more batrachian than ichthyic

strange craftsmanship of purmundus via notcothulhu.

'' most interesting of all was a glancing reference to the strange jewelry associated with innsmouth. ... the fragmentary descriptions were bald and prosaic, but they hinted to me an undercurrent of persistent strangeness. something about them seemed so odd and provocative that i could not put them out of my mind, ... i resolved to see the local sample said to be a large queerly proportioned thing ... evidently meant for a tiara ...

'' even now i can hardly describe what i saw though it was clearly enough a sort of tiara, ... as if designed for a head of almost freakishly elliptical outline. its condition was almost perfect, and one could have spent hours in studying the striking and puzzling untraditional designs-- ... chased or moulded in high relief on its surface with a craftmanship of incredible skill and grace ...

'' there was a curiously disturbing element hardly to be classified or accounted for. at first i decided that it was the queer other-worldly quality of the art which made me uneasy ... however i soon saw that my uneasiness had a second and perhaps equally potent source ... among these reliefs were fabulous monsters of abhorrent grotesqueness and malignity--half ichthyic and half batrachian in suggestion ... every contour of these blasphemous fish-frogs was overflowing with the ultimate quintessence of unknown and inhuman evil. ''

''but the worst shock came when my uncle shewed me the orne jewellery in a downtown safe-deposit vault. some of the items were delicate and inspiring enough, but there was one box of strange old pieces descended from my mysterious great-grandmother which my uncle was almost reluctant to produce. ... as my uncle began slowly and grudgingly to unwrap the things he urged me not to be shocked by the strangeness and frequent hidiousness of the designs. artists and archeologists who had seen them pronounced the workmanship superlativley and exotically exquisite, though no one seemed able to define their exact material or assign them to any specific art tradition. there were two armlets, a tiara , and a kind of pectoral; the latter having in high relief certain figures of an almost unbearable extravagance.

''he seemed to expect some demonstration when the first piece--the tiara--became visible, but i doubt if he expected quite what actually happened. i did not expect it, either, for i thought i was thoroughly forewarned regarding what the jewellery would turn out to be.

h.p.lovecraft;the shadow over innsmouth.

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landscape piece

illumined trees via notcothulhu.

''the scene of my excavations would alone have been enough to unnerve any ordinary man. baleful primal trees of unholy size, age, and grotesqueness leered above me like the pillars of some hellish druidic temple; muffling the thunder, hushing the clawing wind, and admitting but little rain.
''beyond the scarred trunks in the background illumined by faint flashes of filtered lightning rose the damp ivied stones of the deserted mansion, while somewhat nearer was the abandoned dutch garden whose walks and beds were polluted by a white, fungous, foetid, over-nourished vegetation that never saw full daylight.
''and nearest of all was the graveyard, where deformed trees tossed insane branches as their roots displaced unhallowed slabs and sucked venom from what lay below. now and then, beneath the brown pall of leaves that rotted and festered in the antediluvian forest darkness, i could trace the sinister outlines of some of those low mounds which characterized the lightning-pierced region.''
h.p.lovecraft, the lurking fear.

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opening statement

 

"i repeat to you, gentlemen, that your inquisition is fruitless. detain me here forever if you will; confine or execute me if you must have a victim to propitiate the illusion you call justice; but i can say no more than i have said already.

"everything that i can remember, i have told you with perfect candor. nothing has been distorted or concealed, and if anything remains vague, it is only because of the dark cloud which has come over my mind--that cloud and the nebulous nature of the horrors which brought it upon me."

h.p.lovecraft, the statement of randolph carter.

 

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lovecraft's ?racism?

i always had read , and even to this day read what people write about reading h. p. lovecraft's weird tales and not having been aware of the racism in lovecraft's weird tales with a grain of disbelief , especially if they be a person of race . it remained a print phenomena for me until one day when i was talking to an acquaintance and she brought up out of the outopia of the moment the subject of h. p. lovecraft's writing . she told me how her brother had read all of lovecraft's writing when he was a teenager and had gifted her with some of lovecraft's weird tales . familiar with lovecraft's writings from reading his fiction and nonfiction and because the person i was talking to is canadian by birth though of asian heritage , the first thing that came to mind was the racism of lovecraft's writing . both what i had noticed in his writing and what i read of mentioned in criticisms and biographical works .

when i voiced the question "can i ask you something? , with you being of japanese background what do you think of the racism in his writing?" , i got an uncomfortable look from her ("what does he mean racism in lovecraft's writing?, is he talking about the same author as me?") , and then the response "no" she hadn't noticed it and she couldnt think of any sample at the moment . no , i thought that interesting and said it wasn't only my opinion, there are critics of his oeuvre who have written of his literary racisms and mentioned realistic examples and figurative ways lovecraft introduced races in to his tales and then showed those races in a negative way compared to characters of euroese races in his stories , specifically characters of british euroese decent . she said she would have to reread some of the stories and maybe ask her brother if he noticed it and would let me know . i can not recall if she ever got back to me about it .

 

 

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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undimensioned threshold

nor is it to be thought, (ran the text as armitage mentally translated it) that man is either the oldest or the last of earths masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. the old ones were, the old ones are, and the old ones shall be. not in the spaces we know, but between them.

they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. yog-sothoth knows the gate. yog-sothoth is the gate. yog-sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. past, present, future all are one in yog-sothoth. he knows where the old ones broke through of old, and where they shall break through again. he knows where they have trod earths fields and where they still tread them, and why know one can behold them as they tread.

by their smell can men sometimes know them near, but of their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those they have begotten on mankind; and of those there are many sorts, differing in likeness from mans truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is them.

they walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the words have been spoken and the rites howled through at their seasons. the wind gibbers with their voices, and the earth mutters with their consciousness. they bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites.

kadath in the cold waste hath known them, and what man knows kadath? the ice deserts of the south and the sunken isles of the ocean hold stones wherein their seal is engraven, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? great Cthulhu is their cousin, yet can he spy them only dimly.

ial shrub-niggurath! as a foulness shall ye know them. their hand is at your throats, yet ye see them not; and their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. yog-sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet.

man rules now where they ruled once; they shall soon rule where man rules now. after summer is winter, and after winter summer. they wait patient and potent, for here shall they reign again.

h.p.lovecraft, the dunwich horror.

cult of c(thul)hu

''they worshiped , so they said, the great old ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. those old ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. ...

''those first men formed the cult around small idols which the great ones shewed them; idols brought in dim aeras from dark stars. ... meanwhile the cult, by approriate rites, must keep the memory of those ancient ways and shadow forth the prophesy of their return.''

h.p.lovecraft; the call of cthulhu.