Stupid Lovecraft characters

[TheMediocreYoungishOne -Tom-]

The dog went on to become Lassie. Ever wonder why Lassie was always getting Timmy out of the well? Indescribable things were in that well. They were a color not of this world. Timmy was not meant to voyage far.

[osyrisdiamond]

Don't think I've read this anywhere, but methinks the term cognitive dissonance needs to be noted. Why do so many Lovecraft characters do things that seem counter to logic, rationale, and sanity? Besides the obvious that there would be no story otherwise (for many), the idea of holding conflicting ideas is rather normal for humans, and honestly explains most of the issue we have with the characters and narrators of Lovecraft's world.

[Bob Lovecraft]

The dog went on to become Lassie. Ever wonder why Lassie was always getting Timmy out of the well? Indescribable things were in that well. They were a color not of this world. Timmy was not meant to voyage far.

LOL! Insanity point for you, TheMediocreYoungishOne!

Bob

[Miskatonic Philologus]

Don't think I've read this anywhere, but methinks the term cognitive dissonance needs to be noted. Why do so many Lovecraft characters do things that seem counter to logic, rationale, and sanity? Besides the obvious that there would be no story otherwise (for many), the idea of holding conflicting ideas is rather normal for humans, and honestly explains most of the issue we have with the characters and narrators of Lovecraft's world.

I really think that the answer to this is that HPL's main characters are often seeking forbidden knowledge, that beyond the bounds of human reason - and HPL's answer, almost always, was that they should not have done it. like at the end of Thing on the Doorstep Derby warns Upton not to mess with the occult.

This trend in HPL goes all the way back to his first stories, e.g. The Tomb, which was 1917.

[old book]

I was going to say Wilbur Whately, but somone beat me to it. He can write Sanscrit in green crayon at age 3 but can't lift a book from Miskatonic University library? And he KNOWS there's a dog there before he goes in. Ever heard of RAW MEAT, Wilb? I'm sure you could rustle up some of that to keep an old dog happy for the 5 minutes it would take. Or, since you are actually an octopoid arachnid thing with wings, you could've just gone in by skylight, out, no one the wiser, not even old Barzai.
I was going to say Wilbur Whately, but somone beat me to it. He can write Sanscrit in green crayon at age 3 but can't lift a book from Miskatonic University library? And he KNOWS there's a dog there before he goes in. Ever heard of RAW MEAT, Wilb? I'm sure you could rustle up some of that to keep an old dog happy for the 5 minutes it would take. Or, since you are actually an octopoid arachnid thing with wings, you could've just gone in by skylight, out, no one the wiser, not even old Barzai.

As for why Lovecraft does this, it's part of a broader device at work in most of his stories. He's letting the reader know way more than the protagonists, usually by surmise, without spelling it out. He does this right from the beginning in certain stories, or even begins with the dramatic event--the Feds torpedoing Innsmouth--then moves on to the particulars. Nowadays people call this "telegraphing" the ending, but Lovecraft has an itchy finger on the telegraph key and he's not just telling us the ending, he's telling us stuff that happens after the story (the dam in Colour), stuff that happened centuries before the story, odd bits from here and there and far away. He's cluing us in, but he has to dumb-down some of the characters to make it work sometimes. It goes back to correlating the contents and all that, putting the bigger picture together. He wants us to connect the dots and make ourselves scared by means of our own speculation.

Perhaps Wilbur cased the library and that was one of the nights when there wasn't supposed to be a guard dog. Perhaps he paid a local lowlife to "take care of the mutt" but Spinky was hustled off by the coppers and was undergoing the third degree when he had an appointment with destiny, and the "man's best friend" saved the universe as a result. All we really know is something went wrong in the best laid plans of cosmic evil and Wilbur died a horrible death without dignity. It was an extremely lucky break for Dr. Armitage that the Necronomicon--and especially page 751, although I've heard there is a possible alternative formula on page 24 of Faulkner's Mystical Formulae of the Middle Ages--remained at the reference desk.
As for why Lovecraft does this, it's part of a broader device at work in most of his stories. He's letting the reader know way more than the protagonists, usually by surmise, without spelling it out. He does this right from the beginning in certain stories, or even begins with the dramatic event--the Feds torpedoing Innsmouth--then moves on to the particulars. Nowadays people call this "telegraphing" the ending, but Lovecraft has an itchy finger on the telegraph key and he's not just telling us the ending, he's telling us stuff that happens after the story (the dam in Colour), stuff that happened centuries before the story, odd bits from here and there and far away. He's cluing us in, but he has to dumb-down some of the characters to make it work sometimes. It goes back to correlating the contents and all that, putting the bigger picture together. He wants us to connect the dots and make ourselves scared by means of our own speculation.

Perhaps Wilbur cased the library and that was one of the nights when there wasn't supposed to be a guard dog. Perhaps he paid a local lowlife to "take care of the mutt" but Spinky was hustled off by the coppers and was undergoing the third degree when he had an appointment with destiny, and the "man's best friend" saved the universe as a result. All we really know is something went wrong in the best laid plans of cosmic evil and Wilbur died a horrible death without dignity. It was an extremely lucky break for Dr. Armitage that the Necronomicon--and especially page 751, although I've heard there is a possible alternative formula on page 24 of Faulkner's Mystical Formulae of the Middle Ages--remained at the reference desk.

[JulieH]

Wilbur may be cognitively advanced, but he's socially and interactively retarded. 

I know plenty of people who can read and write as a very highly advanced level, have masters degrees, and yet can't balance a budget or figure out when to catch their bus. 

He's emotionally still a child - and probably raised to believe himself even more invincible than most children feel themselves to be.  His planning would be minimal, and contingencies wouldn't occur to him.  He's shot dogs before.  Dogs are no big deal, right?  And his gun will always work.  And no one will see him get in.  He's probably never even heard of a burglar alarm, so he wouldn't think of THAT.  It's not like he has copies of Guns & Ammo under his bed, or has been allowed to stay up and watch Mission Impossible...

If the Dunwich Horror was updated to today, Wilbur wouldn't be trying to take over the world, he'd be on Dr. Phil bitching about his childhood full of ritual satanic abuse.

[Bob Lovecraft]

Or suing Miskatonic University for getting bitten by a watch dog.

Bob

[old book]

Or pursuing a FOIA request to get the full edition of the Necronomicon.

[Bob Lovecraft]

Or pursuing a FOIA request to get the full edition of the Necronomicon.

LOL, I never thought of that. Talk about working AGAINST the first amendment there. Way to go Wilbur! You goat-faced nerd!

Bob

[old book]

[TheMediocreYoungishOne -Tom-]

Boy! It's good to see the FOIA in action, eh Old Book? Who knew they used words like "the" and "and"? It just blows my mind!

[JulieH]

Can't trust any cultist who can't spell "their" - would almost rather see them use "there"

[old book]

Yeah, Julie, there were probably more misspellings too, under all that blacked out stuff. Notice how they left GANZIR and Azonei in, almost as if they were directing Wilbur to pursue that Gate, for some reason...

After Wilbur passed this to me, I just sort of set it aside, because it looked like a bunch of "ands" and "thes," but then I took a closer look and LOL'd at the part they left in: "(may thier [sic] names be blotted out!)" I think National Reconnaiscence Office has a sense of humor after all, and they just blotted out those names preceding that curse for fun. I'd never heard of the intelligence classification FORBIDDEN before, either. Just goes to show you, their's more in Heaven and Earth... Or, as the esteemed archaeologist once said: "If you want truth, go to the Philosophy Department." <start x-files music here with text overlays: "The truth isn't out there" ... "Change you can believe in" ... "Take back America"...>

[JulieH]

I just picture Armitage or someone going down the pages, notating like a grammar nazi on facebook.

*their

[old book]

Like Dan Harms fixing grimoires, eh? Boy wouldn't he be surprised to find the original Warlock Shoppe/Magickal Childe binder-ring edition by "Simon"... but I guess it's on demonoid, or at least it sure looks like it's the real deal. "...the most merciful thing in the world ... is the inability of the mind to correlate all of the contents of the internets..."