Eneh Akpan Writes: Cthulhu

Showing posts with label Cthulhu. Show all posts

Sunday, February 3, 2013

20 Final Lines From Horror Novels

It was a trifle easier coming by grabbing first lines for my article Explosive First Lines of 30 Great Books which I posted on this blog in 2012 than it was finding equally absorbing and memorable last lines albeit, from horror literature for this post.

Because reading a final line could be a little bit like trying for Egyptian hieroglyphics 'specially, if you've never read the quoted novel before, you will find that some paragraphs are a little on the lengthy side. It's meant to give you a whiff on events leading up to the final scene. So you won't be kept too deep in the dark. And don't think because these are collected from horror stories, there would be an excessive gilding of dark matter. There is a hiatus from all the madness, you see.

1. Desperation by Stephen King

"Do you understand the reference, David?"
David took the blue pass. "Of course. First John, chapter four, verse eight. 'God is love.' "
She looked at him for a long time. "Is he, David? Is he love?"
"Oh, yes," David said. He folded the pass along its crease. "I guess he's sort of . . . everything."
Cynthia waved. Mary waved back and gave her a thumbs-up. Steve pulled out and Mary followed him, the Acura's wheels rolling reluctantly through the first ridge of sand and then picking up speed.
David put his head back against the seat, closed his eyes, and began to pray.

2. Dark Mountain by Richard Laymon

He went for the stairs, took them three at a time, and reached for the door handle. The door swung away from him. "Sorry it took so long," Smeltzer said. "Had to use the john." "No problem." Jake turned away, not even trying for a glimpse of the wife, and trotted down the stairs. From behind him came her voice. "This really is the pits." "Better safe than sorry," Smeltzer said. "Of course."

3. Girl of My Dreams by Richard Matheson (from The Unexplained)

It was the arm of a dead woman that he clutched. With a gagging sound, he jerked his hand away. He gaped at her, unable to speak or think. Then, as he backed away, his eyes were drawn to the calendar on the wall and a phrase crept leadenly across his mind: one of these days. Quite suddenly, he began to laugh and cry. And before he fled, he stood at the window for an hour and twenty minutes, staring out, wondering who the man was, where he was right now and just what he was doing.

4. Vittorio The Vampire by Anne Rice

Pray it never takes a slaughter or a rape for you to see this light in those around you. God forbid it that it should demand such a price. Let me pay the price for you instead.

5. Strangers by Dean Koontz

Soon, when Dom had passed the gift to her, as she would ask him to, she'd be able to heal with her touch. More important, with only her touch, she would be able to pass unto others the power to heal themselves. The human life-span would increase dramatically overnight-three hundred, four hundred, even five hundred years. Except for accidents, the specter of death would be banished to a distant horizon. No more would the Annas and Jacobs be wrenched away from the children who loved them. No more would husbands have to sit in mourning at the deathbeds of young wives. No more, Baruch ha-Shem, no more.

6. Hannibal by Thomas Harris

We'll withdraw now, while they are dancing on the terrace-the wise Barney has already left town and we must follow his example. For either of them to discover us would be fatal. We can only learn so much and live.

7. Mr. X by Peter Straub

But since you have put a question to me, I can ask one in return. Are you sure-really sure-you know who told you this story?

8. The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker

It would not be long before dawn, and at the first sign of the sun they'd have to go to sleep. But until the light came-until the real insisted upon their imaginations-they stood watching the darkness, waiting, half in hope and half in fear, for that other sea to rise from dreams and claim them from the shore.

9. Shadows by John Saul

From the first time since she'd brought him home from the Academy, Brenda MacCallum knew that her son was going to be alright.

10. The Host by Stephenie Meyer

"It's a strange world," I murmured, more to myself than to the other native soul. "The strangest," he agreed.

11. Dr. Death by Jonathan Kellerman

"So no way you'll stop."She played with her hair. "Who knows what I'll do?"

12. Bloodline by Jill Jones

Jonathan rolled over on the bed and tugged her into his arms. "It doesn't matter," he said, grinning and running his hands through her hair. "I have all I want in my arms right now."

13. The Reapers by John Connolly

After a time, he nodded, both to himself and at the man who he knew was following his progress: Louis, the killer, the burning man. Louis, the last of the Reapers.

14. Shadow Prey by John Sandford

The thing called Stephanie Bekker heard the words "Jesus Christ," and then it was gone forever, leaving a single bloody handprint six inches below the Princess phone.

15. Covenant with the Vampire by Jeanne Kalogridis

The overwhelmingness of it (the perfume on the other character's body) offended my predatory senses, but the spicy fragrance could not hide for me, the scent of one undead; a non-odour, born of absences-the absence of warmth, of the strong animal smell of the living.

16. Others by James Herbert

Me? I'm enjoying the short time I have left. When the pain eventually gets too bad, then that's when I'll use drugs again, but only those prescribed by the medics. I'm still nervous of death, of course, but I'm no longer afraid. I've glimpsed it, remember? Besides, I've got someone waiting.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.

17. Killer Dreams by Iris Johansen

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as the water flowed over her. She'd tell Joe about Montalvo's call over dinner, but right now she wanted to relax and forget about everything but Joe . . .

18. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

"Your bag," the boy said. "You might need something in it."Alinger smiled fondly, went back up the steps, took it from the boy's cold fingers."Thank you," he said. "I just might."

19. The Shadow Out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft

No eye had seen, no hand had touched that book since the advent of man to this planet. And yet, when I flashed my torch upon it in that frightful abyss, I saw that the queerly pigmented letters on the brittle, aeon-browned cellulose pages were not indeed any nameless hieroglyphs of earth's youth. They were, instead, the letters of our familiar alphabet, spelling out the words of the English language in my own handwriting.

20. Dracula by Bram Stoker

"We want no proofs. We ask none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care. Later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake."

Akpan

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

3 Lovecraftian Character Archetypes

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

Lovecraft,

The Call of Cthulhu

The Cthulhu Mythos connoisseur created a little clutter of characters in his lifetime which became constant features in much of his fiction. A casual reading of Lovecraft's works would inform the mind of the recurrence of three character archetypes the master of horror employed as his protagonists. At least, it's what I believe, you might harbor a different opinion. It's allowed.

Photo: david-j-west.blogspot.com

1. The Explorer

Probably, the most consistent character in Lovecraft's tales, this character usually sets off on a quest for the unknown driven by a whiff of information. A character who exhibits an investigative disposition and is fully aware and understands the consequences of such hideous adventure but decides to go ahead anyway.

The profile of this fictional character is summed up by the words of a peculiar Lovecraftian character who appears in the story, The Lurking Fear. In the story, this personality declares,

"I am a connoisseur in horrors."

Such characters take it as their responsibility to explore the unknown, to find the source of the terror and if possible, destroy it. There is a pervading sense of obligation to things of the macabre. The primary inclination of these fictional people is best explained by the words of another Lovecraft character;

"Burning curiosity began to displace all other feelings and I enlarged my investigations as best I could."

Lovecraft,

In the Walls of Eryx

"It is for this latter reason that I urge, with all the force of my being, final abandonment of all the attempts at unearthing those fragments of unknown, primordial masonry which my expedition set out to investigate. Assuming that I was sane and awake, my experience on that night was such as has befallen no man before. It was, moreover, a frightful confirmation of all I had sought to dismiss as myth and dream."

Lovecraft,

The Shadow Out of Time

2. The Victim

There is a prototype of this character portrayed in the Lovecraft story, Pickman's Model where the protagonist comes in contact with an artist bearing the titular name and his painting. Pickman is in the process of painting a monster that the main character misinterprets as the artist's imagination until he discovers the awful truth.

The Victims are secondary hosts who experience horror only through their association with a primary host who has made contact with some sort of paranormal activity.

"No, I don't know what's become of Pickman, and I don't like to guess. You might have surmised I had some inside information when I dropped him — and that's why I don't want to think where he's gone. Let the police find what they can — it won't be much, judging from the fact that they don't know yet of the old North End place he hired under the name of Peters."

Lovecraft,

Pickman's Model

Another example is one of Lovecraft's most famous works, The Call of Cthulhu. A character comes in contact with the papers of his great-uncle. Said papers seem to be possessed by the spirit which haunted a young artist and ultimately led to his death. It also led to the death of the main character's great-uncle and has likely rearranged the psyche of this character by the time the story turns for home. The displaced wanderer/traveler who finds haunted lodging also comes under this point.

"That was the document I read, and now I have placed it in the tin box beside the bas-relief and the papers of Professor Angell. With it shall go this record of mine - this test of my own sanity, wherein is pieced together that which I hope may never be pieced together again. I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me. But I do not think my life will be long."

Lovecraft,

The Call of Cthulhu

3. The Inventor

"He no longer treated me so much like a friend as like an implement in his skilled and greedy fingers. I found him possessed of unexpected traits - little examples of baseness and cruelty, apparent even to the hardened Simes, which disturbed me in a most unusual manner. Often he would display extraordinary cruelty to live specimens in his laboratory, for he was constantly carrying on various hidden projects in glandular and muscular transplantation on guinea-pigs and rabbits."

Lovecraft,

The Disinterment

Lovecraftian tales like The Disinterment portray characters who are desperate inventors. The mad scientist persona is another popular feature in Lovecraft's tales. These inventors include alchemists and as a matter of fact, there's a Lovecraft work that goes by that name.
These set of Lovecraftian characters are usually involved in inventions bordering on insanity. These would stop at nothing to achieve their goals and often, perform experiments to alter natural processes like death.

Lovecraft's fictional people could possibly be classified under broader terms. This is just a personal shot at understanding the works of a master of the craft.
Hope you were inspired.

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan