Progress on Lovecraft 4/25 - 4/29

This week, I continued my research of the personal life and writings of H. P. Lovecraft. I also derived from my guiding questions what I consider to be a reasonable thesis, and I even have the very rough workings of an outline.

A few of my notes from reading the introduction to a collection of his works by S. T. Joshi:
-"...cosmic horrors that bleakly underscored the insignificance of humanity and all its works in a blind, godless universe."
-Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island
-father died (of syphilis); mother was crazy; liked his grandfather
-interested in chemistry and astronomy
-started writing at 7 years old; encountered [the writings of] Poe at 8
-dropped out of high school because of psychological problems

My original guiding questions/guiding ideas:

-Philosophy of Lovecraft?
-Influence on (American) literature?
-Relation to Poe?
-Influence on the Horror genre?
   ^--how is this significant to American literature?
-Supernatural horror as opposed to other horror
-Lovecraft's importance to the horror genre/influence of horror genre on American literature

(For the record, I really liked the idea of coming up with guiding questions instead of trying to define a thesis when we barely know anything about our subject. It worked much better.)

Thesis:

Based on some reading I did on and by Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen King, I have reached the following point that I will attempt to defend:
H. P. Lovecraft has had more direct influence on the horror genre as it exists today that any other writer.

The biggest obstacle in defending my thesis will, of course, be arguing that Lovecraft has had even more influence on modern horror than Poe, but I believe I will be able to claim that because Lovecraft's horror is more based on cosmic and science fiction-type events and phenomena, it is more pertinent to the present than Poe's more archaic style.

Progress on Lovecraft 4/18 - 4/22

This week, I read a few of Lovecraft's short stories, taking meticulous notes as I read. I also have my guiding questions more or less established. Some excerpts from my notes of a few of the works I read:

---"The Beast in the Cave" (1905)
-written when Lovecraft was 14
-no actual experience in caves (just went off what he read)
-Mammoth Cave in Kentucky
-p1: "Yet indoctrinated as I was by a life of philosophical study, I derived no small measure of satisfaction from my unimpassioned demeanor..."
-darkness of the cave has transformative property
   -devolves man into simian creature
-ending implies that narrator could/would have turned into this creature
-the fact that the "Beast" is/was human means that it could happen to anyone
   -people can personally relate to this

---"Beyond the Wall of Sleep" (1919)
-takes place in the Catskill Mountains near New York
-anticipates some features of "The Shadow out of Time"
-mountain folk = primitive, almost subhuman people
   -comparable to "white trash" of the South
   -no social or familial structure - no committed relationships
-vague, cosmic, undescribed "oppressor"

---"Memory" (1919)
-inspired by Poe's prose poems - "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion"
   -also Poe's "The Valley of Unrest" ("the valley of Nis")
-ruins of an unknown civilization
-post-human world
   -apes, toads, Genie, and Daemon present
   -Man has practically been forgotten

The End of Macbeth

Macbeth does not end on a happy note. To say the least. We find Macbeth in his castle at Dunsinane with the forces of Macduff and Malcolm encroaching. He is arrogantly unafraid of the armies, assure of the witches' prophecies that "none of woman born” can harm him and that he will stay in power "[t]ill Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane.” Little does he know, Malcolm has instructed the members of his army to carry boughs from trees in the surrounding forest as they approach Macbeth's castle. When Macbeth realizes that the witches' prophesy is coming true, he loses a bit of his self-assuredness, but still fights viciously against the invaders. Somewhere in the chaos, Lady Macbeth dies and Macbeth gives his famous "She should have died hereafter" speech. Soon after, Macduff encounters Macbeth, reveals that he was not actually born from a mother, and kills Macbeth. Malcolm then becomes king. The end.

--Wald der Hitzig

Research on Lovecraft

Our blog assignment tonight was to talk about some of the research we have done on our projects. As I mentioned previously, I have already accumulated a decent collection of sources, comprising of books, articles, and a documentary. To begin my research, I have already read a few short stories by H. P. Lovecraft, including "The Call of Cthulhu," "Dagon," and "The Outsider." I have also begun reading one of my articles on Lovecraft that discusses him from a philosophical standpoint. All in all, my research is going well so far.

--Wald der Häuslich

Planning of the Project

We we instructed in class today to blog about the planning of our projects. So far, I have, of course, made my calendar outlining the different due dates of things. I have also already obtained several good sources on my topic, H.P Lovecraft, including a complete collection of his fiction; several articles concerning Lovecraft's life, philosophy, and work; and a documentary on him. I also may schedule an interview with Matthew Banther, who knows a great deal about my topic. I may not necessarily be able to cite him as a source, but I will at least get a lot of information from such an interview. Hopefully, by being able to plan out when parts of the project are due myself, I will be able to complete this paper without too much stress.

--Wald der Hemmungslos

The Emotions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red. 

After Macbeth has killed Duncan, he is horrified at both the literal and figurative blood on his hands. He declares that not even all the water in the oceans can wash the the blood off: if he were to try, he would only turn the oceans red. Lady Macbeth nonchalantly dismisses his concern, stating that "A little water clears us of this deed: / How easy is it, then!" This exchange once more emphasizes the contrast between Macbeth and his wife. Macbeth is timid and utterly wracked with guilt, yet his wife is blasé and merely interested in eliminating the immediate evidence that might result in them getting caught.

--Wald der Kampfbereit

The Dagger of the Mind

The "dagger of the mind" speech is given by Macbeth right before he kills Duncan. He describes seeing a floating dagger before him, with the blade pointed toward Duncan and the handle toward him. Macbeth tries to reach out and grab the dagger, but he cannot touch it, stating that "...[his] eyes are made fools o' the other senses." He also observes blood on this imaginary dagger, a motif that will recur throughout the rest of the play. As he draws his real daggers, Macbeth fearfully and reluctantly follows through with the murder, beginning his slow descent into madness.
I watched a version of this section of Macbeth on YouTube where Ian McKellen gives the speech, and it certainly gave me more of an idea of what was actually going on than just reading the script. Macbeth is in the dark, grasping for a nonexistent dagger before pulling out a real one, all the while ranting about whether or not he should believe what he is seeing. The gravity of the scene is difficult to understand from just words on a page, but when watching a live rendition, one can clearly see Macbeth's transition into madness. As he is giving his monologue, his voice gets higher and faster until he is in a frenzy. It is in this state that Macbeth kills Duncan.

--Wald der Schartig