TSOU -- The Dunwich Horror
Daniel Harms
The Shadow over Usenet
"The Dunwich Horror"
Sources: _The Dunwich Horror_, Arkham; _The Best of H. P. Lovecraft_,
Ballantine; _Crawling Chaos_, Creation.
Synopsis: A young boy named Wilbur Whateley is born under
peculiar circumstances in the town of Dunwich. He grows up
rapidly, learning to walk, talk and read at an exceedingly early
age. At the same time, his grandfather Wizard Whateley
boards up the upper portion of the house. Both Wizard
and Wilbur's mother die under strange circumstances.
Wilbur goes to Miskatonic University to look at the
Necronomicon, but the librarian Dr. Armitage forbids him
from doing so. Later, Whateley tries to break into the
library to steal the book, but is killed by a guard dog and
his hideous form revealed.
After Wilbur's death, the Horror begins. The
house is blown apart by an explosion, and the people
of Dunwich are terrorized by an invisible monster. Dr.
Armitage and two other professors come to Dunwich,
using spells from the _Necronomicon_ in an attempt to
put down the horror.
Comments: I'm tired. I have no thoughts on the story
itself, but I'd like to comment on a few of the things S. T.
Joshi says in his _H. P. Lovecraft: A Life_ on the topic.
Quoth Joshi:
Let us first contrast the _moral_ implications of
"The Dunwich Horror" with "The Colour out of
Space". We have seen that it is nearly impossible
to deem the entities in the earlier story "evil" by any
conventional standard; but the Whateleys --
especially WIlbur and his twin -- are clearly meant to
be perceived as evil because of their plans to destroy
the human race.
He continues a paragraph later:
What we have here is an elementary "good
vs. evil" struggle between Armitage and the
Whateleys. (p. 448)
With all respect to Mr. Joshi, I would disagree with this
interpretation. A comparison between "Dunwich" and
"Colour" in this regard is useful, but I think a comparison
with a wider range of stories is in order here. Tales such as
"The Call of Cthulhu" (with its degenerate cultists) and "The Case
of Charles Dexter Ward" (in which sorcerers hope to call up
"legions from the underearth") could equally be interpreted in
this way if we take a direct threat to humanity as the basis for
suggesting a good-evil split. The only indication of this that this
tendency may be stronger in "The Dunwich Horror" comes at its very
end, when Armitage states:
We have no business calling in such things from outside,
and only very wicked people and very wicked cults ever try
to.
This may give slightly more weight to the claim of a good-evil
dichotomy, but the difference between this and the other stories
seems minimal -- at least in my opinion.
Joshi goes on to make a very interesting statement:
What "The Dunwich Horror" did was, in effect, to
make the rest of the "Cthulhu Mythos" (i.e., the
contributions by other and less skillful hands)
possible. Its luridness, melodrama, and naive
moral dichotomy were picked up by later writers
(it was, not surprisingly, one of Derleth's favourite
tales) rather than the subtler work embodied in
"The Call of Cthulhu:", "The Colour out of Space",
and others. (p. 449)
I would say that Joshi is probably right here, though I would argue
that such elements are also present in Lovecraft's other tales
to a lesser extent and "Dunwich" merely represents the far end
of the scale.
In "The Dunwich Horror", we see the town of Dunwich
for the first time (unsurprisingly). The Necronomicon makes another
appearance, this time making extensive use of Lovecraft's outline
in "History of the Necronomicon". Interestingly, he adds another
edition -- the English translation of John Dee, which first appeared
in Frank Belknap Long's "The Space-Eaters" -- in this story. Yog-
Sothoth is mentioned, but never seen, as is Cthulhu himself.
Stories which might have inspired "Dunwich", as well as many which
were inspired by it, have been collected in Chaosium's _The Dunwich
Cycle_. Also of interest is the story "Those of the Air" in
_Cthulhu's Heirs_, which has a distinctly unusual twist to its telling
and deserves being checked out.
That's all I have for now. See you at the end of the summer,
at the latest!
Daniel Harms "...red hair and cross eyes
Box 3793 Station B have no symbolic significance
Vanderbilt U. in the composition of the
Nashville, TN 37235 civilization." -- H. P. Lovecraft
har...@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
Looney
Whoa! I didn't know they were still doing these! Can just anyone join
the fun, or do you have to do something first?
--
Die SpamBots!
Mark Gibson
I'm too tired myself for deep or learned criticism but I will say that
"The Dunwich Horror" is perhaps my favourite Lovecraft story. It is one of
the most powerfully atmospheric of all his tales--he really makes me feel
the decrepit, decadent old village and the deep dark secrets it conceals.
The writing is more subtle that it seems, with the hints of perversity and
perversion ( exactly HOW were Wilbur and his twin conceived? ) and the
general outline of Wilbur's birth and death and their sequelae which
suggest a truly blasphemous parody of the life of Christ...here mopre than
in any other story I can think of HPL is successful at hinting at
darknesses within darknesses. The Necronomicon and the Old Ones are used
to good effect. HPL does an excellent job of hinting at horror rather than
trying to describe it or (even worse) simply describiong it as
"indescribable".The nature of Wilbur's ghastly twin is slowly hinted
at...the mysterious "lapping"or breathing sound upstairs in the Whately
residence, its similarity in form to "them (the Old Ones) and finally its
brief surge of visibility ("That haff-face on top...!") and its almost
pathetic cries ("FATHER! YOG-SOTHOTH...") are an almost textbook example
of the best way to write about a monster.
I admit I'm a little prejudiced because this was the first HPL story I
ever read. I still remember the cold shiver that went tdown my spine at
first beholding the awful name of YOG-SOTHOTH and at reading "YOG-SOTHOTH
knows the gate.YOG-Sothoth is the gate....Past, present, future; all are
one in YOG-SOTHOTH..."
MSG
Donovan Loucks
Looney <loo...@thepentagon.com> wrote:
Whoa! I didn't know they were still doing these! Can just anyone join
the fun, or do you have to do something first?
Everyone's free to join in. However, the moderator of the discussion
group, Daniel Harms, is graduating from Vanderbilt University, so his
account there will soon end. As a result, The Shadow Over Usenet will be
on hold until he finds another account. Here's hoping it won't be long...
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