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Deconstructing Cosmic Horror

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BC007 Since: Dec, 1969
#1: Apr 5th 2011 at 6:55:28 PM

Before I get started I just want to say that I don't want to know about deconstructions already made. You could argue that several certain works have done the job already.

No, what I want to know from you, fellow creatives, is this: if YOU were writing a deconstruction of Lovecraft's work, if it was your job to completely shatter and re-examine the uncaring universe of the abominations... how would YOU do it?

PDown It's easy, mmkay? Since: Jan, 2012
It's easy, mmkay?
#2: Apr 5th 2011 at 6:56:35 PM

If they could destroy the world instantaneously, why the fuck wouldn't they have already?

At first I didn't realize I needed all this stuff...
Myrmidon The Ant King from In Antartica Since: Nov, 2009
The Ant King
#3: Apr 5th 2011 at 6:59:49 PM

Because they don't care.

I could spray every inch of my basement with antibiotics. I just don't care enough to do so.

Kill all math nerds
Cider The Final ECW Champion from Not New York Since: May, 2009 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
The Final ECW Champion
#4: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:02:48 PM

Deconstruct Lovecraft's work? Set it in Barbados, Guyana, or the Philippines and make the main character NOT be a foreigner. No genetically inferior or inbred antagonists, use women. Give a reason for why Ragnarök-Proofing works.

Makes sure whatever my abomination is, if I use an abomination, does not resemble sushi, a man or any mix of a man and sushi. Don't mention my abominations all the time, make their invocations rarer. Have a few characters survive with their sanity largely intact. Extreme paranoia and pessimism will be unavoidable, but gibbering insanity is something I'd cut down on, I'd rather just kill or comatose who I don't want and leave the victims more intact. Having most of your perceptions, knowing what is to come, is scarier.

edited 5th Apr '11 8:00:03 PM by Cider

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack
BC007 Since: Dec, 1969
#5: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:06:14 PM

^Very nice. Short, simple, and effective reasons. But just to clarify, I'm sure you meant use women as characters and not as antagonists, right?

Cider The Final ECW Champion from Not New York Since: May, 2009 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
The Final ECW Champion
#6: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:12:08 PM

Use them as characters, protagonists, antagonists, flat support, background flavor, just make them more notable and memorable.

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack
blueharp Since: Dec, 1969
#7: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:15:32 PM

give them comprehensible feelings.

PDown It's easy, mmkay? Since: Jan, 2012
It's easy, mmkay?
#8: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:17:52 PM

That's not a Deconstruction, that's a Mainstreamization.

To be honest, I think that almost everyone fails when they criticize the concept of Cosmic Horror because they fail to understand what the definition is.

At first I didn't realize I needed all this stuff...
BC007 Since: Dec, 1969
#9: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:21:05 PM

^Ok, that's a valid point. What else would you suggest?

PDown It's easy, mmkay? Since: Jan, 2012
It's easy, mmkay?
#10: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:27:27 PM

Cosmic Horror is in and of itself a Deconstruction, so to deconstruct Cosmic Horror you need to reconstruct all of the ideas that Cosmic Horror sought out to deconstruct. The idea that humankind really IS exceptional in the universe, the idea that all "incomprehensible" things CAN eventually be comprehended, the idea that any enemy to goodness WILL be defeated.

At first I didn't realize I needed all this stuff...
BC007 Since: Dec, 1969
#11: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:30:17 PM

I see. I hadn't thought of it from that perspective. That's a very interesting idea.

BC007 Since: Dec, 1969
#12: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:35:31 PM

Shit, I guess that means I have to change the title now, huh?

Cider The Final ECW Champion from Not New York Since: May, 2009 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
The Final ECW Champion
#13: Apr 5th 2011 at 7:59:11 PM

You linked to the monster, not to Cosmic Horror Story.

I think looking at it from the eyes of a different culture, not from the eyes of some supposed civilized dude looking down on a bunch of creepy subhumans, is better. I don't have a problem with Transhuman Treachery but it should be just that, treachery. Or maybe look like a man but off, but then they should be obvious to the reader as otherly.

To be perfectly aware of everything that surrounds you, your own insignificance, how easily your race, your civilization, your planet can be wiped away but a living uncaring or hateful thing and trying to live with it, is better than just the mind breaking under the strain. People who think they may be crazy but really aren't are scarier than those explicitly driven mad from a narrative stand in my opinion, they are easier to relate to. Others die horribly, or disappear without trace, do those that linger give in to the inevitable, is it better to do it yourself or do you live on in fear? Does spreading the word really matter, even if possible? Leaving some people relatively intact at the end leads the reader to guess what would happen.

Okay the insanity thing could also work, but has to be universal. The point of view people can't just think its horrible to the point of their minds breaking, everything else short of the biggest abominations themselves have to be mindless or genuinely insane too. No half and halfing. This isn't about Cosmic Horror Story as a whole, its about Lovecraft HP and even then the genre is very capable of being deconstructed. A question about whether or not such deconstructions would be entertaining is another thing as tropers tend to use "deconstruction" as a synonym for "better".

edited 5th Apr '11 8:39:48 PM by Cider

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack
BC007 Since: Dec, 1969
#14: Apr 5th 2011 at 8:08:13 PM

Not better, just different. A reworking and new understanding of things. Truth be told, though, I don't care one way or another if it comes out for the better or worse. I just want to learn and understand and you guys are giving me great stuff so far.

BC007 Since: Dec, 1969
#15: Apr 5th 2011 at 8:33:46 PM

And while I do love P Down's view of the genre as inherently deconstructive, for now let's focus on the mechanics of the stories, if just for arguments sake.

feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#16: Apr 5th 2011 at 8:58:20 PM

Hmm . . . it's not a deconstruction per se, but Ow My Sanity certainly does something to the genre. (The author has called it a "thesis statement" on how Lovecraft stopped being scary to modern audiences.)

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#17: Apr 5th 2011 at 10:23:42 PM

When they look in a reflective surface, what do they see?

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MoeDantes cuter, cuddlier Edmond from the Land of Classics Since: Nov, 2010
cuter, cuddlier Edmond
#18: Apr 7th 2011 at 9:59:31 PM

I'd just make it so that not everyone is scared of these things.

I mean surely, there would be people whose first instinct would be curiosity as opposed to fear.

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KnightofLsama Since: Sep, 2010
#19: Apr 8th 2011 at 2:22:12 AM

I think one element that would be useful in deconstructing Lovecraft would be deconstructing his use of Alien Geometries. Certain branches of physics and their associated mathematical domains deal with non-Euclidean metrics on a regular basis. To them this is not alien and unknowable but their bread and butter and nothing punctures the feeling of dread of the unknown like a good dose of Technobabble.

Similarly great age crops up as another bugbear in some of his work but again their a several branches of the physical sciences (Geology, Paleontology and especially Cosmology) are well acquainted with the concept of Deep Time and when encountering artifacts of such an age are more likely to fanboy than fall over in dread.

I remember someone on this wiki making a comment to the effect that a lot of modern science would scare the pants off Lovecraft. The right selection of scientists would be just the right people to take some of the wind out of the sails.

willyolio Since: Jan, 2001
#20: Apr 8th 2011 at 3:04:32 PM

Post-Singularity humans in the future ARE the Cosmic Horror and we happen upon a "primitive" spacefaring culture.

FarseerLolotea from America's Finest City Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#21: Apr 9th 2011 at 3:58:19 AM

Post-Singularity humans in the future ARE the Cosmic Horror and we happen upon a "primitive" spacefaring culture.
Interesting idea. I'm reminded of a story called "They're Made Of Meat" (or something of the sort) with a dose of Humans Are Cthulhu added to the mix.

zerky Since: Jan, 2001
#22: Apr 9th 2011 at 4:06:36 AM

[up] You're looking for this.

It's not so much that humans are Cthulhu, but that their biology is so absurd that they're actually kind of inferior.

jacas Since: Dec, 1969
#23: Apr 9th 2011 at 7:19:57 AM

The traditional view of Cosmic Horror is "The universe is hostile and indifferent to man." The best way to deconstruct is to shift it to "The universe is hostile and indifferent to all things, alien squid gods included, and nothing is certain." Cosmic Horror is built around the certainty that man is doomed.

For example: Cthulhu is dead and dreaming, but one day he will wake up and kill us all. But if you make it uncertain- that maybe Cthulhu is dead, period, and the worms are eating him- then that changes things. Humanity may be killed by evil alien gods, but we may be wiped by asteroids instead- or maybe we won't die at all, but go on to conquer the universe. Praying to Yog-Sogoth for ancient forbidden knowledge is about as effective as praying to God for a winning lottery ticket. And so on.

feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#24: Apr 9th 2011 at 4:02:36 PM

^ Lovecraft himself portrayed the universe as indifferent even to Cthulhu. Unbuilt Trope, perhaps?

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
Durazno Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#25: Apr 9th 2011 at 9:37:14 PM

Yup, everything is at the mercy of Azathoth, the blind idiot god, and the universe is even cold and indifferent to it because there's nothing to suggest that anything else exists beyond Azathoth and its delusions (us.)


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