The myth maker HP Lovecraft was a kindly misanthrope and a visionary materialist who disdained writing but created

an astonishing body of work that transcends its cult status, writes Michel Houellebecq * igg it * !u"" up * #hare on facebook $%&' * Tweet this $%' * Michel Houellebecq * The (uardian, #aturday & )une *++, * -rticle history .Perhaps one needs to have suffered a great deal in order to appreciate Lovecraft /// . )acques !ergier Life is painful and disappointing/ 0t is useless, therefore, to write new, realistic novels/ 1e generally know where we stand in relation to reality and don2t care to know any more/ Humanity, such as it is, inspires only an attenuated curiosity in us/ -ll those prodigiously refined notations, situations, anecdotes /// -ll they do, once a book has been set aside, is reinforce the slight revulsion that is already adequately nourished by any one of our .real life. days/ 3ow, here is Howard Phillips Lovecraft $%45+6%578'9 .0 am so beastly tired of mankind and the world that nothing can interest me unless it contains a couple of murders on each page or deals with the horrors unnameable and unaccountable that leer down from the e:ternal universes/. 1e need a supreme antidote against all forms of realism/ *** Those who love life do not read/ 3or do they go to the movies, actually/ 3o matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world/ -s for Lovecraft, he was more than a little fed up/ 0n %5+4 at the age of %4, he suffered what has been described as a .nervous breakdown. and plummeted into a lethargy that lasted about %+ years/ -t the age when his old classmates were hurriedly turning their backs on childhood and diving into life as into some marvellous, uncensored adventure, he cloistered himself at home, speaking only to his mother, refusing to get up all day, wandering about in a dressing gown all night/ 1hat2s more, he wasn2t even writing/ 1hat was he doing; <eading a little, maybe/ 1e can2t even be sure of this/ 0n fact, his biographers have had to admit they don2t know much at all, and that, =udging from appearances 6 at least between the ages of %4 and *7 6 he did absolutely nothing/

Then, between %5%7 and %5%4, very slowly, the situation improved/ (radually, he re6 established contact with the human race/ 0t was not easy/ 0n May %5%4 he wrote to -lfred (alpin9 .0 am only about half alive 6 a large part of my strength is consumed in sitting up or walking/ My nervous system is a shattered wreck and 0 am absolutely bored and listless save when 0 come upon something which peculiarly interests me/. 0t is definitely pointless to embark on a dramatic or psychological reconstruction/ !ecause Lovecraft is a lucid, intelligent and sincere man/ - kind of lethargic terror descended upon him as he turned %4 and he knew the reason for it perfectly well/ 0n a %5*+ letter he revisits his childhood at length/ The little railway set whose cars were made of packing6cases, the coach house where he had set up his puppet theatre/ -nd later, the garden he had designed, laying out each of its paths/ 0t was irrigated by a system of canals that were his own handiwork, its ledges enclosed a small lawn at the centre of which stood a sundial/ 0t was, he said, .the paradise of my adolescent years./ Then comes this passage that concludes the letter9 .Then 0 perceived with horror that 0 was growing too old for pleasure/ <uthless Time had set its fell claw upon me, and 0 was %8/ !ig boys do not play in toy houses and mock gardens, so 0 was obliged to turn over my world in sorrow to another and younger boy who dwelt across the lot from me/ -nd since that time 0 have not delved in the earth or laid out paths and roads/ There is too much wistful memory in such procedure, for the fleeting =oy of childhood may never be recaptured/ -dulthood is hell/. -dulthood is hell/ 0n the face of such a trenchant position, .moralists. today will utter vague opprobrious grumblings while waiting for a chance to strike with their obscene intimations/ Perhaps Lovecraft actually could not become an adult> what is certain is that he did not want to/ -nd given the values that govern the adult world, how can you argue with him; The reality principle, the pleasure principle, competitiveness, permanent challenges, se: and status 6 hardly reasons to re=oice/ Lovecraft, for his part, knew he had nothing to do with this world/ -nd at each turn he played a losing hand/ 0n theory and in practice/ He lost his childhood> he also lost his faith/ The world sickened him and he saw no reason to believe that by looking at things better they might appear differently/ He saw religions as so many sugar6coated illusions made obsolete by the progress of science/ -t times, when in an e:ceptionally good mood, he would speak of the enchanted circle of religious belief, but it was a circle from which he felt banished, anyway/ ?ew beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration/ The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles/ - figure in transition toward chaos/ That is what will finally prevail/ The human race will disappear/ @ther races in turn will appear and disappear/ The skies will be glacial and empty, traversed by the feeble light of half6dead stars/ These too will disappear/ Averything will disappear/ -nd human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movement of the elementary particles/ (ood, evil, morality, sentiments; Pure .Bictorian fictions./ -ll that e:ists is egotism/ Cold, intact and radiant/ Lovecraft was well aware of the distinctly depressing nature of his conclusions/ -s he wrote in %5%4, .all rationalism tends to minimalise the value and the importance of life,

and to decrease the sum total of human happiness/ 0n some cases the truth may cause suicidal or nearly suicidal depression/. He remained steadfast in his materialism and atheism/ 0n letter after letter he returned to his convictions with distinctly masochistic delectation/ @f course, life has no meaning/ !ut neither does death/ -nd this is another thing that curdles the blood when one discovers Lovecraft2s universe/ The deaths of his heroes have no meaning/ eath brings no appeasement/ 0t in no way allows the story to conclude/ 0mplacably, HPL destroys his characters, evoking only the dismemberment of marionettes/ 0ndifferent to these pitiful vicissitudes, cosmic fear continues to e:pand/ 0t swells and takes form/ (reat Cthulhu emerges from his slumber/ 1hat is (reat Cthulhu; -n arrangement of electrons, like us/ Lovecraft2s terror is rigorously material/ !ut, it is quite possible, given the free interplay of cosmic forces, that (reat Cthulhu possesses abilities and powers to act that far e:ceed ours/ 1hich, a priori, is not particularly reassuring at all/ ?rom his =ourneys to the penumbral worlds of the unutterable, Lovecraft did not return to bring us good news/ Perhaps, he confirmed, something is hiding behind the curtain of reality that at times allows itself to be perceived/ #omething truly vile, in fact/ 0t is possible, in fact, that beyond the narrow range of our perception, other entities e:ist/ @ther creatures, other races, other concepts and other minds/ -mong these entities some are probably far superior to us in intelligence and in knowledge/ !ut this is not necessarily good news/ 1hat makes us think that these creatures, different as they are from us, will e:hibit any kind of a spiritual nature; There is nothing to suggest a transgression of the universal laws of egotism and malice/ 0t is ridiculous to imagine that at the edge of the cosmos, other well6intentioned and wise beings await to guide us toward some sort of harmony/ 0n order to imagine how they might treat us were we to come into contact with them, it might be best to recall how we treat .inferior intelligences. such as rabbits and frogs/ 0n the best of cases they serve as food for us> sometimes also, often in fact, we kill them for the sheer pleasure of killing/ This, Lovecraft warned, would be the true picture of our future relationship to those other intelligent beings/ Perhaps some of the more beautiful human specimens would be honoured and would end up on a dissection table 6 that2s all/ -nd once again, none of it will make any sense/ This desolate cosmos is absolutely our own/ This ab=ect universe where fear mounts in concentric circles, layer upon layer, until the unnameable is revealed, this universe where our only conceivable destiny is to be pulverised and devoured, we must recognise it absolutely as being our own mental universe/ -nd for whoever wants to know this collective state of mind through a quick and accurate survey, Lovecraft2s success is itself a symptom/ Today, more so than ever before, we can utter the declaration of principles that begins -rthur )ermyn as our own9 .Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer demoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous/.

The parado:, however, is that we prefer this universe, hideous as it is, to our own reality/ 0n this, we are precisely the readers that Lovecraft anticipated/ 1e read his tales with the same e:act disposition as that which prompted him to write them/ #atan or 3yarlathotep, either one will do, but we will not tolerate another moment of realism/ -nd, truth be told, given his prolonged acquaintance with the disgraceful turns of our ordinary sins, the value of #atan2s currency has dropped a little/ !etter 3yarlathotep, ice6cold, evil, and inhuman/ 0t2s clear why reading Lovecraft is parado:ically comforting to those souls who are weary of life/ 0n fact, it should perhaps be prescribed to all who, for one reason or other, have come to feel a true aversion to life in all its forms/ 0n some cases, the =olt to the nerves upon a first reading is immense/ @ne may find oneself smiling all alone, or humming a tune from a musical/ @ne2s outlook on e:istence is, in a word, modified/ Aver since the virus was first introduced into ?rance by )acques !ergier, the increase in the number of readers has been substantial/ Like most of those contaminated, 0 myself discovered HPL at %D through the intermediary of a .friend./ To call it a shock would be an understatement/ 0 had not known literature was capable of this/ -nd, what2s more, 02m still not sure it is/ There is something not really literary about Lovecraft2s work/ To make this case, let us first consider the fact that %, or so writers $!elknap Long, <obert !loch, Lin Carter, ?red Chappell, -ugust erleth, onald 1andrei, to name a few' consecrated all or part of their careers to developing and enriching the myths created by HPL/ -nd not furtively so, nor in hiding, but most avowedly/ The filial lineage is even further systematically reinforced by the use of the e:act same words/ These take on the value of incantations $the wild hills west of -rkham, Miskatonic Eniversity, the city of 0rem with its thousand pillars /// <2lyeh, #arnath, agon, 3yarlathotep /// and above all the unnameable, the blasphemous 3ecronomicon whose name can only be uttered in a whisper' /// 0n an age that e:alts originality as a supreme value in the arts, this phenomenon is surely cause for surprise/ 0n fact, as ?rancis Lacassin opportunely points out, nothing like it has been recorded since Homer and medieval epic poetry/ 1e must humbly acknowledge that we are dealing here with what is known as a .founding mythology./ *** To create a great popular myth is to create a ritual that the reader awaits impatiently and to which he can return with mounting pleasure, seduced each time by a different repetition of terms, ever so imperceptibly altered to allow him to reach a new depth of e:perience/ Presented thus, things appear almost simple/ -nd yet, rare are the successes in the history of literature/ 0n reality, it is no easier than creating a new religion/ To clearly understand what is at play, one would have had to personally e:perience the sense of frustration that invaded Angland with the death of #herlock Holmes/ Conan oyle had no choice9 he had to resurrect his hero/ Lovecraft, who admired Conan oyle, succeeded in creating a myth as popular, as lively and irresistible/

The #herlock Holmes stories are centred on a character, whereas in Lovecraft one does not meet any truly human specimens/ @f course, this is an important distinction> very important, but not truly essential/ 0t can be compared to what separates theist from atheist religions/ The fundamental character that brings them together, the so6called religious character, is otherwise difficult to define and to broach directly/ -nother small difference that might be noted 6 minimal to literary history, tragic to the individual 6 is that Conan oyle had ample occasion to realise that he was creating an essential mythology/ Lovecraft did not/ -t the moment of his death he had the clear impression that his creative work would plunge into obscurity along with him/ 3one the less, he already had disciples/ 3ot that he considered them as such/ He did indeed correspond with young writers $!loch, !elknap Long, and others', but did not necessarily advise them to take the same path as him/ He did not present himself as either a master or a model/ He greeted their first ventures with e:emplary delicacy and modesty/ He was courteous, considerate and kind, a true friend to them, never a teacher/ -bsolutely incapable of leaving a letter unanswered, neglecting to request payment when his literary6revision work went unpaid, systematically underestimating his contribution to stories that without him would never have seen the light of day, Lovecraft conducted himself like an authentic gentleman throughout his life/ @f course, he liked the idea of becoming a writer/ !ut he was not attached to this above all else/ 0n %5*,, in a moment of despondency, he writes9 .0 am well6nigh resolv2d to write no more tales, but merely to dream when 0 have a mind to, not stopping to do any thing so vulgar as to set down the dream for a boarish Publick/ 0 have concluded that Literature is no proper pursuit for a gentleman> and that 1riting ought never to be consider2d but as an elegant -ccomplishment to be indulg2d in with infrequency, and iscrimination/. Thankfully, he did continue, and his greatest stories were written subsequent to this letter/ !ut until the very end, he remained, above all, as he liked to describe himself, a kind old gentleman from Providence/ -nd never, never a professional writer/ Parado:ically, Lovecraft2s character is fascinating in part because his values were so entirely opposite to ours/ He was fundamentally racist, openly reactionary, he glorified puritanical inhibitions, and evidently found all .direct erotic manifestations. repulsive/ <esolutely anticommercial, he despised money, considered democracy to be an idiocy and progress to be an illusion/ The word .freedom,. so cherished by -mericans, prompted only a sad, derisive guffaw/ Throughout his life, he maintained a typically aristocratic, scornful attitude toward humanity in general coupled with e:treme kindness toward individuals in particular/ 1hatever the case, all those who had dealings with Lovecraft as an individual felt an immense sadness when they learned of his death/ <obert !loch said that had he known the truth about the state of his health, he would have dragged himself on his knees all the way to Providence to see him/ -ugust erleth consecrated the rest of his e:istence to collecting, compiling, and publishing the posthumous fragments of his departed friend/

-nd, it is thanks to erleth and a few others $but primarily erleth' that Lovecraft2s body of work has reached the world/ Today, it stands before us, an imposing baroque structure, its towering strata rising in so many layered concentric circles, a wide and sumptuous landing around each 6 the whole surrounding a vorte: of pure horror and absolute marvel/ 6 The first, outermost circle9 the correspondence and poems/ These are only partially published, and even more partially translated/ The correspondence is rather staggering9 almost %++,+++ letters, some of which are 7+ or &+ pages long/ -s for the poems, a precise count does not currently e:ist/ 6 - second circle would contain those stories Lovecraft participated in, either those conceived of as a collaboration to begin with $like the stories he wrote with Fenneth #terling or <obert !arlow, for e:ample' or others, whose authors may have benefited from Lovecraft2s revisions $there are e:tremely numerous e:amples of these> the substance of Lovecraft2s collaborations varied and sometimes went as far as a complete rewrite of the te:t'/ To these we may also add the stories written by erleth based on notes and fragments left behind by Lovecraft/ 6 1ith the third circle we come to the stories that were actually written by Howard Phillips Lovecraft/ Here, obviously, each word counts> these have all been published in ?rench and we cannot e:pect their number to ever increase/ 6 ?inally, we can draw a definitive fourth circle, at the absolute heart of HPL2s myth, that contains what most rabid Lovecraftians continue to call, almost in spite of themselves, the .great te:ts./ 0 will cite them here for the pleasure of it alone, along with the date of their composition9 The Call of Cthulhu $%5*D' The Colour @ut of #pace $%5*8' The unwich Horror $%5*4' The 1hisperer in arkness $%57+' -t the Mountains of Madness $%57%' The reams in the 1itch House $%57*' The #hadow @ver 0nnsmouth $%57*' The #hadow @ut of Time $%57&' Moreover, suspended above HPL2s entire edifice, like a thick unstable fog, is the strange shadow of his own personality/ @ne might find the cultlike atmosphere surrounding his character, his actions and movements, and even his most insignificant pieces of writing, somewhat e:aggerated or even morbid/ !ut 0 guarantee that opinion is bound to be revised quickly after a plunge into the .great te:ts./ 0t2s only natural to initiate a cult to one who proffers such benefits/ #uccessive generations of Lovecraftians have done =ust this/ -s is always the case, the .recluse of Providence. has now become almost as mythic a figure as one of his own creations/ -nd what is most startling is that all attempts at demystification have failed/ 3o degree of biographical detail has succeeded in dissipating the aura of strange pathos that surrounds the character/

Lovecraft2s body of work can be compared to a gigantic dream machine, of astounding breadth and efficacy/ There is nothing tranquil or discreet in his literature/ 0ts impact on the reader2s mind is savagely, frighteningly brutal and dangerously slow to dissipate/ <ereading produces no notable modification other than that, eventually, one ends up wondering9 how does he do it; 0n the specific case of HPL there is nothing ridiculous or offensive about such a question/ 0n fact, what characterises his work compared to a .normal. work of literature, is that his disciples feel they can, at least theoretically, through the =udicious use of the same ingredients as those indicated by the master, obtain results of an equal or higher quality/ 3o one has ever seriously envisioned continuing Proust/ Lovecraft, they have/ -nd it2s not a matter of secondary works presented as homage, nor of parodies, but truly a continuation/ 1hich is unique in the history of modern literature/ 1hat2s more, the role HPL plays as the generator of dreams is not limited to literature alone/ His work, at least to the same e:tent as <A Howard2s, although often less obviously, has been a profound factor in the renaissance of fantasy illustration/ Aven rock music, usually so distrustful of all things literary, has made a point of paying homage to him 6 a homage, one might say, paid by one great power to another, by one mythology to another/ -s for the implications of Lovecraft2s writing in the domains of architecture or film, they will be immediately apparent to the sensitive reader/ This is the building of a new world/ Hence the importance of building blocks and of construction techniques/ To prolong the impact/ G Translation H *++, orna Fha"eni/ Adited e:tract from HP Lovecraft9 -gainst the 1orld, -gainst Life, by Michel Houellebecq $published by !eliever !ooks this week'