Subject: (urth) The outsider (Lovecraft)

From: António Marques <entonio at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:43:53 +0000

Hi.
For some reason, I'd never read this short piece. Now I'm trying to fill
the blanks in some authors, I've come across it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outsider_(short_story)
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/o.aspx

And you know what? The language rings very Wolfean. At first sight, it's a
lame gothic tale. And there's really nothing hidden below that. But it can
also be a lot of things if you want to read them into it.
What I find interesting is that not only it could have been written by
Severian, up to the last word, some imagery is very evocative. And then the
words themselves. I'd have a very hard time believing the corpses that
*strewed* Severian's battlefield came from anywhere else, even if the image
is different, but what got me wondering was if, with such gleaning going
on, the name 'Outsider' has got some connection with this story too. Yes,
at first sight there's no relationship to be found.
I couldn't find any discussion of this story in connection to Wolfe - after
all, why should there be?. Do you know of any? All I could find were
analyses of 'An Evil Guest', which I have yet to read.
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From: Fred Kiesche <godelescherbach at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:47:08 +0000

If it's Wolfean, then Wolfe is Lovecraftian and--more to the core--Poesian,
as this was definitely one of Eich-Pee-El's pieces most inspired by E.A.
Poe.

On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 11:43 AM, Ant?nio Marques <entonio at gmail.com> wrote:

> I couldn't find any discussion of this story in connection to Wolfe -
> after all, why should there be?. Do you know of any? All I could find were
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-- 
F.P. Kiesche III

Husband, Father, Good Cook. Reader. Keeper of abandoned dogs. Catholic
Liberal Conservative Militarist. Does not fit into a neat box or category.
"Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book. Always, scribble,
scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on being presented with
Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.) Blogging at Bernal
Alpha. On Twitter as @FredKiesche
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From: António Marques <entonio at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:55:13 +0000

Yes, of course. My choice of words is due to the fact hat 1) I don't get
this Wolfean linguistic ring from the rest of HPL and 2) tho I agree many
of the piece's elements are quite inspired by Poe, I don't think it would
have been written by Poe. Can't quite say why. I can see Poe writing 'The
Music of Erich Zann', or any of the stories that revolve around corpses,
but for some reason not this one.

On 30 June 2014 16:47, Fred Kiesche <godelescherbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> If it's Wolfean, then Wolfe is Lovecraftian and--more to the
> core--Poesian, as this was definitely one of Eich-Pee-El's pieces most
> inspired by E.A. Poe.
>
>
>> And you know what? The language rings very Wolfean. At first sight, it's
>> a lame gothic tale. And there's really nothing hidden below that. But it
>> can also be a lot of things if you want to read them into it.
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From: Fred Kiesche <godelescherbach at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 17:02:37 +0000

HPL walked the streets of Paris with Poe. In a dream.

-- 
F.P. Kiesche III

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From: Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 18:39:53 +0000

I'm glad you brought this up.  I've always thought the most interesting
thing about Wolfe's divine Outsider as compared to Lovecraft's Outsider is
that both are monsters of sorts:  non-canonical, subterranean, tenebrous,
subversive.  It's part of the devious theological genius of Wolfe that he
casts his 'true God' as an outcast, a creature of the night as it were, a
monster.  I think part of Wolfe's theological impulse is to see the
Christian deity anew in a Chestertonian 'upside down' sort of way and this
very obscure (but valid, I think) connection to Lovecraft's Outsider is one
of the ways he achieves that *'mooreeffoc'
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mooreeffoc>* epiphany.

-DOJP

On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 6:02 PM, Fred Kiesche <godelescherbach at gmail.com>
wrote:

>>>> For some reason, I'd never read this short piece. Now I'm trying to
>>>> fill the blanks in some authors, I've come across it:
>>>>
>>>> And you know what? The language rings very Wolfean. At first sight,
>>>> it's a lame gothic tale. And there's really nothing hidden below that. But
>>>> it can also be a lot of things if you want to read them into it.

-- 
Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
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