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The Whisperer in Darkness
Group Reads 2019
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November 2019 Group Read 2/2 The Whisperer in Darkness
For this, I had to spend an hour or two to manage to get access to our public library ebooks section. But now I'm rewarded with the translated The Whisperer in Darkness: Collected Stories Volume 1. Started it yesterday.
I read this story 20 years ago in French. I still remembered the big reveal at the end, so I think this story is a success for Lovecraft if you mesure it by the impact it can have on (young) readers. I was happy to re-read it on Project Gutenberg in its original English version, and compared some sentences with my French version. I enjoyed it very much. Its qualities, and flaws, were more obvious to the seasoned reader that I am now.
Far more enjoyable than At the Mountains of Madness, also by Lovecraft, that we read 6 months ago. Although, in term of the scope of the cosmology, At the Mountain of Madness is far more skillful at showing humanity as ants in the grand scheme of things. Of course, that is what it was supposed do. The Whisperer in the Darkness is more about a personal horrific story, with the cosmology as an accesory.
I love how Lovecraft integrated a new (at the time) astrological discovery in his story. He could just have used Mars or Venus like some many of his comtemporaries.
I read this earlier this year, and don't remember all the details, but it's a good one.That may be because during the course of this year, I read the Complete Works of Lovecraft Delphi Ebook, so I was immersed in the Lovecraft universe for awhile.
Leo wrote: "For this, I had to spend an hour or two to manage to get access to our public library ebooks section. But now I'm rewarded with the translated [book:The Whisperer in Darkness: Collected Stories Vol..."Time well invested for future reads, right? Too bad it was difficult, though.
Found it in the Lovecraft collection of my partner, so I will join in.
Cheryl wrote: "Time well invested for future reads, right?"Exactly
Rosemarie wrote: ".... during the course of this year, I read the Complete Works of Lovecraft ....."I found it is available for free and downloaded it today. That's quite a lot of pages Rosemarie!
Rosemarie wrote: "I read this earlier this year, and don't remember all the details, but it's a good one.That may be because during the course of this year, I read the Complete Works of Lovecraft Delphi Ebook, so I..."
That's excellent, Rosemarie! I haven't read the complete Lovecraft collection this year, but I did read several collections of his stories. I really want to get Leslie Klinger's new annotated Lovecraft collection.
Librivox has a quite a collection of HPL's works here:https://librivox.org/author/424?prima...
I didn't see 'Whisperer', but I found it on the Internet Archive here:
https://archive.org/details/TheWhispe...
I'm not much of a fan of HPL's writing, but I haven't tried listening to his stuff before. I've always read it in text where it usually puts me to sleep. I'm not much for a lot of description. I've found that listening to it can make a big difference, though. Hopefully that will be the case. His work is the foundation for so much other good work that I've always wanted to read more of it.
Well, that was disappointing. I really didn't get the story at all & it ended so abruptly! I came back in & found that I'd only gotten the first 2 chapters & there are 6. Luckily, my SIL is a fan & he gave me the full audio version from Horrorbabble.com. Their stuff is free on Youtube, but he ripped it down to just the audio. I'll finish up the story with that.I wasn't thrilled with the Librivox recording, anyway. The narrator didn't pronounce 'r' very well. Annoying.
It took me a whole year to read them, Leo, but I went into high gear in October. I was immersed in his world for a while. It was a fascinating journey.
Very interesting story. This was my first HPL story so I went in with no expectations. I was pleasantly surprised and downloaded a couple of his other short stories.
Mod
Yeah, I love my easel for reading big books at a table. There are a lot to choose from, and I've tried a few others, but this style is best for me: https://www.dickblick.com/products/bl...
I finished it & thought it was OK. He certainly packed a lot of ideas together that I don't normally associate with the Cthulhu mythos such as Pluto, minds in cans & connected to the world via peripheral devices, along with all the horror.The Black Stone didn't get enough play. It's interesting to compare this to REH's "The Black Stone" (1930) which is also considered part of the Cthulhu mythos. There isn't any SF aspect to it, just horror & adventure. It's a short story that you can read here for free:
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601...
My 3 star review of this is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Ed wrote: "I got The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft from the library so I can read the annotations. But it is HUGE and weighs 900 pounds! Almost too uncomfortable to hold and read. I'll have to ..."I read it just last year. Have fun!
Ed, here is my review (no spoilers):While reviewing and reading esoteric pieces on H. P. Lovecraft, I realized I never reviewed this tome of his great works. The more you read of and about Lovecraft, the more you realize that the Klinger's choice of dedicating this book through HPL's quote "I am Providence" is perfect. The essence of Lovecraft is his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island and New England in general. Warts and all, HPL was a New England antiquarian dedicated to preserving the history and creating a mythology of the region for the 20th century but rooted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Klinger's notes and photographic choices bring this relationship fully to the reader. His Foreword places Lovecraft in his milieu as a flawed man and an obscure author.
Klinger does an excellent job of relating the classical studies of Lovecraft and the underlying threat of his parents' insanity to his work. As Klinger states HPL's earliest works such as "Dagon" already contain "...signature features: truly alien beings, experiences and sensations that cannot be processed by human brains, and a deep sense of doom." Lovecraft also steps off with something more than horror, his work is embedded like Verne and Wells with "...the juxtaposition of modern technology...and exploration." This anticipation of sci-fi in his works reaches its fruition in "The Colour Out of Space":
'...Lovecraft's favorite story, is the first major tale of his to combine classic science fiction (before the genre even existed) and horror...that terror could come from the stars....The banal descriptions of the fruitless scientific investigations contrast starkly with the inexplicable, gradual destruction....Preceding the famous Orson Welles broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' by more than ten years, the story brought the fear of alien invasion."
This concept of madness induced by alien intelligence and the fear of the universe wrapping around us still influences SF as the recent success of "Arrival" with its Lovecraftian hexapods illustrates. Fritz Leiber argues that Lovecraft reached his highest level of science fiction in "The Dreams of the Witch House" by - in Klinger's words - "...an effort to imagine the fourth dimension, or hyperspace....Lovecraft proffers a scientific explanation for seventeenth-century witchcraft as well, involving higher mathematics."
This book contains in total twenty-two short stories, novellas, and novels laid out in chronological order, thus, allowing the reader to follow the evolution of Lovecraft as a writer. It also has an introduction by Alan Moore and seven appendices on various aspects of the man and his legacy. It is a definitive collection of Lovecraft's best stories and their development. No fan should not own and read its updated texts.
Gregg wrote: "Ed, here is my review (no spoilers):While reviewing and reading esoteric pieces on H. P. Lovecraft, I realized I never reviewed this tome of his great works. The more you read of and about Lovecr..."
I love Klinger's annotated editions. In addition to Lovecraft, I have also greatly enjoyed his annotated versions of Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. I am really looking forward to reading The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft: Beyond Arkham, his second volume of annotated Lovecraft.
I was surprised by how Lovecraft gives use so much info on the aliens right in the first chapter. We are told they are on Earth to mine some rare mineral right in the first chapter. And it was because the aliens weren't the big reveal at the end. That was nice bite in term of ploting and narrative structure, and didn't take away any of the horror. I also enjoyed how the brain in a jar trope (which wasn't much of a trope at the time) is used. A hard drive of knowledge that can travel interstellar distances is quit original for the period.
The weaker part is Lovecraft's refusal to write certain things and just say they are "too blasphemous to discribe!". It is an iconic element of the Mythos that comes time and time again, but it does feel like Lovecraft didn't know what to discribe or it added too many words to his story so he just skipped that part.
As anyone in the group read Charles Fort or Arthur Machen? Lovecraft names them in the story and I think they might have inspired him.
Two or three fanatical extremists went so far as to hint at possible meanings in the ancient Indian tales which gave the hidden beings a nonterrestrial origin; citing the extravagant books of Charles Fort with their claims that voyagers from other worlds and outer space have often visited the earth. Most of my foes, however, were merely romanticists who insisted on trying to transfer to real life the fantastic lore of lurking "little people" made popular by the magnificent horror-fiction of Arthur Machen.
Marc-André wrote: "Has anyone in the group read Charles Fort or Arthur Machen? Lovecraft names them in the story and I think they might have inspired him."I love Machen. I'm just in the middle of reading the Best Weird Tales of Arthur Machen collection. Lovecraft considered Machen's story The White People to be the second-greatest horror tale ever written, next to Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, and is cited as an inspiration to Lovecraft in its "telling by not telling" technique. Lovecraft quoted a passage from Machen's The Red Hand as an epigraph to The Horror at Red Hook.
I have never read Charles Fort.
Funny, it ends just like one of Roald Dahl's 'Tales of the Unexpected'.
Well, I hope the reveal is worth it. I'm about 1/2 through and not moved or even interested. So much use of words like "dread" even though nothing dreadful is happening... well, given that nothing is happening except our 'hero' is recalling lost letters and recordings, I guess that's apt.Maybe I'll have to read Machen's story myself. But if he's so wonderful, why is Lovecraft that is much more well-known?
Cheryl wrote: "Well, I hope the reveal is worth it. I'm about 1/2 through and not moved or even interested. So much use of words like "dread" even though nothing dreadful is happening... well, given that nothing ..."My guess is the concepts. Cosmic-horrors, brains in cylinders, aliens warring 500 million years ago on Earth, etc, mixed with existential dread was unique at the time, inspired many authors and left a mark on the minds of many young readers. Lovecraft has an aura and prestige. He is at the origine of tropes we are now familiar with.
But there isn't a lot of action in his is stories, so that will rebuff some people. He's an author for nerds.
I started it today. I only read the first chapter. I have no opinion yet. But the beginning is interesting.
Finished the story. It was fine, but the 'great reveal' was spoiled by a picture from 1931 pulp magazine, which showed it a page before the final paragraph. That's in The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft. The notes there are very interesting. The one I particularly liked, which doesn't spoil the story is this:the Commoriom myth-cycle preserved by the Atlantean high-priest Klarkash-Ton
Commoriom is the first capital of the Hyperborean continent, described in the stories of Clark Ashton Smith (re-read the name of the priest)
Oh I don't need action if a story offers something else (after all, I read a lot of science books, too ;). But since ghost stories have never made me shiver, and I don't believe in hell, and BEMs strike me as funny, I guess I'm not susceptible to Lovecraft's charms.But I'm not done yet so we'll see!
Mod
I have not. I've read a few issues of Fortean Times, but never any original Fort works. I plan to read some Machen someday.
Lovecraft also makes at least two references to The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, including the "yellow sign" and "Hastur". Hastur shows up in stories by Ambrose Bierce and August Derleth. This simple little technique of referring to each other's works makes it seem like they are all describing the same universe, even if it doesn't really all make sense together. (In the Chambers excellent story "The Repairer of Reputations", Hastur is a city, not a creature.)
I'm halfway through the story. Will finish today.
Done. I got a kick out of the references to Einsteinian science like 'beyond the curve of space-time' or whatever, and 'Einstein was wrong; the speed of light is not a limit.' And I liked that bit about the quality of light in the hills of Vermont and the comparison to old paintings that would show glimpses of it.But to me the ending was all 'yeah, ok, got it.' But hey, that means Lovecraft was influential, right? I mean, the tropes are kinda old hat now, but he was the one that invented them? So, that means this is a good read for this group!
(Btw, while I'm glad it was so short, I'm not sure it really qualifies as a "Book" of the month. I'm going to start a discussion in the suggestions topic about that, come join me if you have an opinion....)
Cheryl wrote: "Done. I got a kick out of the references to Einsteinian science like 'beyond the curve of space-time' or whatever, "He also has ether that fills the cosmos and his (and actually his contemporaries) universe is so small - just think how he talks about the ninth planet and then the galaxy, like they are roughly comparable in size
Mod
I've consulted the same annotated version. I found the annotations mostly uninteresting, with the exception of the one you mentioned. Also for some people it was nice they had a picture and explanation of a Dictaphone.
I did find value in the foreword, particularly in relation to the idea that HPL created a consistent Mythos. He did not. He re-used some names and ideas between stories, but didn't have a real back-story for all that. It was Derleth and others who built the Mythos.
Ed wrote: "Oleksandr wrote: ".I found the annotations mostly uninteresting, with the exception of the one you mentioned"Without them I'd missed hint about allusion to Holmes and the important piece in Dictaphone record, also allusions to other scientists and writers and their theories
Mod
HPL treats that idea as if it were something horrible. In later SF it is sometimes, though not always, seen as a pleasant fate to look forward to.
(view spoiler)
Yeah, personally, I rather just be mind and skip out on this body. :shrug:
Mod
Me, too, but I don't want to be the first to test it!
Cheryl wrote: "Yeah, personally, I rather just be mind and skip out on this body. :shrug:"the truth is that in reality your mind as our self is not the same as you brain, a lot of hormonal reactions, etc. which defines 'self' happen elsewhere in body.
On a side note, there is a film with Nicolas Cage that is coming out soon. It is based on Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space. It is called Color Out of Space.
Oleksandr wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "Yeah, personally, I rather just be mind and skip out on this body. :shrug:"the truth is that in reality your mind as our self is not the same as you brain, a lot of hormonal reacti..."
That is very true. One popular science book that does a good job of exploring that is Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, good for ppl who don't read a lot of non-fiction (my husband loved it and he's more into mystery-thrillers and adventure).
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life is another. The Epigenetics Revolution gets into it, too. Really makes me wonder about free will. Kurt Vonnegut might have put it best when he wrote that we were badly behaving bags of chemicals.
Marc-André wrote: "On a side note, there is a film with Nicolas Cage that is coming out soon. It is based on Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space. It is called Color Out of Space."I'll have to read that one, too. Ty for the reminder; I was actually musing a bit about how The Whisperer In Darkness would probably be better as a film. What do you think? Would actors bring the ideas to light without losing what the actual words contribute? Also, would it better as a full-length movie, or as a Twilight Zone episode?
Cheryl wrote: "I'll have to read that one, too. Ty for the reminder; I was actually musing a bit about how The Whisperer In Darkness would probably be better as a film. What do you think? Would actors bring the ideas to light without losing what the actual words contribute? Also, would it better as a full-length movie, or as a Twilight Zone episode?"The Whisperer in Darkness as already been made into a film in 2011. I saw it at a film festival. It was very enjoyable as a low budget self-aware B-movie.
Here is a link to the preview on youtube:
Link to youtube preview.
This is a story that is mostly about someone talking about letters he exchanged with someone else. Not the most cinematic of stories.
Well certainly it would have to be adapted, the letters made into scenes. I'll check out the preview, thank you.
Marc-André wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "I'll have to read that one, too. Ty for the reminder; I was actually musing a bit about how The Whisperer In Darkness would probably be better as a film. What do you think? Would act..."Great trailer! I love some film noir.
It will be interesting to see how Nicholas Cage does in "The Color Out of Space". Remember the book uses the English spelling of colour - that antiquarian Lovecraft, you know....By the way, "Colour" is the usual HPL work taught at Brown which is located in his hometown, Providence. It is considered by scholars and SF writers as his best story. I think it was Silverberg who wrote the first critique of it.
Mod
He insists on the word "shew", too. Drives me nuts. I checked Google n-grams and "shew" was rare even in Lovecraft's day.
That movie trailer looks pretty lame to me, but maybe the movie itself is better.
I believe Cheryl mentioned that Lovecraft spent a lot of time saying "dread" or "horror" instead of making you feel dread and horror. This is the common complaint of literary critics since academe began being confronted by the genre success of HPL. The literary mainstream felt it represented a failure in the craft of writing. While this could be the truth, there is another factor working here. HPL strongly felt that alien intelligence had to be incomprehensible to the human mind innately, hence, the term alien. Interaction inherently leads to insanity and no one knew insanity better than Lovecraft. His family was at best high strung, he himself was quirky to say the least, and both of his parents died in asylums. I would contend that his point was that you can't explain or describe the indescribable. If he could describe it, insanity would be the result.
This is not just an idea but one based on the origins of the Cthulhu Mythos, an outgrowth of Bierce and Chambers' works. In "The King in Yellow" Chambers writes of a play whose reading results in insanity for the reader. Readers can read parts but not the whole of the play just like HPL only gives his reader part of the horror that his characters experience because the full experience, just like exposure to the full aspect of a deity, is impossible for the human mind. Like the Bible, Lovecraft is only giving us part of the reality that even he couldn't confront within his mother and father, and himself.
Interesting. & good points.Still, describing someone's reactions directly as the narrative progresses would be better *for me* than saying right up front 'oh the horror' or whatever and then going on to iterate the events of the backstory. And in Colour he did do (what seemed to me, at least) more of that, than in Whisperer.
Cheryl wrote: "Interesting. & good points.Still, describing someone's reactions directly as the narrative progresses would be better *for me* than saying right up front 'oh the horror' or whatever and then goin..."
You have a lot of heavy hitting scholars on your side.
The Evolution of Science Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
Lovecraft Country (other topics)The Color Out of Space (other topics)
The Whisperer In Darkness (other topics)
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life (other topics)
The Epigenetics Revolution (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Joyce Carol Oates (other topics)Milton Friedman (other topics)
Alexander Belyaev (other topics)
Robert W. Chambers (other topics)
H.P. Lovecraft (other topics)
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