(urth) AEG: Is AEG Lovecraftian?
Kieran Mullen
kieran at nhn.ou.edu
Mon Nov 3 09:59:38 PST 2008
(I have sent this in several times and I never saw it on the list or
on the webserver. I am resending it. I apologize if it appears more
than once.)
A very good friend of mine who has written books on horror films and
fiction recent finished "An Evil Guest." It was quite a slog for him
- he found Cassie to be an unappealing protagonist and the pastiche of
genres annoyed him. However, his biggest complaint was that the book
is billed as Lovecraftian horror and it simply isn't.
That needs a bit of explanation. For a work to be Lovecraftian I
don't think it is simply sufficient to stick in Hastur and Cthulu and
call it that. Lovecraft (IMO) came up with a truly original
ontological horror premise for his fiction: the universe is dominated
by inhuman forces which we don't have a hope of understanding or
defeating. At best we can only hope that they ignore us. (We can't
even pray that they do - there is no God, only atoms and a void).
Humanity is a minor irrelevance in a dark and hungry universe. Any
attempt to try to change that will only draw the attention of forces
that will destroy the inquirer.
AEG dabbles in many pulp genres without really investing in any
single one: the rising theatrical star, the hard-boiled detective,
the South Sea adventure, and (in this view), Lovecraftian horror. On
the other hand, it may actually have a more horrifying subtext than I
understand, if the reality-warping effects of Cassies "elevation" are
meant to show that reality is not what we know it to be. I am not
sure how the last fifty pages of the novel demand a re-interpretation
of the first parts. Otherwise, it seems that the Lovecrfaft elements
at the end are tacked on, and not essential to the earlier parts of
the novel.
So what do you think? Is AEG just a romp through different
genres or is it really meant to be a horror novel?
Kieran Mullen
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