TSOU -- The Colour Out of Space
Donovan Loucks
The Shadow over Usenet
---
"The Colour Out of Space"
This was probably the first Lovecraft story I ever read, and it's still
one of my very favourites. Daniel Harms <har...@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu>
pointed out that Lovecraft refers to this as an "atmospheric study", and a
glance at the _Selected Letters_ shows that he indeed did so--twice. He
was really taken with this story, as other letters indicate:
"I liked that tale myself about as well as any I've written..." (to
Clark Ashton Smith, 31 January 1928)
"Most of my monsters fail altogether to satisfy my sense of the
cosmic--the abnormally chromatic entity in _The Colour Out of Space_
being the only one of the lot which I take any pride in." (to Miss
Elizabeth Toldridge, 8 March 1929)
"In my opinion, my best tale is _The Colour Out of Space_ (1927)." (to
J. Vernon Shea, 19 June 1931)
"Only _The Colour out of Space_ and _The Music of Erich Zann_ are worth
saving." (to Wilfred Blanch Talman, 2 November 1936)
"Indeed, nothing but the _Colour out of Space_ really satisfies me as a
whole." (to Wilfred Blanch Talman, 10 November 1936)
"["The Thing on the Doorstep"] is better than my _Haunter of the Dark_,
but not as good as my _Colour out of Space_." (to Willis Conover, 10
January 1937)
Nearly ten years after Lovecraft wrote this tale he still considered it
his best. Apparently August Derleth liked it pretty well, too. Contrast
the opening of Lovecraft's story ("West of Arkham the hills rise wild...")
with that of Derleth's "The Lurker at the Threshold" ("North of Arkham the
hills rise dark, wild and wooded..."). Derleth did the same thing in "The
Dweller in Darkness", nearly stealing the opening lines from Lovecraft's
"The Dunwich Horror", replacing "north central Massachusetts" with "north
central Wisconsin" and "the Aylesbury pike" with "the Brule River
highway". Shameless.
Unfortunately, as Daniel also said, this story has not translated too well
to the screen. Both "Die, Monster, Die!" (1965) and "The Curse" (1987)
are mediocre at best. I've seen each of them once and have no great
desire to see either again, though I suppose that the former film is
helped a touch by Boris Karloff's presence. And, I'll echo Daniel's
comments that Michael Shea's _The Color out of Time_ was a pretty poor
tale which degenerates into an implausible ending with scuba gear clad
professors going up against the horror. Their hitting the bottle every
page doesn't help the tedium, either.
I've often wondered if Lovecraft had an actual place in mind as his
inspiration for the "blasted heath" of this tale. Recently, Derrick
Hussey <hus...@routledge.com> sent me the transcription of a letter from
Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith which reads:
A combination of Maine's blasted heath & Connecticut's Moodus noises
would certainly form a splendid testimonial to Tsathoggua's lordship in
the lightless depths of N'Kai!
I'm not aware of the date of this letter, but here's hoping that it's
prior to March 1927, when Lovecraft wrote this story. Now to find out
just where this "blasted heath" in Maine is. Anyone? Bueller?
Lovecraft's inspirations for the reservoir itself is a bit clearer, as has
already been stated. The two reservoirs which were probably Lovecraft's
inspiration were the Quabbin, in Western Massachusetts, and the Scituate,
10 miles due west of Providence, Rhode Island. With respect to their
locations, the Quabbin seems to be the reservoir of choice, especially
considering its grim and fascinating history. Yet, S.T. Joshi points out
in his recent biography of Lovecraft that, in an unpublished letter from
1935, Lovecraft indicates his inspiration was the Scituate. S.T. further
states that, despite this, _both_ reservoirs were probably the basis for
Lovecraft's tale. Unfortunately, I haven't done much research on the
Scituate, so I'll prattle on about the Quabbin for a moment...
The Quabbin (Nipmuck for "place of many waters") Reservoir is a large
reservoir in west-central Massachusetts, being about 16 miles long. It
was constructed so that Boston could have an ample supply of drinking
water, and was accomplished by damming the Swift River. In preparation
for the damming of this river, 4 towns (Prescott, Dana, Greenwich, and
Enfield) and roughly a dozen villages were razed, and 7,500 graves had to
be moved. Some of the towns that were demolished were never covered by
the flood waters, like the town of Dana, which I've hiked in to. Such
towns were destroyed so their wastewater would not pollute the reservoir.
Talk of damming the Swift River began as early as 1910 and the decision to
do so was made in 1926. The Metropolitan District Commission, which still
manages the reservoir, began buying up land soon thereafter and the
residents of the valley slowly moved away. It wasn't until early 1938
that the destruction of the towns started, and I have to admit that the
photographs of their destruction is rather disturbing, and not unlike
pictures of bombed World War II Europe. The Winsor Dam was finished in
the winter of 1939 and the water began to back up in August of that year.
It wasn't until 1941 that water was used from the reservoir, and it took
until 1946 for the reservoir to fill.
Even as these towns and villages were being destroyed, their residents
moving away, and deep waters were about to erase any trace of their
previous existence, the Swift River Valley Historical Society was founded
to preserve their memory. The Society was created in 1936 in North New
Salem in the Whitaker-Clary House on Elm Street. The "Roll Calls" of the
four principal towns, listing their sons who fought in America's wars,
have been preserved on the front lawn of the Society, and the North
Prescott Methodist Church has been re-located there. I consider it well
worth a visit, both for the location's beauty and the eerie history of the
vanished valley. In addition, just a half-mile from the Society is the
Bear's Den, visited by Lovecraft and mentioned in "The Dunwich Horror".
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Donovan K. Loucks Phoenix, Arizona dlo...@primenet.com |
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| The H.P. Lovecraft Archive: http://www.primenet.com/~dloucks/hpl |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| alt.horror.cthulhu FAQ: ftp://ftp.primenet.com/users/d/dloucks/ahc |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
David Goudsward
Donovan -
What about the Desert of Maine in Freeport?
A desert encroaching on a pine forest in the middle of Maine?
http://www.sourcemaine.com/TravelMaine/freedesr.html
--
David Goudsward, Research Specialist
America's Stonehenge - Mystery Hill
North Salem, New Hampshire
http://www.peekaboo.net/stonehenge/
Daniel Harms
(crossposted to rec.travel.usa-canada -- perhaps someone
there can help us out in finding out where this site is)
David Goudsward <goud...@epix.net> wrote:
>Donovan Loucks wrote:
>> I've often wondered if Lovecraft had an actual place in mind as his
>> inspiration for the "blasted heath" of this tale. Recently, Derrick
>> Hussey <hus...@routledge.com> sent me the transcription of a letter from
>> Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith which reads:
>>
>> A combination of Maine's blasted heath & Connecticut's Moodus noises
>> would certainly form a splendid testimonial to Tsathoggua's lordship in
>> the lightless depths of N'Kai!
>>
>What about the Desert of Maine in Freeport?
>A desert encroaching on a pine forest in the middle of Maine?
>http://www.sourcemaine.com/TravelMaine/freedesr.html
Hmmm. Interesting. The information I got
indicates that Freeport is in the southeast corner of
the state (no atlas here, sorry), not far from Kittery,
the only city in Maine which Lovecraft seems to have
visited at this point. It's possible one of his correspondents
(F. B. Long?) told him about it, or that he heard a story
about it in Kittery.
Does anyone else know anything about this?
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
Derrick Hussey
Donovan Loucks <dlo...@primenet.com> wrote:
> I've often wondered if Lovecraft had an actual place in mind
> as his inspiration for the "blasted heath" of this tale.
> Recently, Derrick Hussey <hus...@routledge.com> sent me the
> transcription of a letter from Lovecraft to Clark Ashton
> Smith which reads:
>
> A combination of Maine's blasted heath & Connecticut's
> Moodus noises would certainly form a splendid testimonial
> to Tsathoggua's lordship in the lightless depths of N'Kai!
>
> I'm not aware of the date of this letter, but here's hoping
> that it's prior to March 1927, when Lovecraft wrote this
> story.
No such luck. The envelope does not survive, but
earlier in the same letter Lovecraft writes:
I'm stuck near the end of my own current attempt --
"The Shadow Out of Time" -- since I can't get the
unharassed leisure I need.
which puts it considerably after "The Colour Out of Space."
However, it is possible that Lovecraft heard of "Maine's
blasted heath" prior to writing "Colour" and was
only mentioning it years later to CAS.
Derrick
PS I tried to post this yesterday but to no avail. Sorry if
it appears twice.
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