H.P. Lovecraft has no chill
and apparently neither do I
Hello, my friends,
I hope your 2023 has been a solid one so far? Mine has been, as they say, a SCENE, in that in the first twelve days of this new year, we had to say goodbye to Maggie the Cat, I took my first-ever ride in a tow truck, and worked through the septic failing at the library. Which, woof. Running a public building that caters to kids is super-fun when your bathrooms are untrustworthy?
I’ll write a bit more about Maggie soon, but at the moment, it’s still pretty raw.
This missive, though, is just a quick note to share a legitimately and unintentionally hilariously-overblown quote from old Howard Phillips:
In the whole spectacle there was a persistent, pervasive hint of stupendous secrecy and potential revelation; as if these stark, nightmare spires marked the pylons of a frightful gateway into forbidden spheres of dream, and complex gulfs of remote time, space, and ultra-dimensionality. I could not help feeling that they were evil things—mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss. That seething, half-luminous cloud-background held ineffable suggestions of a vague, ethereal beyondness far more than terrestrially spatial; and gave appalling reminders of the utter remoteness, separateness, desolation, and aeon-long death of this untrodden and unfathomed austral world.
—At the Mountains of Madness, by H. P. Lovecraft
I mean, good lord. That is a lot, and lends itself to infinitely fun Dramatic Recitations. One of my favorite quirks of his is that he tends to either over-describe—with literal PARAGRAPHS of measurements—or skip it entirely, and just do this hand-wavey thing where he’s like, AND IT WAS INDESCRIBABLY ELDRITCH AND HORRIBLE wooooOOOOooooooOOOoo.
It makes me laugh every time, which I know was not his intent and would probably result in him feeling very insulted, but given that he was a big old racist, I’m not too worried about that.
And why, Leila, are you listening to At the Mountains of Madness at 2:30 in the morning on a workday?
Well, I’ll tell you.
Spoiler: This is the part where *I* have no chill.
I’m up and working on my temperature afghan. (If you’re not familiar with the concept, basically you assign different colors to various temperature ranges and track the temperature fluctuations over the course of a year.) But because of my aforementioned lack of chill, if my calculations are correct, it is going to be WAY bigger than I meant for it to be—like, at least ten feet long?
Also, I’m not just tracking the average temperature, because why let things be simple? No, I’m tracking the highs and the lows, various weather types, full moons and new moons, the solstices and equinoxes. Soooo I’ll keep you apprised of my progress. (Yes, I’m already hilariously behind, but never fear, I have a spreadsheet with all of the necessary data IN FULL FORCE. I should also budget for more yarn, because… I’m going to need a whole lot more than I have on hand.)
And why with the Lovecraft? Well, at the library, we’re in the midst of our Winter Reading Program, and this year, I went with the Polar theme for our new merit badge. At the Mountains of Madness is set in Antarctica, I hadn’t revisited it in a million years, et voilà? I’ll keep you apprised of my progress on the badge front, too. I do love reading in themes.
Talk soon,
Leila
Oh, my, WORD drawing a veil over the septic situation, as it's bringing back memories of last summer's excitement here with tree roots and drains which is even now being reprised in some neighborhoods as, due to the excessive rain, the official word is to keep kids out of jumping in puddles... Just in case...😖
Since I am READING this at 3:30AM on a school night after having purchased yet another pair of cheap canvas shoes to attempt a new embroidery project, I am delighted by your weather/equinox/temperature/season merit badge knitting project which requires a SPREADSHEET because who doesn't need that level of intensity to launch into the New Year??
I'm also so sorry to hear about your kitty. I had an unexpected loss this week as well, and I am admittedly shaken. *sends silent hugs*
HP Lovecraft reminds me that once upon a time I loved the Sturm und Drang and musicality (and tome-like page lengths) of 19th c British and American Literature so much it made perfect sense to make it my undergrad major concentration. (I was either a lot smarter then, or a lot dumber, jury's still out.) I often look back at Younger Me and just slowly shake my head...
I'm so sorry about your Maggie. Losing a beloved cat is so rough.
I've never been able to get much into Lovecraft because of the tremendous lack of chill. I like "The Colour Out Of Space." That's pretty much it. But I am SO ENVIOUS of your library merit badges and I wish my library had them! It wouldn't make much sense at my work library (a community college) and the public library probably couldn't afford them (the Friends pays for everything but the staff and the electricity). Though maybe I should run it by S. and the Friends...?
I embroider a lot, but I've only recently loosened up enough to do things my way. It's entirely possible to spend years doing exactly what the pattern says to do!