tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75127613729908790322024-02-18T19:33:05.501-08:00Some More Weird Talesa Blog about Everything Ending in -ism and -ing, and Unicornsmiscatonic inkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17098095157347169867noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512761372990879032.post-74341003898282444382015-08-31T14:54:00.003-07:002015-08-31T15:26:28.847-07:00The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath or lost with Randolph Carter No. 1 <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Analogue to
our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Ryb0-ZWtM" target="_blank">podcast</a>, this blog post will investigate into H.P. Lovecraft’s famous Dream
Circle story: “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will give you an insight into Lovecraft’s
life during the time of 1926; when he wrote the story; and its publishing
history afterwards. The post will further summarize the plot for you and will
point out important elements and existing interpretations </span></div>
<b>
</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Living in a Dream – Lovecraft’s Return to
Providence in 1926</span></b></h4>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Y1OabuZ_NdvZuU84_mkNCNBDTpV-QsjO7GdWfA4jDumCm06HwoK_Ec5tictTgddqkGQXYYpn9RlrlfEP-Sj-6hRS4vBkgXaI7VJZJlJ1LWuwVlPQuW49PWSMEXGAmcLfvp2-0t_yJmda/s1600/Newlyweds+Sarah+Greene+and+HPL+1924.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Y1OabuZ_NdvZuU84_mkNCNBDTpV-QsjO7GdWfA4jDumCm06HwoK_Ec5tictTgddqkGQXYYpn9RlrlfEP-Sj-6hRS4vBkgXaI7VJZJlJ1LWuwVlPQuW49PWSMEXGAmcLfvp2-0t_yJmda/s320/Newlyweds+Sarah+Greene+and+HPL+1924.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lovecraft and his wife, Sarah Greene, in 1924</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">After living in Brooklyn for
nearly 2 years, Lovecraft returned home to Providence in 1926.</span>Apart from
hanging out with fellow writers and trips to historic scenes, it seems that he
did not enjoy New York very much. He not only disliked mixed raced crowds,
talking in languages he did not understand; the city was also way too expensive
to for a writer of dime novel fiction. With no considerable income of his own,
he was depending on his wife and aunts for money. He could only afford a basic
room on the edge of a sketchy neighbourhood - which lived up to all his prejudgements
when his suits were stolen at one point of his stay. Already in 1925 he had
enough, in a letter to his aunt Lillian he wrote:<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Meridien-Roman; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> “…It
so happens that I am unable to take pleasure or interest in anything but a
mental re-creation of other & better days— for in sooth, I see no possibility
of ever encountering a really congenial milieu or living among civilized people
with old Yankee historic memories again—so in order to avoid the madness which
leads to violence & suicide I must cling to the few shreds of old days
& old ways which are left to me. Therefore no one need expect me to discard
the ponderous furniture & paintings & clocks & books which help to
keep 454 always in my dreams. When they go, I shall go, for they are all that
make it possible for me to open my eyes in the morning or look forward to
another day of consciousness without screaming in sheer desperation &
pounding the walls & floor in a frenzied clamour to be waked up out of the
nightmare of ‘reality’ & my own room in Providence. Yes— such sensitivenesses
of temperament are very inconvenient when one has no money—but it’s easier to
criticise than to cure them.”</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Meridien-Roman; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">(Letter to Lillian D. Clark, 8. August 1925)</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="tab-stops: 451.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the summer of 1926 he was finally able
to return to his beloved Providence. The following year turned out to be his
most effective writing period. As soon as he got back, he started working on
“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” in October 1926 until January 1927. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsyH6MdCagqQpwpbFTc5RXMF7jpQuIyVMatASog2ZFGf3T2-AmyCKZIZgkrx54-QuniOPBJsBrIUTQlp8BCCuZz49lmyMbDGc-DruOIiBdzjnfY-64cNvOyQ1vfPz1xS8mURmARnOAqgbz/s1600/cover+dreamquest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsyH6MdCagqQpwpbFTc5RXMF7jpQuIyVMatASog2ZFGf3T2-AmyCKZIZgkrx54-QuniOPBJsBrIUTQlp8BCCuZz49lmyMbDGc-DruOIiBdzjnfY-64cNvOyQ1vfPz1xS8mURmARnOAqgbz/s200/cover+dreamquest.jpg" width="118" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1943 Cover </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Throughout
the process he was quite critical with his writing, mentioning to August
Derleth </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“I…am very fearful
that Randolph Carter’s adventures may have reached the point of palling on the
reader; or that the very plethora of weird imagery may have destroyed the power
of any one image to produce the desired impression of strangeness”</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (Letter to August
Derleth, early Dec. 1926). </span>And elsewhere, shortly afterwards: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Actually, it isn’t much good; but forms
useful practice for later and more authentic attempts in the novel form”</i>
(Letter to Wilfred B. Talman, 19 Dec. 1926) <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="tab-stops: 451.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> But Lovecraft never rewrote the story. In
his later years he even refused to provide a tipped manuscript when asked for
it. “The Dream Quest to the Unknown Kadath” remained unpublished during his
life and was only published after his death by Arkham Sampler in a collection
called<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Beyond the Walls of Sleep</i> in 1943. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 451.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<h3>
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath”</span></b></h3>
</div>
<div class="Default" style="tab-stops: 451.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The story follows
Randolph Carter throughout his dream in which he searches for the unknown city
of Kadath, the home of the Gods. His quest leads him to all kinds of landscapes,
to the moon and underground, meeting numerous fantastic creatures including the
magical Cats of Ulthar and their human priest Atal; King Kuranes, who came to
dream his own kingdom in which he is now a prisoner unable to go back to the
real world; and Richard Pickman, a former painter who after leaving the real
world turned into a ghoul. On several occasions Carter is warned and even threatened.
At the end, the godlike priest Nylarlathotep tricks him and instead of reaching
Kadath, he awakes in his own room in Boston, realizing the beauty and the
actual healthy reality of the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="Default" style="tab-stops: 451.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unpolished as it is, the story is the
longest of Lovecraft’s Dream Circle stories and also the longest one featuring
Randolph Carter as a character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
Lovecraft did not intent to publish it is even more curious since Randolph
Carter remains an important, persistent character throughout his later work.
Considering all the stories in which he is mentioned together, “The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath” serves as a central narrative, conditioning his later –
then also published – character development. The <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>details of which will be the topic of another
post, for now it is important to notice that the story itself can be identified
as central for his Dream Quest writing. </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIaYZeuIAeCN4WNhacA0GHgkVFLAJxH0xduyX7gonPQXJwFbSsw8m-ZXrybovExMj6_upZun_7_xDsyGIcYuY840G5CZdNzu3Nqc4Wuh7XKOV0IJepwnniN5Bok1JcbxdYI9a7y4xCnQJ/s1600/dreamlandmap.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIaYZeuIAeCN4WNhacA0GHgkVFLAJxH0xduyX7gonPQXJwFbSsw8m-ZXrybovExMj6_upZun_7_xDsyGIcYuY840G5CZdNzu3Nqc4Wuh7XKOV0IJepwnniN5Bok1JcbxdYI9a7y4xCnQJ/s400/dreamlandmap.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of the Dream Land</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Not only because of its importance
regarding the character of Randolph Carter, but also due to its detailed
description of the geography of the Dream Lands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In “The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath”
several historic landscapes Lovecraft created in his previous work; like in
“Cats of Ulthar”, “The Other Gods”, “The White Ship”; are presented as
belonging to the Dream Lands, portraying Lovecraft’s own desire to be able to
go back in time through his dreams. Another fantastic place; the Plateau of
Leng; which is mentioned in this story and in several others, changes its
position in every narrative it appears. Maybe with these geographic
alterations, the early Lovecraft wanted to give the reader a sense of wandering
geography which he later would make more plausible by letting his characters
travel to other dimensions, conditioning an estrangement of place. </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="tab-stops: 451.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default" style="tab-stops: 451.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 451.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<h3>
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Randolph Carter, the
Anti-Hero</span></b></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Through the looking class, “The Dream Quest of
Unknown Kadath” can also be read as an inversion of the classical odyssey
theme, making Randolph Carter an unusual, but believable Anti-Hero figure. Carter
is not presented as a physical active character; he gets taken prisoner several
times, left in the need of external help to rescue him. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwjzdr_tXp5MFHjgemPCQ1_H4zzBzoib2pdM93UMPgz-eQ0d9TvFAJHC-I_2KJUcKu_Cvkbny9kLKxDxX0nF1L0-MOTyl-72NNap2TLbhbvoDhbKNH32gLKwPk2wFhwD48QJehbPm_gS-_/s1600/randolph+Carter+game+card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwjzdr_tXp5MFHjgemPCQ1_H4zzBzoib2pdM93UMPgz-eQ0d9TvFAJHC-I_2KJUcKu_Cvkbny9kLKxDxX0nF1L0-MOTyl-72NNap2TLbhbvoDhbKNH32gLKwPk2wFhwD48QJehbPm_gS-_/s1600/randolph+Carter+game+card.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Randolph Carter, Arkam Horro Card Game</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Norman Gayford similar
argued that Carter <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…exemplifies the path
of the modern anti-hero in that he faints, seems unable to use a traditional
weapon.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the way throughout his
quest he is warned by his alias, reacting by not only ignoring their advice,
but also violating their friendship. As Gayford illustrates: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…Atal offers “discouraging advice. Carter
then violates the relationship, and gets Atal drunk in an attempt to force out
more information than is offered. He is not playing exactly by the rules of the
game. Kuranes, former hashish user who dies in the dream world, becomes King of
Ilek-Vad, and remakes a small portion of dream world into his idyllic vision of
the English countryside, is a significant aid. Out of his harshly learned
wisdom, Kuranes tells Carter to quit seeking the city because its attainment
cannot be as good as it is in the form of a vision. […]</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Carter meets with Kuranes,
it is as if we see Father warning Son against his course of action. […] Kuranes
is a psychically wounded king. For all his prestige, he cannot recreate
reality; merely manufacture a simulacrum of it. The confrontation between the
two reminds us of his estrangement and Carter’s freedom. […]</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Richard Pickman, late
artist-cum-ghoulmaster, is of vital aid in getting Carter back onto the right
path. Like Kuranes, he is a fitting aid for the anti-hero, himself an outcast
artist.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cater, unable
to decipher the warnings, continues his quest. But without realizing it, his
dream had gotten the control over him – using his obsession to suppress him.
Trapped it is now for him impossible to reach Kadath. Gayford concludes<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">: “Carter awakens from that final plunge
negatively transformed. Yes, he realizes his New England, but the dream world
has been lost to him. This plunge through the universe may be the first true
crossing of the threshold. Only then does a vital transformation of the
anti-hero occur: he loses his creativity. […] </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carter emerges from
Dream-Quest emptied rather than cleansed, deposited in reality rather than
transcending it. […]There is no trophy with which to return. Carter left his
castle, Kadath, behind; he rejected dissolution, and in doing so he places
himself in a spiritual coma. His experience with the Being leads him to the
realization that the universe is not malignant. Rather, it is uncaring of man.
That, as we know, was Lovecraft’s philosophy. […]”</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> (Norman Gayford, Randolph Carter: An Anti-Hero’s Quest, Part I, in:
Lovecraft Studies, No. 16, 1988, p. 3-12) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this
sense, “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” provides a deeper insight into the
interpretive patterns Lovecraft formed and implanted into his fiction. The
story connects Lovecraft’s nostralgia for the fantastic and the past with an
almost cynical understanding of entrophy produced by time. But if he ever read
Hegel’s philosophical writing on Heraclitus; which shares striking similarities
with Lovecraft’s (fictional) worldview; is unknown, but will remain as an
interesting subject of comparison for a furture post. As a teaser, here is a
quote from James Strilin, back in 1850’s a scholar on Hegel, writing about
Heraklitus in Hegel’s work and at the same time – strangely - summarizing Lovecrafts’s
Dream Land:</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRK9vBuDl-pfGebZyIvAk-sEx4S1G1HkViISf-ujJ8YfO-0rQQNFRyN4c0dpYpexnLTsr5pY1XdjrvX_BasshfibxGK-k6_VgFwsKlnKmMJH81nGnWs97D16TUjswCUa83IU0UXKoZStRL/s1600/Hegel+Heraklitus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="473" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRK9vBuDl-pfGebZyIvAk-sEx4S1G1HkViISf-ujJ8YfO-0rQQNFRyN4c0dpYpexnLTsr5pY1XdjrvX_BasshfibxGK-k6_VgFwsKlnKmMJH81nGnWs97D16TUjswCUa83IU0UXKoZStRL/s640/Hegel+Heraklitus.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span class="addmd"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">(James Hutchison Stirlin, The Secret of Hegel, 1865, p. 60.)</span></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></i></span></div>
miscatonic inkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17098095157347169867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512761372990879032.post-21620578304878389792015-07-02T20:26:00.000-07:002015-09-24T10:51:27.301-07:00Origins: Prometheus vs. Necromancer<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
following post will investigate into the two literature archetypes - Prometheus
and Necromancer – which inspired numerous written and visualized narratives. It
will give you an idea about both ancient concepts and will show you how elements
of both can still be identified in modern popular culture phenomena.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72_mAmH34EbeZa-_cXSIIeLpB_bzP-zh3zAGYo9Y8fxjQkHZAZXmxLl7VxPoCG6V_yLffd9kJPKsj3fTsFWwAyYwepLQkuWR9o1ZScHa2WgijRrpMgEWzxJU97gnpf10f-SYxACc2OqNf/s1600/1931_Frankenstein+Film_Prometheus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72_mAmH34EbeZa-_cXSIIeLpB_bzP-zh3zAGYo9Y8fxjQkHZAZXmxLl7VxPoCG6V_yLffd9kJPKsj3fTsFWwAyYwepLQkuWR9o1ZScHa2WgijRrpMgEWzxJU97gnpf10f-SYxACc2OqNf/s640/1931_Frankenstein+Film_Prometheus.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Frankenstein meeting his creation in the 1931 movie adaption</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> Since the
historic past of the Prometheus myth takes us back to the genesis of the world
and the recording of myths itself, we will start here: According to ancient
Greek myths, Prometheus was the first pagan rebel. The myth identifies him as a
Titan who did not fight in the war between Zeus and the elder Titans. Only
afterwards he became a rebel against Zeus omnipresent power. Through trickery
he managed to foster the development of the human race, known as “The Trick at
Mekone” and the “The Bringer of Light”. In the “The Trick at Mekone” Prometheus
presents Zeus two sacrificial offerings; beef hidden in a less pleasing looking
stomach and ox-bones hidden under delicious looking fat. Zeus chooses the later
and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it is <i>“…because of this the tribes
of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless gods upon fragrant altars.”</i>
(Hesiod, Theogony, 557 ff., 800 BC.) Tanks to Prometheus the humans were able
to keep the nourishing parts of animals and only had to burn the uneatable
bones as sacrifices to the Olympian gods. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_VbSdQjenDbZnRHeU1l3-YOfquTYzfYo9vnHfg2Q1OuY9i4B3jwT_vYYWJiP2XJzWe_vKxhxlAlhn0cy8A6GWKmaXveSzmeSzBCfHN8xvPSuk9ucDHmQzFyhz11045NSpGM7NvqjHz__b/s1600/Prometheus_forming+human_grem_300BC_Kunsthistorisches+Museum+Wien_Inv.-Nr.+ANSA_IXb_1341.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_VbSdQjenDbZnRHeU1l3-YOfquTYzfYo9vnHfg2Q1OuY9i4B3jwT_vYYWJiP2XJzWe_vKxhxlAlhn0cy8A6GWKmaXveSzmeSzBCfHN8xvPSuk9ucDHmQzFyhz11045NSpGM7NvqjHz__b/s200/Prometheus_forming+human_grem_300BC_Kunsthistorisches+Museum+Wien_Inv.-Nr.+ANSA_IXb_1341.jpg" width="188" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://bilddatenbank.khm.at/viewArtefact?id=60533" target="_blank">Prometheus forming a human, </a><br />
Gem stone, 300 BC, Italy,<br />
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> For burning
the bones they needed fire; and it was also Prometheus who stole fire from the
gods and gave it to humanity. The myth was part of a famous trilogy of plays by
Aeschylus (500 BC.). The first part is called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prometheus Pyrphoros</i> – Prometheus the fire bringer. The play itself
is lost. Ironically, only the line <i>“Quiet, were need is…”</i> (Scholium Noctes
Atticae) survived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless is the
fire-bringer story the most important of the Prometheus myth, because it
kindled Plato’s philosophy on the distinction between humans and animals. Plato
argued that Prometheus stole the fire of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">teche</i>
– creative power – and gave it to humanity. This made humans superior to
animals, which were in comparison only following their native instinct; and
ultimately, unable to understand the world beyound survival. (Plato, Potagoras, 400 BC).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9UnHMtEI1rfMA8KOxa9NXJjID5AM9zBAoi6DFiBXcwQWEzw105EsY_lJmfqkdNvzJ31qOAPhqhc5RmFPA7f8d3D5fOKJ99S1Xrmby34lGvS5UETPWypdBUA_RYLT72BZoLm1uXbbr9jP7/s1600/Prometheus_Berlin_National+Galery_1871-1879.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9UnHMtEI1rfMA8KOxa9NXJjID5AM9zBAoi6DFiBXcwQWEzw105EsY_lJmfqkdNvzJ31qOAPhqhc5RmFPA7f8d3D5fOKJ99S1Xrmby34lGvS5UETPWypdBUA_RYLT72BZoLm1uXbbr9jP7/s320/Prometheus_Berlin_National+Galery_1871-1879.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berlin.Eduard_M%C3%BCller_001.JPG#/media/File:Berlin.Eduard_M%C3%BCller_001.JPG" target="_blank">Prometheus Bound, National Gallery, Berlin</a></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> Zeus did
not tolerate Prometheus behavior and punished him by chaining him to a mountain
in the Caucasus, where an eagle - the symbol bird for Zeus - came every day to eat
his liver until Heracles aka Hercules freed him. Zeus also punished humanity by
marring Pandora to Epimetheus, Prometheus brother. Her name literally means
<i>“All gifts”</i>. Hesiod writes about her that<i> “…of her is the deadly race and tribe
of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in
hateful poverty, but only in wealth”</i> (Hesiod, 90 ff.) Disguised in this way,
she carried a little box with her, which opened released <i>“…evils, harsh pain
and troublesome diseases which give men [humanity] death”</i> (Hesiod, 92 ff). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> Prometheus
by his name means “<i>Fore-sight”</i> and having foreseen the event, he had warned his
brother. But Epimetheus, namely the “<i>After thought",</i> </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsQjwRe12HWJ8LKvX9QaRJAa5cKhwqwbqQ8mham9cSaCWj3TcYFuHX80l7nBmp6gNFAB2HNHscAy_xP3mMXrqqsB3W3EFWYGDBfHt3nCHdI3S9_r7l6WmXPMluyXaexuC6EqH5x3TvDhV7/s1600/The+devil+and+doctor+faustus+meet_1825_rare+books+collection+London+Library.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsQjwRe12HWJ8LKvX9QaRJAa5cKhwqwbqQ8mham9cSaCWj3TcYFuHX80l7nBmp6gNFAB2HNHscAy_xP3mMXrqqsB3W3EFWYGDBfHt3nCHdI3S9_r7l6WmXPMluyXaexuC6EqH5x3TvDhV7/s200/The+devil+and+doctor+faustus+meet_1825_rare+books+collection+London+Library.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0031469.html" target="_blank">Dr. Faustus meeting the devil, ca. 1825, </a><br />
rare books collection London </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">was not fast enough to
catch up and fell for Pandora. Since then, Prometheus remains an allegory figure
in literature. He stands for the intellectual human being, aimi</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ng to lead the human race
into its next stage of existence.The most known literary figures following his ideals are of course
Dr. Faustus and Dr. Frankenstein. Both were consumed by their
own knowledge which lead them to their tragic destruction. Their actions reflect a
form of hubris and the only thing changing throughout the different narratives
is the antagonist: Prometheus is punished by Zeus, Faustus is punished by the Christian
god (and forgiven by Goethe) and Frankenstein gets haunted by creation itself. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEZoW3mN_3wdyLOExsG_o0_f3yq1YwqOMMdABjyaXaTDkkjHjreuvof1-1YgA2iw-tokTOK_M4Tqha_Pn5f7tDnOmr1PM1FRF6GdqM-Ym2Tw1juTi9zcYHxvysC_8Cu2rgtZPsciR-NNOr/s1600/return+of+persephone.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEZoW3mN_3wdyLOExsG_o0_f3yq1YwqOMMdABjyaXaTDkkjHjreuvof1-1YgA2iw-tokTOK_M4Tqha_Pn5f7tDnOmr1PM1FRF6GdqM-Ym2Tw1juTi9zcYHxvysC_8Cu2rgtZPsciR-NNOr/s320/return+of+persephone.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/252973?rpp=30&pg=1&ft=persephone&pos=1&imgno=1&tabname=label" target="_blank">Hecate with torches guiding Persephone to the underworld, </a><br />
Greek vase, 440 BC., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Considering the whole picture, even though
Prometheus is presented<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>“…smiling softly
and not forgetting his cunning trick”</i> (Hesiod, 545 ff.), his actions do also
bring evil into the human world. </span>In this
way, his initial actions remain questionable:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> The concept of light bringer, or
as in Plato’s understanding of the “bringer of enlightenment”, is combined with
the invention of shadow. In ancient mindset this balanced concept was well
understood, for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prosporus</i> – light
bringer – was also one nickname of Hecate, the goddess of magic and the
underworld. She is often depicted with tow torches, guiding ghost between the
world of the living and the dead. The <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>original concept of light-bringer is therefore
a liminal concept, which does not imply that human development is an overall
positivistic enterprise, it is more or less a realistic neutralization of the
very <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>exaggeration. Light and shadow, good
and evil are coexisting, conditioning each other throughout time, not
preventable by any intellectual foreseeing the events </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">If we
follow the torch carrying goddess of the underworld, Hecate, we discover that
she is the one invoked by magicians and witches to perform Necromancy. Tertullian,
a 200 AD. Christian author, writes <i>“… It was held that the unburied were not
accepted into the underworld until they had received the due rites. […] Either
it is excellent to be kept here with the “untimely dead” or it is awful to be
kept here with the “dead-by- violence”, to employ the terms now voiced by the
source of such beliefs, namely the magic […]. A famous promises to evocate even
souls that have been laid to rest at their proper age, even souls separated
from their bodies just death, and even souls dispatched with prompt burial…’”</i>
(Tertullian, De Anima, 56 f.).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAY0NT0muYSfeh_S5CNNYxNupC-6sOYhlOarqRLUI9Uadkcbjqj3_MEhYCaYhJp85WAsUcjvApsloYJqfXHZFhx9QKy4bStc022tkJh7FSEiL3zwjz2TxSPcEbfHQ07Ua1wJKIQ4aVlasr/s1600/ghost+of+odysseus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAY0NT0muYSfeh_S5CNNYxNupC-6sOYhlOarqRLUI9Uadkcbjqj3_MEhYCaYhJp85WAsUcjvApsloYJqfXHZFhx9QKy4bStc022tkJh7FSEiL3zwjz2TxSPcEbfHQ07Ua1wJKIQ4aVlasr/s320/ghost+of+odysseus.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/jar-pelike-with-odysseus-and-elpenor-in-the-underworld-153840" target="_blank">The ghost of Eplenor, Odysseus and Hermes</a><br />
reunited in the underworld,<br />
Greek, 440 BC., Museum of Fine Arts Boston</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> As said
before, Hecate guides the souls and spirits through the different worlds and it
was therefore believed that she could bring back a dead soul. But not all souls
could be utilized, for it was believed that violent and sudden deaths were
ideal cases in which the soul of the diseased turned to haunt its burial place,
trying to understand the circumstances of its death. For this reason
battlefields were believed to be mass- haunted. Pausanius, a Greek geographer
of the same time, writes about the famous battlefield of Marathon were the
first Persian invasion of Greece had taken place 490 BC., that <i>“…all night long
there one can hear the sound of horses neighing and men at war”</i> (Pausanius,
1,32,4 f.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> The Greek
term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nekyomanteion</i> for Necromancy is
already documented in 500 BC and originally means death oracle. It goes back to
Homers Iliad in which Achilles is visited by the ghost of Patroclus, who
demands to be buried properly, otherwise his ghost would haunt the earth forever
(Homer, Iliad, 23,62 f.). Another term used as a synonym from the same time
onward was the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psychagogo</i>s – Soul
incantator. Two different kinds of Necromancy developed from there onward: [1] To calm lost souls
by giving mutilated corpses a proper burial and
[2] to bind lost souls to task before they could rest. The former form developed into modern ghost
stories and the later form into modern re-animation or zombie narratives. In Antiquity,
both was offered by wandering magicians who were employed by males and females
alike. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> From ancient literature sources we have a case in which a woman <i>“… sent
the ghost of a woman killed by violence to kill [her husband]”</i> (Apuleius,
Metamorphoses, 9,29 f., 200 AD.). Little tablets were often left at the burial
sides of violent deaths in order to slay the restless ghosts. On a tablet from
Boeotia a ghost is addressed as: “<i>… Just as you , Theonnastos [name of the
dead], have no power in your hands, feet or body to do, organize, love[...]”</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After he has been addressed, he
is ordered to make: <i>“… Zoilos stay powerless to have sex with Antheira…”</i>
(Ziebarth 1934, no. 23, 300 BC-300 AD.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ghost were utilized as demons in curse-, sex and love-binding spellsm
for it was believed that they still could affect the living. From the last
quote it could be suspected that ghosts could act detached from their body, for
a proper burial however the corps was needed. This does not necessarily mean
that ghost did not have a body, stories of bodily visitations also survived.
Phlegon of Tralles tells a story in which a dead girl comes back to sleep with
the new lodger of her former home (Phlegon of Tralles, Mirabilia, 1, 140 AD.).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUDBDOgW2QYOEadKy4dSEpveIldy_HVk2L6ChO2UKX7umRFhlDQCt6dduqxbFGbGQ1p88mpUWWUDbYBYr5FZOIfg7V85hTmqqX6_m-mqFDwm1SZLKTxvy5eBG5uYwaWEAcYrg5m2RcqiS8/s1600/corpus+antiquarum%252C+plate+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUDBDOgW2QYOEadKy4dSEpveIldy_HVk2L6ChO2UKX7umRFhlDQCt6dduqxbFGbGQ1p88mpUWWUDbYBYr5FZOIfg7V85hTmqqX6_m-mqFDwm1SZLKTxvy5eBG5uYwaWEAcYrg5m2RcqiS8/s320/corpus+antiquarum%252C+plate+2.jpg" width="123" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/10459/ca-painter-orvieto-sub-group-campanian-red-figure-neck-amphora-south-italian-campanian-about-330-320-bc/" target="_blank">Female Necromancer </a><br />
with a mirror<br />
summoning a male<br />
ghost in a tunic,<br />
Greek, ca. 330 BC.,<br />
The J. Paul Getty Museum</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> There are
three cases of reanimation, involving a corpse, handed down to us. All of them
report stories or resemble persons outside of Greece or Rome. One is the
foreign and mystified Thessaly, were numerous coins depicting Hecate were found
and current research believes that she was extensively worshiped there. The
reanimation scenes show similarities with Egyptian mummification and accordingly,
various herbs were used. Because of the rigor mortis, in all cases the corpse
rushes to its feet when called upon, as to demonstrate that the necromancy
had indeed worked. Important is further that in all cases the ghosts which returned
to their body, are angry. This might be, because corpses of violent deaths were
used in all cases. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> The most
detailed description can be found in Lucan‘s novel on the civil war. In it, the
Thessaly witch Erictho reanimates a throat cut Soldier for General Sextus
Pompey. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“… She put
a hook into a deathly noose round its neck and dragged the pitiful corpse,
destined to live again, over the crags and rocks, Dour Erictho stationed it
under the high roof of the mountain cave she had dedicated to her rites.[…]</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyIXw7u6OOfiorPKTsXbsTnxSvoW8LABpqtZnsQtyanC8Ocy2RUieI9sPTb_ZoXaxxQUnANgTBRvatmqWrT5-9DITum6AeCMzIH2MFiglaZHA0bzlyO3WNBG_MttSrw7vTF86ExYKT9ni5/s1600/grab+von+achilles+mit+geist.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyIXw7u6OOfiorPKTsXbsTnxSvoW8LABpqtZnsQtyanC8Ocy2RUieI9sPTb_ZoXaxxQUnANgTBRvatmqWrT5-9DITum6AeCMzIH2MFiglaZHA0bzlyO3WNBG_MttSrw7vTF86ExYKT9ni5/s320/grab+von+achilles+mit+geist.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/fragment-of-a-flask-askos-depicting-a-burial-mound-153892" target="_blank">Candelstick depicting a burial mount </a><br />
with the ghost of warrior on top, ca. 500 BC,<br />
Greek, Museum of Fine Arts Bo<a href="http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/fragment-of-a-flask-askos-depicting-a-burial-mound-153892" target="_blank">ston</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Then she
opened up the chest with further wounds and filled it with seething blood. She
rinsed the innards of corrupt matter and unstintingly administered moon-juice.
In this was mixed whatever creature nature had produced under ill omen. Nothing
was missing: not a foam of the water-fearing rabid dog, not the guts of the wryneck,
not the hump of the dreadful hyena, not the bone marrow of a deer pastured on
snakes, not the ship-stopper fish […you get the picture].</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> After
putting these common-or-garden and namable blights into her mixture, she added
branches drenched in unspeakable spells, herbs on which her dread mouth had
spat at the moment of their birth, and all the poisons she herself had
contributed to the world. Then her voice, […], mutterings that were discordant
and not all of which sounded like the products of a human tongue.[…]Then she
pronounced more clearly a second set of utterances, in a Thessalian spell, and
penetrated Tartarus with her tongue: “[…] Hecate, the lowest manifestation of
my goddess, by whose grace the ghosts and I hold converse, with silent tongue;
Doorkeeper of the broad house, you who throw human guts to the cruel dog
[Cerberus], sister-fates, destined to take up the threads of life again and
continue spinning […] I do not ask for a soul lying hidden in the cave of
Tartarus and long accustomed to the dark, but one that is only just now
abandoning the light and coming down”.[…]</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i> The corpse
did not raise itself from the ground gradually, one limb at a time. Rather, it
shot up from the earth and was upright in an instant. The eye were laid bare,
the mouth an open grimace. His appearance was of one not yet fully alive, but
of a man still in the phase of dying….”</i> (Lucan, Pharsalia, 6,588 ff., 65 AD.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In
Heliodorus’ writings a similar act is described: an Egyptian woman reanimates
her son (Heliodorus, 6,12 f., 400 AD.). The sources differ in the reason for the
death oracle: While Erictho brings the soldier back so he might give a prophecy
on the upcoming war, the Egyptian woman reacts out of grief. In a story written
by Apuleius another cause is presented to the reader: The Egyptian magician
Zatchlas reanimates the corpses of a murdered man to ask him about the circumstances
of his death: Zatchlas <i>“… laid a spring of a certain herb on the corpse’s mouth
and another on his breast. Then he faced east and prayed silently to the
majesty of the rising sun. […] First the dead man’s chest swelled out, then an
artery throbbed in jolts, and finally his body was suffused by his soul. The
Corpse rose, and the young man gave voice: “Why, I beg you, do you restore me
to the functions of live […] Stop now, I pray, stop, and leave me to my peace!
[…] I was killed by the evil crafts of my new bride” […] The people fell in tumult,
and divided into opposite camps, one group insisting that the wicked woman should
at once be buried alive together with the body of her husband, the other
insisting that no faith should be placed in the lies of a corpse…” </i>(Apuleius,
Metamorphoses, 2,28 f., 200 AD.).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> The
corpse can prove that he is indeed telling the truth. He points towards the
narrator of the story, who so far was watching the scene as part of the
audience. The corps claims that the narrator himself is a reanimated corps.
Since both have the same name, after his death, a witch tried to reanimated him
so his wife could pretend that he is still alive, but got the wrong guy. A
different man with the same name rose instead and while making his way from his
grave to the place where he had been summoned, lost his ears and nose. <i>“…To
tidy up after their trick, they molded some wax into the shape of his
chopped-off ears, fitted them onto him in exact fashion, and got him a nose
like his own”. </i>Terrified the narrator says:<i> “ I was petrified by these words
and made to test my face. I put my hand to my nose and grasped it. It came off.
I felt my ears. They fell away. The people pointed at me with their fingers and
nodded at me, and there was an outbreak of laughter. Drenched in cold sweat, I
escaped…”</i>(Apuleius, Metamorphoses, 2,30).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji43wjE8LqdNumSQd0w5ZucMc-Ym2oYoNnM5qq0LfZ13BXns0Wkgdq_Xm9Pa4v6vHUqgdZThuqkSqIb-sHxfd2todaAsxjMrqfeET3mmkl1oCfyTA2xfuI08S8nYxpD7QLbAx4_LEsdP0w/s1600/making+of+a+monster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji43wjE8LqdNumSQd0w5ZucMc-Ym2oYoNnM5qq0LfZ13BXns0Wkgdq_Xm9Pa4v6vHUqgdZThuqkSqIb-sHxfd2todaAsxjMrqfeET3mmkl1oCfyTA2xfuI08S8nYxpD7QLbAx4_LEsdP0w/s320/making+of+a+monster.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo taken behind the scene of the 1931<br />
movie adaption of Frankenstein</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The last part of this
reanimation scene finds its later echo in Frankenstein’s monster. The
Necromancer as traveling sages, magicians and witches were in their
professions the first earthly incarnations of Prometheus. They challenged religious
power dynamics by summoning the dead. They were tolerated and even praised for
death oracles which helped the community, like court cases or calming of a
poltergeist. But – like Prometheus – the potentially evil and harm they could
bring, when utilizing the dead for curse and binding spells, was recognized
too, and so they were often dispelled and executed – intensely under Christian doctrine
after 200 AD. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They died out, but their
material, like curses and magical papyri, survived and so early scientists
transformed their mystical knowledge of herbs and philters into alchemy and
from there into modern science. This is why, over time, different explanatory models
of re-animation developed. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggn5Oe7qvf8aukBUUkaOv0VgYVNK2VPcFgaGdVf8Et_l9xhHIDQdFRE9OE1VXedqnM2dhlipqC6w5EGRCxAfOxwahRovsbkq342AqWChxj5a_G7CNeHD5-dwU1NH-OZHiSaVm8tptJynSA/s1600/Herbert+west.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggn5Oe7qvf8aukBUUkaOv0VgYVNK2VPcFgaGdVf8Et_l9xhHIDQdFRE9OE1VXedqnM2dhlipqC6w5EGRCxAfOxwahRovsbkq342AqWChxj5a_G7CNeHD5-dwU1NH-OZHiSaVm8tptJynSA/s320/Herbert+west.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scene from the 1985 movie adaption of Herbert West Re-animator</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> This we still can observe in the early Jewish golem
story, were the golem seems to be a product of alchemy, similar to the
homunculus.The later, modern reanimation stories, like Frankenstein or Herbert
West Re-animator, feature the Scientist as the necromancer, because science had
become by then the most familiar knowledge system to a contemporary audiences. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> Still, the main characters and the conflict arising in this narrations as well as characteristics of the reanimated subjects outlasted: The ambitious scholar commits an act of hubris, deluding himself to be able to control powers beyond his reach. They then fight back, reestablishing the former order by not only destroying the scholar, but often annihilating him. Like in the ancient literature, in the modern too, the reanimated subjects had often experienced a violent death and come back to live angry. The main difference between the ancient stories and the development of the material into modern versions of it, is the aspect of horror. While ancient literature when talking about ghosts aimed to tell a fantastic tale or illustrate a religious argument, the modern stories with their blood and gore aim to terrify the reader. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwavk_WYaQPX87jwIXAXwx4vOClPK1Qf9-ECKlN7SWj1WgTscxVFM8i6qXREDJHCBsgbMUWAlGlQ8XR3cuLqFkNWClDRyQ9NxX7ZN3cfauNY-sKGThAI8JXfrSpsdqfMxr1I7If4rRmGGf/s1600/skyrim+witch.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwavk_WYaQPX87jwIXAXwx4vOClPK1Qf9-ECKlN7SWj1WgTscxVFM8i6qXREDJHCBsgbMUWAlGlQ8XR3cuLqFkNWClDRyQ9NxX7ZN3cfauNY-sKGThAI8JXfrSpsdqfMxr1I7If4rRmGGf/s320/skyrim+witch.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A scene from Skyrim</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> This portrays a shift of sensationalism in readership over time. As for gender, it is surprising that while ancient sources portrait both, witches and magicians, in modernity, reanimation seems to be a man's business. Only recently with new television shows, like American Horror Story, and games, like Skyrim, daughters of Hecate and Erictho came back to live as well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> If you want to know more about famous Re-animators, check out our<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klMxgemAjRU" target="_blank"> new podcast on H.P.Lovecraft's Herbert West - Re-animator</a> or the previous post by Nicholas on Herbert West in the Army of Darkness Comic adaption. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
miscatonic inkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17098095157347169867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512761372990879032.post-12971457473270161722015-07-01T21:17:00.000-07:002015-07-01T21:19:27.886-07:00Re-Animator Comics Analyzed - Herbert West and the Opposite Sex in Re-Animator #0<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Re-Animator Comics Analyzed - Part 01 - Herbert West and the Opposite Sex in Re-Animator #0</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>By Nicholas Diak</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>ver. 2015-07-01</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Second
only the Great Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft’s character of Herbert West has had a
sizable impact on popular culture and other works, be it films, short stories,
table top role playing games, and comics. The Jeffrey Combs <i>Re-Animator</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> films are probably the most well known
of these successor stories, but the series has been dormant since <i>Beyond
Re-Animator</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> in 2003. In
2005 however, Dynamite Comics resurrected West in a series of comics books with
brand new stories, giving new life to the iconic character. There are currently
three story-arcs with Herbert West published by Dynamite for a total of 10
issues (as of 2015-07-01):<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Re-Animator </i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">#0<i> / Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator </i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">#1-4 – Sept 2005 to Feb 2006<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Army of Darkness Re-Animator</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> one shot – Oct 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Re-Animator</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> #1-4<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Apr 2015 – July 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Each
of these comics expands and builds off the original Lovecraft story, fleshing
out some minor aspects into bigger ones, but also modifying<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and retconning major elements as well,
causing some incompatibilities with other works, both in and out of the mythos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
blog entry will be the first in a series to do a deep reading on these comics,
highlighting the new and altered elements, how they trickle through the
Lovecraft-verse (be it mythos or not), how that expand the character of Herbert
West, and other general musings. This particular entry will start with examining
<i>Re-Animator </i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">issue #0,
the first chronologically in this Dynamite-Reanimator canon. The issue is
extremely small, acting more as a prologue of sorts to Army of Darkness vs.
Re-Animator proper, but despite its condensed form, the story and visuals raise
many questions that are worth exploring. For this first essay, it will
concentrate on West and his relationship with the opposite sex. However first,
a plot synopsis will need to be given to lay the foundations for subsequent
analysis of this issue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBmEX6wxO0nQ8CCDqIj0nmnOeAJZCdOdSLnhzyPkTdJ08RM44gvCiztYjF3rxmnhZbAd0dH4i5bTr30AsyNwrEDVib1-Q1vaEoaaHRxDfMDvu7YZ60f2Izcvpd9HIjFKDTrVXB8fPvJOQU/s1600/Re-Animator+0+Cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBmEX6wxO0nQ8CCDqIj0nmnOeAJZCdOdSLnhzyPkTdJ08RM44gvCiztYjF3rxmnhZbAd0dH4i5bTr30AsyNwrEDVib1-Q1vaEoaaHRxDfMDvu7YZ60f2Izcvpd9HIjFKDTrVXB8fPvJOQU/s400/Re-Animator+0+Cover.png" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Personal Copy of Re-Animator #0 (autographed by Nick Bradshaw)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><u>Plot Synopsis of Re-Animator #0<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
a medical lecture hall of Miskatonic University, Professor Halsey admonishes
his class whilst returning the student’s graded exams. One of the students,
Herbert West, lashes back at Prof. Halsey, taking the position that a dead body
could be revived even after brain death. West has been working on a formula to
accomplish such a feat for many years, but his subjects only last a few minutes
before they disintegrate. At the urging of his friend Candy, West approaches
University Chairman Whateley in the hopes to remove Halsey so West can work on
perfecting his regent. Whateley, in possession of the Necronomicon and working
in alliance with Halsey, instead has plans to summon Yog-Sothoth. He casts a
spell on West, splitting him into two: his human self, apparently dead, and a
double, dubbed “The Re-Animator”, who promptly stabs Halsey in the eye with a
paper weight. Whateley resurrects Halsey by extracting a fluid from the binding
of the Necronomincon, and hints to the West double that he has plans for the
rest of his classmates. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><u>West and the Opposite Sex<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lovecraft
stories are acknowledged for their lack of female characters, (Lavinia Whateley
from <i>The Dunwich Horror </i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">not-withstanding),
and the original <i>Herbert West-Reanimator</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> is no exception. Aside from the mother of the missing child
who dies during a fit of hysteria in the “Six Shots by Midnight” segment, there
are no other female characters in the story. During the many decades that
transpire during the story, one could pose a few questions: Does the narrator
and West ever have any romantic encounters? Girlfriends? Wives? The nature of
their macabre work probably means the two characters are unable to form close
ties with other people, let alone establish romantic connections.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEjRN8WTfswZ8rE7rU66yIoxYbLU7JtoFyvUfFzAuXMhIH8Us6t5Y_CpGkCKDrSXsu63Y3p8N-gvKVOZNq42xPG_dTQSdGLJjx72b6MrAK0Q7PXkElP2BZ2H5h-u6XPF_v0d8Ye-lQlUss/s1600/West+and+Both+Ladies.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEjRN8WTfswZ8rE7rU66yIoxYbLU7JtoFyvUfFzAuXMhIH8Us6t5Y_CpGkCKDrSXsu63Y3p8N-gvKVOZNq42xPG_dTQSdGLJjx72b6MrAK0Q7PXkElP2BZ2H5h-u6XPF_v0d8Ye-lQlUss/s400/West+and+Both+Ladies.png" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">West, Candy and another female student</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Re-Animator
#0</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> has a unique scene
that gives a bit more dimension to West in this regard. There are two female
students: one who goes by the period appropriate name “Candy” and wears
glasses, and one nameless lass wearing an upside down mars-symbol necklace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6UJwrDEwlHQQwTopjSuiSBSrNM7TM-NE2H6VOGouhyddtYBuJG0A3Y_Rschji5bz-xlaoNV0GbG4TNg1G3PSvKid1k7AZ1yb5mtgZA13ItxopRsdPi-Nj3fSxggiXZ6GpFVhbjD7e8Zg/s1600/West+in+the+Lecture+Hall.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6UJwrDEwlHQQwTopjSuiSBSrNM7TM-NE2H6VOGouhyddtYBuJG0A3Y_Rschji5bz-xlaoNV0GbG4TNg1G3PSvKid1k7AZ1yb5mtgZA13ItxopRsdPi-Nj3fSxggiXZ6GpFVhbjD7e8Zg/s320/West+in+the+Lecture+Hall.png" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">West in the lecture hall</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">West
sits between the pair in the lecture hall, with the Candy putting her arm on
his shoulder to hold him back from lashing out at Prof. Halsey. She later
offers the advice to West that he should go above Prof. Halsey to Dr. Whataley,
the university chairman (more on these characters in a future essay). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBAnc0lPp-4WG1qbHvrUuat8UJPIwk66OR3ESepzZGII89700Ee3BxmpA88yfAGx5hyZPD47d-Xg0OXtpkQf56pU-OP1omDQRkBQU0TPVjfqZDt9oyThUqkiLTs9pz4MhHhtppMQcXZU9Y/s1600/West+and+Candy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBAnc0lPp-4WG1qbHvrUuat8UJPIwk66OR3ESepzZGII89700Ee3BxmpA88yfAGx5hyZPD47d-Xg0OXtpkQf56pU-OP1omDQRkBQU0TPVjfqZDt9oyThUqkiLTs9pz4MhHhtppMQcXZU9Y/s400/West+and+Candy.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Candy suggests West to go above Prof. Halsey</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Both
ladies could be considered attractive, (classic occidental version of beauty;
blonde hair, slender, cleavage showing). The unnamed female student only
appears in one panel (she is blocked for reader viewing by Halsey who stands in
front of her during wide shot panels) while Candy appears in seven panels.
Candy’s numerous appearances and interactions with West: calming him from
lashing out, giving him advice, comforting him after Halsey’s verbal lashing,
indicates a more complex relationship. She even colloquially refers to West as
“Herbie”. However, the unnamed female student is also shown grabbing West’s bow
tie and gently tugging it to lead him away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
way these interactions are portrayed can be taken in a variety of manners. Both
girls could simply be friends with West. If teen comedy films have taught us
anything, West could be the “nice guy nerd” that the ladies copy their homework
off of. However, West is not exhibiting these traits: he is not reaching out to
the women to win a modicum of their affection or attention (after all, his
singular focus is his re-animation formula), but it is the women who are
reaching out to him. It could be argued they are reaching out to him solely for
help in their own academia, but Candy’s actions in particular seem to transcend
this. The body language, touching, and possible terms of endearment could indicate
that West is actually quite a ladies man, and it is not too farfetched to
conclude that the two students are actually attracted to him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpIfnn5j7__VAmB-Gh9Xfx9r6boZw_3fgZKLgGW6ANrXaMpKM_KUF96ruoH6X9rf8vNJ2faNtwnmhKsgsqlMRrB3cvjl8QFogBahXCl7-RsvfdeGbvpuqEgKFoSOyQ-S8dBXzCbadCcuWM/s1600/West+and+Shoulder+Hand.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpIfnn5j7__VAmB-Gh9Xfx9r6boZw_3fgZKLgGW6ANrXaMpKM_KUF96ruoH6X9rf8vNJ2faNtwnmhKsgsqlMRrB3cvjl8QFogBahXCl7-RsvfdeGbvpuqEgKFoSOyQ-S8dBXzCbadCcuWM/s320/West+and+Shoulder+Hand.png" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bodily contact - Candy restrains West</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s
only a few panels, but a semiotic reading of them and of the characters’
interactions (hopefully articulated succinctly above) do support this idea.
There are other possible readings of these panels that should be acknowledged:
perhaps the two girls are acting in a “big sister” capacity to West, or perhaps
they are truly gold mining his book smarts to their own ends, but these two
scenarios seem to be the weakest supported by what transpires in the sequential
art. If the attractive angle is accepted it adds a bit more dimension to the
West character, that he has a modicum of desirability to women and if acted on
it, he could establish a romantic relationship with one (or perhaps both!). If
extended to the original short story, such an attractive attribute would no
doubt be a boon to West if he ever chooses the route to seduce any women with
the intent to perform his experiments on them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">One
final thought to entertain, if the sexuality angle isn’t palpable, is the idea
that Candy could perhaps be the narrator of <i>Herbert West-Reanimator</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">. Since the narrator’s name and gender
are never divulged, it is open to interpretation and exploring. Going by the
relationship of the narrator and West as described in the opening salvo from
the story forms the foundation:<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<i>…when we were in the third year of our course at the Miskatonic University
Medical School in Arkham. While he was with me, the wonder and diabolism of his
experiments fascinated me utterly, and I was his closest companion.</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
actions and dialog of Candy could be the early stages of this partnership.
She’s obviously in a relationship with West that’s more than student-peer or
acquaintance. The dialog shown is mostly one sided, from Candy to West, but
again, this could be the early stages of forming the partnership that is yet to
come. Accepting Candy as the future narrator of the short story would have a
profound change on a re-reading of it, such as envisioning a female lieutenant
surgeon during WWI. Another pill that could be hard to swallow, but certainly
plausible and worth entertaining. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Nicholas Diakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08967690816116563137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512761372990879032.post-30837687226414449212015-06-21T01:14:00.001-07:002015-09-24T11:01:27.679-07:00Literature Cating: H.P. Lovecraft's "The Cats of Ulthar"<div style="text-align: justify;">
You like Lovecraft and you like cats? – Then this post might be of interest to you. It will provide some insight into the so far underestimated fantasy story “Cats of Ulthar” from Howard Phillip Lovecraft. With his horror stories about the Cthulhu Myth the 1920 author became posthumous famous. Cats became iconic too; yet nearly no one bothers to look at Lovecraft’s cat stories. In order to change that, the following post will sum up the plot of Lovecraft’s “The Cats of Ulthar” for you and will provide you an insight into his thoughts on cats in general. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The “The Cats of Ulthar”, as the title says, takes place in a small and ancient village named Ulthar. Among the villagers one old couple has a reputation to sadistically torture and kill any cat that happens to pass through their farmyard at night. One day, the little village is visited by an unfamiliar caravan whose carriages are painted with animal heads and who seemed to be praying to strange gods. One of their members is a little orphan boy named Menes whose only delight is a small black kitten after the plague had blemished him badly. Menes’ kitten disappears and seeing him crying, the villagers tell him about the old couple. He calms down and by looking up to the sky mumbles a prayer which turns the clouds into “….nebulous figures of exotic things; of hybrid creatures crowned with horn-flanked disks”. </div>
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At the very night the caravan leaves the village, never to return. At the same time, all cats seem to disappear and the locals start to suspects the old couple or the caravan. The cats reappear the next day “….[v]ery sleek and fat […] with purring content”; while the old couple seems to be missing. The innkeepers son, Atal, reports that he had “…at twilight seen all the cats of Ulthar in that accursed yard under the trees, pacing very slowly and solemnly in a circle around the cottage”. After a week the mayor forces the door of the cottage open, only to find “…cleanly picked human skeletons on the earthen floor.” After this incident a law was made that no man may kill a cat in Ulthar. “…For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroe and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle’s lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten.” </div>
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Lovecraft wrote „The Cats of Ulthar” in 1920. In the same year the story was first published by the literature journal Tryout. The story is part of the so called Dream Circle, the middle period of his writing between 1920 and 1927. Compared to the stories of his later Chtulhu Myth Circle, the Dream Circle stories do not share a prime motive. Nonetheless share stories of the Dream Circle elements, like places and names, which link them to each other. The city of Ulthar for example is also mentioned in the „The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath“ from 1926. This story follows Randolph Carter form Boston, who in a dream searches for the unknown place Kadath, where ancient gods are believed to live. He gets told that the residence of Ulthar had seen the gods; which refers to Menes invocation in the “The Cats of Ulthar”, where the goods became visible in the shape of clouds. In order to find the way to Kadath, Carter decides to head for Ulthar. </div>
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“…At noon he walked through the one broad high street of Nir, which he had once visited and which marked his farthest former travels in this direction; and soon afterward he came to the great stone bridge across the Skai, into whose central piece the masons had sealed a living human sacrifice when they built it thirteen-hundred years before. Once on the other side, the frequent presence of cats (who all arched their backs at the trailing Zoogs) revealed the near neighborhood of Ulthar; for in Ulthar, according to an ancient and significant law, no man may kill a cat. Very pleasant were the suburbs of Ulthar, with their little green cottages and neatly fenced farms; and still pleasanter was the quaint town itself, with its old peaked roofs and overhanging upper stories and numberless chimney-pots and narrow hill streets where one can see old cobbles whenever the graceful cats afford space enough…” </div>
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Arriving in Ulthar, Carter goes to visit the temple to inquire the direction to Kadath. The high priest is no one other than Atal, the innkeeper’s son who had secretly watched the cat’s performing their ritual in “The Cats of Ulthar”. In Carters dream Atal is now more than three hundred years old. Accordingly, Ulthar has changed too: it has grown into a city with a historical town center, inhabited by an uncountable number of cats. Still they seem to be scarcely audible after dark, it seems “… that they were mostly heavy and silent from strange feasting. Some of them stole off to those cryptically realms which are known only to cats and which villagers say are on the moon's dark side, whither the cats leap from tall housetops…”. Carter discovers that the cats really disappear to the dark side of the moon, where they seem to have their own social hierarchy and gods. For them every place in the dreamland is just a short hop away. </div>
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But the world around them is chaotic and they live in fear of evil and destruction. This is a perspective Lovecraft had lined out in a poem, named “The Cats” in 1925. Other than providing a description of their magical talents, he lines out how their world is subject to chaos and decay: </div>
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“…Colour and plendour, desease and decying,<br />
Shrieking and ringing and crawling insane,<br />
Rabbles exotic to stranger-gods praying,<br />
Jumbles of odour that stifle the brain<br />
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Legions of cats from the alleys nocturnal.<br />
Howling and lean in the glare of the moon,<br />
Screaming the future with mouthings infernal,<br />
Yelling the Garden of Pluto’s red rune…”<br />
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This poem ultimately reflects Lovecraft’s own financial and social situation at that time. In it, he identifies himself with his cats of Ulthar.
One year later, in the story of the unknown Kadath, he invents Randolph Carter as his alter ego. Therefore Carter too in the story shares Lovecraft sympathy for cats; shown when he is patting a small back kitten in front of the temple in Ulthar echoing Menes from “The cats of Ulthar”. Lovecraft himself had a black cat, named Nigger-man, who is also a side kick character in his story “The Rats in the walls”. „The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath“ was rejected by several magazines and Lovecraft did not rewrite it like other stories. It was first published after his death and remains a rough draft of a fantasy novella, but withholds many links to his other stories. </div>
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Another reason why he might have written the poem about cats in 1925 and one year later the „The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath“, could have been a humoristic talk, called: “Something about Cats”, he had held during a meeting of the Blue Pencil Club in New York in 1926. The talk is not so much about cats, but about the cat lover – Lovecraft himself - , who, compared to the dog lover, “….repudiate[s] the idea that cringing subservience and sidling companionship to man are supreme merits, and stand free to worship aristocratic independence, self-respect, and individual personality joined to extreme grace and beauty as typified by the cool, lithe, cynical and unconquered lord of the housetops.“ </div>
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Behind this typification of the cat and the cat lover lies Lovecraft’s perception of elite belonging. He believed in a continuing aristocracy and transpired that onto his fictional cats and also himself. He was, in spite of his continuing interest in science, never a member of actual academic elite and saw this as a flaw. His field was literature and he tried to demonstrate his intellect through writing. This is particular evident in his choice of historic and scientific vocabulary. Within that, he follows a strict structure to achieve a certain setting: In “The cats of Ulthar” for example, he uses the old word “Burgesse” for habitants of the village, “Cotter”, for farmer, and “Burgomaster” for major. This all are late French words transcended into early English just a few decades before Shakespeare. His story takes place in ancient times, so he uses an old fashioned language to literary display his setting. He even risks to become enigmatic by using uncommon synonyms, like “Malkin” or “Grimalkin” for cat in “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” and his talk on cats in 1925. Originally "Malkin" was the late French term for a female daemon and from there was applied in the English language for a witch who could transform into a cat. Thanks to such a transformation of one of the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the term became a famous cat name. The Grimalkin is the name of the leader, the oldest and savviest cat, reflecting in its grey- gri – hair. Since Lovecraft created his cats to have magical powers, “Malkin” is just the perfect name for them. He writes in his talk the cat mirrors ”… the deepest founts of imagination and cosmic perception in the human mind. It is no accident that the contemplative Egyptians, together with such later poetic spirits as Poe, Gautier, Baudelaire and Swinburne, were all sincere worshippers of the supple grimalkin.” </div>
If you want to know more about Lovecraft and cats, check out our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL49rnNT5Uc" target="_blank">monthly podcast</a>. miscatonic inkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17098095157347169867noreply@blogger.com0