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The Colour Out of Space
H. P. Lovecraft Group Read
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October 2022: The Colour Out of Space
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It's possible to read this story in one fairly long sitting. I did this morning. I liked it a lot. This story was much weirder than The Case of Charles Dexter Ward in that it left so many questions unanswered. Questions such as was there an intelligence to the alien? Did the alien have a purpose? Exactly what laws of physics did it obey and was this by design or accident? What happened to the inhabitants who eventually drank this reservoir water after the story ends? Did the narrator suffer any permanent ill effects? And so many more.I think in many ways this is the most science fiction-like of Lovecraft's stories we have yet read. I love the tests the scientists tried in their lab and the description of their results. Lovecraft really extended himself in trying to write about the science, but you can sure see his limitations. No mention of frequencies of the spectrum that were visible. No acoustic tests at all. No guesses about an atomic structure that would allow such shrinkage. Obviously the atoms were condensing, electrons not flying as far out in their orbits, the matter making up neutrons and protons moving closer together thus altering polarities and charges perhaps. Anyway, a modern day scientist could have a field day with the physics Lovecraft does suggest.
Yeah, this story really gets one thinking in unusual ways. And then there's the human impact Lovecraft covered so well. That poor family!
If one is seeking a copy of the text, one can find it online here: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/...However, one can also pull up the September 1927 issue of Amazing Stories to read the story there: https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/lu... or on the Internet Archive as well. What I find most amazing about the September 1927 cover is that Lovecraft got no billing, but Otis Adelbert Kline and Miles John Breuer (also known by GoodReads as Miles J. Breuer and Miles J. Breuer, M. D.) did! In any event, the attempt to catch the "colour" coming out of the well in the black and white drawing on page 556 was humorous.
As always, H.P. improved my vocabulary with new word "saxifrage", used not once, but twice!
The Colour Out of Space is one of Lovecraft's best. Cosmic weirdness on a great scale. Not so much horror as just a brilliant exploration of great science fiction. Telling the tale of something that is not from our part of space, impacting the existence of the ordinary world. Lovecraft does his imaginative best to describe the other-worldly and how it exists beyond our ordinary consideration and understanding of physics and how the object and the entity from beyond corrupts anything of terrestrial origin.The Colour Out of Space
Good review! I agree that this isn't really horror.
Once you've finished reading it, I'd recommend tracking down the 2019 film adaptation with Nicholas Cage. Admittedly, trying to visually depict a color that no one has ever seen and that doesn't exist on the visible spectrum is, by its very nature, impossible, but I think they adapted the sotry very well.
N.J. wrote: "Once you've finished reading it, I'd recommend tracking down the 2019 film adaptation with Nicholas Cage. Admittedly, trying to visually depict a color that no one has ever seen and that doesn't ex..."Another adaptation is available on YouTube, "The 2010 film Die Farbe (The Color), directed by Huan Vu, is an adaptation set in Germany. It is shot mainly in black and white, the exception being the 'Colour' itself. S. T. Joshi described it as 'the best Lovecraft film adaptation ever made'."
And, of course, there was the not terribly faithful Boris Karloff/Nick Adams version, "Die Monster, Die!" from 1965.
Weird Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
The Colour Out of Space (other topics)The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Miles John Breuer (other topics)Miles J. Breuer, M. D. (other topics)
Otis Adelbert Kline (other topics)
Miles J. Breuer (other topics)
It starts rather slowly. We don't even have a named protagonist. Just some dude out on a "blasted" heath, whatever that is, located west of Arkham. Hope that's not a spoiler, because I just summarized the first ten percent of the story in its entirity. Trivia question to stump all your friends: what's the difference between a heath and a moor? Ha!
I trust the story soon improves. This is the short story that was Lovecraft's personal favorite of all the stories he wrote, and fans rate it highly.