November 1, 2024

 Greetings Everyone!

It's November, the last month of autumn before the dark days of winter!

Now is the season to read Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft,  writers who capture perfectly the horrors that lurk beyond the boundaries of space and time.

Hervey Allen describes one of Poe’s greatest poems in his biography Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe.

“In “Ulalume,” Poe personified the constellations, reading into them an allegory of his soul’s predicament...there was a white, frosty starlight caught in these lines; a terror of the great caverns of space, haunted by the beasts of the zodiac; an element of irresponsible cosmic will in the fatal hour marked by the star-dials...a demon landscape lit by the star-glimmering, miraculous crescent of the goddess of passion.” 

Poe’s fictional works are filled with this  “white, frosty” terror.  H. P. Lovecraft’s work, also, expresses the same kind of terror.

JLS

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107690/

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!

JLS

October 25, 2024

Greetings Everyone!

It is the last week of October and in this, my final October posting, let us sum up what we have learned during the month.

*  Ray Bradbury talks about the autumn people and warns us against them, claiming that they are soulless, evil things that seek to ensnare humans.  But there are also autumn people who have souls and are not evil; they love autumn and celebrate the death of the year and the renewal that always follows.

* Bradbury, again,  describes Halloween with images that seem to suggest death: the cold wind; the velvet grave-cerements; the smoke-like funeral plumes; images that seem to be a threat to our existence. But Halloween is not about death—it is about life. And the candles burning in jack o’ lanterns represent life and the celebration of the everlasting life to come after death. 

* H. P. Lovecraft personifies October as a “mystic pilgrim” who comes from a far land down the road to farther lands.  Lovecraft did not believe in “farther lands,” but I do—and I think that most of you do as well—farther lands of beauty and promise where we can, if we have enough love, hope and faith, make all of our dreams come true.

* Finally, Edgar Allan Poe describes a man journeying on Halloween night through a nightmarish place, encouraged to keep going  by the beautiful vision of a ghost planet. But he  ends up standing before the tomb of his dead lover—the Lady Ulalume; he has been tricked by the woodland ghouls into a confrontation with Death.  

This is the ultimate Halloween trick or treat.

But it is also a blessing.  For now, he can come to terms with his sadness and his emptiness and put them to rest, just as his lover is now at rest. And then he can move on to a new life and to the future that always waits for those who keep moving forward. 

JLS 

October 15, 2024

Greetings Everyone!

It is the third week of October!

Before ending my series of October postings, it is only fitting to cite Edgar Allan Poe, an autumn person to the roots of his heart and soul. 

In his greatest poem “Ulalume”, Poe describes the October dream-scape that his narrator is journeying through on his way to a mysterious destination.  It is clear that this nightmarish experience is taking place on Halloween night.

The skies they were ashen and sober;

The leaves they were crisped and sere-

The leaves they were withering and sere:

It was night, in the lonesome October

Of my most immemorial year:

It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,

In the misty mid region of Weir:-

It was down by the dark tarn of Auber,

In the ghoul-haunted woodland  of Weir.

The narrator encounters weird visions, including the “specter” of a planet—a  ghost planet!—and ends up standing before the tomb of his beloved, the Lady Ulalume.

The narrator has been tricked by the woodland ghouls into a confrontation with Death.   And this is the ultimate Halloween trick or treat!

JLS

October 8, 2024

 Greetings Everyone!

It is the second week of October.

 H. P. Lovecraft, surely as much of a patron saint of autumn as Ray Bradbury, personifies October as a “mystic pilgrim” in his poem “October.”

“Mellow-faced with eyes of faery, wistful clad in tinted leaves,

See the brown October tarry by the golden rows of sheaves.

Oak and acorn in his garland, fruit and wineskin in his hands,

Mystic pilgrim from a far land down the road to farther lands.”

This is a bit ironic because Lovecraft didn’t believe in the existence of “farther lands.”  Lovecraft had no love for humans, no hope that human beings could perfect themselves and no faith that higher, spiritual beings exist who care about  us.  He saw only a bleak, frightening cosmos waiting in the future—a cosmos indifferent to us and filled with malevolent entities that seek to insure our destruction.

But this is Lovecraft’s belief and there is no reason why we have to accept it.  

For my part, I believe in the farther lands—the lands of beauty and promise— where we can, if we have enough love, hope and faith, make all of our dreams come true.

JLS 

October 2, 2024

Greetings Everyone!

It is the first week of October.

Ray Bradbury, who can be considered as the patron saint of October, describes the last day of the month in his book The Halloween Tree—a book that adults as well as children should read to get into the spirit of this timeless season.

“It was the afternoon of Halloween.

And all the houses shut against a cool wind.

And the town full of cold sunlight.

But suddenly, the day was gone.

Night came out from under each tree and spread.....

Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet.  Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades.....”

These words seem to be permeated with death. The cold wind; the velvet cerements; the funeral plumes; all of these seem to be a threat.

But Halloween is not about death.  It is about life.

The candle burning in the jack o’ lantern is life and, perhaps, the celebration of the everlasting life to come after death. 

JLS  

September 30, 2024

Greetings Everyone!

October is right around the corner—my  favorite month!

Ray Bradbury describes autumn in his book The October Country  as:

“That country where it is always turning late in the year.  That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay.  That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun.  That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts.  Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain....”

In another book, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury warns us against the autumn people, whom he claims are soulless, evil things that seek to ensnare humans.  But Bradbury is wrong about that.

For there are autumn people who have souls and are not evil; they love autumn and celebrate the death of the year and the renewal that always follows.

JLS