felis saturnus

" a yowl came from the farther peak, and the old leader paused in his conversation. it was one of the army's outposts, stationed on the highest of the mountains to watch the one foe which earths cats have fear; the very large and peculiar cats from saturn, who for some reason have not been oblivious of the charms of our moons dark side. they are leagued by treaty with the evil toad-things, and are notoriously hostile to our earthly cats; so that at this juncture a meeting would have been a somewhat grave matter."
the complete text of lovecrafts dream quest of unknown kadath can be read on line or downloaded for later reading from the lovecraft archive.
h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

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italio lovecraft calvino--cities of the dreamworld

george (pickman) stubbs painting of a dreamworld zebra at yales british art gallery.
"Carter hired a zebra and set out one morning on the road by Yath’s shore for those inland parts wherein towers stony Ngranek. ... By evening he was near the nameless ancient ruins on Yath’s farther shore, and though old lava-gatherers had warned him not to camp there at night, he tethered his zebra to a curious pillar before a crumbling wall ..."

"The sun had just come up over the great slope whereon leagues of primal brick foundations and worn walls and occasional cracked pillars and pedestals stretched down desolate to the shore of Yath, and Carter looked about for his tethered zebra. Great was his dismay to see that docile beast stretched prostrate beside the curious pillar to which it had been tied, and still greater was he vexed on finding that the steed was quite dead, with its blood all sucked away through a singular wound in its throat."
h.p.lovecraft, dreamquest of unknown kadath. the complete text can be read at the lovecraft archive.
invisible cities, italio calvinos guide to the cities of the dream world. the best places to water your zebra and shop for onyx
"at the end of three days, moving southward, you come upon anastasia. a city with concentric canals watering it and kites flying over it. i should now list the wares that can profitably be bought here: agate, onyx, chrysoprase, and other varieties of chalcedony: ... if for eight hours a day you work as a cutter of agate, onyx, chrysoprase, your labour which gives for to desire takes from desire its form, and you believe you are enjoying anastasia wholly when you are only its slave."
italio calvino, invisible cities. made in to english by william weaver.

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stone lions fabled

"far off at its end the pillars spread to mark a vast round plaza, and in that open circle there loomed gigantic under the lurid night clouds a pair of monstrous things. huge winged lions of diarite they were, with blackness and shadow between them. full twenty feet they reared their grotesque and unbroken heads, and snarled derisive on the ruins around them. and carter knew right well what they must be, for legend tells of only one such twain. they were the changeless guardians of the great abyss, and these dark ruins were in truth primordial sarkomand. ...

"stretched before him the great corpse-like width of fabled sarkomand with its black broken pillars and crumbling sphinx-crowned gates and titan stones and monstrous winged lions against the sickly glow of those luminous night clouds."

h.p.lovecraft; the dream quest of unknown kadath.

stone lions and antlers at corbis.

halicarcossa, on the shore of the lake of the lord of the lake of hali. a terrace, two winged lions sculpted from a single stone of diorite. between them steps carved into a well.

one lion has lost both onyx eyes to time and thieves, the other surveys the world through the cracks of one eye time and thieves have forgotten.

they say that if a lone traveler listen he may hear the one-eyed lion tell the lion-blind what comes and goes before them. while the lion-blind is said to have an inward sight and sings to his twin what he sees beyond them.

 

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skull of zenig

rusted skull of zenig at japantrend.

''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, dreamquest of unknown kadath.

 

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calculating starry wisdom

"three times randolph carter dreamed of the marvellous city and three times was he snatched away while still he paused on the high terrace above it. all golden and lovely it blazed in the sunset, with wall, temples, collonade and arched bridges of veined marble, silver basined fountains of prismatic spray in broad squares and perfumed gardens, and wide streets marching between delicate trees and blossom laden urns and ivory statues in gleaming rows; while on steep northward slopes climbed tiers of red roofs and old peaked gables harbouring little lanes of grassy cobbles."

 

h.p.lovecraft, the dreamquest of unknown kadath.

 

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skull of zenig

''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

 

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opening lines while dreaming

Three times Randolph Carter dreamed of the marvellous city, and three times was he snatched away while still he paused on the high terrace above it. All golden and lovely it blazed in the sunset, with walls, temples, colonnades, and arched bridges of veined marble, silver-basined fountains of prismatic spray in broad squares and perfumed gardens, and wide streets marching between delicate trees and blossom-laden urns and ivory statues in gleaming rows; while on steep northward slopes climbed tiers of red roofs and old peaked gables harbouring little lanes of grassy cobbles. It was a fever of the gods; a fanfare of supernal trumpets and a clash of immortal cymbals. Mystery hung about it as clouds about a fabulous unvisited mountain; and as Carter stood breathless and expectant on that balustraded parapet there swept up to him the poignancy and suspense of almost-vanished memory, the pain of lost things, and the maddening need to place again what once had an awesome and momentous place.

He knew that for him its meaning must once have been supreme; though in what cycle or incarnation he had known it, or whether in dream or in waking, he could not tell. Vaguely it called up glimpses of a far, forgotten first youth, when wonder and pleasure lay in all the mystery of days, and dawn and dusk alike strode forth prophetick to the eager sound of lutes and song; unclosing faery gates toward further and surprising marvels. But each night as he stood on that high marble terrace with the curious urns and carven rail and looked off over that hushed sunset city of beauty and unearthly immanence, he felt the bondage of dream’s tyrannous gods; for in no wise could he leave that lofty spot, or descend the wide marmoreal flights flung endlessly down to where those streets of elder witchery lay outspread and beckoning.

 

When for the third time he awaked with those flights still undescended and those hushed sunset streets still untraversed, he prayed long and earnestly to the hidden gods of dream that brood capricious above the clouds on unknown Kadath, in the cold waste where no man treads. But the gods made no answer and shewed no relenting, nor did they give any favouring sign when he prayed to them in dream, and invoked them sacrificially through the bearded priests Nasht and Kaman-Thah, whose cavern-temple with its pillar of flame lies not far from the gates of the waking world. It seemed, however, that his prayers must have been adversely heard, for after even the first of them he ceased wholly to behold the marvellous city; as if his three glimpses from afar had been mere accidents or oversights, and against some hidden plan or wish of the gods.

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

the complete weird tale can be read at the lovecraft archive.

 

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zenig the upcycled

bon barde gives zenig the acajou treatment at skulladay.

''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

 

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zenig the serious aphoratean

mr. zenig at mister.
''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

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zenig of aphorat

• 

squamous zenig of fsmnyc.

''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

 

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fragment of zenig

zenig of chrishabana via polyvore.

''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

fanfare for nyarlathotep

''when there rang without warning through that pale-litten and limitless chamber the hideous blast of a daemon trumpet. ... presently from the chamber's uttermost reaches a new sound came. this, too, was a rhythmic trumpeting; ... in this low fanfare echoed all the wonder and melody of etheral dream; exotic vistas of imagined loveliness floating from each strange chord and subtly alien cadence. ...


"hei! ai-shanta nygh!'' ...



''then through the glittering vault ahead there fell a hush of portent, and all the winds and horrors slunk away as night things slink away before the dawn. trembling in waves that golden whisps of nebula made weirdly visible, there rose a timid hint of far off melody, droning in faint chords that our own universe of stars knows not. ... it was a song, but not the song of any voice. night and the spheres sang it, and it was old when space and nyarlathotep and the other gods were born.''

h.p.lovecraft; dreamquest of unknown kadath.

couplet for azathoth

'' outside the ordered universe, where no dreams reach; that last amorphous blight of nether most confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the centre of all infinity--the boundless daemon sultan azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; ...

'' that last amorphous blight of nether-most confusion where bubbles and blasphemes at infinity's centre the mindless daemon-sultan azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud ... those inconcievable, unlighted chambers beyond time wherein azathoth gnaws shapeless and ravenous amidst the muffled, maddening beat of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes. ''

h.p.lovecraft, dream quest of unknown kadath.

zenig's skull

zenig at a place called etsy.


 ''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

droning song

''trembling in waves that golden whisps of nebula made weirdly visible, there rose a timid hint of far off melody, droning in faint chords that our own universe of stars knows not. ... it was a song, but not the song of any voice. night and the spheres sang it, and it was old when space and nyarlathotep and the other gods were born.'' h.p.lovecraft, the dreamquest of unknown kadath.

zenig of aphorat

a million skull ring at ring-a-day.

''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

flight of the shantak

goya at giornal nuovo.


''then the man motioned carter to mount one of the repugnant shantaks ... it was hard work ascending, for the shantak-bird has scales instead of feathers, and those scales are very slippery ... once he was seated the slant-eyed man hopped up behind him ...

'' there now followed a hideous whirl through frigid space, ... beyond which leng was said to be ... far above the clouds they flew, till at last there lay beneath them those fabled summits of which the folk of inquanok have never seen, ... carter saw them very plainly as they passed below, and saw upon their top most peaks strange caves ... he noticed that both the man and the horse-headed shantak appeared oddly fearful of them, ...

'' the shantak now flew lower, revealing beneath the canopy of cloud a grey barren plain whereon at great distances shone little feeble fires ... around the feeble fires dark forms were dancing, ... very slowly and awkwardly did these forms leap; and with an insane twisting and bending not good to behold ... as the shantak flew lower, the repulsivness of the dancers became tinged with a cetain hellish familiarity, ... they leaped as though they had hooves instead of feet and seemed to wear a sort of wig or headpiece with small horns ...

'' but the shantak flew on past the fires ... and soared over sterile hills of grey granite and dim wastes of rock and ice and snow ... and still the vile bird winged meaningly through the cold and silence ... and finally they came to a wind-swept table-land which seemed the very roof of a blasted and tenantless world ... the lothsome bird now settled to the ground,''

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

skulls of zenig of aphorat

image from skulladay.

''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

cooking for ghouls

''the ghouls were in general respectful, even if one did attempt to pinch him while several others eyed his leanness speculatively.''

h.p.lovecraft, the dreamquest of unknown kadath.


''no i dont know what's become of pickman, and i dont like to guess. you might have surmized i had some inside information when i dropped him--and thats why i dont want to think where he's gone. i should think you'd have known i didn't drop pickman for the same silly reasons that fussy old women lik dr. reid or joe minot or rosworth did. morbid art dosn't shock me, and when a man has the genius pickman had i feel it an honour to know him, no matter what direction his work takes. boston never had a greater painter than richard upton pickman. i said it at first and i say it still, and i never sweerved an inch, either, when he showed that "ghoul feeding". that you remember, was when minot cut him.


''i remember your asking pickman yourself once, the year before you went away, wherever in thunder he got such ideas and visions. wasn't that a nasty laugh he gave you? it was partly because of that laugh reid dropped him. he said pickman repelled him more and more every day, and almost frightened him toward the last. but keep in mind that i didn't drop pickman for anything like this. on the contrary, my admiration for him kept growing; for that "ghoul feeding" was a tremendous achievement. as you know the club wouldn't exhibit it, and the museum of fine arts wouldnt accept it as a gift, and i can add nobody would buy it ...


''i got into the habit of calling on pickman quite often, especially after i began making notes for a monograph on weird art. probably it was his work which put the idea into my head, and anyhow, i found him a mine of data and suggestions when i came to develop it. he showed me all the paintings and drawings he had about; including some pen-and-ink sketches that would, i verily believe, have got him kicked out of the club if many of the members had seen them. now, eliiot, im what the man in the street would call fairly "hard boiled", but i'll confess that what i saw on the walls of that room gave me a bad turn. they were his pictures, you know--the ones he couldnt paint or even show in newbury street-- ...


''there was one thing called "the lesson"--heaven pity me, that i ever saw it! listen--can you fancy a squatting circle of nameless doglike things in a church yard teaching a small child how to feed like themselves? the price of a changeling i suppose--you know the old myth about how the weird people leave their spawn in cradles in exchange for the human babes they steal. pickman was showing what happens to those stolen babes--how they grow up--and no sooner had i wondered what he made of their own young as left with mankind in the form of changelings, than my eyes caught a picture embodying that very thought... it was their changeling--and in a spirit of supreme irony pickman had given the features a very perceptable resemblance to his own.


''richard upton pickman, the greatest artist i have ever known--and the foulest being that ever leaped the bounds of life into the pits of myth and madness. eliot--old reid was right. he wasn't strictly human. either he was born in strange shadow, or he'd found a way to unlock the forbidden gate. its all the same now for he's gone-back into the fabulous darkness he loved to haunt.''

h.p.lovecraft, pickman's model.

keypad of the spheres

''trembling in waves that golden whisps of nebula made weirdly visible, there rose a timid hint of far off melody, droning in faint chords that our own universe of stars knows not. ... it was a song, but not the song of any voice. night and the spheres sang it, and it was old when space and nyarlathotep and the other gods were born. ''

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.