It's interesting, being a fan of H. P. Lovecraft, to look at early 20th century expressionist art and realize that's what he was talking about.
Egon Schiele, for example; that's a dude who's looked into the face of Hastur and lost a few sanity points. And if James Ensor never took a dream-journey to the shifting streets of Carcosa, there is no reason in the world. Franz Marc clearly spend more time in the Dreamlands than among us.
HPLovecraft.com has a page up now of Lovecraft's comments on specific artists that inspired him, and Tor has its own synopsis of those artists. Interesting, if very brief, reading.
And though it's no longer emblematic of the times, it isn't as if the Old Ones stopped fucking with humanity after the rough beast stopped slouching toward Bethlehem. I dunno what Francis Bacon saw when he closed his eyes, but what he let out scares the crap out of me.
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I lurk here sometimes...I stumbled upon this post after watching In the Mouth of Madness (I've seen it before, but it had been awhile) last night and felt compelled to comment.
ReplyDeleteProbably the only convention of fiction or art that can still consistently scare the holy bejeezus out of me is that Lovecraftian (though it certainly pre-dates him, I still associate it strongly with him) notion of a bent reality with unspeakable abominations tearing zealously at its fabric. Anything residing in this physical dimension that wants to try me can be met with a .40 caliber hollow point, but we mortals simply cannot stand in the face of Cthulhu and his ilk.
Of course, all of that pales in comparison to the horrors of reality--Dancing with the Stars...yikes.
The Yellow Sign from Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow is a great one that I didn't see mentioned on the Lovecraft page (though you probably already know it). Thanks!
Of course Chambers isn't mentioned on that page because it deals with visual artists...sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake.
ReplyDeleteI love twisted visual stuff, too (be it painting, photography, or film). It can make otherwise unwatchable movies interesting. I'm torn as to whether I want to see that stuff when I close my eyes, however.
Chambers is great. I shuddered a bit recently when my wife Genevieve told me her boss had branched out into reforming companies' tarnished online presence.
ReplyDeleteShe's working for a Repairer of Reputations. ;)