What do we know of the world & universe about us?
Undimensioned and Unseen
The effectiveness of H.P. Lovecraft’s horror relies primarily on atmosphere built upon the foundation of “fear of the unknown.” Most of Lovecraft’s protagonists, on their singular accursed journey of discovery, face their own personal loss of sanity once the thin veil of reality is ripped from their sight. For these last 19 months—wherein I have lost all sense of time—I have felt like a doomed Lovecraftian protagonist facing this same discovery while trying to avert Kovid-NeinTein (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic).
“Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow.” – H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond
As we continue our efforts to slow the spread of the “undimensioned and unseen” COVID-19 and its variants, I want to thank you for being vaccinated and wearing masks so we can return safely in person to the Hollywood Theatre for the 26th Annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.
“We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos.” –H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond
In the United States, only 65% of adults are vaccinated. We have a long way to go but we are fighting a far worse sort of epidemic: misinformation.
This “infodemic” is just as harmful leading people to downplay the severity of this contagion (1 in 500 Americans have died from the disease) and to ignore advice from medical experts in favor of unproved treatments or “cures” e.g. animal-grade Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, or just injecting Clorox Bleach directly into the bloodstream.
“You see the things that float and flop about you and through you every moment of your life? You see the creatures that form what men call the pure air and the blue sky?” –H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond
The accelerate of our “infodemic” is our ubiquitous social media network that has created an information ecosystem populated by a cacophony of unsourced opinion and misinformation propagated both intentionally and unintentionally. For example, millions of QAnon followers still believe the baseless and debunked conspiracy theory that a satanic cabal (of pedophiles and cannibals) controls the government and the media. When in reality, we all know that the Bavarian Illuminati is in control, duh.
It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would set aside all the intellectual progress of years, and plunge us back into the darkness of mediaeval disbelief.” — H.P. Lovecraft, 5 September 1914
I remember in the early days of the festival when we discussed Lovecraft’s stories such as “Call of Cthulhu,” someone would always scoff and argue why would cultists want to usher in the fall of mankind… it is against their own interest and well being! Perhaps you should re-read What’s the Matter with Cultists in Kansas? Given our current modern predicament, I don’t think they would scoff now.
So what do we know of the world & universe about us? Apparently jack shit. Welcome to the darkness of mediaeval disbelief.
About the Author
Andrew Migliore is author of Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft and founder of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival® and CthulhuCon™. During daylight hours he is sometimes a VP of Engineering & Security Officer at a software startup.
