Solstice Evolutionary Paths: Lovecraft Solstice

[Raymond Arnold]

Cross posted from the FB group

The original 2011 Rationalist Solstice was very much about about Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror - facing the darkest night of the year, comprehending that that there are vast and powerful forces that do not care about humanity even slightly that shape this world, powerful enough to destroy us, beyond our control, indifferent to our suffering.

(At the time those forces included "Evolution" and "Possible Unfriendly Artificial Intelligences who might arise someday". This was before Meditations on Moloch would popularize other forces)

I spent the next 4 years focused on refining NY Solstice to be more publicly acceptable, not giving off any more weird-cult vibes than it needed to. The Lovecraftian Horror element was dropped quickly. But I'd really like to see what happens when you take that concept and fully flesh it out and dial it up to 11.

I'd be interested in putting together more material to run small-scale (20-50ish people) Cosmic Horror Solstices, if people are interested in running them.

For thematic reasons, it'd be appropriate for one to be in Massachusetts, although not overwhelmingly necessary.

(Link to the original 2011 Solstice Hymnal)

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[Raymond Arnold]

I think this could potentially be an interesting way to open up Solstice to a different target audience than the "generic humanist" crowd. I think Solstice has succeeded at becoming a welcoming, inviting holiday to a wide variety of people, but has failed at actually convincing newcomers who _don't_ already have friends who go, to up and go.

There isn't anything there that screams out "You! Good humanist-ish secular person! This is an event that is worth going to instead of all of the other holiday events you are being bombarded with invites to!"

A Cosmic Horror Solstice could explicitly target Lovecraft nerds, who already have some established "tradition" of weird holiday songs, give them weird references to appreciate and be like "OMIGOD these are MY people!"

I'd want to do a year of "try this out smallscale in a few places", but I think you could potentially kickstart this with a largely different audience than Secular Solstice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic3Yd0rDaoI&list=RDic3Yd0rDaoI

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[Matthew Graves]

There's something about a lot of Lovecraftian geek culture stuff that rubs me the wrong way, which I think a plush Cthulhu may be emblematic of; it seems like replacing the substance with the symbol. I worry that if the ritual is about actually perceiving the real Elder Gods, this will not mesh well with someone who views this as a literary genre, and if it's just a bunch of songs with cultural references, this will interfere with updating by encouraging compartmentalization. (Beyond the Reach of God, for example, is all about popping out of the fictional lens when perceiving the real world; "I saw mommy kissing Yog-Sothoth" looks like it moves in the opposite direction.)

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[Alice]

ssc has an excellent post on this http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/02/19/i-liked-lovecraft-countless-primaeval-aeons-before-it-was-cool/

this is one of those really good things; you must grok this to have a chance at producing good ritual. (you do not need to resonate with scott's personal phrasing of it, of course)

[Raymond Arnold]

I very much agree that it is necessary to deeply get Lovecraft to make a good Lovecraft ritual. And I definitely hope _someone_ makes a hardcore serious Cosmic Horror ritual.

My personal aesthetic, though, is to blend silly things and serious things. And... I just am not really offended by the Cthulhu plushy. I think it is sad that a lot of geek culture has Cthulhu plushies *without* really getting what Cthulhu is about, but no more than any random pop-marketing-scheme takes any random meaningful thing and makes it safe and fun for the masses.

If I were running a Cosmic Horror Solstice without answering to anyone, it'd starts off with "Have Yourself A Scary Little Solstice" and "Death to the World", but then gradually escalates the horror over the course of the evening until you've hit "pure" Lovecraft" somewhere in the middle. 

(Not sure if it goes without saying that the sort of Cosmic Horror Solstice I'd do would be be "rationalist!Lovecraft fanfic" of sort where we fully acknowledge the magnitude of the horror and then try to deal with it anyway)

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[Laura Baur]

I do not think solstice should be lovecraftian.  It is totally the wrong vibe for the season and would put me off big time and diminish the impact of what you are doing.  If you want to do a separate holiday for it (maybe halloween), that would be fine.

[Raymond Arnold]

I want to stress: I'm not saying "all Solstices become Lovecraftian."

It's "I want to see more types of Solstices be experimented with, and pushed their 'Final Form'". i.e. it took 5 years for Secular-History-Stonehenge-Style-Solstice to reach a level where the songs are good, the speeches are coherent and moving, and it feels like a real holiday.

What I want is for some people who are into-that-sort-of-thing to run smaller Solstices experimenting with the alternate-branch-of-history-Lovecraft-Solstice to see what it feels like once it's "good" (with the goal being "more varieties of Solstice for people to choose between).

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[Raymond Arnold]

In places that already have a Secular-History-Stonehenge-ish-Style-Solstice, I do think "do it as a Halloween party" is totes reasonable.

I do *miss* having a small, intimate Solstice, and at some point I want to have that again. I'm not sure if it's possible to have that AND have big Solstice AND have everyone go home for Christmas/Hannukah (which I think is pretty necessary). 

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