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As a new acolyte, I have not received
mailings yet, but I have seen a few zines and other pieces of work by fellow
cultists. So here's a couple of potshots, just to get into the swing:
"The Last Supper" --- Don
Burleson. Your notion of necrophagy as a perversion cultivated by humans is more
shocking than HPL's own idea of the "ghoul-changeling", i.e., a
vampire with a roughage diet. But how could the guy in the coffin have
sufficient freedom of movement to start with his own toes? (Maybe a mausoleum
would have avoided the difficulty. ) This story is in the latest Eldritch
Tales.
"The Mythic Hero Archetype in 'The
Dunwich Horror'" (in Lovecraft Studies #4) --- also Don Burleson.
This is an ingenious argument, but I wonder if you aren't out-Lovecrafting
Lovecraft by making Armitage the loser. It seems to me that HPL occasionally did
let the good guy win --- Dr. Willett in The Case of Charles Dexter
Ward is another case in point. And his own Weltanschauung would allow
for this. Remember, even though he believed the universe was ultimately
chaotic, he shielded himself from the practical realization of the fact,
much as Hume admitted he could not live life on the basis of his own
philosophical skepticism. The temporary victory of Armitage would symbolize
this.
"The Recurring Doom" --- S. T.
Joshi (in Ken Neily's Lovecraftian Ramblings). As you yourself confess,
S. T., this is indeed a Derleth-pastiche. Well, it's good to know that you, like
me, once puttered around in the derivative underbrush. C'mon, admit it ---
weren't Ithaqua, Cthugha, and the Elder Gods a lot of fun when you were too
young to know better?
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