I'll have to check this out, Dale.

The Rime made a big impression on me--not only is it almost phantasmagorical in feeling as it progresses thru the narrative.

But the idea, as I recall it, that a wedding party comes down the beach in one direction--likely with laughter and merry-making--and the old coot, coming up the beach from the the direction, buttonholes them and tells them his story, which had to have put a damper on the festive spirit.

I mean, sole survivor plus a near-death experience.

Dale, maybe you ca help. I never figured exactly what Coleridge means by "Rime", which sounds like rhyme, but to me means a frost-coating. I realize that parts took place in what? near Antarctica?, but...

What's going on here? What was the intent?

In the 60's, at San Diego State, I was *sure* he was on drugs when writing Kublai Khan...

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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AS I understand it, Tolkien and HPL *did* meet once, at a restaurant, but Tolkien never forgave HPL for sneaking a whoopie cushion onto his chair when he went briefly to the restroom...

Little known fact.

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Off topic, but I think Lovecraft would have been
> very impressed by J. R. R. Tolkien. There are old
> LP recordings available on Youtube of Tolkien
> reading and singing, and speaking elvish, from The
> Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It is music to
> my ears. His passion and dedication is
> remarkable.
>
> Lovecraft philosophical materialist, and Tolkien
> born Catholic. I think if they had met, and if
> Tolkien had been patient, he would have
> appreciated Lovecraft's intellectual scope. But
> Lovecraft may have acted diffident, closing up
> like a clam. I think the real issue is that of a
> lack of academic schooling, which made Tolkien
> automatically tower above in authority. Both
> Lovecraft and Smith were freewheeling rebels,
> self-taught outsiders, ... just the same,
> geniuses. But their lack of formal schooling,
> would have caused social diffidence and inhibition
> for them in Tolkien's company.
>
> Even though a materialist, Lovecraft was
> passionate. His wife Sonia has described how, when
> Lovecraft read literature aloud, his voice would
> transform and completely become the part, acting
> out in deep empathy.

It's Tolkien's friend C. S. Lewis whom I could wish had sat down for a conversation with Lovecraft. They had some things in common, and Lewis was probably more receptive to weird fiction than HPL. Lewis would have understood HPL's beliefs from within -- he can sound like the man from Providence in some of the things he wrote as a young man. Have I written about that here already? Also, did I write about Lewis's idea, as a young man, of writing a weird tale play with a friend? It really sounds like something that could have been published in Weird Tales. Lewis had been a big fan of Algernon Blackwood, as Lovecraft had.

Sawfish, the spelling "rime" was intended by Coleridge to evoke an earlier literary era. I trust you have read the poem with the wonderful "glosses" by a later annotator (actually by Lewis). And that's another of the things HPL and STC had in common, that knack for pastiche antiquarian writing. That famous "translation" from the Necronomicon, about how They walk unseen, etc., and STC's "glosses" to the Ancient Mariner, etc.

Just think, Sawfish, if there is an infinity of universes, your whoopie cushion incident must actually have occurred.

Lovecraft was not such a gloomy guy as the reputation stubbornly holds him for. Look at THIS PHOTO for instance; smartly dressed, bright sunny trousers, flashy patterned tie, relaxed elegant pose. I think it would have been a blast to party with him! ;)

Just spotted my slip of the keyboard from a message above.

Sawfish, the spelling "rime" was intended by Coleridge to evoke an earlier literary era. I trust you have read the poem with the wonderful "glosses" by a later annotator (actually by COLERIDGE, of course).

Dale Nelson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sawfish, the spelling "rime" was intended by
> Coleridge to evoke an earlier literary era. I
> trust you have read the poem with the wonderful
> "glosses" by a later annotator (actually by
> Lewis). And that's another of the things HPL and
> STC had in common, that knack for pastiche
> antiquarian writing. That famous "translation"
> from the Necronomicon, about how They walk unseen,
> etc., and STC's "glosses" to the Ancient Mariner,
> etc.

Curiously, when the word "rime" appears in certain editions of HPL's work (e.g. "Psychopompos: A Tale in Rime"), this is not a deliberate archaism by HPL. It is merely the WEIRD TALES style sheet. WEIRD TALES practiced the sort of simplified spelling that is now known as "American spelling", but not all of their preferred simplified spellings (such as "rime" and "surprize") caught on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 25 Jul 21 | 06:52PM by Platypus.

Interesting! So I suppose "thru" rather than "through" -- ? I would have found the simplified spelling clashed with the effort of REH to evoke distant ages.

Dale Nelson Wrote:
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> Interesting! So I suppose "thru" rather than
> "through" -- ?

No, they never went that far.

> I would have found the simplified
> spelling clashed with the effort of REH to evoke
> distant ages.

Not really. The "American spelling" or "simplified spelling" is not really any more or less archaic than "British spelling", in most cases. It is merely a alternate policy of standardization, which favors those archaic spellings which are shorter and/or better match (modern) pronunciation. So the WEIRD TALES style sheet did not tend to conflict with the eldritch themes of the stuff they liked to publish.

For instance, WEIRD TALES preferred spelling "surprize" was common in Elizabethan times.

And I had always thought that the word "rimester" (for "rhymester") as it appears in HPL's "The Tomb" was a deliberate archaism on HPL's part. But no. It seems it was merely the WEIRD TALES style sheet.