Category Archives: Scholarly works

Lovecraft was right, part 796

02 Friday Sep 2022

Posted by in Historical context, Odd scratchings, Scholarly works

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Or, at least, he might not have been wrong when he held to the idea…

“That the human race started on some plateau in central Asia is almost certain” (Selected Letters III, p. 412)

Lovecraft was not alone in this. I note that in the 1920s Roy Chapman Andrews (the model for Indiana Jones) took an expedition to Mongolia, intending to find there the first traces of the human race. Also, the discovery of proto Indo-European (c. 4000 B.C.) had put the origins of the European languages mostly in a massive ancient migration to the Caucasus from the western Eurasian steppe, which would then place Mongolia as a theoretical lost origin-point further east. Apparently some linguists still see evidence for a distant Mongolian relationship for proto Indo-European, circa 12,000 B.C. So by the standards of his time, Lovecraft seems to have been thinking along the right lines.

But after Lovecraft’s death the consensus on human origins later shifted to Africa, based on the new post-war fossils, even though “consensus” should be a dirty word in rational science. Now comes a hint from this week’s New Scientist magazine (“The Search for Ancestor X”) that ideas may be changing based on new evidence…

The problem is that we appear to have fundamentally misunderstood the way human evolution works. “The idea humans originated from a small region [of Africa] doesn’t make much sense,” says Lounes Chikhi at the University of Toulouse, France. Chikhi says the genetic signals in living humans imply that H. sapiens emerged as a “metapopulation” spread over a wide geographical area where several “subpopulations” were interconnected by genetic exchange [presumably by early trade?]. Each of these subpopulations was characterised by a subtly distinct genetic signature — and potentially a subtly distinct look. [The article concludes that, on present evidence,] Ancestor X could have lived almost anywhere within a truly vast geographical region. … “it could have been in west Asia. It could even have been in east Asia. We just don’t know yet.” [the latter quote is from Chris Stringer at the Natural History Museum in London].

News from France

01 Thursday Sep 2022

Posted by in Lovecraft as character, Lovecraftian arts, New books, Scholarly works

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My thanks to Gregory for letting me know that the French magazine Actuality: The Universe of Books has a new article “Lovecraft, Cthulhu and the Old Ones enter the Pleiades”. Here “Pleiades” is a play on the name of the famous French publishing house, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade. Who have now revealed (I translate)…

We are currently preparing an edition of the works of H.P. Lovecraft”, confirms La Pleiade. … “The work is in progress”.

This is not to be confused with the sumptious Mnemos multi-volume edition of Lovecraft now emerging…

Mnemos will soon publish the 4th volume of a gigantic translation, at the end of September [2022] … accompanied by the required scholarly apparatus.

The final third of the article turns into a short interview with the main translator for Mnemos, David Pathe-Camus…

I challenge you to read a text such as “Nyarlathotep” and not think about our own time. It reads like it was written just for us. Lovecraft had a keen awareness of the human condition. [In a way, his work] foreshadows the currents that will come after it — such as existentialism or the absurd.

The same article also notes A Bestiary of the Twilight (Le Bestiaire du Crepuscule, June 2022), a French ‘BD’ (i.e. oversized graphic novel, often in hardcover) which…

takes HPL as the main character

Update: Le Bestiaire du Crepuscule has been re-titled as The Monstrous Dreams of Mr. Providence for the English edition, and since summer 2022 can now be enjoyed by English readers.

August on Tentaclii

31 Wednesday Aug 2022

Posted by in Odd scratchings, Scholarly works

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The nice summer weather continues here, for now.

However, I find I am increasingly likely to be in need of a regular $300+ income a month, and within the next two months. If anyone can use my talents in a reliably paid way, please contact me. I’m very accomplished in information — discovering, evaluating, comparing, and packaging it into a readable form. Along with suitably sourced pictures. Elsewhere I’m currently a part-time magazine editor-writer. If you’ve always wanted a monthly magazine or substantial newsletter for your own special niche interest, or you need a researcher for a historical book or project, then now’s the time to shout. Please also mention me to others, such as editors, who might have some regular paid home-work to offer.

In August Tentaclii did not have a great deal of activity, because I was off the ‘daily posting’ schedule. But I did manage the first part of my “Notes on the Wandrei letters”. For which I found and colorised two good vintage photos of the Roman sculpture gallery at the New York Met, a place so enjoyed by Lovecraft and Loveman. Lovecraft’s comment on this place also seemed to indicate he was aware of Loveman’s homosexuality, which was quite a find. Also found in these letters were new names for Lovecraft’s favoured Providence book shops, “Gregory’s, Tyson’s”.

In scholarship, I released my copiously annotated and corrected edition of Kipling’s seminal science-fiction story “With The Night Mail”. Also a PDF with the Letters of E. Hoffman Price to H.P. Lovecraft, for HPL’s Birthday — though the latter was far more about simple image-processing and assemblage than scholarship. I also looked into an interesting question from my Patreon patron, “Did HPL read Sherlock Holmes?” and assembled the relevant facts for him here at Tentaclii.

My ‘Open Lovecraft’ page had a little updating this month, linking to open-access scholarship. I reviewed The Lovecraft Annual 2021 at length, and along the way made many new discoveries about Lovecraft’s Red Hook house-mate (I almost typed mouse-mate) Alexander D. Messayeh. I discovered he hailed from Babylon, and made a living dealing in the rarest antiquities of the ancient world. Make of that what you will, Mythos writers.

Two big summer conventions, the Pulpfest and NecronomiCon, came and went. In journals, the annual Pulpster #31 journal was released at Pulpfest. Possibly the Lovecraft Annual also shipped in time for the Armitage Symposium wing of the NecronomiCon to discuss over breakfast. But I’m not yet aware of any convention report from that side of NecronomiCon which might mention that. If I’d been there you’d have a 15,000-word report by now.

New books this month included H.P. Lovecraft: An Introduction to His Life and Writings; and Pulp Power: The Shadow, Doc Savage, and the Art of the Street & Smith Universe. I was pleased to find I can now access the Hippocampus Press website from the UK, without needing a VPN.

In Lovecraftian arts, I was delighted to feature the incredible “Welcome to Arkham — the (HO) Model City”, a labour-of-love in miniature. There is also much Lovecraftian art activity over in the red-hot new ‘industry’ of art-generating AIs.

In screen media, S.T. Joshi’s blog brought news of a forthcoming Dunsany documentary, being made in Providence no less. Guillermo del Toro’s forthcoming horror TV show Cabinet of Curiosities revealed which Lovecraft tales had been filmed. In 3D, I gave a makeover to the old Meshbox 3D HPL figure, which is used in the Poser software. There was the usual level of activity in videogames and RPGs, but those are rarely noted on Tentaclii.

Elsewhere, a “Battle” issue of Digital Art Live magazine has been finished, which should appeal to the Conan crowd when it appears in a few days. And yes, I noted the calls at Howard Days, to help promote the new Image Books Conan (now that Marvel are done with him).

I also updated my book of a few years ago, on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and North Staffordshire, and released it as a temporary holiday-reading freebie (until 28th August).

That’s it for August. As always, please consider becoming my Patreon patron if you’re not already. Even a dollar or two helps in the current precarious circumstances.

Forthcoming Dunsany documentary

29 Monday Aug 2022

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts, Scholarly works

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S.T. Joshi’s blog has updated. He’s been doing a lot of travelling, and eventually reached Providence where he reports that in a studio there…

Christopher Nightingale, a young Englishman is working on what promises to be a superb documentary on Lord Dunsany

S.T. spent three hours there being interviewed on Dunsany. If this is the same “Christopher Nightingale”, the award-winning “Composer, Orchestrator & Musical Supervisor”, then the film’s music should be a treat.

New book: Copiously annotated and corrected edition of “With The Night Mail”

28 Sunday Aug 2022

Posted by in Kipling, New books, New discoveries, Scholarly works

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Newly published, my labour-of-love “With the Night Mail”, annotated edition. Available now as a .PDF file. $2 on Gumroad, but the first 30 Tentaclii readers can get it free by using coupon-code tentaclii at the checkout. Or if you’ve feeling generous, you can pay the $2 and skip the coupon. I’m hoping that this Gumroad ‘formula’ may eventually start to produce a much-needed bit of extra income.

Blurb:

This is the best version of Kipling’s famous “With The Night Mail” (1905), the first ‘hard’ science-fiction story. Still a fabulous steampunk read, today.

Here newly and fully annotated with 4,600 words of precise scholarly annotations. Several important new discoveries are made, including the identity of “little Ada” — she was a real pilot! All four earliest versions have been checked and cross-referenced, and the modern corrupted text has been carefully cleaned. Differences between editions are noted in the footnotes.

There are 145 footnotes, explaining the technology, lingo, and places. One footnote even discovers a long ‘new’ section of dialogue about the risk of plague, unseen since the first publications in 1905 — and never reprinted until now!

This .PDF is thus as close as we will get to a definitive version of the seminal story that launched the entire genre of hard science-fiction, and which opened the highly influential Gollancz yellow-jacket survey anthology One Hundred Years of Science Fiction (1969).

As a bonus, there are four new full-page colour illustrations including one of “George”. This labour-of-love e-book is 28 pages in total, delivered to you as a .PDF file. It may interest RPG gamers, as well as scholars and readers.

As you can tell, I’ve at last been able to see all four of the earliest editions. And my gosh… many differences! And with errors in places, in some modern editions, even including a handful in the free version on the site of The Kipling Society. Anyway, regular Tentaclii readers know my approach… copious attention to detail, deep historical research, resulting in many fascinating footnotes. Enjoy.

New book: The Illustrated History of Warren Comics

23 Tuesday Aug 2022

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts, New books, Scholarly works

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Illustrators Quarterly Special #14: The Illustrated History of Warren Comics. 144 pages.

A searcher for “Illustrators Quarterly” special would get results indicating that Amazon UK doesn’t carry the “Special” versions, other than #1. But it is there, awkwardly titled as “The Illustrated History of Warren Magazines: illustrators Special 14″. On Amazon the Specials go under the title of “illustrators Special” for some reason.

What a wonder a Euro companion volume might be: The Illustrated History of the Toutain Magazines, though obviously far more difficult to research.

New book: Letters of E. Hoffmann Price to H. P. Lovecraft

20 Saturday Aug 2022

Posted by in Historical context, New books, Scholarly works

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Happy 132nd Birthday, H.P. Lovecraft.

For 2022 my birthday present is a readable edition of the previously uncollected letters of E. Hoffmann Price to H.P. Lovecraft. This 350-page book complements the recently-published edited volume of the letters from Lovecraft to Price.

Download: Get the .PDF free on Gumroad. For the most stable download I’ve put it on Gumroad, which may also help you send it over to your 10″ Kindle.

These letters and many postcards were sent by veteran pulpster Price between 1932 and 1937. Brown has some 15Gb of scans of these… but they needed to be collected as single magazine-sized .PDF ebook. Don’t worry, the scans have been crunched down to just 65Mb total for the book. Please note that my assemblage is intended for convenient reading from a 10″ digital tablet, rather than as a scholarly edited edition.

To discover the archival scan number of a letter or card, download and then extract the PDF with the Windows freeware PDF Image Extractor. The images should still have their filenames, and these will give you the required scan numbers at the Brown Repository. By this same method you can also determine what new pictures I’ve added, as these have no Brown repository numbers. A few layout gaps, caused by the many two-to-the-page postcards, have been occasionally filled by me with new vintage pictures.

My thanks to all those who have been involved in preserving these and making the scans freely available.

Those with the cash to do so could use a service (Lulu, MagCloud, etc) to print-on-demand at a 12″ magazine size, then mark the good bits at leisure in an armchair, and then pass the result to a transcriber to create a less repetitive and more enjoyable “Extracts from…” text book.

A new essay by Lovecraft?

13 Saturday Aug 2022

Posted by in Historical context, Podcasts etc., Scholarly works

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A new episode of Voluminous, reading and discussing one of Lovecraft’s letters. Oddly enough I’ve just started properly reading (rather than occasionally dipping into at random) the Donald Wandrei letters, and this is one of those letters.

The Voluminous presenters appear have have discovered an unpublished essay lurking at Brown…

The Brown Digital Repository has another typescript which is [incorrectly, by Barlow] labeled as “The Materialist Today”, but it is a different essay also called “Remarks on Materialism”. This longer essay does not appear to have been published, but if you’re interested in more of HPL’s thoughts on cosmic matters it’s worth taking a look at.

It seems to have been pieced together by Brown archivists or others, having appeared in very scattered form on the backs of letters sent to various correspondents “between 1927 and 1932”. The general practice of the Lovecraft circle’s letters seem to be that one re-used paper by writing letters on the reverse of failed manuscripts, or texts superseded by a good printed version, or on old carbons.

Update: It actually appears to be a late typing of “In Defence of Dagon”, an essay already known. My thanks for the commenters (see below) for pointing this out.

Also in audio. New on Archive.org, R.E. Howard’s “Wolfshead” in a new 58 minute public domain reading. Also “He” and “The Shunned House” by Lovecraft.

Open Lovecraft

11 Thursday Aug 2022

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If you’re waiting for the Lovecraft Annual 2022 to arrive and are thus at a loss for scholarly reading, the ‘Open Lovecraft’ page here at Tentaclii is starting to full up the 2022 slot, plus a few new additions to 2021…

* G. Mariotti, “The Weird and Ineffable: H.P. Lovecraft’s Inverted Theology”, Kaiak: A Philosophical Journey, No. 9, 2022. (Italian journal, article in English. Part of a “Weird” special issue).

* J. Maki, A Study of the Translation of H.P. Lovecraft’s Usage of Religious Metaphors in “The Shadow over Innsmouth”. (Final-year undergraduate dissertation at Dalarna University, Sweden. For a degree in Japanese, and thus takes a Translation Studies / Religious Studies approach to understanding “Innsmouth” in Japanese translation.)

* G. Dyck, “Music of Contingency: A Musical Topic of Cosmic Horror in Depictions of “The Music of Erich Zann””, Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2022).

* J. L. Perez-de-Luque, “Ghostly presences in H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cool Air” and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”, IN: Visitors from Beyond the Grave: Ghosts in World Literature, Coimbra University Press, Spain, 2021.

* S. Kahajova, Fear Maketh Man: The Influence of H.P. Lovecraft’s Fears on His Work. (Undergraduate final dissertation for Tomas Bata University. In English. 2019, online 2021).

Also, new on Archive.org this week, the book Grim phantasms: fear in Poe’s short fiction (1992).