(Jag kom på att det kändes lite fel med att låta Cthulhu bepryda min blogg, utan att ha lagt upp denna uppsats som jag skrev för ett bra tag sedan. So here we go!)

The meaning of Lovecraft’s fictional book “Necronomicon” in the novel “At the mountains of madness”

I’ve read the book “At the mountains of madness” written by H. P. Lovecraft and published in the year of 1936. While reading and analyzing the sense of the book I came across the fact that Lovecraft frequently uses a well-used method that includes referring to a fictional novel in order to give “At the mountains of madness” a lot more depth and credibility. Why does Lovecraft continuously refer to this imagined novel, and what dimensions does this ad to the characterization of the book? This is what I shall analyze and uncoit during this essay

In the book Lovecraft often refers to a piece of fictional work, which he usually has a tendency to do in most of his novels. The piece of work that is mostly mentioned in the book is the story bound novel called “Necronomicon”, which is a non-authentic and completely made up book brought to life in the world of Lovecraft’s own imagination. The nonexistent narrator of this novel is mostly referred to as “The Mad Arab” in the novels, or as a man named Abdul Alhazred. Many fanatical admirers of H.P Lovecraft´s novels has made repeated effort in trying to evaluate the name´s origin and has tried to puzzle out the meaning of the name, but Lovecraft himself claims that the name is just the development of his playful fantasies as a five year old youngster. In a letter that Lovecraft sent to Mr. Robert E. Howard in august 14, 1930, Lovecraft wrote and clarified “Abdul is a favorite dream-character of mine-indeed that is what I used to call myself when I was five years old and a transported devotee of Andrew Lang's version of the Arabian Nights.” 

Lovecraft often refers to this specific book in many of his narratives, such as his novel “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” written in 1927 and the fictional narrator of the book is quoted in his, back then, criticized novel “The Nameless City” written in 1921. Modern producers and writers fascination for Lovecraft’s historical and groundbreaking productions has often led them back to successfully using the fictional myth of “Necronomicon” as an influential element in modern pieces of work such as the horror movie “Evil dead”, written and directed by Sam Raimi in the year of 1981.

“Necronomicon” is briefly described in a numerous of Lovecraft’s creations as a grimoire, but none exhaustive explanation of the book’s substance and meaning of the storyboard is to be found. It may be so that Lovecraft consciously choosed not to specify and expose the content of his imaginary book by the simple reason that he wanted to be able to freely use the book as a reference in as many of his novels a possible. If he would have been to precise in the beginning and uncovered the full storyboard of “Necronomicon”, then maybe, later on he would feel stuck in a corner because the feeling  of not being able to entirely use the idea of  “Necronomicon” to its fully extend, lurked in his mind. To elaborate “Necronomicon” as a obscure book about unknown mysteries is genuinely a genius move.

The usage of “Necronomicon” in the Novell “At the mountains of madness” gives the book a lot more background and depth. By referring to earlier pieces of work the reader instinctively will regard the reference as a source, not reflecting whether it´s a real source or not, and people tend to unconsciously get in the sense that the novel is based on real factual sources. This is a brilliant way to get the reader deep into the story, simply by taking the novel closer to reality.

To expose and bring forward the state of mind of the central character of the book, Lovecraft uses the “Necronomicon” in a way that describes the scenery presented in the novel as “strange and disturbing”. This is the extraction that includes the first reference of the “Necronomicon” in the novel. The extract describes what goes through, the main character,  William Dyer’s head as the ship first arrives to the icy mountains on the shore of the Antarctic. It is to be found as early as on page 7: “Something about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing Asian paintings of Nicholas Roerich, and of the still stranger and more disturbing descriptions of the evilly fabled plateau of Leng which occur in the dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. I was rather sorry, later on, that I had never looked into that monstrous book at the college library”

The book is described as “monstrous” in the extract, and to find such awful things that obviously is mentioned and described in the “Necronomicon” in real life must make William Dyer extremely uncomfortable. This way of referring to the “Necronimicon” in order to deepen the unpleasant feeling finding such things, which can only exist in horror movies, continues several times during the novel.  

You can therefore clarify that Lovecraft made a genius move when including the “Necronomicon” as a reference in his novel “At the mountains of madness”. By making up the “Necronomicon” and by not unfolding to much of the books content, he could for himself use it as a reference to strengthen whatever feelings and events in the novel that he wanted to enhance.

Lovecrafts way of using the “Necronomicon” along the side of references to actual creators, such as Nicholas Roerich, Edgar Alan Poe and Edgar Rice Burroughs lets Lovecraft fully show of his intellect and resourcefulness. He uses a lot of plantations, sources and creativity in his way of writing that really gives you the picture of what a great authors H.P Lovecraft indeed was. For its time, his novels were tremendously over the edge, but his courage and stubbornness to carry on writing horror in such raw and provocative manners has forever given him a big name as one of the world’s greatest authors of all time.