The Festival

[j d worthington]

Yep; Martin put it much more succinctly than I would have, but that's what it comes down to: Lovecraft's very common theme of hereditary taint. As for the different tongues used... they represent his descent, from contemporary English to older and older forms, to Latin and Gaelic dialects, to (eventually) the grunting of a pithecanthropoid. And no, he didn't eat Norris in front of the others -- the group had separated, each exploring a different part of the enormous caverns they had found; so that when they did find him, he was devouring Capt. Norrys:

Why shouldn’t rats eat a de la Poer as a de la Poer eats forbidden things? . . . The war ate my boy, damn them all [...] No, no, I tell you, I am not that daemon swineherd in the twilit grotto! It was not Edward Norrys’ fat face on that flabby, fungous thing! Who says I am a de la Poer? He lived, but my boy died! . . . Shall a Norrys hold the lands of a de la Poer?[...]

That is what they say I said when they found me in the blackness after three hours; found me crouching in the blackness over the plump, half-eaten body of Capt. Norrys, with my own cat leaping and tearing at my throat.

And so on.

One of the things that I do remember from looking into Mythology was that the hero would enter the underworld and achieve a form of victory over the forces of death, that lead to the return of life. It was a continuous cycle of the seasons. If the Yule Tide represented Christmas for Christians, than this older rite is pagan, but it is actually mythology.

It's an interesting idea, but not supported by a careful reading of the story. While you are quite right in that interpretation of many such myths or other literary works (Aeneas' descent to the Underworld, the descent of Gilgamesh in search of Enkidu, jumping in and out of the grave in Hamlet, etc.) by no means were all such descents successful... think, for example, of Orpheus and Eurydice. And while Lovecraft did indeed love classical mythology, when he would use such in his fiction (less so in his verse), he would frequently invert the significance of such a myth, thus adding to the irony of the situation, as here.

As it is, the text abounds with indications that the narrator is trapped by his heredity, and that eventually he, too, will become one with the verminous inhabitants of Kingsport. While he himself may not be a wizard, he is the descendant of wizards, and has imbibed enough of their knowledge to make him vulnerable to that fate of which the Necronomicon speaks. On the other hand, there is no indication that he has defeated anything, or won a victory. The entire tone of the tale, the choice of wording, and the use of that paragraph from the Necronomicon, all militate against such an idea.

In some of Lovecraft's stories you have this supernatural side and things are allowed to occur in the background, or be ignored.

I'm afraid you are quite off the beam with that last. True, an individual reader may choose to ignore something, but nothing in any of Lovecraft's tales is superfluous, neither incident nor wording. Quite the opposite. He was a firm believer in Poe's dicta of "the unity of effect", where every tiny detail must serve a purpose in the total impact. As he put it in Supernatural Horror in Literature:

Poe, too, set a fashion in consummate craftsmanship; and although today some of his own work seems slightly melodramatic and unsophisticated, we can constantly trace his influence in such things as the maintenance of a single mood and achievement of a single impression in a tale, and the rigorous paring down of incidents to such as have a direct bearing on the plot and will figure prominently in the climax.

Anything which did not add to that effect, or which was extraneous in any way, was to be ruthlessly excised, no matter how effective it might be on its own. This is not only backed up by his numerous letters and essays on the subject, but by an examination of his manuscripts, where he went over them time and time again, removing things, transposing them, rephrasing them, providing interlineations, amplifications, etc., etc., etc.... all for the single purpose of increasing the unity of the whole, so that each single word not only played its part in conveying the general gist, but in increasing the emotional modulations of the effect.

 

[Wolf873]

So in a nutshell, most characters in Lovecraft's stories have a natural predisposition to repeat the same mistakes as that of their ancestors or are at least bound to the same fate because of heredity factors? I guess it makes some sense. So this would also explain the dreams these characters suffer through. Those dreams always have some relation to the events that occur. But what about unrelated characters? Didn't characters in Call of Cthulhu also had dreams about the same city, even though they had no blood relations? Or is it something else entirely? Not supernatural, because as I read earlier that Lovecraft explained in At The Mountains Of Madness, that everything has a plausible explanation although human mind may not have the capacity to comprehend such knowledge, not understand it through our logic.

 

[Tinsel]

Pure hell work here all day long, but I'm stopping in to say that I still believe that they fell in the pit because the narrator felt someone bump into him. Now the part about heredity is highly apparent in his stories. He tends to go back several generations.

Now in the festival, the old man with the wax face was involved in the initial festival, so maybe he was just so old that his face was wearing away. Well on to the next story....

 

[j d worthington]

[...] I'm stopping in to say that I still believe that they fell in the pit because the narrator felt someone bump into him.

Indeed he did: it was Capt. Norrys, as is evident from the juxtaposition of that occurrence and his increasing frenzy concerning Norrys (see above) as well as his (as Martin so delicately put it) "nibbling" on him. This is also reinforced by the constant references to such terms as "soft", "plump", "flabby", etc., with his descriptions of Norrys as "plump", and so on.

Now in the festival, the old man with the wax face was involved in the initial festival, so maybe he was just so old that his face was wearing away.

Again, no... he wasn't human. To be blunt, he was a grave-worm, grown to immense size and having absorbed the intelligence of the sorcerous inhabitant of Kingsport. This is precisely what the Necronomicon passage describes at the end of the tale:

Cursed the ground where dead thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and evil the mind that is held by no head. Wisely did Ibn Schacabao say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes. For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws; till out of corruption horrid life springs, and the dull scavengers of earth wax crafty to vex it and swell monstrous to plague it. Great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl.

Hence my contention that this same fate lies in store, eventually, for the narrator as well....

So in a nutshell, most characters in Lovecraft's stories have a natural predisposition to repeat the same mistakes as that of their ancestors or are at least bound to the same fate because of heredity factors? I guess it makes some sense. So this would also explain the dreams these characters suffer through. Those dreams always have some relation to the events that occur. But what about unrelated characters? Didn't characters in Call of Cthulhu also had dreams about the same city, even though they had no blood relations? Or is it something else entirely? Not supernatural, because as I read earlier that Lovecraft explained in At The Mountains Of Madness, that everything has a plausible explanation although human mind may not have the capacity to comprehend such knowledge, not understand it through our logic.

Not quite what you propose above, but something like it. They are "tainted", in many of these stories, and that taint makes them more than usually vulnerable to these incursions of the past. In a way, these are synechdochical figures; they stand for us all. Because of our heredity (evolution), we all are susceptible to the call of the past, and the veneer of civilization we have struggled so long and hard to achieve is precariously maintained at best. Lovecraft was a strong believer that this state of evolutionary development could very easily be lost, by any number of means: miscegenation; alcohol (he was a teetotaller and felt that drink was a dehumanizing substance); adulteration of culture; the increase in the idea of "creature comforts", speed, and mass-production of the "machine-culture" as opposed to a civilization which emphasized growth of the intellect and creative aspects of the individual; and so on....

Not all of Lovecraft's characters are so related... as you mention, there are also other ways in which the past can reach forth and engulph the inhabitants of the present, whether it be imaginative sensitivity, a tendency to madness, investigations into dangerous types of knowledge, or sometimes simple accident. Part of this, too, is Lovecraft's denial of free will, a position he took up after doing some serious examination of the philosophical underpinnings of the idea and its ramifications. Finding that they really tended to contradict reality, he came to the conclusion (along with a great number of philosophers over the past several centuries) that the concept simply wasn't tenable. He was a determinist, a mechanistic materialist, and this informs his fiction. And, as I said above, given the evolutionary ladder which has led us here, we are all, in his view, easily subject to a reversion to earlier stages, and therefore a loss, ultimately, of our humanity.

Incidentally... he didn't really reject the supernatural in his fiction until later in his career... towar the end of the 1920s. Before that, he mixed the supernatural and "supernormal" into them without a great deal of discrimination. Only when he began to really examine and formulate his ideas of what truly works in a weird tale did he come to his idea of "extensions rather than contradictions" of reality as the only viable avenue for such work to explore if it was to be a mature artistic production....

 

[Tinsel]

I'd like to read it again and think about that part of the story, J.D.. I read it more carefully the second time, but I did not pick up on that part and I did not read all of the footnotes. It was an alright story more or less but not incredibly shocking, although there is the presence of the Necronomicon. There is a musician in the story who is unidentified at least as far as I know. Is there any connection to Nyarlathotep?

 

[w h pugmire esq]

What do we make of the Latin epigraph for "The Festival"? The English translation is given as, "Devils so work that things which are not appear to men as if they were real"? Is it all a dream? A figment of delusion? An interesting study would be of those tales that may or may not be dream-delusion. In his letters, I believe that Lovecraft hinted that "The Music of Erich Zann" was such a dream narrative. What of "Dagon"? "The Temple"? "The Outsider"?

 

[Wolf873]

What do we make of the Latin epigraph for "The Festival"? The English translation is given as, "Devils so work that things which are not appear to men as if they were real"? Is it all a dream? A figment of delusion? An interesting study would be of those tales that may or may not be dream-delusion. In his letters, I believe that Lovecraft hinted that "The Music of Erich Zann" was such a dream narrative. What of "Dagon"? "The Temple"? "The Outsider"?

Or Polaris? I just read it, and it seemed similar in that respect. But it had hints of supernatural, although I could be wrong but introduction to the tale says otherwise .

 

[j d worthington]

Yes, not enough attention is paid to the things Lovecraft chooses for his epigraphs. He indeed chose such things very carefully, so that they not only set the tone, but say a great deal about the story proper. "The Tomb", for instance, has an epigraph from Vergil's Aeneid: “Sedibus ut saltem placidis in morte quiescam", which translates as "So that I may at least, in death, repose in a placid resting-place". This was spoken by Palinurus, who is referenced in the tale; and in fact it could be said that Lovecraft plays on the parallels between Jervas Hyde and Aeneas' helmsman, whose spirit he meets in the underworld. Then there is the motto for "The Tree": "Fata viam invenient" (The Fates will find a way), which again sets out the course of the tale in brief. Or that to "The Dunwich Horror", a lovely and evocative excerpt from Charles Lamb's fascinating essay, "Witches, and Other Night-Fears" (which really should be read in full by those interested in HPL), which puts forth some very intriguing insights on aspects of that tale....

Wolf: If you are interested, I could send you a copy of an essay I wrote on "Polaris" a while back, as well as some notes I made for someone else concerning "The Rats in the Walls". Just PM me if you are interested....

 

[Tinsel]

So Latin originated in Rome with the Ancient Romans. I can't say that I know very much about the Ancient Romans, however I read some parts of books on the Ancient Greeks. Many of the classics contain epigraphs referring to some other work of literature rather than I think the primary historical sources. Those secondary sources are probably not too difficult to list because if we were dealing with the Ancient Greeks, than the main sources for reference are Homer's books. On the other hand, I'm not sure just what the Romans literature consisted of, unless as was said, the "Aeneid" by Virgil. I believe that I have a copy that I have never looked at.

H.P. Lovecraft must have obviously read a few of these classics. I wonder which of them he used frequently, or is it not important beyond the occasional rare quote such as what some modern writers include before the beginning of a new chapter.

 

[J-WO]

I think he specifically refers to Petronius' Satyricon in his Supernatural Horror in Literature. Theres this bit at Trimalchio's dinner party where one of the guests swears he once saw a man turn into a wolf. A supernatural moment in an otherwise fairly realistic work. Its always struck me as odd that Lovecraft, with his rather puritanical outlook, would be reading such a work, given that at the time it was still a black-leather-no-title-on-the-cover-ask-no-questions-gentleman's read. Certainly, Classical academia of the early 20th century tried not to bring attention to it. If anything, the 60's brought it into focus.

I'd imagine HPL would have got a lot out of Apuleius' The Golden Ass (or 'Metamorphoses')with its scary Thessalian witches hellbent on stealing body parts. A must for any fantasy fan, BTW.
I recommend the Robert Graves translation.
Ovids Metamorphoses, too, has its horrific moments. To me, it would seem a big influence on that HPL tale (The Tree, is that its title?) with the two Greek sculptors.

 

[Tinsel]

That sounds quite interesting. Those are ancient sources for horror writing without a doubt, and great plots. As far as I am able to see, some of the most prominent ancient writers were:

Greek: Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Demosthenes, Lysias, Sappho, Aesop, Pindar, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, etc.

Roman: Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Plutarch, Lucretius, Terence, etc.

To tell you the truth, I don't remember studying any of these in school, except for Sophocles. I'm wondering how important these works are if someone is going to refer to the classics with any understanding in mind. As of now something like an epigraph sounds interesting but the epigraph itself hardly ever makes any sense, it just sounds like something intelligent but it goes without understanding the source. Many of the ancient people were tied by their culture to these authors. Anyway, are these old writings any good?

 

[j d worthington]

Indeed they are; they are also the fountainhead of all Western literature.

J-WO: Ovid's Metamorphoses was a particular favorite of HPL's... so much so that, somewhere between the ages of nine and twelve he wrote at least a significant portion of a translation from the original (it can be found in The Ancient Track in his juvenile verse). And, of course, it influenced much of his writing throughout his career, in one way or another.

He also mentions Apuleius in SHiL, as well; there is also a discussion of these writers in his essay "The Literature of Rome", in Collected Essays 2. In fact, he discusses several such pieces in that second chapter of his essay:

"Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H. P. Lovecraft

Incidentally, there were "acceptable" editions of Petronius' opus, but they tended to be rather seriously expurgated or toned down. However, it is quite possible HPL read it in the original at some point... just as he did at least portions of Ovid's Ars amatoria (which he didn't care much for, it must be said).

Tinsel: true, some of the epigraphs, taken out of context, are difficult to grasp -- or at least, it is difficult to grasp the full implications of them; but when HPL used such he was very careful to make the motto and the tale suit each other quite well, so that each not only reinforced the other, but often provided a different perspective in reading the other as well....

 

[J-WO]

J.D.W- He wrote an essay on Roman literature? Fantastic. Is it anywhere on the net?

 

[J-WO]

Anyway, are these old writings any good?

They're 'good' in the same way champagne is an 'alcoholic beverage'.

 

[j d worthington]

J.D.W- He wrote an essay on Roman literature? Fantastic. Is it anywhere on the net?

Not as far as I know. The full text was only published for the first time in over 80 years with the issuing of that volume of his Collected Essays. De Camp had included the essay in his To Quebec and the Stars, but made the mistake of only reprinting the portion of the essay which was given under that title in the amateur journal where it was originally published. The remainder of the text, which is actually the bulk of the essay -- included as notes further on in the journal -- he overlooked....

If you'd like a look at what is included in that volume, there is a link below. Keep in mind that each of these essays has both an editors' note and footnotes by S. T. J. as well... and that includes both this lengthy essay, as well his Supernatural Horror in Literature....

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/sources/ce2.asp

 

[w h pugmire esq]

I've just order'd ye H. P. Lovecraft Collected Essays Complete (CD), with all five volumes on disc, and also the complete texts of Lovecraft's own amateur press journal, The Conservative. Great Yuggoth, it looks like a wonderful study tool, & a fabulous entertainment!

 

[j d worthington]

I've just order'd ye H. P. Lovecraft Collected Essays Complete (CD), with all five volumes on disc, and also the complete texts of Lovecraft's own amateur press journal, The Conservative. Great Yuggoth, it looks like a wonderful study tool, & a fabulous entertainment!

Oh, Wilum, are you in for an fascinating ride.... I've been going through those scans of The Conservative, and there are some wonderful things there... not all by HPL. Thought-provoking, sometimes moving, sometimes eerie, sometimes irritating... but almost always of interest.

I have waited for decades to get my hands on so many of these essays, and now that I have them, I'm finding them even more absorbing than I expected. And they provide some odd and thoroughly unexpected links to HPL's fiction as well....

By the way... I had meant to respond to your point above earlier. When it comes to the motto of "The Festival"... to me, that very motto but increases the ambiguity of the whole thing. Is his experience with the weird inhabitants of the ancient Kingsport that which "is not", or is it the more comforting diurnal world which is only apparent? If so, then that makes that bit from the Necronomicon even more chilling, in some ways; for it is as if, in the midst of this comforting illusion, a bit of the "supra-reality" remains, so that even in that illusion which should comfort, he cannot find peace.

Certainly, this would fit with a common motif of Lovecraft's, where the moonlight or night transform the world, revealing a truth which is hidden by the daylight's glare.

On the other hand, if it is his haunting experience which is only apparently real, then what significance does the motto have? Are there such things as demons, then? And why single him out to be tormented in this way? Certainly not for his damnation, for what he has been presented with is anything but a desirable vision and far from tempting.

As so often, Lovecraft leaves these questions unresolved, thus isolating the narrator even further while raising doubts about our perceptions and the nature of reality and knowledge. The only certainty we are left with is that things are not what they seem....

 

[Tinsel]

I'm not completely satisfied with it, if in the end the character just ends up in a sick bed. The same can be said for "Rats in the Walls". The good thing about Lovecraft's stories is just the whole imaginative experience. The characters should have learned something from their experience, but instead they are worse off. I'd rather see this character join the cult although at least the Necronomicon puts some resolution together.

 

[Tinsel]

There is just one last thing. It looks like the word festival is interchangeable with the word feast, so the title could just as easily be "The Feast". It was a strange adventure. Can you imagine entering some white church and being lead through an underground passage way full of caves and to some tributary. In that sense the story might have done well without the winged creatures (especially as mounts for riding upon), but those creatures are not out of context with the rest of his stories. Instead of the winged creatures what might have worked is more details about the ceremony which was too vague, and unfortunately sounded somewhat interesting. It was altogether too mysterious, but there was a hint of something interesting, and I don't see why that the festival was banned, or why his kinsman would be hung other than perhaps that this festival was more trouble than it was worth.

 

[J-WO]

JDW- thanks for the link. I may well be tempted to get a copy of this essay collection. As soon as I've trawled through my currently voluminous 'to read' pile, that is.