Vacation Necronomicon School, summer 2010 reading assignment for 26th July 2010: “Dagon”.
“Your short assignment today is to ruminate on this ‘scientific’ aspect of his work — horrible things that remain generally unseen are unearthed.”
TASK ONE: 26th July 2010.
The short story “Dagon” was written in July 1917, partly inspired by one of Lovecraft’s dreams. There are four main elements in it that touch on science and technology: the German “sea-raider”; the unknown hieroglyphics; the volcanic or seismic activity that causes the sea-bed to rise to the surface; and the morphine. As I will show, all these in some way contain elements of ‘unearthing’ or ‘surfacing’.
Submarines: The First World War had recently engulfed America, and the story suggests Lovecraft had read many reports in the newspapers of submarine warfare. On 1st Feb 1917 Germany had declared unrestricted Atlantic submarine warfare, and America had consequently declared war on Germany on 6th April 1917.
There were navy patrols along the Atlantic-facing coastline of New England, necessary because Continue reading