Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 - Fungi From Yuggoth

Fungi From Yuggoth, a poem by HP Lovecraft

Published 1943

Illustration by Nottsuo

Category: Dream Cycle/Cthulhu Mythos

I find that I am a little behind with this blog so, to catch up I decided to read a poem, his most famous and one of his longest, yet still short enough to get done before the day is out.

Wow - what a trippy bit of poetry. It's written in 36 small, two stanza poems, each with it's own title (my favorites are "Night Gaunts" and "The Elder Pharos".) Also the book I read it from has some insane illustrations in it (see the edition note below and follow the link for some more work by the illustrator!)

That said the poem tells the story of the classic Lovecraftian protagonist - the humble, weak man who desires to know That Which Man Was Not Meant To Know.

I entered, charmed, and from a cobwebbed heap

Took up the nearest tome and thumbed it through,

Trembling at curious words that seemed to keep

Some secret, monstrous if only one knew.

He steals a book from the shop and takes it home (and yes, of course he's followed by an unseen entity!) and learns how to leave our world and travel to lands beyond. OK, fun fact - Yuggoth is Pluto! Yeah, who knew.

This is trippy and fun and the illos in my book - oh man, I wish I could just upload them all. So freaky. All right, I'll upload some!

The Elder Pharos or WTFuh?!?!?!!

The Howler or This unit has a great half bath downstairs...

Zaman's Hill or "The eyes of the hill was meant to be figurative..."

~~

In my travels to any and all used bookstores around the country I always look for the Lovecraftiana and one of my discoveries was this little gem, a crumbling old paperback with that bizarrely and bad yet weird and fun illo on the cover, by Frank Utpatel.

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 - The White Ship

The White Ship by HP Lovecraft

Published November 1919

Illustration by Jason Thompson

Category: Dream Cycle

Our narrator, Basil Elton*, describes the lighthouse his family has kept for generations:

Past that beacon for a century have swept the majestic barques of the seven seas. In the days of my grandfather there were many; in the days of my father not so many; and now there are so few that I sometimes feel strongly alone, as though I were the last man on our planet.

And so when he alights upon the mysterious White Ship, seen only when the moon is full, on a "bridge of moonbeams" he is taken to a far off dream land of mist shrouded spires and long forgotten cities. This tale is a fantasy triptych through a strange and beautiful (and, yes, ultimately frightening) world - really quite lovely and poetic. Lovecraft was deeply influenced by the Arabian Nights and it's clear this Eastern pastiche of imagined architecture fits right in:

And the houses of the cities of Cathuria are all palaces, each built over a fragrant canal bearing the waters of the sacred Narg.

It's a quick little escapist read. Take a trip on that White Ship.

*Note that the name "Basil Elton" is solidly a British sounding name, which is unsurprising as HPL was a real Anglophile.

~~

I read this story in a lovely, comprehensive volume I found at Barnes & Noble in Union Square, while the wife and daughter were listening to a (very bad) reading hour. It's called Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre from Gollancz. The cover was really nice, leathery with gold leaf print and a wickedly evil illustration on it. The contents seemed pretty comprehensive - it contains all of his lesser known stories and official collaborations (rather than posthumous ones that many anthologies rightfully ignore.)