Q2 Blog 4: The Doom That Came to Sarnath

Nothing like staying up late reading Lovecraft! Next up in the Dream Cycle is "The Doom That Came to Sarnath."

In H. P. Lovecraft's "The Doom That Came to Sarnath," the history of the city of Sarnath is told.

One thing that took me by surprise when reading this was when Lovecraft begins to describe the gardens made by the old king of Sarnath, Zokkar. He uses beautiful imagery that gives a sense of peaceful tranquility, such as in the lines: "There ran little streams over bright pebbles, dividing meads of green and gardens of many hues, and spanned by a multitude of bridges.... Over the streams and lakelets rode white swans, whilst the music of rare birds chimed in with the melody of the waters." This beautiful imagery contrasts with the usual nightmarish vistas Lovecraft enjoys explaining with great detail. After the above quote, the story continues right away with the merry, jubilant festival in Sarnath celebrating the anniversary of the destruction of the city of Ib and the genocide of its inhabitants. This contrast could serve to show that there is no pure evil or pure good, and that although the city of Sarnath committed some cruel acts, they could still possess gardens and feasts of great beauty.

A device the author seems to employ throughout the story is understatement. There are many instances where Lovecraft briefly mentions something, which upon closer inspection, has some deeper meaning of hint of foreshadowing. In one instance he mentions a throne "wrought of one piece of ivory, though no man lives who knows whence so vast a piece could have come." It must have come from some colossal beast, seeing as the tusk from the already large elephant is nowhere near big enough to fashion a throne from. The sentence invokes an image of a massive, unearthly creature that might not be invoked if not read as carefully. Another instance is when the beings of Ib are described as "weak, and soft as jelly," with "bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips, and curious ears, and were without voice." They were slain easily by the men of Sarnath, but combined with the obvious foreshadowing of the title and the beginning of the story, the reader might have a feeling that these creatures are not so innocent and vulnerable and that they might not appreciate having their city destroyed and lives taken.

As a reward for getting through the spooky stuff:

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

Q2 Blog 3: Beyond the Wall of Sleep

For my third blog this quarter, to continue with my Lovecraft spree, I went back to read "Beyond the Wall of Sleep."

The short story "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" by H. P. Lovecraft is the story of an imaginative worker of the state psychopathic institution and his encounter with Joe Slater, described as a barbaric, degenerate hill-dweller from the Catskills. Slater was brought in after beating his neighbor to death in a hysterical fit, and is found to have waking nightmares that possess his being.

What I like about this story's structure is how the narrator frames the account in a way, so it is not just a narrative of events, but it shows the narrator's thoughts and gives the story a sort of credibility. In the beginning, the narrator gives a sort of introduction, revealing his views on dreams and how they might be truer than material life. At the end, he instructs the reader to take the story as whatever he or she wants, as he realizes how fantastic and "rhetorical" it turns out. Also, the quotation he pulls at the end from the supposed writings of an astronomer stating apparent evidence of the events of which the narrator spoke wraps the story up with spooky tone.

A possible purpose of this story (and possibly of the Dream Cycle as a whole) is to present the concept of dreams in a new light. When the narrator uses his apparatus to enter the dreamworld of the dying Slater and to speak to the entity that possesses him, he experiences firsthand and is told of the reality of dreams. The thought he expresses at the beginning that the dream world is truer than the material world is reinforces when he experiences the "palatial magnificence" of "this elysian realm." He states that he  "dwelt not as a stranger, for each sight and sound was familiar" and that he was being recalled back to earth, where he "least wished to go." It seems that he feels more at home, or more alive in this ethereal existence. The entity expresses how dreams transcend all physical limitations of time, space, and other dimensions. It says that it looks forward to meeting the narrator in ancient Egypt, after the end of the universe, on planets orbiting a distant star, or on the moon of Jupiter with creatures referred to as "insect-philosophers." This also plays into the narrator's belief that the corporeal world is secondary to the ethereal and our true spirits are "held back by bodily encumbrances."

All in all, another spooky Lovecraftian story to leave you with some creepy philosophy to ponder over Christmas.

Artist Michael Bukowski's rendition of the
insect-philosopher of the fourth moon of Jupiter