TSOU - The Horror in the Burying Ground
vonj...@hotmail.com
"The Horror in the Burying-Ground"
Sources: _The Horror in the Museum_, Arkham; _The Horror in the Museum_,
Carroll and Graf.
Synopsis: The story is told as a narrative related by a set of odd
characters sitting around the center of the small town of Stillwater.
According to the tellers, Tom Sprague kept his sister Sophie at home to keep
from splitting up the property. Henry Thorndike, the town undertaker, became
involved with Sophie, and invented a special embalming fluid which would make
a living person appear dead. He injected this substance into Tom, and had
him declared dead. Shortly thereafter, however, Tom came alive again and made
Henry inject himself with his own fluid. Henry managed to keep Tom under for
good, but collapsed during Tom's funeral and was buried himself. Sophie knew
that the effects of the mixture would wear off after time, but chose not to
say anything about it. It is implied that ghostly figures of the two men
still stalk Sophie to this day - at which point, the listener runs off.
Comments: This is hardly a shining jewel in HPL's crown. Once again, I
disagree with the "parody" theory put forth by some of HPL's scholars, but
this story is one of those which makes me wish it were true. As in
"Doorstep", there is once again some attempt at characterization, but most of
them rapidly fall into stock types. Since there's not much to the plot or
atmosphere, the story disappoints rather than horrifying, and I suspect the
listener ran out at the end so he wouldn't be associated with it any more.
This tale was another of the "revisions" for Hazel Heald. As with "The Man of
Stone", Lovecraft doesn't seem to refer to it directly in any of his letters,
but it's likely that it was mostly his work based on a few of Heald's
suggestions. The piece wasn't published until the May 1937 issue of WT, after
Lovecraft's death.
I've tried to do some Lovecraftian geography work here, with little success.
I did note that there is a Stillwater in Rhode Island and a Rutland in
Massachusetts. These are actually fairly common names, but I couldn't find
two of them in New England sufficiently close to each other. Perhaps Donovan
will have better luck.
No one's used anything from this story in the Mythos. Brian Lumley mentioned
the destruction of the town of Stillwater, Canada by Ithaqua in "Born of the
Winds". After having seen the people in this town, I think Ithaqua wrote down
the wrong address.
This week: DALnet chat on #cthulhu; time to be announced. Next week: the
fragment "The Book", in Arkham's _Dagon_ and Ballantine's _The Transition of
H. P. Lovecraft_.
Yrs.,
Daniel Harms
http://members.tripod.com/~danharms/
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D. E. Kesler
> Yrs.,
>
> Daniel Harms
Hello Mr. Harms,
I had never gotten around to actually reading this story until this past
week. I wish I had read it sooner. I don't think it was intended as
parody; rather, it is a simple and straight forward attempt at macabre
humour. I am reminded of some of Poe's efforts at black humour.
Ambrose Bierce also comes readily to mind. Of course, the latter was
far more successful than the former.
I literally laughed out loud when I read the following lines.
"As the organ wheezed into _Beautiful Isle of Somewhere_ the Methodist
church choir added their lugubrious voices to the gruesome cacaphony,
and everyone looked piously at Deacon Leavitt - everyone, that is,
except crazy Johnny Dow, who kept his eyes glued to the still form
beneath the glass of the coffin." (HM, 295)
Having heard my share of Methodist choirs throughout my youth, I can
attest to the authenticity of Lovecraft's description. I laughed even
more when I read this passage.
"Get me home, quick, and let me be. That fluid I got in my arm by
mistake ... heart action ... this damned excitement ... too much ...
wait ... wait ... don't think I'm dead if I seem to ... only the fluid -
just get me home and wait ... I'll come to later, don't know how long
... all the time I'll be concious and know what's going on ... don't be
decieved ...."
"As his words trailed off into nothingness old Dr. Pratt reached him and
felt his pulse - watching a long time and finally shaking his head. "No
use doing anything - he's gone." (HM, 297)
Notice in this passage how Lovecraft carefully builds the tension.
Obseve how it is all suddenly released by the punchline delivered by old
Dr. Pratt. There is no way this could be a mistake. It is a deliberate
attempt at humour, and (in my humble opinion) it is a fairly successful
attempt.
Will Murray in his "Self Parody in Lovecraft's Revisions" can only find
one fault with "The Horror in the Burying-Ground." He notes that the
first sentence is distinctly modeled after the opening of "The Dunwich
Horror." This is really a niggling detail and it does nothing to
support his thesis. I suspect that Murray simply wished to include all
of the revisionist tales in this essay.
Even S.T. Joshi, who often displays something akin to genuine
embarassment for some of Lovecraft's revisionist work, acknowledges that
if "The Horror in the Burying-Ground" is viewed as an instance of
graveyard humour then "it is relatively succesful." (HPL:AL, 526)
One last thought on the "Horror in the Burying-Ground." If you continue
looking for evidence of cosmic horror in this tale you will continue to
be disappointed; however, if you look for a little dark humour, you
might be pleasantly surprised.
Let's take a brief glance at Hazel Heald. Joshi also points out that
idea of a living brain trapped in an immobilised body is a recurring
theme found throughout Lovecraft's revisions for Heald. This can be
found in "Out of the Aeons," "The Man of Stone," "The Horror in the
Museum" and "The Horror in the Buying Ground." The only Heald story to
deviate from this pattern was "Winged Death." (HPL:AL 526)
About Hazel Heald herself very little is known. Obviously, she produced
nothing aside from what she wrote with Lovecraft. Joshi does share this
interesting albeit dubious tale.
"Muriel Eddy (if we can trust her on this point) reports that Heald had
joined a writers' club established by the Eddys, and that the latter
steered her to Lovecraft when the tenor of her work became evident.
Eddy goes on to say that Heald confided to her a vague romantic interest
in Lovecraft; she managed to persuade Lovecraft to come to her home in
Somerville on one occasion, when she arranged a candlelight dinner with
him. I am not all certain of the veracity of this entire account, given
Muriel Eddy's unreliability on other matters. Cook reports that
Lovecraft was scheduled to meet with Heald in Somerville upon his return
from Quebec in early September, but this may have been a harmless
half-buisness half-social call." (HPL:AL 523)
Of course, I like to think it was a harmless candlelight dinner. Oh, I
know. It probably never happened, but I think the image is kinda sweet.
It evokes the warm fuzzies.
Regards and Best Wishes,
Donald Eric Kesler
Azrael
>> "The Horror in the Burying-Ground"
>"Get me home, quick, and let me be. That fluid I got in my arm by
>mistake ... heart action ... this damned excitement ... too much ...
>wait ... wait ... don't think I'm dead if I seem to ... only the fluid -
>just get me home and wait ... I'll come to later, don't know how long
>... all the time I'll be concious and know what's going on ... don't be
>decieved ...."
>
>"As his words trailed off into nothingness old Dr. Pratt reached him and
>felt his pulse - watching a long time and finally shaking his head. "No
>use doing anything - he's gone." (HM, 297)
That may not have been Lovecraft's intention but the above section is pretty
funny in a macabre sort of way. To paraphrase;
Henry: Don't bury me alive! It will only seem that I'm dead!
Dr.Pratt: I'm sorry, he's dead. We might as well bury him.
>One last thought on the "Horror in the Burying-Ground." If you continue
>looking for evidence of cosmic horror in this tale you will continue to
>be disappointed; however, if you look for a little dark humour, you
>might be pleasantly surprised.
I think I'm going to have to side with Mr Kesler on this one.
As a tale of stark horror, this one obviously falls short. The story ends
with the knowledge that a couple of people were buried alive, not all that
horrific compared with some of Lovecraft's work I'm sure you will agree.
However the story does have its amusing (intentionally or otherwise)
moments. The narrative as conducted by the backwards village folk is pretty
amusing in its self.
Even HPL points out that the scene where Henry Thorndike apparently drops
dead in the middle of Tom Sprague's funeral, and the service has to be
repeated, for both Tom and Henry (without the town's only undertaker) - has
humourous merit;
"And now, with what would seem to an outsider the acme of gruesome comedy,
the whole funeral mummery was listlessly repeated"
And how can you fail to laugh at the concluding sentence?;
"Hey, you! What's takin' you off in such a hurry? Mebbe there's more I could
tell you if I had a mind..."
Yrs.,
Mark
D. E. Kesler
>
> >> The Shadow over Usenet
> >> "The Horror in the Burying-Ground"
[snip]
>
> Henry: Don't bury me alive! It will only seem that I'm dead!
> Dr.Pratt: I'm sorry, he's dead. We might as well bury him.
>
> dead in the middle of Tom Sprague's funeral, and the service has to be
> repeated, for both Tom and Henry (without the town's only undertaker) - has
> humourous merit;
>
> "And now, with what would seem to an outsider the acme of gruesome comedy,
> the whole funeral mummery was listlessly repeated"
>
> And how can you fail to laugh at the concluding sentence?;
>
> "Hey, you! What's takin' you off in such a hurry? Mebbe there's more I could
> tell you if I had a mind..."
>
> Yrs.,
>
> Mark
Hello Azrael,
I'm glad we agree that the tale is humourous. I am also convinced it is
intentional. It is quite true that Lovecraft did not spend nearly as
much time and effort on his revisionsit efforts; however, I find it
absurd that he would have accidentally or unintentionally placed all of
these obvious comic elements in this work. Lovecraft was never that
sloppy.
Also, I am convinced that the quote which you paraphrased shows an
deliberate and effective build up of tension. It is very similar to the
way he builds up tension in his tales of cosmic horror. It is only the
method of release that is different. In "The Horror in the
Burying-Ground" tension is released through laughter instead of a
shudder.
One more final thought. There are no known letters of papers by
Lovecraft which touch upon this piece of fiction. There is no way for
us to know Lovecraft's intent. All we have is the text itself. I would
like to encourage everyone to read the story once again; however, this
time, read it without being prejudiced by what you know about the
author. The text itself will tell you everything you need to know about
the nature of this story.
Steven Kaye
> > And how can you fail to laugh at the concluding sentence?;
> >
> > "Hey, you! What's takin' you off in such a hurry? Mebbe there's more I could
> > tell you if I had a mind..."
> >
> > Yrs.,
> >
> > Mark
I took this as Lovecraft rehashing "The Picture in the House," just as the
opening sentence is a rewrite of the one from "The Dunwich Horror."
From "The Picture in the House":
"...- here, set still, what's ailing ye? - I didn't do nothin', only I
wondered haow 'twud be ef I DID - ..."
IRC tonight, 5 pm EDT (9 pm GMT, 4 pm CDT, 3 pm MDT, 2 pm PDT) - we're
going to see if there's more of a turnout on Saturdays as opposed to
Sundays.
The story is "The Horror in the Burying-Ground," the server is
hebron.us.dal.net port 7000 (or whatever DALnet server you can get on).
Novices to IRC - you can get client software, manuals and user guides, and
much more helpful material at http://www.irchelp.org
Steven
--
Steven Kaye
box_...@ix.NOSPAM.netcom.com
Donovan K. Loucks
Once again, I disagree with the "parody" theory put forth by some of
HPL's scholars, but this story is one of those which makes me wish it
were true.
Ditto. It seems that when Lovecraft writes a bad story with intentionally
or unintentionally funny elements, people want to say it's a parody. I
think that Lovecraft simply wrote a few stinkers. Despite the apparently
intentional humorous elements in "Herbert West--Reanimator", I don't think
even it could be legitimately called a parody.
I've tried to do some Lovecraftian geography work here, with little
success. I did note that there is a Stillwater in Rhode Island and a
Rutland in Massachusetts. These are actually fairly common names, but I
couldn't find two of them in New England sufficiently close to each
other. Perhaps Donovan will have better luck.
Hazel Heald was born, raised, and spent most of her life in Somerville,
Massachusetts, which is about 5 miles northwest of Boston. Lovecraft's
other revision stories for Ms. Heald were placed in a variety of locales
-- "The Man of Stone" (upstate New York), "Winged Death" (Africa), "The
Horror in the Museum" (London), and "Out of the Aeons" (Boston) -- but two
of those were in New England (or adjacent New York). Based on the
atmosphere and language of the story and a couple of references to "Old
Yankees" (p. 290) and "Puritan" (p. 292), I'd have to place the story
somewhere in New England.
I suspect that the village of Stillwater is wholly fictional, although
Rutland is probably not. I even suspected that Whitby was real, but since
there are Whitbys only in North Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia, it
seems it too is fictional. As Daniel pointed out, there are quite a few
Rutlands (19) and Stillwaters (14) across the U.S. Coincidentally, there
is a Rutland, a Stillwater, and a Whitby in North Dakota, although they're
at opposite ends of the state from each other -- literally. Rutland, is
in the southeast corner of the state, Stillwater is in the southwest
corner, and Whitby is in the northern center.
My conclusion is that Rutland is in Vermont and both Stillwater and Whitby
are fictional. There's a Rutland in Massachusetts about 10 miles from
Worcester, but since the Rutland in "The Horror in the Burying-Ground" is
repeatedly referred to as a "city", Vermont's Rutland seems more likely.
Also, Lovecraft's friend, Vrest Orton, was employed during the 1930s by a
publisher, the Tuttle Co., in Rutland, Vermont.
That's about it. I'll see everyone on IRC in about...an hour!
-------------------
Donovan K. Loucks <webm...@hplovecraft.com>
The H.P. Lovecraft Archive: http://www.hplovecraft.com
The alt.horror.cthulhu FAQ: ftp://ftp.primenet.com/users/d/dloucks/ahc