Old in a new version
At the Mountains of MadnessThis is another offer addressed to Lovecraft horror fans, which feeds the series of short stories published by Vesper – readers who want to feel the creeps can also reach for the Ultrahu Cats, Call of Cthulhu or Dunwich Horror available on the market. At the outset, however, it is worth noting that Mountains of Madness is not only the title of Lovecraft’s best-known short story, but also the entire collection, in which we can find three definitely less known stories – Shadow Out of Time, The Unnamed City and Under the Pyramids. Although these stories are not new to the Polish market, they appear for the first time in a translation by Maciej Płaza. Incidentally, it is also worth mentioning an extremely interesting afterword by Mikołaj Kołyszko. His observations allow a look at the mythical worlds created by Lovecraft from the perspective of religious studies or ethnology,
The price of discoveries
At first glance, the characters created by Lovecraft are linked by a hunger for the unknown, fueled not only by curiosity about the world, but also by impressive scientific progress that has opened up many new opportunities for man. Heroes appearing on At the Mountains of Madness cardsthey are largely people of the intellect – they are hungry for knowledge and want to play their part in the pursuit of progress. Searching for lost cities, traveling in time and space, trips to the frozen wastelands or wandering in the Egyptian underground may resemble the adventures of Indiana Jones, but it quickly turns out that what may initially appear as an exciting invitation becomes a trap. The author presents a world that is teeming with ancient, dark forces, so different from what we know that they elude description. While scientific breakthroughs have often been accompanied by an impression of human omnipotence, Lovecraft’s stories can be seen as an effective counterbalance to this tendency, presenting the ideas of progress as an elusive pipe dream at which the highest price can be paid.
Taming weirdness
Attempts to describe the indescribable also involve linguistic experiments. Lovecraft, in the pages of his stories, created a completely new universe that both attracts and repels. Perhaps in spite of the inability to shape this dark reality, Lovecraft decides to use extremely detailed descriptions that resemble reports prepared by seasoned researchers. And while this fact is certainly known to all loyal fans of Lovecraft’s stories, it is worth noting that, in addition to striking detail, the descriptions present in his stories are also striking in their breadth, which can discourage even the most avid explorers. Paradoxically, despite the meticulousness of descriptions,
A lesson in humility
At the Mountains of Madness , like the rest of Lovecraft’s writing, it is not an easy set – both in existential and linguistic dimensions, the American writer does not resort to half measures. However, it is not about communing with the world that eludes scientific cognition, but it is rather about stimulating reflection, which leads to rather uncomforting conclusions. Lovecraft’s vision of man clearly undermines the ideas of linear progress. Although a hundred years have passed since the author’s debut, it is still hard to deny his perspective, but in this case the saying that a medicine is only a dose apart from a poison turns out to be extremely accurate.
