“What the moon brings” (from the English “What the Moon Brings”) or “What causes the moon” is a short story by the American writer G. F. Lovecraft , written on June 5, 1922. It was first published in The National Amateur magazine in May 1923. The story is shorter than most Lovecraft's works, and this is essentially a fragment. The story remained incomplete, probably it was to combine the stories from the " Cycle of Dreams " and Lovecraft's future stories about Deep Water . The story is based on one of Lovecraft's dreams, which has become his common technique for his works.
| What the moon brings | |
|---|---|
| What the moon brings | |
| Genre | Lovecraftian Horrors |
| Author | Howard Philips Lovecraft |
| Date of writing | June 1922 |
| Date of first publication | May 1923 |
| Publishing house | "The National Amateur" |
Content
Story
The narrator, whose name is not called, feels fear of the Moon because he was a dreamer or recently became him, discovering the secret of the mystical power of moonlight and those otherworldly events that it always accompanies. When he walked in the garden, he notices the changes taking place around him, under a curved, carved bridge:
The moon can mise-en-scenes: habitual and beloved, snatched from the darkness, turn into alien and disgusting. I saw an unusual ripple on the water, slightly tucked by the yellow light of the moon, as if the waters were carried away by the current to unknown oceans, which could not find a place in our world. The white lotus flowers, keeping clear of the shores, were torn off by a stupefying night wind one after another and, spinning, in despair, fell into the stream looking back with an ominous humility of calm, dead faces.
He sees that now the garden has no end, and where there used to be walls, now there are many plants and terrible stone idols and pagodas . A stream of magical flowers around him directs him to the Land of Dreams to the coast of the "vast and nameless sea", where he sees a sandbank and swamps with reeds and a sandbank. In the light of the moon, he saw in the water the spiers of white columns decorated with green algae and the towers of the sunken city. Here, to this sunken city, all the dead arrive. A condor circled in the sky, as if communicating with it, and puffy sea worms swam in the water. The narrator felt cold and saw that part of a huge reef, whose edge he had been seeing all this time, was in fact a black basalt crown of a terrifying creature. First a huge forehead of creation rose from the water, and then his face. His disgusting hooves must have been trampled down by silt miles below.
I squealed until the previously hidden face rose from the waters, and until the previously hidden eyes glided away from that gazing, treacherous, yellow moon and looked at me. In order to avoid this ruthless creature, I delightedly plunged into the stinking waters, where among the weedy walls and sunken streets, thick sea worms feasted on the corpse of the world.
Having come under telepathic influence, the narrator drowned being unable to control himself.
Characters
- Narrator
The narrator is a dreamer who visited the Land of Dreams, after which he began to fear the light of the moon. One night he turned up against his will, drafted into the ocean, where a monster was waiting for him.
- Marine giant
The sea giant is an incredibly huge creature that lives in the Land of Dreams. At first, the narrator mistook him for the ruins of a sunken city, but soon realized that the reef is actually the black basalt crown of a giant monster. At first, a huge forehead of creation rose from the water, and then, not immediately, his gigantic face appeared. His disgusting hooves must have trampled mud on the seabed, miles below. The monster looked at the narrator, from which he immediately fell under a telepathic influence and drowned being unable to control himself.
Connection with other works
In the story “The White Ship ”, the hero spoke by the Ancient God across the ocean, who called him to the Land of Dreams , where he appeared in the form of a blue bird.
The horror at Martins Beach describes the same case of telepathic exposure of a young Cthulhu clan who attacked the city of Gloucester .
The story " Dagon " describes the city of R'lyeh , where Dagon appears, who in the same way telepathically influenced the sailor.
The story “ Call of Cthulhu ” describes the cult of Cthulhu in New Orleans and the city of R'lyeh , where the Great Cthulhu appears, who telepathically affected the whole ship.
The story “ Cape Falcon Fisherman ” describes a mermaid caught by a fisherman at Devil's Reef in Innsmouth .
The story “ Innsmouth Clay ” describes a sea woman who enchanted the artist at Devil's Reef, in Innsmouth .
In the story Shadow over Innsmouth , the city of Innsmouth is described, where descendants from the Deepwater race hid among the inhabitants.
The story “ The Red Hook Horror ” describes a sea witch who subjugated the will of Lilith worshipers in Brooklyn .
The story “ Window in the attic ” describes the Lang plateau, where a race of octopus octopuses appears.
The story, “ Room with boarded up shutters, ” describes the views of Deepwater and the creature that was hiding in the room of the house at the mill in Danwich.
Sources
- ST Joshi and David E. Schultz, An HP Lovecraft Encyclopedia
- Joshi, ST (1999). Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography . Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. pp. 66-67. ISBN 0-87054-176-5 .