Eneh Akpan Writes: H. P. Lovecraft

Showing posts with label H. P. Lovecraft. Show all posts

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Did Stephen King Get the Idea for His book Under The Dome from His Tommyknockers Novel?

It’s pretty much likely I’ve stumbled on the origin of Stephen King’s Under The Dome (UTD)… and it’s absolutely not The Simpsons Movie. The book with a goodish length, which only recently got adapted to a miniseries on CBS has been quite the source of controversial stint since its release into the fiction market in 2009. Stephen king has defended the originality of his idea for the book on his website by posting a 61-page facsimile excerpt from his original novel The Cannibals, an unpublished unfinished 450-page handwritten novel written in 1982, while King was filming Creepshow.

All comparisons from The Tommyknockers novel were retrieved from only the last three chapters of the book.

The Year 1982

With what I have, I’m probably a little more apt to hit the bull’s eye than earlier speculations. Did you see the figures in red above? What’s so special about them? Draft for The Cannibals, which eventually, became Under The Dome (UTD) was written that year. The same holds for The Tommyknockers (TK) draft if the date at the bottom of the page (August 19th, 1982) after the Epilogue is anything to go by. It’s a possibility that one complex story idea spilled over into another story, eh? Most Stephen King fans (and we run into millions) would agree it’s one of his quirks.

Date of Publication Puzzle

Another puzzling detail is the publication dates for the two novels. Apparently, they coincide. Although, published in different years, I’d say about twenty two years apart, both books were published on the same date, November 10. The Tommyknockers came out in 1987 while Under The Dome was released into the market in 2009. Am I saying King did that on purpose? Maybe. Do you have a better explanation?

The Dome vs. The Force Field

In both stories, there is a shield of some sort checking movement beyond the borderlines of both towns. The Havenites (in TK) set up a kind of extraterrestrial force field around their town. Composed of odorless toxic gas, the field stops intrusion from the outside world. The dome in UTD performs a similar function and people who got too close to its source risked exposure to radiation.

The Pacemaker Explosions

We find pacemakers detonating when individuals who had one of these gadgets on them made contact with the Dome/Force field. In both cases, the result is instant death. Is it a wonder that both victims are law enforcement officers? In TK, when Henry Amberson a forest ranger from Newport, one of the men sent in to inspect a possible forest came within spitting distance of the field around Haven his pacemaker exploded in Amberson’s chest. And Police Chief Howard "Duke" Perkins is soon killed when his pacemaker explodes after getting too close to the Dome in UTD.

Twin Plane Crashes

There are two recorded plane crashes influenced by the barrier around the town of Haven in The Tommyknockers novel. In UTD, the coming of the dome was duly publicized when a Seneca V plane crashed into it killing the wife of the town’s first selectman. Later on, a 767-jetliner conveying passengers over the town of Chester’s Mill disintegrates on impact with the invisible barricade. Two plane crashes in two stories both upshots of barriers of alien origin. Coincidence? I think not.

The Alien Gadgets in the Towns’ Back Fields

Bobbi Anderson discovered the flying saucer buried under the ground in her back field in The Tommyknockers and in Under The Dome, a group of curious teens discover the alien generator, the source of the dome, in the town's back fields.

Okay, I’m out of ideas but if what I got here don’t qualify for weird coincidence, I don’t know if anything else does.

Akpan

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

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Startling Similarities Between the Necronomicon & the Shepherd's Journal

Updated: June.16.2015

Did the makers of the Disney animated feature film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire borrow the peculiarities of Lovecraft's fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore, the Necronomicon?

While researching for a new article, I came across a booklet, The Mythical World of Atlantis. The Lost Empire from Plato to Disney, a companion to the animated Disney film I mentioned earlier. I thought maybe I'd do something different, a blogpost discussing the myth called Atlantis.
After flipping casually, through the pages towards the end of the book I came across stunning similarities between Disney's fictional book, the Shepherd's Journal, which is a detailed account by an Arab shepherd of his encounter with Atlantis and H. P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon. The compulsion to do this article was so strong I had to blog or drop.

1. The Mad Arab Persona
"The dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred."

Lovecraft,

At the Mountains of Madness

"The Shepherd's Journal is attributed to a shepherd named Aziz, and was first thought to be the writings of a mad man."

The Mythical World of Atlantis

2. Similarity in Author Names
The Necronomicon is of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred.

The Shepherd's Journal is of the mad Arab Aziz.

Abdul is not a full name but a short form of a longer name Abdullahi. On the other hand, it could be the abb. for ABDULAZIZ 0r better yet, ABDUL AZIZ. See the connection?

3. Similarity in Original Book Titles
Both books had two titles and there's similarity between the first titles.

"Original title (of the Necronomicon) Al Azif-azif being the word used by Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound... supposed to be the howling of demons.

Lovecraft,

History of the Necronomicon

"The Greeks were the first to study the (Shepherd's) Journal, the known as the Scrolls of Aziz."

The Mythical World of Atlantis

Seen the rhyming names? Al Azif and Scrolls of Aziz?

4. Both Arab Authors Found an Underground Civilization
"Of (Abdul Alhazred's) madness many things are told. He claimed to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind."

Lovecraft,

History of the Necronomicon.

"The Shepherd's Journal attributed to a Shepherd named Aziz proved to be a detailed account of the shepherd's unbelievable encounter with a vast underground civilization."

The Mythical World of Atlantis

5. First Translation For Both Volumes was Greek
"In AD 950 the Azif (Necronomicon) was secretly translated into Greek"

Lovecraft,

History of the Necronomicon

"The Greeks were the first to study the (Shepherd's) Journal and revealed them to be more fact than fiction."

The Mythical World of Atlantis

6. Links with Constantinople
"Translated into Greek by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople."

The Necronomicon
Photo: villains.wikia.com

Lovecraft,

History of the Necronomicon

"A Turkish fortune hunter stole the scrolls from the libraries in Constantinople."

The Mythical World of Atlantis

7. Both Tomes Held at a Library
"They had stopped him from consulting the dubios old books (Necronomicon) on forbidden secrets that were kept under lock and key in a vault at the university library."

Lovecraft,

Dreams in the Witch-House

"Scholars of the day thought the journal of no particular historical significance and it was given to the British Library.

The Mythical World of Atlantis

8. Both Books Identified with Clergy

"The work both Latin and Greek was banned by Pope Grogory IX in 1232."

Lovecraft,

History of the Necronomicon

"In the year 1589, Pope Sixtus V rechristened the book the Shepherd's Journal."

The Mythical World of Atlantis

9. Both Volumes Form Part of Millionaires' Collection

"A fifteenth century (Necronomicon) is persistently rumored to form part of the collection of a celebrated American millionaire."

Lovecraft,

History of the Necronomicon

"The (Shepherd's) Journal remained in Iceland until the Whitmore-Thatch expedition retrieved it and brought it to Washington for study."

The Mythical World of Atlantis

It is now held in the Preston B. Whitmore (the millionaire who funded the expedition) archives.

10. Both Texts Promise Evil

Lovecraft states again and again in his stories the evil unleashed just by reading the Necronomicon. The Mythical World of Atlantis tells tales of woes befalling those who came in contact with The Journal.

"Reading leads to terrible consequences."

Lovecraft,

History of the Necronomicon

"All that was known (or handed down through the oral tradition) was that the journal was a book of great power-and possible evil."

The Mythical World of Atlantis

The Shepherd's Journal.
Photo: viewitem.eim.ebay.ru

11. The Yucatan Connection

Lovecraft's story The Temple is similar to tales of Atlantis because the temple is part of an ancient underwater kingdom. One of the characters in the story gives a detailed account of how a remnant of Atlantis in the form of a very odd bit of ivory carved to represent a youth's head crowned with laurel found in the coat pocket a dead sailor steered their submarine to the underwater temple. His manuscript was Found On The Coast of Yucatan.

"After the Viking expedition was destroyed the currents (of the Atlantic Ocean) carried the Journal all the way across the Atlantic to the Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

The Mythical World of Atlantis

12. The Crystal

"In the coffin lay an amulet of curios and exotic design, which had apparently been worn around the sleeper's neck...a small piece of green jade. We recognized it as the thing hinted of in the forbidden Necronomicon of the mad Arab Alhazred."

Lovecraft,

The Hound

"Milo helps Kida uncover the nature of the Heart of Atlantis: it supplies the Atlanteans with power and longevity through the crystals worn around their necks.

Wikipedia,

Synopsis of Atlantis: The Lost Empire

I know, I know, it sounds like the ravings of a mad man. But so did the Necronomicon and the Scrolls of Aziz and people killed to get their hands on 'em. However, does it not strike you funny that the similarities between the two fictional grimoires is so spectacular?

It's indeed possible the writers of Disney's Atlantis' intention was not to make a reference to Lovecraft's fictional book then again, who knows for sure?

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Sunday, January 6, 2013

5 Ways to Tell Your Art Will Sell

No one can guarantee you will meet success in a particular field.

Photo: berightback.nl

It's probably, okay to have somebody to talk to when walking that sensitive path towards choosing a lifelong career. They might even point you to what you're good at or better off doing. But you will still have to battle the question of whether or not people will buy into your idea, your talent or your craft-whatever road your heart is bent on traveling.

These 5 steps are not exactly open sesames but they might get you started and guide you in making the right decision. The following points are not arranged in any particular order.

Study the Market

Except you do not intend to have a career that puts bread on your table and a roof over your head, you need to have a feel for what the market wants. The literary taste buds of an audience alters one generation to the next. Today's readers might be easily thrown off by Lovecraft's style of writing and without argument, balk at Shakespearean literature. The publishing business is a rapidly evolving industry and you have to keep up with the shifts if you don't want to be left behind.

Get a Role Model

This step is absolutely necessary. If you have somebody going up ahead of you, somebody who's impressed bold footprints in the sands of time by calling up all his experience-forged resourcefulness, you got leverage. There's a very strong chance you would meet with less frustration than you would going it alone on the long and winding road of your calling without a role model.

Do the thing You Love and are Passionate About

After all is said and done, your choice of career should be the craft you've fallen head over heels for. It should be art and it must give you style and class-a level of dignity that presents the real you as you are to your world. Art must be self-expression or it is not. Who you decide to be recognized as and What you choose to be identified with must be a medium through which you can channel your passion. Everything else must come after. Make no bones about it.

If You Got It Flaunt It

In doing our best and thrusting ourselves wholly and in complete abandon into our chosen field we get a foretaste of who/what we seek to become. This is what's required if we must settle all manner of doubts in our minds. If you are a writer, you can effectively prove a genre is appropriate for you when you immerse yourself into writing a lot of fiction in your pet genre. Do it over and over again, when you feel like it and (ideally) when you don't feel anything like it. Bury yourself totally in your work and let it define and recreate you.

Stay On Your Grind

Fans need you to establish you are not going to put an egg in your shoe and beat it just when they're just beginning to feel your vibe. You need to bring persistence to bear and demonstrate to your readers that you can adapt (there's the word I've been meaning to get at) to the swings and shifts in the industry. That you can stand true and withstand the test of time.

There it is. It's not magic but at least you got a a fighting chance of being sure you're headed in the right direction, to even know there is a direction. You possess an opportunity to perfect by pruning or polishing, your craft and discover what else needs to be done before you are ready to take over the world.

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan