camwyn | (no subject)

I recently came into possession of an HP Lovecraft anthology called Dreams Of Terror And Death; the foreword is by Neil Gaiman. Aside from the fact that several stories make me profoundly glad Lovecraft's domestic animal of choice was the cat (since cats so often fare horribly in horror stories), there is a little matter of accompaniment which I feel I must address. Namely: mind your playlist if you are ever reading Lovecraft, because certain songs tend to tip over from pleasant or nostalgic to Really Quite Unnerving if you hear them under those circumstances. In my case several of the songs currently on my iPod playlist qualified, but the most notable- for a confluence of lyrics and Lovecraft's racist tendencies- was the Paul Simon song "Under African Skies". The tune is a bouncy, upbeat, major-key tune; the words themselves are really quite pleasant- but... well, Lovecraft worked best when he was intimating and hinting, and the whole thing reeks of his kinds of hints.

Joseph’s face was black as night
The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes
His path was marked by the stars in the southern hemisphere
And he walked his days under African skies

This is the story of how we begin to remember
This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein
After the dream of falling and calling your name out
These are the roots of rhythm
And the roots of rhythm remain

In early memory, mission music
Was ringing ’round my nursery door
I said take this child, lord, from Tucson, Arizona
Give her the wings to fly through harmony
And she won’t bother you no more

This is the story of how we begin to remember
This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein
After the dream of falling and calling your name out
These are the roots of rhythm
And the roots of rhythm remain

Joseph’s face was as black as the night
And the pale yellow moon shone in his eyes
His path was marked by the stars in the southern hemisphere
And he walked the length of his days under African skies...

Put the words in the hands of H. P. the Human Poikilotherm, and let's face it, there is something excessively nasty waiting in there.

On another note entirely, Lovecraft grabs my brain and shoves in a temporary world-altering filter in almost exactly the same way that Hellblazer does, so there's gonna be some John Constantine when the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is finished (I'm about halfway through and I started on the train home tonight). So that's good, at least.