History Literature / FarBelow

* ScienceHero: Before joining the Special Subway Detail as Inspector Craig, the latter was Professor Craig of the Natural History Museum. It was because of his biological knowledge, especially regarding primates, that he was approached by New York's administrators to examine the ghoul corpse they'd acquired. When Craig's report proved his competence, he was hired as inspector. Even in that role, he passionately continues his research on any ghoul captured by the SSD and on the SSD itself as each member slowly changes into a ghoul due to contact with the beings.

* WeakenedByTheLight: Possibly all light but at minimum intense light is painful if not outright deadly to ghouls.

"Far Below" is a ShortStory by Creator/RobertBarbourJohnson that was originally published in the June 1939 issue of ''Magazine/WeirdTales''. It is either a {{sequel}} or a SpiritualSuccessor to "Literature/{{They|1936}}", with whom it shares daylight-shunning human-eaters referred to as Them, and doubles as a {{homage}} to "Literature/PickmansModel". As such, it is part of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos.

Gordon Craig has been an inspector of the Special Subway Detail of the New York Police Department for twenty-five years when the protagonist keeps him company in his monitor room for one night. The inspector shows off the state-of-the-art tech at the SSD's disposal and tells his guest all about what his job entails. There are ghouls living underneath New York City and they occasionally dig their way into the subway's lowest tunnel, a stretch of five miles, with the aim of finding prey. They are strong and resourceful and know that to derail a train all one has to do is destroy the rails. They've done this once, taking their pick from the injured and unconscious men, women, and children to feed on. Never may this happen again, which is the SSD's primary task. Equally, the public cannot be made aware of the ghouls' existence because it would lead to chaos, so that is something the SSD has to see to too. Another purpose of the SSD is research on the few specimens they manage to capture. For their work, the agents of the SSD get paid handsomely, but there is a catch. The ghouls have a corrupting influence that means that after several years of service in the SSD, its members will themselves slowly change into the very creatures they've been fighting against. When the change reaches its tipping point and the last bit of humanity disappears, the afflicted agent gets gunned down as if he were a born ghoul. Graig's own change, to the protagonist's horror, is far along, which is why he no longer goes aboveground. He himself is proud of his work as both a scientist and inspector and therefore at peace with his fate as long as he doesn't dwell on it.

Among the paintings in "Pickman's Model", one titled "Subway Accident" features a flock of ghouls "clambering up from some unknown catacomb through a crack in the floor of the Boylston Street subway and attacking a crowd of people on the platform." It is evident that Johnson's main inspiration for "Far Below" is this fictional painting. Although no such event occurs in "Far Below", the one that does occur, the derailment of a train midway between stations and the subsequent attack on its passengers, is alike enough. Furthermore, Creator/HPLovecraft features in "Far Below" as someone Gordon Craig befriended after becoming inspector and it is implied that not only did Lovecraft write some of Craig's experiences into his stories, he also toned down their true horror, which accounts for the difference between "Far Below" and "Subway Accident". Another inspiration is either "Literature/{{Amina}}" or, more likely, "Literature/TheChadbourneEpisode", as the latter repeated the former's assertion that ghouls are systematically hunted down in Persia, which is something also noted to be the case in "Far Below". Aside from literary influences, Robert Jefferson Johnson, Johnson's father, at one point in his career joined the railroad's undercover police service, which will have made writing "Far Below" a personal endeavor.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Craig notes that the ghouls' first attack on a subway train happened when America "was as good as in the war", which means it happened not too long before April 6, 1917, the date that the USA entered World War I. He also says that the tunnel the attack took place in had only been open for a year. The latest before 1917 that a subway tunnel was opened in real life was the Steinway Tunnel on June 22, 1915, which would put the attack in 1916. However, Craig also says he was asked to do research on a ghoul corpse retrieved from the wreck upon his return "from Carl Akeley's first African expedition after gorillas," and depending on if he was part of the whole expedition or tapped out earlier, his return would've been anywhere from August 1921 to January 1922. There isn't an expedition that matches better either because from 1914 onwards World War I affected Akeley's opportunities. His then-last expedition ended in 1911 and focused on elephants. It is unlikely that the first attack is meant to have taken place in the 1920s, because Craig's been on the job for twenty-five years. Were the story's present 1946 or so, then the equipment Jimmy Walker's budget approvals before he resigned as mayor in 1933 got the Special Subway Detail would've not been as relevant anymore.

* DeadManWalking: Anyone who exists near the ghouls will over time change into a ghoul themselves. This means that anyone who joins the Special Subway Detail has a mere handful of years to resign before the change has any perceivable effect. So far most if not all agents have stayed, possibly because they joined before the ghouls' corruption was known about. Inspector Craig, who himself is far in his corruption, refers to his agents as "an army of the Unburied Dead" and "an army of the Eternally Damned".
* DeathOfAChild: The ghouls grab whomever they can use for food. Children are no exception and several of them were killed in the wreck of 1916, which the ghouls had orchestrated.
* DesecratingTheDead: The corpses of killed ghouls are disposed off by the Special Subway Detail by burying or dumping them in the lowest tunnel. Inspections later on have shown that the other ghouls dig up the corpses to consume the flesh.

* HandWave: The ghouls only come up in the lowest subway tunnel, an area of five miles, and they only come out at night despite that time matters little in the tunnels. Why they operate so narrowly is something no one has been able to figure out, but it allows the Special Subway Detail to focus all their manpower and tech, both stationary and mobile, on that specific tunnel for a handful of hours each night. Inspector Craig offers four gest-guess explanations for what makes the tunnel different. The first is that the ghouls are creatures of habit and aren't comfortable venturing elsewhere. The second is that they are supernaturally bound to the lowest tunnel. The third is that the tunnel's dankness creates a "fungoid moisture and miasmic darkness" that suits them. And the fourth is a suspicion that the lowest tunnel borders a yet undiscovered cavern system. As to the matter of the ghouls' nocturnal habits despite living underground, the best Craig can offer is that they prefer to hunt when there's more time between power-cars zooming by.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Three real-life people are mentioned in relation to the story's event. Deuteragonist Gordon Craig went with the real-life Carl Akeley on his gorilla expedition in 1921 and was recruited to the Special Subway Detail thereafter because of his knowledge on foreign lifeforms. Jimmy Walker, the mayor of New York from 1926 to 1932, is credited for pushing through crucial investments to the SSD's equipment shortly before he resigned. And Craig has met Creator/HPLovecraft, with whom he exchanged notes on ghouls. It is implied that "Literature/PickmansModel" was partially based on the information Craig provided.

* {{Masquerade}}: The Special Subway Detail and all of New York City's administration keep the existence of ghouls a secret to prevent mass chaos and panic and vigilantism and everything else that would destabilize the city. It all started with the subway train wreck the ghouls orchestrated, which the authorities hushed up as a suspicious accident. The newspapers, always looking for a scoop, went wild with theories about a German spy plot to keep the USA out of the Great War. This convenient rumor mill gave those in charge ample to set up the SSD and streamline what cover-ups they'd use in their fight against the ghouls.

* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: The ghouls are referred to as such only once; to the members of the Special Subway Detail it is wiser not to define their enemy and risk dwelling on their horror. Therefore, the common terms used are "They", "Them", and "Things", all with capital T. Ghouls have a "vaguely anthropoid structure" usually held in a bestial, semi-crouched posture. They have greenish white eyes that shine in the darkness, pale skin, elongated jaws and flat foreheads that evoke a canine appearance, and spade-like appendages that give the ghouls the digging capacity of huge moles. Unless they're hunting, they're elusive and all that may be perceived of them are their shining eyes and hyena-like laughter. From his position as a professor in biology, Craig gives such descriptions as "some sort of giant, carrion-feeding, subterranean mole" and "canine and simian developments of members", which he wholeheartedly admits sounds contradictory. Ghouls are carnivorous and favor human prey and human carrion, but they don't mind eating the corpses of their own dead either. Light of any kind is deadly to ghouls which is why they stay in caves and tunnels underground. The SSD has noticed that even without the day-night cycle mattering underground, the ghouls still only are active for a little over four hours each night. Whether this is something biological or if they're responding to the slowing down of subway traffic is yet to be determined. Ghouls are loosely theorized to have telepathic powers, but what is certain is that they are intelligent and have a corrupting influence. It is their proximity that little by little changes the SSD agents from humans into ghouls. Mental instability seems to quicken the process. For their evident connection to humanity, Craig theorizes that ghouls are descendants of Neandertals or Piltdown people that were forced underground.

* ScienceHero: Before joining the Special Subway Detail as Inspector Craig, the latter was Professor Craig of the Natural History Museum. It was because of his biological knowledge, especially regarding primates, that he was approach by New York's administrators to examine the ghoul corpse they'd acquired. When Craig's report proved his competence, he was hired as inspector. Even in that role, he passionately continues his research on any ghoul captured by the SSD and on the SSD itself as each member slowly changes into a ghoul due to contact with the beings.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: When Professor Craig was handed the ghoul corpse to research, it was less so to obtain any useful information, because the New York government already knew quite a lot, and more so to see if he'd be a good leader for the Special Subway Detail that was being founded.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The Special Subway Detail only captures ghouls alive if it is a safe venture and if there's research or funding to be gained from a live specimen. The default approach, nonetheless, is to kill as many ghouls as possible, both for their consumption of human flesh and their corrupting influence. Said corruption is that the near presence of ghouls turns humans into them if given a few years of time. It's a fate that awaits nearly all on the SSD and there's been one case of a colleague truly reaching the tipping point. He was shot down and disposed of as any other ghoul, with the only difference being that paperwork was involved.
* WouldHurtAChild: The ghouls grab whomever they can use for food. Children are no exception and several of them were killed in the wreck of 1916, which the ghouls had orchestrated.

%%* BrownNoteBeing: Being near the ghouls triggers a transformation in humans that ends with them becoming ghouls themselves. It is a slow process of years madness might hasten the process soul-sick You just can’t breathe the same air with them, live together in the same sane world!

%%* FantasticRacism: No human that know about ghouls cares to of Persia keep to a few simple rules when dealing with ghouls: Do not hesitate. Do not talk. Wield whichever weapon at hand to kill. It doesn't matter if the fight is unfair, because ghouls are eaters of humans and without mercy of their own.

%%* {{Masquerade}}: The Special Subway Detail and all politicians involved have chosen to keep the existence of ghouls a secret to preventI recall, passed as a German spy plot to keep us from going in with the Allies. The newspapers howled bloody murder about alleged ‘confessions’ and evidence they claimed they had. We let ’em howl, of course. Why not? America was as good as in the war anyhow, by then. And if we'd told the people of New York City what really wrecked that subway train

[[caption-width-right:350:Repeat after me: The submachine subdues subterranean subhumans subsisting in the subway.]]

Gordon Craig has been an inspector of the Special Subway Detail of the New York Police Department for twenty-five years when the protagonist keeps him company in his monitor room for one night. And so, Craig shows off the state-of-the-art tech at the SSD's disposal and tells his guest all about what his job entails. There are ghouls living underground like moles and they occasionally come up in the subway's lowest tunnel, a stretch of five miles, with the aim of finding prey. They are strong and resourceful and may destroy the rails to get a power-car to crash so that they can pick out the humans that died and the survivors too if the extra flesh is needed. This is what happened once, a horrific incident in 1916, and cannot be allowed to happen again. Equally, the public cannot be made aware of the ghouls' existence because it would lead to chaos, so that is something the SSD has to see to too. Another purpose of the SSD is research on the few specimens they manage to capture. For their work, the agents of the SSD get paid handsomely, but there is a catch. The ghouls' have a corrupting aura that means that after several years of service in the SSD, its members will themselves begin the change into the very creatures they've been fighting against. When the change reaches its tipping point and the last bit of humanity disappears, the afflicted agent gets gunned down as if he were a born ghoul. Graig's own change, to the protagonist's horror, has already started. He himself is at peace with his fate as long as he doesn't dwell on it.

It is evident that Johnson's main inspiration for "Far Below" is the painting "Subway Accident" as mentioned in "Pickman's Model", of which the following description is given:
->There was a study called "Subway Accident", in which a flock of the vile things were clambering up from some unknown catacomb through a crack in the floor of the Boylston Street subway and attacking a crowd of people on the platform.

Although no such event occurs in "Far Below", the one that does occur, the derailment of a power-car midway between stations and the subsequent attack on its passengers, is alike enough. Furthermore, Creator/HPLovecraft features in "Far Below" as someone Gordon Craig befriended in the 1920s, and it is implied that not only did Lovecraft write some of Craig's experiences into his stories, he also toned down their true horror, which accounts for the difference between "Far Below" and "Subway Accident". Another inspiration is either "Literature/{{Amina}}" or, more likely, "Literature/TheChadbourneEpisode", as the latter repeated the former's assertion that ghouls are systematically hunted down in Persia, which is something also noted to be the case in "Far Below". Aside from literary influences, Robert Jefferson Johnson, Johnson's father, at one point in his career joined the railroad's undercover police service, which will have made writing "Far Below" a personal endeavor.

This story was adapted into the ''Series/{{Monsters}}'' episode "Far Below" in 1990.

%%* FantasticRacism:

%%* IgnoranceIsBliss:

* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: The ghouls are referred to as such only once; to the members of the Special Subway Detail it is wiser not to define their enemy and risk dwelling on their horror. Therefore, the common terms used are "They", "Them", and "Things", all with capital T. Ghouls have a "vaguely anthropoid structure" usually held in a bestial, semi-crouched posture. They have green eyes that shine in the darkness, pale skin, elongated jaws and flat foreheads that evoke a canine appearance, and spade-like appendages that give the ghouls the digging capacity of huge moles. Unless they're hunting, they're elusive and all that may be perceived of them are their shining eyes and hyena-like laughter. From his position as a professor in biology, Craig gives such descriptions as "some sort of giant, carrion-feeding, subterranean mole" and "canine and simian developments of members", which he wholeheartedly admits sounds contradictory. Ghouls are carnivorous and favor human prey and human carrion, but they don't mind eating the corpses of their own dead either. Light of any kind is deadly to ghouls which is why they stay in caves and tunnels underground. The SSD has noticed that even without the day-night cycle mattering underground, the ghouls still only are active for a little over four hours each night. Whether this is something biological or if they're responding to the slowing down of subway traffic is yet to be determined. Ghouls are loosely theorized to have telepathic powers, but what is certain is that they are intelligent and have a corrupting influence. It is their proximity that little by little changes the SSD agents from humans into ghouls. Mental instability seems to quicken the process. For their evident connection to humanity, Craig theorizes that ghouls are descendants of Neandertals or Piltdown people that were forced underground.

* WeakenedByTheLight: Any and all light is painful if not outright deadly to ghouls.

%%* ImAHumanitarian:

%%* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: eyes shining just as Their eyes do in the darkness; There was vaguely anthropoid structure, all right; and the blood corpuscles were almost human— quite shockingly so. But the head and the spade-like appendages and the muscular development were quite unlike any beast or man on this earth. Indeed, the thing had never been on this earth! There was no doubt of that! It would have died above to reconcile my classification of ‘some sort of giant, carrion-feeding, subterranean mole’ with my ravings about ‘canine and simian developments of members’ and my absurd insistence on ‘startlingly humanoid cranial development, and brain convolutions indicating a degree of intelligence tha , green eyes ground in half a minute, just like an angleworm in the sun. Once in a while we’d fire our guns at something whitish and half seen, but there'd be only a tittering laugh in answer —a laugh as mirthless and savage as that of a hyena, dying away in the earth.... ho slew and kept silent about their slaying, lest their fellowmen think them mad—until finally the blasted remnant of the Things went far underground, bur- only here in certain hours of the night. Don’t ask me why they never come up in daylight; for it’s always night down here, you know, hundreds of feet below the surface. Maybe it’s the constant passage of the trains—they shuttle by at two-minute intervals all day long, you know, and until the Broadway theatres close at night. Only for about four hours of the night is there those supernatural telepathic powers

%%* TheReveal:

%%* ScienceHero: I went for six days and nights without sleep or even rest, analyzing that dead corpse down to its last rag and bone and hank of hair!

%%* ArtisticLicenseHistory: 1915 Seventh Avenue subway collapse.

%%* WritersCannotDoMath: Craig was recruited to the Special Subway Detail after he "returned from Carl Akeley's first African expedition after gorillas." This took place in 1921. He also says he's been with the SSD for twenty-five years, which means that the story's present is 1946. This isn't impossible, but the story's context suggests the setting to be the "now" of 1939 at the latest. For instance, much is made of Jimmy Walker's budget approvals before he resigned as mayor in 1933, which is something that in 1939 would still be relevant, but a lot less so in 1946.

"Far Below" is a ShortStory by Creator/RobertBarbourJohnson that was originally published in the June 1939 issue of ''Magazine/WeirdTales''. It is either a {{sequel}} or a SpiritualSuccessor to "They", with whom it shares daylight-shunning human-eaters referred to as Them, and doubles as a {{homage}} to Creator/HPLovecraft's "Literature/PickmansModel". As such, it is part of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos.

Although no such event occurs in "Far Below", the one that does occur, the derailment of a power-car midway between stations and the subsequent attack on its passengers, is alike enough. Furthermore, Lovecraft features in "Far Below" as someone Gordon Craig befriended in the 1920s, and it is implied that not only did Lovecraft write some of Craig's experiences into his stories, he also toned down their true horror, which accounts for the difference between "Far Below" and "Subway Accident". Another inspiration is either "Literature/{{Amina}}" or, more likely, "Literature/TheChadbourneEpisode", as the latter repeated the former's assertion that ghouls are systematically hunted down in Persia, which is something also noted to be the case in "Far Below". Aside from literary influences, Robert Jefferson Johnson, Johnson's father, at one point in his career joined the railroad's undercover police service, which will have made writing "Far Below" a personal endeavor.

Gordon Craig has been an inspector of the Special Subway Detail of the New York Police Department for twenty-five years when the protagonist keeps him company in his monitor room for one night. And so, Craig shows off the state-of-the-art tech at the SSD's disposal and tells his guest all about what his job entails. There are ghouls living underground like moles and they occasionally come up in the subway's lowest tunnel, a stretch of five miles, with the aim of finding prey. They are strong and resourceful and may destroy the rails to get a power-car to crash so that they can pick out the humans that died and the survivors too if the extra flesh is needed. This is what happened once, a horrific incident in 1916/7, and cannot be allowed to happen again. Equally, the public cannot be made aware of the ghouls' existence because it would lead to chaos, so that is something the SSD has to see to too. Another purpose of the SSD is research on the few specimens they manage to capture. For their work, the agents of the SSD get paid handsomely, but there is a catch. The ghouls' have a corrupting aura that means that after several years of service in the SSD, its members will themselves begin the change into the very creatures they've been fighting against. When the change reaches its tipping point and the last bit of humanity disappears, the afflicted agent gets gunned down as if he were a born ghoul. Graig's own change, to the protagonist's horror, has already started. He himself is at peace with his fate as long as he doesn't dwell on it.

Although no such event occurs in "Far Below", the one that does occur, a derailment of a power-car midway between stations and the subsequent attack on its passengers, is alike enough. Furthermore, Lovecraft features in "Far Below" as someone Gordon Craig befriended in the 1920s, and it is implied that not only did Lovecraft write some of Craig's experiences into his stories, he also toned down their true horror, which accounts for the difference between "Far Below" and "Subway Accident". Another inspiration is either "Literature/{{Amina}}" or, more likely, "Literature/TheChadbourneEpisode", as the latter repeated the former's assertion that ghouls are systematically hunted down in Persia, which is something also noted to be the case in "Far Below". Aside from literary influences, Robert Jefferson Johnson, Johnson's father, at one point in his career joined the railroad's undercover police service, which will have made writing "Far Below" a personal endeavor.

%%* ArtisticLicenseHistory:

* DeathOfAChild: The ghouls grab whomever they can use for food. Children are no exception and several of them were killed in the wreck of 1916/7, which the ghouls had orchestrated.
%%* DesecratingTheDead:

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Three real-life people are mentioned in relation to the story's event. Deuteragonist Gordon Craig went with the real-life Carl Akeley on his gorilla expedition in 1921 and was recruited to the Special Subway Detail thereafter because of his knowledge on foreign lifeforms. Jimmy Walker, the mayor of New York from 1926 to 1932, is credited for pushing through crucial investments to the SSD's equipment shortly before he resigned. And Craig has met Creator/HPLovecraft, with whom he exchanged notes on ghouls. It is implied that "Literature/PickmansModel" was partially inspired by the information Craig provided.

%%* {{Masquerade}}:
%%* OurGhoulsAreCreepier:

%%* SinisterNudity:

%%* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman:
%%* TheWorldIsNotReady:
* WouldHurtAChild: The ghouls grab whomever they can use for food. Children are no exception and several of them were killed in the wreck of 1916/7, which the ghouls had orchestrated.
%%* WritersCannotDoMath Craig was recruited to the Special Subway Detail after he "returned from Carl Akeley's first African expedition after gorillas." This took place in 1921. He also says he's been with the SSD for twenty-five years, which means that the story's present is 1946. This isn't impossible, but it doesn't appear to be the story's intention. Notably, much of the SSD's fancy tech is said to be courtesy of Jimmy Walker's arguing in favor of the investment before resigning. If so,