Lovecraft and Barlow

[Speaking Mute]

I just saw La Farge's novel about Lovecraft and Barlow posted at Ziesing's and found this article by him at the New Yorker. I think I'll skip his novel, but the article was interesting - I knew about Barlow's executorship and link to Burroughs, but I didn't realize how close he was to Lovecraft or how poorly he was treated by Lovecraft's circle:

The Complicated Friendship of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert Barlow, One of His Biggest Fans - The New Yorker

[Kevin]

Great article! Even the world of weird fiction is not immune from petty jealousy and other crap of that nature, not to mention the world at large.

[qcrisp]

Really fascinating. Thank you.

The Naked Lunch quote:

Quote

I figure it like this: the priests—about one percent of population—made with one-way telepathic broadcasts instructing the workers what to feel and when.

From 'The Call of Cthulhu':

Quote

In the elder time chosen men had talked with the entombed Old Ones in dreams, but then something had happened. The great stone city R’lyeh, with its monoliths and sepulchres, had sunk beneath the waves; and the deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even thought can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse.

I found the contents of that CAS letter upsetting.

[Robin Davies]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Smith and Barlow were reconciled later on.

[Hidden X]

Quote Originally Posted by Speaking Mute

I think I'll skip his novel

Why?

interesting, I haven't even heard of this author or this novel until now, but novel itself received almost universal acclaim by the looks of it. It certainly sounds intriguing and eminently relevant to this board's interests.

[gveranon]

Another odd literary connection: The anthropologist that Barlow studied under at Berkeley, Alfred L. Kroeber, was Ursula K. LeGuin's father.

For those interested in Lovecraft and Burroughs, I highly recommend Michael Cisco's essay "Reanimator and Exterminator: H. P. Lovecraft and William S. Burroughs." I'll quote Cisco's first paragraph, because it gives an idea of what he is up to here:

Quote

Despite their radical differences and superficial similarities, Burroughs and Lovecraft had an orientation in common at a fundamental level. It should be stated at once that this paper will have nothing to do with the concept of influence, and that this concept is to be avoided generally, and not simply because, in this particular case, there is so little evidence of any. Instead, we will look at Burroughs and Lovecraft in terms of differences and similarities in development from similar geneaological points of departure.

Cisco's essay is long and rich, full of fascinating observations and insights. I can't adequately summarize it or give an idea of its contents, but I'll just say (quite inadequately and possibly somewhat inaccurately) that the essay explores a number of isomorphisms (despite major differences) between the two authors in the areas of their philosophies, metaphysics, attitudes to human beings and society, and understandings of what they were doing with their art -- and all of this interrelated in numerous significant ways. As far as I know, this essay is only available in the book Lovecraft and Influence, edited by Robert H. Waugh.

[Speaking Mute]

I can't help linking Lovecraft and Burroughs. I discovered Burroughs through Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, which I saw within a month of first picking up The Dunwich Horror and Others from the library. This was one of early editions where Wandrei's editing occasionally came inadvertently close to Burrough's cut-ups and hence provided me with a literary springboard to better appreciate Cities of the Red Night when I managed to scrounge a copy later that year. (I, much like Barlow, was only in my early teens and lived in a rural area where acquiring anything even slightly outside the mainstream required a series of mail orders from the backs of magazines.)

In a similar vein, I read Barlow's "The Night Ocean" in an old chapbook that included another science fiction story written in blank verse whose name I forget, but struck me even at the time as resembling Burroughs.

[qcrisp]

On a thing called an 'access course' (designed to help into higher education mature students without qualifications), when I was about 23, I wrote my dissertation on the treatment of good and evil in the works of Lovecraft, Burroughs and Mishima.

I'd be surprised if Burroughs wasn't aware of Lovecraft. He was certainly aware of Frank Belknap Long, and the Hounds of the Tindalos make an appearance, if I remember correctly, in The Place of Dead Roads. Burroughs (disapprovingly) reads Long's tale as a cryptic affirmation of matriarchy, since the Hounds are unclean because they move through angles, whereas, "Man, the pure part of him, is descended from a curve..."

In fact, I seem to recall that, in the invocation at the beginning of Cities of the Red Night, Yog-sothoth is among the gods called upon, perhaps spelt slightly differently (Iot-Sotot?).

Well, must be brief and finish here. Work, etc.

[Doctor Dugald Eldritch]

Quote Originally Posted by qcrisp

In fact, I seem to recall that, in the invocation at the beginning of Cities of the Red Night, Yog-sothoth is among the gods called upon, perhaps spelt slightly differently (Iot-Sotot?).

No Iot-Sotot, but Kutulu, the Sleeping Serpent who cannot be summoned, is mentioned, as is Pan and a legion of other demonic deities (unless I am mistaken, most of them were inspired by the Simon Necronomicon?); and this passage from The Place of Dead Roads must be explosive, glistening evidence that Burroughs was reading Weird Tales: ....adores ectoplasms, crystal balls, spirit guides and auras....abominations, unspeakable rites, diseased demon lovers, loathsome secrets imparted in a thick slimy whisper, ancient ruined cities under a purple sky.... It is a little surreal to think that all these horrific gods and demons cavort in the pages of Penguin Modern Classics books.

One last remark on Burroughs lest I change the primary subject of this thread: I read somewhere (and it is only rumour) that David Lynch wanted Burroughs to play the mayor in Twin Peaks. As fascinating as this might have been, I think a collaboration between Burroughs and Lynch would have been too powerful for the universe to handle.


Burroughs in the Black Lodge. (Rare Twin Peaks production still.)