Wednesday, July 13, 2011

HP Lovecraft's Commonplace Book: entries 41-80

41 The Italians call Fear La figlia della Morte—the daughter of Death. [x]
42 Fear of mirrors—memory of dream in which scene is altered and climax is hideous surprise at seeing oneself in the water or a mirror. (Identity?) [Outsider?]
43 Monsters born living—burrow underground and multiply, forming race of unsuspected daemons.
44 Castle by pool or river—reflection fixed thro’ centuries—castle destroyed, reflection lives to avenge destroyers weirdly.
45 Race of immortal Pharaohs dwelling beneath pyramids in vast subterranean halls down black staircases.
46 Hawthorne—unwritten plot
Visitor from tomb—stranger at some publick concourse followed at midnight to graveyard where he descends into the earth.
47 From Arabia Encyc. Britan. II—255
Prehistoric fabulous tribes of Ad in the south, Thamood in the north, and Tasm and Jadis in the centre of the peninsula. “Very gorgeous are the descriptions given of Irem, the City of Pillars (as the Koran styles it) supposed to have been erected by Shedad, the latest despot of Ad, in the regions of Hadramaut, and which yet, after the annihilation of its tenants, remains entire, so Arabs say, invisible to ordinary eyes, but occasionally and at rare intervals, revealed to some heaven-favoured traveller.” // Rock excavations in N.W. Hejaz ascribed to Thamood tribe.
48 Cities wiped out by supernatural wrath.
49 AZATHOTH—hideous name. [x]
50 Phleg′-e-thon—
a river of liquid fire in Hades. [x]
51 Enchanted garden where moon casts shadow of object or ghost invisible to the human eye.
52 Calling on the dead—voice or familiar sound in adjacent room.
53 Hand of dead man writes.
54 Transposition of identity.
55 Man followed by invisible thing.
56 Book or MS. too horrible to read—warned against reading it—someone reads and is found dead. Haverhill incident.
57 Sailing or rowing on lake in moonlight—sailing into invisibility.
58 A queer village—in a valley, reached by a long road and visible from the crest of the hill from which that road descends—or close to a dense and antique forest.
59 Man in strange subterranean chamber—seeks to force door of bronze—overwhelmed by influx of waters.
60 Fisherman casts his net into the sea by moonlight—what he finds.
61 A terrible pilgrimage to seek the nighted throne of the far daemon-sultan Azathoth.
62 Live man buried in bridge masonry according to superstition—or black cat.
63 Sinister names—Nasht—Kaman-Thah. [x]
64 Identity—reconstruction of personality—man makes duplicate of himself. [x]
65 Riley’s fear of undertakers—door locked on inside after death.
66 Catacombs discovered beneath a city (in America?).
67 An impression—city in peril—dead city—equestrian statue—men in closed room—clattering of hooves heard from outside—marvel disclosed on looking out—doubtful ending.
68 Murder discovered—body located—by psychological detective who pretends he has made walls of room transparent. Works on fear of murderer.
69 Man with unnatural face—oddity of speaking—found to be a mask—Revelation.
70 Tone of extreme phantasy
Man transformed to island or mountain. [x]
71 Man has sold his soul to devil—returns to family from trip—life afterward—fear—culminating horror—novel length.
72 Hallowe’en incident—mirror in cellar—face seen therein—death (claw-mark?).
73 Rats multiply and exterminate first a single city and then all mankind. Increased size and intelligence.
74 Italian revenge—killing self in cell with enemy—under castle. [used by FBL, Jr.]
75 Black Mass under antique church.
76 Ancient cathedral—hideous gargoyle—man seeks to rob—found dead—gargoyle’s jaw bloody.
77 Unspeakable dance of the gargoyles—in morning several gargoyles on old cathedral found transposed.
78 Wandering thro’ labyrinth of narrow slum streets—come on distant light—unheard-of rites of swarming beggars—like Court of Miracles in Notre Dame de Paris.
79 Horrible secret in crypt of ancient castle—discovered by dweller.
80 Shapeless living thing forming nucleus of ancient building.

2 comments:

  1. This is very heartening to me, because some of them look superficially like ideas I have jotted down:

    "There'a a temple, but something weird happens."

    "Like the Caves of Chaos, but all fucked up and shit..."

    "Italians...!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't underestimate the value of "something familiar, but with one thing changed"

    ReplyDelete

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