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Albert Wilmarth, a scholar of literature and folklore at Miskatonic University in Massachusetts, enters into a correspondence with Henry Akeley, who claims to have found proof that the mysterious and monstrous creatures spoken of in the folklore of his native Vermont are real, and are aliens from another world who have been secretly active on Earth for centuries. Akeley's letters, as well as relating his discoveries, recount the increasing danger he believes himself to be in as the aliens and their human allies seek to recover and destroy the evidence he's gathered. These culminate in a desperate letter announcing that he's probably doomed -- followed by a much more cheerful one claiming that the aliens aren't so bad after all, and inviting Wilmarth to come and see for himself...
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Albert Wilmarth, a scholar of literature and folklore at Miskatonic University in Massachusetts, UsefulNotes/{{Massachusetts}}, enters into a correspondence with Henry Akeley, who claims to have found proof that the mysterious and monstrous creatures spoken of in the folklore of his native Vermont UsefulNotes/{{Vermont}} are real, and are aliens from another world who have been secretly active on Earth for centuries. Akeley's letters, as well as relating his discoveries, recount the increasing danger he believes himself to be in as the aliens and their human allies seek to recover and destroy the evidence he's gathered. These culminate in a desperate letter announcing that he's probably doomed -- followed by a much more cheerful one claiming that the aliens aren't so bad after all, and inviting Wilmarth to come and see for himself...
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In 2020 the HPLHS returned to the story with yet another audio drama version for their long-running ''Radio/DarkAdventureRadioTheatre'' series.
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** The ''Radio/DarkAdventureRadioTheatre'' adaptation is presented as a series of interviews and audio recordings in a very similar style to the ''[[Radio/PleasantGreenUniverse Lovecraft Investigations]]'' version, bordering on RecursiveAdaptation.
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In 2019 the story was also adapted (far more loosely) for radio as part of Julian Simpson's "Radio/PleasantGreenUniverse".
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In 2019 the story was also adapted (far more loosely) for radio as part of Julian Simpson's "Radio/PleasantGreenUniverse". Simpson's earlier radio drama ''Fugue State'' was also heavily influenced by the novella.
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* SolarSystemNeighbors: Not native but the Mi-Go colonised Yaggoth/Pluto.
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* SolarSystemNeighbors: Not native but the Mi-Go colonised Yaggoth/Pluto.Yuggoth/Pluto.
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* SolarSystemNeighbours: Not native but the Mi-Go colonised Yaggoth/Pluto.
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* SolarSystemNeighbours: SolarSystemNeighbors: Not native but the Mi-Go colonised Yaggoth/Pluto.
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* SolarSystemNeighbours: Not native but the Mi-Go colonised Yaggoth/Pluto.
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* MentalSpaceTravel: Not quite because the brain is physically transported but the human body can't survive space travel and has to be left behind.
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* SmallUniverseAfterAll: The Mi-Go can visit planets in other galaxies as well as solar systems.
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* ArtisticLicensePhysics: If Mi-Go do not show up in the photographs due to being made of a "different kind of matter", that means they should be invisible to normal human eyesight as well. Or the other way around -- if Akeley can see them, there is no way they would not appear on pictures. Basically, everything we can see is actually light that is reflected from all surrounding surfaces. Any objects visible to us are visible to us because they reflect light. And photography works on the exact same basic principle (there are good reasons why it is called ''photo''graphy -- "photos" meaning "light" -- in the first place) -- it focuses the light reflected by objects (or emmitted by them) via lens on photosensitive surface, thus forming an image. Technically, this isn't different from how our own eyes work. Therefore, if Mi-Go can be seen, then photographs of them should be easily taken as well.
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In 2019 the story was also adapted (far more loosely) for radio as part of Julian Simpson's "Radio/PleasantGreenUniverse".
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A Wham Line is defined as a line that appears suddenly, with no build up, and radically changes the subsequent course of the scene or story. This, the final line of the story which the entire story has been leading up to, doesn't fit the definition.
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* WhamLine: doubles as TheReveal.
-->For the things in the chair, perfect to the last, subtle detail of microscopic resemblance—or identity—were the face and hands of Henry Wentworth Akeley.
-->For the things in the chair, perfect to the last, subtle detail of microscopic resemblance—or identity—were the face and hands of Henry Wentworth Akeley.
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* BrainTheft: The alien Mi-Go can perform operations on living creatures (including human beings) to remove their brains. The brains are placed in metal "brain cylinders", which can have other devices attached to them to allow the brains to listen, see and speak. In the story, after capturing a man named Akeley, the Mi-Go perform a brain-removal operation on him and store his brain in a cylinder.
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Badass Grandpa cleaning
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* BadassGrandpa: Although not very old, Henry W. Akeley is no longer in his prime, a bookish man, not experienced with combat, yet he held back the Mi-Go for half a year, with his rifle and a pack of faithful dogs.
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* AlienBlood: After Akeley repels a night attack on his house by a combined force of aliens and human collaborators, he finds pools of blood and other pools of "a green sticky stuff that had the worst odour I have ever smelled".
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* AlienBlood: After Akeley repels a night attack on his house by a combined force of aliens and human collaborators, he finds pools of blood and other pools of "a green sticky stuff that had the worst odour I have ever smelled". It's not obvious at first, but is later confirmed to be the blood of a dead Mi-Go.
-->'''Akeley:''' But I haven’t told you the worst, Wilmarth. Brace up to read this, for it will give you a shock. I am telling the truth, though. It is this—I have seen and touched one of the things, or part of one of the things. God, man, but it’s awful! It was dead, of course. One of the dogs had it, and I found it near the kennel this morning. I tried to save it in the woodshed to convince people of the whole thing, but it all evaporated in a few hours. Nothing left. You know, all those things in the rivers were seen only on the first morning after the flood. And here’s the worst. I tried to photograph it for you, but when I developed the film there wasn’t anything visible except the woodshed. What can the thing have been made of? I saw it and felt it, and they all leave footprints. It was surely made of matter—but what kind of matter? The shape can’t be described. It was a great crab with a lot of pyramided fleshy rings or knots of thick, ropy stuff covered with feelers where a man’s head would be. That green sticky stuff is its blood or juice. And there are more of them due on earth any minute.
-->'''Akeley:''' But I haven’t told you the worst, Wilmarth. Brace up to read this, for it will give you a shock. I am telling the truth, though. It is this—I have seen and touched one of the things, or part of one of the things. God, man, but it’s awful! It was dead, of course. One of the dogs had it, and I found it near the kennel this morning. I tried to save it in the woodshed to convince people of the whole thing, but it all evaporated in a few hours. Nothing left. You know, all those things in the rivers were seen only on the first morning after the flood. And here’s the worst. I tried to photograph it for you, but when I developed the film there wasn’t anything visible except the woodshed. What can the thing have been made of? I saw it and felt it, and they all leave footprints. It was surely made of matter—but what kind of matter? The shape can’t be described. It was a great crab with a lot of pyramided fleshy rings or knots of thick, ropy stuff covered with feelers where a man’s head would be. That green sticky stuff is its blood or juice. And there are more of them due on earth any minute.
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* ImmuneToBullets: Not the Mi-Go, as Akeley was able to wound them with his hunting rifle. It's not obvious at first, but is later confirmed when we learn both that the Mi-Go were already present and that the sickly green fluid that stained the bullet-ridden barnyard was Mi-Go blood.
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* ImmuneToBullets: Not the Mi-Go, as Akeley was able to wound them with his hunting rifle. It's not obvious at first, but is later confirmed when we learn both that the Mi-Go were already present and that the sickly green fluid that stained the bullet-ridden barnyard was Mi-Go blood.They also get killed by guard dogs.
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* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The Mi-Go have interstellar space travel (albeit the pre-Einstein [[ScienceMarchesOn ether]] interpretation of space) and the key to biological immortality, but they still get repeatedly foiled and killed by an old farmer and a pack of dogs.
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* ImmuneToBullets: Apparently not, as Akeley was able to shoot one of them.
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* ImmuneToBullets: Apparently not, Not the Mi-Go, as Akeley was able to shoot one of them.wound them with his hunting rifle. It's not obvious at first, but is later confirmed when we learn both that the Mi-Go were already present and that the sickly green fluid that stained the bullet-ridden barnyard was Mi-Go blood.
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* WhamLine: doubles as TheReveal.
-->For the things in the chair, perfect to the last, subtle detail of microscopic resemblance—or identity—were the face and hands of Henry Wentworth Akeley.
-->For the things in the chair, perfect to the last, subtle detail of microscopic resemblance—or identity—were the face and hands of Henry Wentworth Akeley.
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"The Whisperer in Darkness" is a novella by by Creator/HPLovecraft, first published in ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' in August 1931.
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"The Whisperer in Darkness" is a novella by by Creator/HPLovecraft, first published in ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' in August 1931.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whisperdarkness145.jpg]]
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* AlienFairFolk: The Mi-Go are said to have been the inspiration behind legendary creatures in many parts of the world they've visited (including the actual Tibetan ''mi-go'' or yeti).
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* BadassGrandpa: Although not very old, Henry W. Akeley is no longer in his prime, a bookish man, not experienced with combat, yet he held back the Mi-Go for half a year, with his rifle and a pack of faithful dogs.
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* FasterThanLightTravel: The aliens are said to be capable of it. "Do you know that Einstein is wrong, and that certain objects and forces ''can'' move with a velocity greater than that of light?"
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* FantasyMetals: The carrying cases that each BrainInAJar is kept in are said to be made of a metal mined on the distant planet Yuggoth and unlike anything known to human science (or at least to the narrator, although since he's a professor of humanities and not a metallurgist...)
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* CircleOfStandingStones: One of the sites associated with the creatures is "a druid-like circle of standing stones on the summit of a wild hill", "with the grass around them worn away, which did not seem to have been placed or entirely shaped by Nature".
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* PlanetLooters: The aliens are said to be visiting Earth to mine some metal that is not readily available elsewhere. They're a low-key version, visiting the planet in secret instead of conquering it outright; it's said that they could easily achieve the latter strategy but consider it too much bother when they can get what they want on the quiet.
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from trope pages
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: The Mi-Go speak English, but that's because they've been on Earth in secret long enough to learn our languages. And it's mentioned that they need surgical help in order to even produce the sounds necessary for human speech. They communicate with each other by telepathy, as well as bioluminescent colour shifts. They speak by buzzing, which sounds creepy and abnormal even though they can technically get the English sounds just right.
* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: When Wilmarth first hears about the creatures in Vermont, he dismisses them as a legend of this kind. Later, it's suggested that all such legends are ''also'' based on sightings of the creatures, and explicitly stated that they have another outpost in the Himalayas which inspired the legend of the yeti. ("Mi-go" is actually a Tibetan name for the yeti, and is not the creatures' own name for themselves.)
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* BrainInAJar: The TropeCodifier -- the alien Mi-Go place living human brains in cylinders to transport them through space to other planets. Unlike later versions of the trope, the cylinders are not transparent.
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* BrainInAJar: The TropeCodifier -- the alien Mi-Go place living human brains in cylinders to transport them through space to other planets.planets, as the unaltered human body is said to be unable to survive the journey. Unlike later versions of the trope, the cylinders are not transparent.
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* EvilDetectingDog: Dogs have a mutual enimity with the Mi-Go.
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* EvilDetectingDog: Dogs have a mutual enimity with the Mi-Go. Henry Akeley's guard dogs can detect the presence of the Mi-Go when Akeley himself can't, and have an instinctive aggression towards them. As a result, he surrounds himself with them both at home and when traveling.
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* IdiotBall: Wilmarth walks straight into the most obvious trap ever devised, even giving a lengthy monologue about how it can't possibly be a dangerous situation. Fortunately the aliens are just as stupid, and do nothing besides [[SlippingAMickey drug his coffee]] which he doesn't drink, giving him a chance to realize what an idiot he was and run away.
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* IdiotBall: IdiotBall:
** Wilmarthwalks straight is required to get a firm grip on the idiot ball to get him to Vermont for the denouement. The whole business with the out-of-character letter inviting him to come visit (and don't forget to bring all the evidence with you) is, objectively considered, extremely suspicious, and Wilmarth spends a lot of time talking himself into taking the most obvious trap ever devised, even giving a lengthy monologue about how it can't possibly be a dangerous situation. innocent possible interpretation of multiple warning signs.
** Fortunately the aliens are just as stupid, and do nothing besides [[SlippingAMickey drug his coffee]] which he doesn't drink, giving him a chance to realize what an idiot he was and run away.
** Wilmarth
** Fortunately the aliens are just as stupid, and do nothing besides [[SlippingAMickey drug his coffee]] which he doesn't drink, giving him a chance to realize what an idiot he was and run away.
* MachineMonotone: The artificial speaking device that can be hooked up to a BrainInAJar to allow it to communicate.
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** In addition to name-dropping many of his own Franchise/CthulhuMythos creations, Lovecraft includes a reference to Long's "Literature/TheHoundsOfTindalos", published a few years earlier.
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** In addition to name-dropping many of his own Franchise/CthulhuMythos creations, Lovecraft includes a reference to Long's "Literature/TheHoundsOfTindalos", published a few years earlier.earlier, and several works by Creator/RobertEHoward.
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* TakeOurWordForIt: The Mi-Go apparently know many arcane and mind-breaking truths about the history of the world and the nature of the universe. Wilmarth learns some from Akeley's letters, and more when he comes to visit in person. Since he does not wish to break the minds of his audience, however, all he includes in his account are a few ominous hints and a lot of Mythos namechecks.
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* InsectoidAlien: The Mi-Go can fit, although they are more commonly described as crustaceans.
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* InsectoidAlien: InsectoidAliens: The Mi-Go can fit, although they are more commonly described as crustaceans.
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* TheNameless: The man whose brain is in cylinder B-67.
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* NoNameGiven: The man whose brain is in cylinder B-67.
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Albert Wilmarth, a scholar of literature and folklore at Miskatonic University in Massachusetts, enters into a correspondence with Henry Akeley, who claims to have found proof that the mysterious and monstrous creatures spoken of in the folklore of his native Vermont are real, and are aliens from another world who have been secretly active on Earth for centuries. Akeley's letters, as well as relating his discoveries, recount the increasing danger he believes himself to be in as the aliens and their human allies seek to recover and destroy the evidence he's gathered. These culminate in a desperate letter announcing that he's probably doomed -- followed by a much more cheerful one claiming that the aliens aren't so bad after all, and inviting Wilmarth to come and see for himself...
* AlienBlood: After Akeley repels a night attack on his house by a combined force of aliens and human collaborators, he finds pools of blood and other pools of "a green sticky stuff that had the worst odour I have ever smelled".
* ItsQuietTooQuiet: The words are not said, but when Wilmarth arrives at Akeley's farm he's disquieted to realize that there are no animal noises to be heard.
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* MeatPuppet: [[spoiler:TheReveal is Wilmarth finding the face and hands of Akeley lying on his chair, and realising he'd been talking to one of the aliens all the time.]]
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* MeatPuppet: [[spoiler:TheReveal TheReveal is Wilmarth finding the face and hands of Akeley lying on his chair, and realising he'd been talking to one of the aliens all the time.]]
* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Averted; it's mentioned that the alien visitors "could not eat the things and animals of earth, but brought their own food from the stars".
* ShoutOut:
** Early on, before Akeley starts sending him evidence, Wilmarth compares the stories out of Vermont to something written by Charles Fort or Creator/ArthurMachen.
** In addition to name-dropping many of his own Franchise/CthulhuMythos creations, Lovecraft includes a reference to Long's "Literature/TheHoundsOfTindalos", published a few years earlier.
** Early on, before Akeley starts sending him evidence, Wilmarth compares the stories out of Vermont to something written by Charles Fort or Creator/ArthurMachen.
** In addition to name-dropping many of his own Franchise/CthulhuMythos creations, Lovecraft includes a reference to Long's "Literature/TheHoundsOfTindalos", published a few years earlier.
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* TitleDrop: In the penultimate paragraph.
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* TitleDrop: In the penultimate paragraph.paragraph, when Wilmarth realizes what was really going on in the dark sitting room.
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extracted from Film.TheWhispererInDarkness
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[[redirect:Film/TheWhispererInDarkness]]
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Although it makes numerous references to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, the story is not a central part of the mythos, but reflects a shift in Lovecraft's writing at this time towards ScienceFiction. The story introduces an extraterrestrial race of fungoid creatures usually referred to by fans as the Mi-Go (which in the story is just one creature from Earth mythology they're said to have inspired) or the Fungi from Yuggoth.
In 2011 a [[Film/TheWhispererInDarkness film version]] was distributed by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society.
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!!This novella contains examples of:
* ActionSurvivor: Wilmarth is a sheltered academic, but according to other stories set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos survives to old age.
* AncientAstronauts: The Mi-Go have been coming to Earth for millions of years.
* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: Played with; Akeley does not actually become one of the creatures, but he does join their community, as it were.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Mi-Go have long been {{Ur Example}}s for this trope: most people would see the extraction of a brain and putting it in a canister as a morally-questionable act; for them it's a ''reward''.
* BrainInAJar: The TropeCodifier -- the alien Mi-Go place living human brains in cylinders to transport them through space to other planets. Unlike later versions of the trope, the cylinders are not transparent.
* CosmicHorrorStory: Obviously, it's [[TropeCodifier Lovecraft]].
* DevilInDisguise: At the end, the Henry Akeley whom Wilmarth speaks with during his visit is implied to have been a Mi-Go in disguise while the real Akeley had already become a BrainInAJar.
* EpistolaryNovel: A significant part of the story is recounted in the correspondence of letters exchanged between the first-person narrator and another character, until the protagonist decides to visit his penfriend in person.
* EvilDetectingDog: Dogs have a mutual enimity with the Mi-Go.
* IdiotBall: Wilmarth walks straight into the most obvious trap ever devised, even giving a lengthy monologue about how it can't possibly be a dangerous situation. Fortunately the aliens are just as stupid, and do nothing besides [[SlippingAMickey drug his coffee]] which he doesn't drink, giving him a chance to realize what an idiot he was and run away.
* ImmuneToBullets: Apparently not, as Akeley was able to shoot one of them.
* InsectoidAlien: The Mi-Go can fit, although they are more commonly described as crustaceans.
* LonersAreFreaks: Rumor has associated the strange beings with recluses.
-->...there are shocked references to hermits and remote farmers who at some period of life appeared to have undergone a repellent mental change, and who were shunned and whispered about as mortals who had sold themselves to the strange beings. ...it seemed to be a fashion... to accuse eccentric and unpopular recluses of being allies or representatives of the abhorred things.
* LotusEaterMachine: Once they're unplugged, those in the brain cylinders experience 'vivid, fantastic dreams'.
* LovecraftCountry: The aliens have their base (one of several) in the mountains of southern Vermont, near Brattleboro and Townshend.
* MeatPuppet: [[spoiler:TheReveal is Wilmarth finding the face and hands of Akeley lying on his chair, and realising he'd been talking to one of the aliens all the time.]]
* TheNameless: The man whose brain is in cylinder B-67.
* NothingIsScarier: The opening line of the short story is ''Bear in mind closely that I did not see any actual visual horror at the end.''
* SlippingAMickey: The coffee Wilmarth is served when he visits Akeley has an unpleasant taste, which makes him stop after the first sip and surreptitiously dispose of the rest. Given subsequent events, the implication is that it was drugged.
* SpookyPhotographs: The Mi-Go don't show up in photographs because they're made up of 'a different kind of matter'.
* StarfishAliens: The Mi-Go are extremely alien in both biology (they resemble giant crustaceans, but are said to be most like fungi out of any living thing on earth) and mentality.
* SuperIntelligence: Wilmarth is able to commit an absurd amount of material to memory, including pages and pages of correspondence between him and Henry Akeley. No AbsentMindedProfessor is Wilmarth, apparently.
* {{Telepathy}}: The Mi-Go are said to use it to communicate among themselves.
* TitleDrop: In the penultimate paragraph.
-->''Great God! That whisperer in darkness with its morbid odour and vibrations!''
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[[redirect:Film/TheWhispererInDarkness]]
