifying. ‘The Colour’ distorted time, changed the characters perception of reality and drew them into this void of uncertainty while living in solitude and being isolated. Then they were tortured and killed one by one all while insanity and madness were haunting them because of the contaminated water. The philosophy of cosmicism was crafted implausibly well in this film. There was no God visible aiding the characters, ‘The Colour’ proved that it had immense power over the human beings and environment, it showed humans were insignificant, weak and helpless creatures and the characters realized that they were powerless towards this unknown entity and could not change anything. ‘The Colour out of space’ was an exceptional movie that shared with us the fear of the unknown and unexpected.
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” (H.P. Lovecraft Quotes, n.d).
Duran, M. (2016, October 31). The Real Horror of Lovecraft’s Cosmicism. Retrieved September 03, 2020, from https://www.mikeduran.com/2016/10/31/the-real-horror-of-lovecrafts-cosmicism/
Greenham, E. (2013). Neocosmicism: God and the Void. Retrieved September 03, 2020, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c3c2/4ee0847fdbbf06ec861243faecf37cec3055.pdf
H.P. Lovecraft Quotes (Author of The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories). (n.d.). Retrieved September 03, 2020, from https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/9494.H_P_Lovecraft
Klu, R. (2019, March 04). Principals of Cosmicism (Lovecraftian Fiction). Retrieved September 03, 2020, from https://booksandmor.com/2019/03/06/principals-of-cosmicism-lovecraftian-fiction/
Slåtten, K. Ø. (2016, May). Humans in a Hostile Cosmos. Science, Cosmicism and Race in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Retrieved September 05, 2020.
Pop Genres 2020 