Rick Brookhiser at NRO chimes into an ongoing discussion of horror fiction:
One way to think of Lovecraft is as a demented anticipation of Russell Kirk. Kirk praised the permanent things. The permanent things in Lovecraft are revolting monsters from outer space or undersea who, it turns out, have been here for eons, and sometimes have interbred with us. Connecting with the past in Kirk guides and inspires us. Connecting with the past in Lovecraft makes us lose our minds. Lovecraft is a good read, but would you go up the sea beach at Tarawa for that conservative position? Neither would I.
“The other gods! The other gods! The gods of the outer hells that guard the feeble gods of earth!… Look away… Go back… Do not see! Do not see! The vengeance of the infinite abysses… That cursed, that damnable pit… Merciful gods of earth, I am falling into the sky!”
October 28th, 2009 | 12:04 am
I cannot imagine any reason why I would go up the sea beach at Tarawa. A person could get killed doing a damned fool thing like that.
October 29th, 2009 | 10:02 am
No, I wouldn’t charge up the beach at Tarawa for the Elder Gods, but neither would I tithe to the Black Goat of the Forest with a Thousand Young, nor would I seek to conform my will to that of Cthulhu. The Battle of Tarawa lasted how long? Wikipedia tells me about 4 days. The struggle for holiness and maintaining a just peace lasts day in, day out. On the political level, which we seem to be focusing on here, maintaining a free society after vanquishing a totalitarian foe is far less glamorous but no less necessary.
October 31st, 2009 | 8:59 pm
Would Lovecraft (granting the perspective of the Cthulhu mythos as being a symbolic representation of Lovecraft’s despairing materialism) think that charging up Tarawa being worthwhile? Would saving the world from a Nazi tyranny be any more meaningful than the momentary prevention of the Elder Gods – since both events would occur in a universe in which human existence is a mere fluke and the universe is devoid of all meaning and hope of meaning?
October 31st, 2009 | 9:35 pm
And yes, I know it was the Japanese at Tarawa.
November 2nd, 2009 | 10:17 pm
Hmm… a great question. Perhaps one best asked to Cthulhu himself… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DsgZ4JXXB8
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