(urth) AEG: Is AEG Lovecraftian?

[Bryan Alexander]

I admit to bringing a Lovecraftian perspective to my reading of AEG.  That
was due in part to various things I'd heard about the novel, which were then
brought to mind with the HPL inscription.  So I suspected far more cosmic
horror from various quarters, including the flapping creature, than I ended
up with.
My Phil Dick-style expectations were confirmed instead.

On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 3:55 PM, Dave Tallman <davetallman at msn.com> wrote:

> 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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-- 
Bryan Alexander
http://infocult.typepad.com/
http://twitter.com/BryanAlexander
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