The Fun of Reading H.P.L.

I reread Polaris and The Doom That Came to Sarnath recently - written respectively in early 1918 and late 1919.

The vocabulary! "...corruscations ... somnolent ... uncorporeal ... inchoate ... chrysolite ..."

Astronomy! "...Cassipoeia ... Charles' Wain ... Arcturus ... Coma Berenices ... Aurora ... horned waning moon ...Aldebaran... gibbous moon ..."

And that eerie Lovecraftian technobabble! "...the streets of Olathoe ... news of Daikos' fall ... the wisdom of Zobnarian Fathers ... tall, grey-eyed men of Lomar ... the palteau of Sarkis, betwixt the peaks, Norton and Kadiphonek ... my friend Alos ... the hairy, long-armed, cannibal Gnophkehs ... the Pnakotic manuscripts ... the land of Mnar ... the mighty city of Sarnath ... the grey stone city of Ib ... written on the brick cylinders of Kadatheron ... in the papyrus of Ilarnek ... Thraa ... Ai * ... likeness of Bokrug ... Taran-Ish ** ... Zokkar the king ... Lobon ... Nargis-Hei the king ... ancient wine of conquered Pnath ... isles of Nariel ... Bnazic desert ... Cydathian groves ... wave-washed Mtal ... greay rock Akurion ... oil of Dothar ...".

Lovecraft may have been an atheist, but could he ever talk "in tongues".


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*Ai is clearly from the Bible, for instance, Joshua 7.5. And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

** This may be Tarshish of the Old testament, Genesis 10.4. (Cp 1 Chronicles 1.7) "And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim" - and 2 Chronicles 9. 21. "For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks."