AEG: Is AEG Lovecraftian?

Stanisław Bocian · 05 Nov 2008, 16:47 · from 2008-November.txt.gz

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From: sbocian at poczta.fm (=?windows-1250?Q?Stanis=B3aw_Bocian?=)
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 17:47:59 +0100
Subject: (urth) AEG:  Is AEG Lovecraftian?
In-Reply-To: <A9BF0B00-4F0C-4D7E-86AD-EFD7D41F100B at io.com>
References: <C38F5B26-0C0E-426F-92A0-149D7C05EF28 at nhn.ou.edu>
	<490F6543.8020506 at gmail.com>
	<A9BF0B00-4F0C-4D7E-86AD-EFD7D41F100B at io.com>
Message-ID: <1856109366.20081105174759 at poczta.fm>

Hello!

On 3 listopada 2008, Adam Thornton wrote:

> On Nov 3, 2008, at 2:55 PM, Dave Tallman wrote:

>> Even Lovecraft allowed the forces of good to succeed sometimes, for  
>> example in "The Dunwich Horror." Even he could not help rooting for  
>> humanity against the monsters.

> One can make the argument that "The Dunwich Horror" is like that  
> precisely *because* it is a Machen pastiche, and Arthur Machen was a  
> Christian who did not share the Lovecraftian view of the world.  That,
> indeed, is exactly Ken Hite's argument.

> Adam

Ken Hite is intelligent and well-read, but superficial. He treats Lovecraft as a
quaint idiot-savant with a literary talent. If you want a good
introdution to Lovecraft, I suggest Michel Houellebecq. He treats
Lovecraft seriously and attempts to understand what he  tried to said,

http://trashotron.com/agony/reviews/2005/houellebecq-lovecraft.htm
http://blog.urbanomic.com/dread/archives/houellebecq-lovecraft.pdf

Lovecraft was a very intelligent man, and his perception of the world
was very clear. Most scientists limit their thinking to their
professional area, and never consider the consequences for everyday
life. Perhaps rightly - the affair of James Watson, who dared to
apply the genetics to human races and intelligence shows that
too much science won't be tolerated.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fury-at-dna-pioneers-theory-africans-are-less-intelligent-than-westerners-394898.html

But Lovecraft was uncompromising. He perceived clearly
that the unavoidable result of the acceptation of modern science
(which he valued as a rationalist) will be the destruction of the
civilisation. And for Lovecraft the Western civilisation was clearly
the most valuable thing in the world. The impersonal blind cosmic
forces don't value it, and even cannot understand it - but it is the
result of their own deficiency. The Western Civilisation is good, but
it won't help it to survive in the alien cosmos. It is a beautiful
dream, belonging in the Dreamlands, not in the real world (cf. The
Search of Unknown Kadath).

In Machen, the civilisation is threatened by Evil, supernatural evil
directed by destructive and hostile forces. Those forces are
dangerous, but can be repulsed, although not destroyed. In Lovecraft
there is no evil as such. The civilisation is threatened by
dissolution, from without (primitive Negroes, Polacks and similar aliens
dragging down American cities) and from within (progress of science,
which refutes the basic rules on which the civilisation is built).

His final treatment of that problem is "The Mountains of Madness".
Here the rational civilisation of the Old Ones is destroyed both by
inferior race and by their own science - they are defeated by the
servant race of Shoggoths.

-- 
Best regards,
Stanislaus B.

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