(urth) AEG: Is AEG Lovecraftian?
Dave Tallman
davetallman at msn.com
Mon Nov 3 12:55:31 PST 2008
Kieran Mullen wrote:
> 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.
>
Given that Wolfe is a Christian I doubt very much that he would write a
work consistent with such a nihilistic Lovecraftian premise. But other
writers, such as August Derleth (also a Christian), have expanded the
Lovecraft universe to include a more classical view of good vs. evil. To
me, true horror cannot exist in a universe where our ideas of sanity and
goodness are a mere fluke, a cosmic joke. The efforts of the
protagonists become simply silly.
But I don't think the Lovecraft parts are simply tacked on. From the
beginning Reis announced his intention to retire to the South Seas (p.
14). This cannot be a coincidence. Reis may have learned something
during his time as ambassador to Woldercan. He may have realized there
was a connected menace on Earth and determined to fight it. To some
degree his provoking a fight between Squiddy and the Navy seems to have
been a success. At the very least the storms took out many Cthulhu
worshipers on the neighboring islands.
Even Lovecraft allowed the forces of good to succeed sometimes, for
example in "The Dunwich Horror." Even he could not help rooting for
humanity against the monsters.
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