“A sense of monstrous guilt was upon the land, and out of the abysses between the stars swept chill currents that made men shiver in dark and lonely places.”
(Nyarlathotep, pg.121)
Welcome back to Our Daily Lovecraft. Brace up, for these is still much to experience.
If you’re just joining us, you can start your Lovecraftian journey here!
The subject matter of this story makes me think of Stranger Things in which there exists around us all manner of creatures, objects, and atmospheres yet we are unable to see them. Or like when characters in Stargate SG-1 go “out of phase” with the rest of reality. Our first person narrator (surprise) was friends with one Crawfor Tillinghast who, in his feverish pursuit of a scienctific breakthrough, has created a machine capable of creating specific waves that awaken additional senses in man, which then enable us to “see” or otherwise experience things formerly unknown to us.
As per usual with Lovecraft, it’s an interesting concept and not one wholly out of touch with scientific hypotheses. In Stargate SG-1, the team’s genius Samantha Carter created a very similar machine. The only difference was that the waves affected everything around it and shifted them rather than just affecting the living organisms near it to be able to see a parallel dimension (Though there was another episode, “Sight Unseen” in which a device did do that. Sorry folks, but we’re surrounded by a lot of bizarre insectoids.)
Back on track though, we go from, “Well that’s interesting” to Tillinghast hoping to kill him since he’s angry our narrator didn’t support him. Our narrator does indeed start to see some strange things, but it’s the warnings of “Don’t move!” from Tillinghast as he draws out the tension of the coming creatures upon our narrator. It had a wee bit of a Dr. Who weeping angels vibe, but luckily the narrator shoots the machine and Tillinghast dies of his own accord. While the intro to this particular story wasn’t impressed with Tillinghast or the “supernatural manifestations,” I liked how wild Tillinghast was even if his motivation was weak. And given that there’s some scientific validity to what’s happening here, I wouldn’t classify what our narrator sees or experiences as supernatural.
In the end, it’s entertaining, and isn’t that what we all want to experience in these stories?
Described as another prose poem, this story was inspired by yet another dream of Lovecraft’s. Nyarlathotep is (maybe?) a man who appears out of Egypt during a time of severe unrest and dread amongst the people of the world. He traveled and prophesied and spoke of science and psychology. Turns out he wasn’t just a man and he spoke the truth about the end of all things. Unfortunate.
It’s very short and more on the vague side. I don’t even really have much to say about it since it’s also pretty straightforward. So on to the next story, I guess.
Although yikes, Lovecraft certainly did have some intense dreams.
Featured image © Nicole Taft
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