Episodes 84-88 - The Shadow Over Innsmouth

[old book]

I saw these guys on a sort of social network mugging it up for the camera. I don't think they've ever heard of Lovecraft or Innsmouth, but I couldn't resist reposting it here.

[Bob Lovecraft]

I don't know, OldBook, these guys look like they've been around the block a time or two. I'm thinking at least one of them has had sex with SOMETHING native to the sea...

Bob

[HeirophantX]

Something I've always wondered about.  What if Robert Olmstead got it wrong?  What if the hybrids knew who and what he was?  He's a Marsh!  He's hybrid royalty!  He's lost grandma was contacting him in his dreams.  I wonder if what he encountered on his first night in Innsmouth was really some sort of unsubtle homecoming/initiatory experience.  It seems pretty insane that hordes of Deep Ones would be mobilized just to wrap up one dude.  If they wanted to murder him why did it take so many people, including priests in their vestments?  They could have just killed him in the street in front of the hotel or if they were concerned with propriety, killed him in the lobby.  I think the whole mobilization was for a great homecoming ceremony for a lost son.

[Eric Lofgren]

I've wondered about this as well. If wonder if once they discovered him in the town, they realized what his heritage was and were at least trying to keep him at Innsmouth so as not to spread the word of what he would eventually find out, without killing him in the process.

[Genus Unknown]

How would they know though? Joe Sargent and the innkeeper at the Gilman House show no signs of recognition, seeming to regard him as just another unwanted outsider. The closest anyone comes to showing that they guess is Zadok Allen when he remarks in passing that Olmstead "kind o’ got them sharp-readin’ eyes like Obed had."

[HeirophantX]

Who knows how they knew but I think someone must have known.  Sargent and the Gillman clerk don't have to know anything but to do what they're told.  The high-level of the response to Olmstead's visit certainly argues that he was no mere stranger to be disappeared.  Was anything like this ever hinted at by HPL?

[Eric Lofgren]

Am I misremembering that the Gilman House innkeeper wasn't from Innsmouth? And perhaps Sargent, while just doing his job, realizes just who he has on board his bus on the way to Innsmouth, as he has no problems lying about the fact that the bus is no longer operational when Olmstead wants to go. Of course, it really is all circumstantial when you think about it.   

[Ruth - CthulhuChick]

Am I misremembering that the Gilman House innkeeper wasn't from Innsmouth? And perhaps Sargent, while just doing his job, realizes just who he has on board his bus on the way to Innsmouth, as he has no problems lying about the fact that the bus is no longer operational when Olmstead wants to go. Of course, it really is all circumstantial when you think about it.   

The innkeeper was from Innsmouth, though he may not have had the look. It was the clerk who was from outside.

[Bob Lovecraft]

The innkeeper is certainly an Innsmouther; his paw-like hands are commented on at least once when he is showing Olmsted to his room.

As for HeirophantX's hypothesis, I've never really thought about it, but the more I do, the more it seems to fit. Assuming that everyone in town knows everyone else (particularly when Olmsted comments that there are thousands of Deep Ones coming ashore) is kind of silly. I agree that maybe Gentry was just following orders to keep the new guy in town. After much debate, it may have been decided to get Olmsted in his sleep, thus catching him by surprise and avoiding needles commotion. Of course that backfires spectacularly and the mob forms to find the new guy because the royalty said to. Yeah, I think that really fits pretty neatly.

Bob

[T. Kelly Lee]

Who knows how they knew but I think someone must have known.  Sargent and the Gillman clerk don't have to know anything but to do what they're told.  The high-level of the response to Olmstead's visit certainly argues that he was no mere stranger to be disappeared.  Was anything like this ever hinted at by HPL?

I have always thought this was the case and that they were under orders to hold Olmstead.  I think certainly he must have been recognized as a Deep One hybrid by someone...Zadok Allen gets pretty close to it.  Otherwise, no need for a flash mob to round him up - they could have just knocked him on the head if they wanted him dead. 

[Graf von Altenberg Ehrenstein]

Of course you can assume that these creatures know their kind instinctively and your interpretation makes sense. But probably it `s much simpler: This is just the way things happen in a horror story. HPL had all of these pictures - and they are great - in his mind, so he wrote them into the story. He does that frequently without any regard if it makes sense or not leaving us poor readers to rationalize it.

[T. Kelly Lee]

Of course you can assume that these creatures know their kind instinctively and your interpretation makes sense. But probably it `s much simpler: This is just the way things happen in a horror story. HPL had all of these pictures - and they are great - in his mind, so he wrote them into the story. He does that frequently without any regard if it makes sense or not leaving us poor readers to rationalize it.

I don't really think that's the case, here though.  Plenty of other people have dropped in on Innsmouth over the years.  The mill inspector even, well, inspected their mill.  The grocery clerk works there everyday.  Those folks get left alone.  For some reason, almost from the beginning, Olmstead was marked out as a person of interest. 

[Bob Lovecraft]

Well, even if you are a xenophobic group of yokels, you still have to have some commerce with the outside community. This is reason enough to make at least an attempt at a veneer of normalcy for the benefit of the outside world. The good people of Innsmouth appear to maintain a bare minimum of the normal trappings of civilization to pass themselves off as harmless to the outside world. Of course, they do it very badly, but since everyone around hates Innsmouth anyway, they have no real need to do any better. they know that most "normal" people will just shrug things off as being queer and backwards, at that impression serves the townspeople's' purpose just fine. So having a mill inspection is necessary for keeping the cover story of the gold coming out of the mill. And having a few outsiders working in town, is useful for spreading the image of Innsmouth as simply a backwards slum. Ruses like these distract people from the real goings on in Innsmouth.

Bob

[Graf von Altenberg Ehrenstein]

I don't really think that's the case, here though.  Plenty of other people have dropped in on Innsmouth over the years.  The mill inspector even, well, inspected their mill.  The grocery clerk works there everyday.  Those folks get left alone.  For some reason, almost from the beginning, Olmstead was marked out as a person of interest. 

Of course they are left alone. Because they are not the protagonsists of that story. Other people are rumored to have disappeared in Inssmouth i I remember that right. And at least in case of the clerk (even fishpeople need their groceries!) for their narrative function.  Of course Bob `s remarks are also right. Again, your assumption is the most appropriate if you apply everyday logic. Initially I thought that, too but my point here is: How would you approach a person you have recognized as a lost member of your secret tribe/cult and you intend to suck into your camp? A person by the way who obviously shows some interest you could easily play on? Displaying all kinds of hideousness, trying to sneak into his room at night? And when he finally decides to beat it summon your monster friends from the sea? Doesn `t seem like a very promising plan to me.
To me this is clearly horror logic.

[Vulpine]

Maybe Deep One hybrids tickle the pineal gland of other hybrids, but it's subtle.  Takes a little while to figure out.  Sargent calls the Gilman House from Arkham and they work out a plan to strand Olmstead and snag him.  But like many surprise parties, it goes horribly awry.  

The road to Y'ha-nthlei is paved with good Deep One intentions.