Horror Literature

Lesson 4: Religion: Salvation and Damnation

The Death of God

In the fiction of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, there is no loving, benign God. Instead there are a number of alien space creatures, too horrible to name, mention or describe. To look at them would drive any mortal mad. They have existed long before mankind and will one day return to reclaim earth. But best of all: these terrible, reptilian, slimy creatures are not only out to take the earth from her inhabitants; they are also the creators of humankind. And humankind has not been created to serve any intelligent purpose; instead they were to be devoured as food or used as slaves. That, says Lovecraft, is the purpose of human life. The earth is nothing, humankind is nothing, and in the end they will all vanish into continued nothingness. For Lovecraft, the terror lurks outside of the human mind and the horror is in the fact that there is nothing his characters can do. Their proverbial feet are nailed to the proverbial floor.

This is of course a far cry from “normal” depictions of religion that are found even today in horror fiction. See for example page 303-304 of Danse Macabre where King discusses Rosemary’s Baby. Salvation is possible, but the precise depiction of this as opposed to the absolute sanction of the Church in previous centuries will be discussed later.

To return to Lovecraft. God in his fiction is not dead; he never was to begin with. The only purpose he serves is to furnish mankind with the shadows necessary to stay sane in an insane world. The horror is bigger than humanity, and bigger than humanity’s God. At this point we can look at the psychoanalytical concept of “the other”.

The other is used to depict whatever is not good and proper. This is normally projected into some object or entity outside the self, such as an alien or a demon for example. The Gothic others were usually ghosts or demons, whereas in Lovecraft they are the alien forces taking over the world. Neither reconciliation nor salvation is possible. Although some primitive tribes attempt such a reconciliation through rituals to contact the alien monsters, and although some sensitives are contacted through their dreams, the ultimate end of all human life is oblivion. The other is utterly alien to humankind. It is monstrous and drives a person mad. It is unmentionable in its worst sense, and indeed nearly all of Lovecraft’s protagonists go crazy when faced with the utter destruction of human meaning.

Optional Project:
Go to the Lovecraft Library and read “The Call of Cthulhu”. How did you react to the story? Was it scary? Why or why not?

In the above sections the various states of damnation and salvation have been discussed. In future lessons damnation and salvation in horror fiction, and the role of the other are considered.

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