{"id":64500,"date":"2024-06-21T02:36:45","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T02:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/?p=64500"},"modified":"2024-06-27T12:26:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T12:26:58","slug":"lovecraft-at-war-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2024\/06\/21\/lovecraft-at-war-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Lovecraft at war (or not)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The U.S. appears to have just passed the legislation to re-introduce ‘the draft’ (military conscription), so far as I can tell without an in-depth dive into American politics (snore…<\/em>). Though, rather curiously in this age of supposed gender-equality everywhere, it’s reported to be only for men aged 18-26. But no doubt young women are at this moment clamouring for equality here, as elsewhere (sound of crickets chirping)<\/em>. There is no actual draft or registration currently in place, I should add, lest I be accused of ‘misinformation’.<\/p>\n

This news, and a recent mini-debate here in the UK about the need for conscription into and rapid training of a “Citizen’s Army” in the event of real hostilities (due to a run-down of the military over many decades), made me think about Lovecraft’s attempts at enlistment in the armed forces during wartime…<\/p>\n

I presented myself at the recruiting station of the R.I. National Guard & applied for entry into whichever unit should first proceed to the front [i.e. the front-line of battle, in France]. On account of my lack of technical or special training, I was told that I could not enter the Field Artillery, which leaves first; but was given a blank of application for the Coast Artillery [Corps], which will go after a short preliminary period of defence service at one of the forts of Narragansett Bay. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Thus Lovecraft would have been initially defending against German submarine and (via cliff-top \/ island patrols) spy\/saboteur encroachment on the American coastline. In principle, the type of large emplacement gun seems not altogether unlike a telescope, and perhaps involving some of the same maths and aiming. Possibly his astronomical training at the Ladd Observatory would actually have come in useful?<\/p>\n

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He made several attempts, I recall. To the extent that, whenever he left the house, his mother was fearful he would try to enlist. But it was not to be, and he was rejected.<\/p>\n

Had not my mother disturbed my ambitious effort of last May [1917], in which I utilised my absurdly robust-looking exterior as a passport to martial glory […] I should now be digging trenches, drilling, & pounding a typewriter at Fort Standish in Boston Harbour, where the 9th Co. R.I. Coast Artillery is placed at present.\u201d (Lovecraft, in Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was on an island, which has a 1914\/1921 war-map which may interest those looking for fresh 1920s RPG material \/ settings relating to Lovecraft. One might devise a “what if” scenario in which a successfully enlisted Lovecraft encounters mysterious and maddening Mythos doings in Boston harbour. He might even get to blast the heck out of the monster with a BIG gun, before going mad… thus especially pleasing the ‘blast Cthulhu with a machine-gun’ RPG crowd.<\/p>\n

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The U.S. appears to have just passed the legislation to re-introduce ‘the draft’ (military conscription), so far as I can …<\/p>\n

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