Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness
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darkling_talesLJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dfordoom)
At the Mountains of Madness was one of Lovecraft’s two short novels, and it forms part of his celebrated Cthulhu Mythos cycle. The Antarctic setting was a masterstroke. Aside from being one of the few places that a survival of a city of the Old Ones would be credible it adds the perfect atmosphere of desolation. Lovecraft uses one of his favoured techniques – the reporting of horrors at second-hand – and he uses it with skill. As the novel opens a scientific expedition to the Antarctic, mounted by Miskatonic University, has just set out. While the main party drill for core samples a smaller party remains behind at base camp. They hear the radio reports from the main party – at first triumphant messages of astounding discoveries, then more disquieting reports, then nothing. They set out on a rescue mission, and what they find is both horrifying and almost unimaginable. The bulk of the novel comprises a history of a vanished civilisation of alien creatures from the stars, gleaned from the enormous quantities of mural sculptures in their strange and empty city. This gives Lovecraft the opportunity to develop his concepts of the Old Ones and the various bizarre life-forms from the furthest reaches of the galaxy in considerable depth. It’s a wonderfully original creation, one that changed the face of both horror and science fiction.
It’s written in Lovecraft’s usual delightfully overheated and grotesquely rococo style. It’s a style you either love or hate. It’s some years since I first read At the Mountains of Madness. It holds up pretty well. He starts on a note of suppressed hysteria and the hysteria increases steadily throughout the novel. He even gets away with the penguins. There’s so much of the history of the Old Ones that at times it’s more like an essay than a novel. The action stops completely while the history is unfolded. If you’re fascinated by the Cthulhu Mythos you won’t mind and it will give you useful background for appreciating other Mythos stories. In fact the best description of it is probably that it’s a novella with an essay inserted in the middle. The essay, though, outlines a complete and original and gloriously weird and entertaining mythology. If you haven’t read Lovecraft before read The Call of Cthulhu first.
dfordoom)At the Mountains of Madness was one of Lovecraft’s two short novels, and it forms part of his celebrated Cthulhu Mythos cycle. The Antarctic setting was a masterstroke. Aside from being one of the few places that a survival of a city of the Old Ones would be credible it adds the perfect atmosphere of desolation. Lovecraft uses one of his favoured techniques – the reporting of horrors at second-hand – and he uses it with skill. As the novel opens a scientific expedition to the Antarctic, mounted by Miskatonic University, has just set out. While the main party drill for core samples a smaller party remains behind at base camp. They hear the radio reports from the main party – at first triumphant messages of astounding discoveries, then more disquieting reports, then nothing. They set out on a rescue mission, and what they find is both horrifying and almost unimaginable. The bulk of the novel comprises a history of a vanished civilisation of alien creatures from the stars, gleaned from the enormous quantities of mural sculptures in their strange and empty city. This gives Lovecraft the opportunity to develop his concepts of the Old Ones and the various bizarre life-forms from the furthest reaches of the galaxy in considerable depth. It’s a wonderfully original creation, one that changed the face of both horror and science fiction.
It’s written in Lovecraft’s usual delightfully overheated and grotesquely rococo style. It’s a style you either love or hate. It’s some years since I first read At the Mountains of Madness. It holds up pretty well. He starts on a note of suppressed hysteria and the hysteria increases steadily throughout the novel. He even gets away with the penguins. There’s so much of the history of the Old Ones that at times it’s more like an essay than a novel. The action stops completely while the history is unfolded. If you’re fascinated by the Cthulhu Mythos you won’t mind and it will give you useful background for appreciating other Mythos stories. In fact the best description of it is probably that it’s a novella with an essay inserted in the middle. The essay, though, outlines a complete and original and gloriously weird and entertaining mythology. If you haven’t read Lovecraft before read The Call of Cthulhu first.
