When you open this book of "I Am the Man of Destiny", it is as if you have begun a conversation with a friend.
If you're a cthulhu literature lover, you're no stranger to this friend, and the writer who was able to create great Cthulhu images might have a different brain structure than an ordinary person—you might think so.
The writer H.P. Lovecraft, who was enthusiastically sought after by the trendy young men of later generations, was a writer. Lovecraft), sometimes affectionately referred to as the "God of Love Craftsmanship", has a long list of untold titles - the famous American writer, the father of the Cthulhu myth, the founder of the Cthulhu universe, the greatest horror novelist of the 20th century... But at the moment, as you flip through the comic, he has only one identity: standing in front of you, your old friend.
H.P. Lovecraft
The old friend saw writing as much as his destiny, even replying to a letter to a friend in as many as 25 pages; he was a bit old-fashioned, preferring his hometown of Providence to New York; and a little humor, especially when dealing with his contemporaries. Lovecraft's life does not seem to be spectacular, born in 1890, from an early age frail, sick, parents insane, one after another died. His studies were short and intermittent, and he was not admitted to the ideal Brown University. His marriage also did not have a happy ending, and he began to live apart shortly after marriage. Poverty and illness accompanied him until his death in 1937.
Lovecraft's mother always wanted a daughter,
In this family portrait, he is dressed as a girl
In this way, Lovecraft is more like an ordinary person.
It is such an "ordinary person" who has created the enduring and fascinating Cthulhu universe, which is still enriching, expanding, and reborn at a time when subcultures are flourishing.
Human life is full of contradictions, which is even more vividly displayed in Lovecraft. David Camus wrote in the preface, "He lived hard and lived happily. He is in contact with people and avoids contact, in the world and detached from the outside, under an unbearable double pressure. Lovecraft has been switching between stepping out of his snail shell and hiding himself in it, and the comics try to highlight his contradictions through various details, whether it is himself or his spirit.
He exuded disgust for the Jews nearby, but he would help his friend Samuel when he needed help, even though Samuel was also a Jew—"You know... This is the most inconspicuous of all the contradictions in his body. ”
After returning to his hometown to party with friends, he tasted 28 different flavors of ice cream in the store, almost to the point of being passionate, and was questioned by his friends: "You like to write yourself into novels so much, but you have never written about ice cream, why is this?" ”
He longs for old places and old families, loves antique travel, but still lives hard in New York; he is a sad optimist who looks at the world with a sharp eye; he is a rational materialist, and at the same time he firmly believes that the world is unknown and pursues infinity... He lived in a time when the Industrial Revolution was booming, and the great geographical discoveries made people begin to understand the whole picture of the world and gave the possibility of understanding the world, but he wrote:
The human brain cannot penetrate what is in the brain. Today, we live on an island of quiet ignorance in the middle of a vast black sea...
Theosophists have speculated that the cycle of the universe is spectacular, in which our world and humanity are nothing more than hurried passers-by.
He is out of step with the times, and the style of his writing is old-fashioned, but the content is innovative and too advanced. As a result, during his lifetime, few publishers were willing to publish his work, and magazines repeatedly rejected articles and were reluctant to publish his articles.
Until his death, his friend August William Dres collated his work for publication and expanded his worldview, from which the entire "Cthulhu Universe" system was formed.
Lovecraft was like Van Gogh in the literary world, who was not cared about before he died, and it was only after his death that this era caught up with him.
//
The movement had some sounds unique to humans, some sounds unique to beasts, and terrible sounds that had both. Beastly howls and revelry pierced the magic sky, like a storm of plague blowing from the valley of demons, reverberating in the dark woods.
Occasionally, the disorganized howling ceased, and in the midst of a seemingly trained hoarse chorus, the appalling words or incantations were sung: "Non-En-Louis-Migowanaf-Cthulhu-Lalaye-Vanagol-Futan."
Cthulhu is lovecraft's most iconic monster, in fact, the name Cthulhu is not its original name, its real name is difficult to express in human language, can only be spelled in the closest to the original Cthulhu. And there are many more gods with strange names like this in Lovecraft's work, and most of them have a common feature: the unknown. The unknown is the vastness of information, and these gods can expand infinitely on the outside, with complex limbs, growing organs, and external changes, and inside they have endless wisdom and power.
It is hard to imagine the mysteries and fears that dwell in Lovecraft's mind, which have now become a common nightmare for modern man, "and it is impossible to make it clear that no one can describe this hellish madness, which violates all things, forces, and universal laws." In The Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft describes the sleeping god as such that you never know what its final form will be, or that it does not exist as "final," and that trying to understand these gods in its entirety is futile, just as trying to understand life and the universe as a whole seems to have been written only to convey the idea that humanity knows nothing about the universe.
Lovecraft began his literary career in 1914 and joined the United Amateur Press Association (UAPA), where he met many writers from all over the United States and has been keeping correspondence ever since.
"I Am the Man of Destiny" constructs the story by focusing on lovecraft's interactions with several friends. Moving to Brooklyn, New York in 1925, he separated from his newly married wife, Sonia, rented a small inn that his aunt helped find, and continued his writing life.
New York was for him with only an endless sense of loneliness, and the emotions of the "stranger" haunted him, supported by occasional gatherings and conversations with friends. It wasn't until a year later that he moved back to his native Providence, where he spent the last decade of his life, subsisting on ghostwriting or rewriting for others, and creating The Call of Cthulhu.
A manuscript of the Cthulhu image by Lovecraft
Lovecraft's experience shaped his story, as he said when he ghostwrote Under the Pyramid for Harry Houdini, and who knows if anyone has actually seen the caves under the pyramids and those ancient worship activities? Lovecraft had never seen an inexplicable Cthulhu-like monster, and no one in the world had ever seen it. But they are real, probably in everyone's heart, after all— "the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and most intense fear is the unknown." ”
The great moths are so colorful and gorgeous,
When crushed by this fanatical and cruel world, it is also extremely sad.
Seduced by the mystery emanating from magic,
Pounce on the eternal light that is full of unknowns and full of fantasies.
--Robert A. Lowndes "To H.P. Lovecraft"
The form of this comic shows Lovecraft's dismal and colorful life, he fights against the world, and finally abandons the world, is entangled in fear, and shapes fear. In 1937, he died of cancer and was buried in his hometown of Providence, with timeless phrases inscribed on the tombstone that seem to accurately evaluate the god-like creator of the Cthulhu universe:
I AM PROVIDENCE, I am the Man of Destiny.
Text | Guo Yuehan
Figure | Originated from the web
New book recommendation
"I am the Man of Destiny"
[French] by Alex Nikolaevich
[Argentina] Gervasio Ann Lee painted
Howard P. P. Lovecraft is a well-known American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction stories. His inspiration and creations have always revolved around the fear of the universe, the inability of human beings to understand life and the lack of knowledge of the universe. But he was unsuccessful in his lifetime, but he later became one of the most famous horror novelists and influenced a number of writers. The father of the Cthulhu myth, a character who cannot be avoided in contemporary thriller literary and artistic works, and a popular character symbol among literary and artistic youth.
Vividly illustrating his fear of madness and his obsession with writing in the form of a comic book, the book explores the tortuous life of a writer who is passionate about writing, abandoning the world, and eventually escaping from the world, showing some of the most well-known fragments of his work, such as Cthulhu and the Seal of Jugsothos.
How did the father of the Cthulhu myth coexist with depravity and color, and the puzzles and fears that haunted his mind become a common nightmare for modern people? This book uses comic book images to witness the strange world in the eyes of a writer who has a deep fear of life and the universe.
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