“The Whisperer in Darkness” is Lovecraft at his best. It encompasses almost the entire Lovecraftian Mythos in just under 50 pages mind eating prose. There are references to The Yellow Sign, Yuggoth, Pnakotic Manuscripts, N’kai, Necronomicon, Yoth, Tsathoggua, the high-priest Klarkash-Ton, and of course, the great dreamer Cthulhu. Even Dante, Poe, and Einstein’s names are dropped smoothly into the story adding to the intense feeling that what is being read is something more disturbing that mere fiction.It has been a long time since I have read “The Whisperer in Darkness.” I revisited the story this week to reacquaint myself with the finer details of the story in order to heighten my enjoyment of a comic book by the same name, which I will read this week and report back on how faithfully Lovecraft’s story was interpreted. Mark Ellis has his work cut out for him. The story is full of dread of the unknown and as listed in the above paragraph much of the Mythos and much much more that I would find hard to translate into a comic book. However, I have high hopes for it.
“The Whisperer in Darkness” is the accounting of Albert N. Wilmarth’s encounter with the recluse Henry Wentworth Akeley. In true Lovecraft fashion, Wilmarth is an academic and a scholar, an educated and ruthlessly ground individual. Wilmath’s mind is strong and he is respected by his peers for his hobbyist’s research into local mythology and supporting archeological record. He is an instructor of Literature at the renowned Miskatonic University located in Arkham, Massachusetts.
Wilmarth’s interest in local mythology led him to begin a correspondence with Henry Wentworth Akeley after the historic Vermont flood that unearth and set afloat many strange and frightening artifacts in “the Winooski River near Montpelier” (134) among other rivers flowing down out of hills. These artifacts were frightening the country folk and attracting unwanted attention from scholars and treasure hunters, including Wilmarth.
Lovecraft’s love for letters is evident in this story. There are several pages of complete letters addressed to Wilmarth from Akeley. The bulk of the grotesque and truly horrifying letters are omitted from Wilmarth’s accounting, wishing to spare any future reader the shock of whatever knowledge they stored. However, from what is included, the reader is pressed to see Akeley’s immense agitation over the creatures that live in the woods and share the human plane of existence.
Akeley letters include a desperate plea for help. He asks Wilmarth to travel and assist him in covering up the existence of those who live in the hills. Akeley suggests that all these creatures (for lack of a better term) want is to be left unmolested by humanity. However, if they can not find sanctuary, they are prepared to unleash mass destruction upon the earth in a scale never before experienced.
In order to help persuade Wilmarth to aid him in covering up these creatures existence, Akeley mails a record, recorded in wax, to play on a phonograph. (Note: the inclusion of recorded evidence on a phonograph in this story much be one of the first such uses in fiction. Can you imagine lugging a 20-30 pound box out into the woods for the sole purpose of recording strange noises? Just think, not only is the thing heavy and fragile, but in order to power it, a crank on the side must be pumped. Truly amazing.) The mind stunning sounds recorded pushed Wilmarth from academic hesitation and safe distant speculation into immediate action.
Besides the phonograph, Lovecraft interjects his favorite subject, astronomy, into this story. Around the time Lovecraft was writing “The Whisperer in Darkness,” Pluto was discovered, February 18, 1930. The discovery of Pluto, for Lovecraft, was a boon for his Mythos. Lovecraft’s Wilmarth “…fear[s] what the years will bring, especially since that new planet Pluto has been so curiously discovered” (184). I wonder what Lovecraft would have made of Pluto’s demotion from planet to the category of minor planet or Plutiod?
Truly, “The Whisperer in Darkness” is one of Lovecraft’s best works. Read it here: The Whisperer in Darkness
Lovecraft, H. P., “The Whisperer in Darkness.” The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre. New York: Del Rey, 1982. p. 134 – 184
2 comments:
Hopefully, he would oppose the demotion, which was done by only four percent of the IAU, most of whom are not planetary scientists, and was rejected in a petition of hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. And hopefully, he would support those of us who have been fighting to get Pluto's planet status reinstated.
I don’t know what he would think. He was a man who enjoyed science. If the science suggested and supported its demotion, I would think that he might agree. Regardless, he would make a great story about it - something about a conspiracy to protect humanity from a dire fate connected to Pluto remaining a full planet.
In fact, I might write that story.
Good luck with your struggle.
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