Hello.

Does anybody know if there are short stories or books, classic or modern, in the vein of "At The Mountains Of Madness" or similar in theme?

The is a story attributed to Zealia Bishop, ghost-written by HPL (I think), that has always seemed to me to be similar in narrative structure, where an observer from the "normal" world discovers, and to a degree explores, a sort of crypto-society of "others" and the mere revelation is pretty much the story. The implications of the existence of this crypto-society are so threatening that the frisson generated by the revelation is the pay off.

The story is "The Mound".

HPL has quite a few stories in which an unknown threat is revealed, but AtMoM and The Mound both feature lengthy exploration of these hidden, parallel societies/civilizations.

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Do you have anything particular in mind when you say "similar themes"? I could list a few arctic or antarctic horror tales, but that might not be what you have in mind.

Among HPL's own work, I would say that "The Nameless City" foreshadows many of the themes of "At the Mountains of Madness", including the device of the history of an ancient race being told through a long series of successive picture panels.

Thank you for the recommendation, Sawfish.

Yes, Platypus, that would be great if you will share the artic horror stories with me.

Hear! Hear!

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Arctic/Antarctic Horror

- THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM (1838), novel by Poe. The antarctic section is only at the end, but of course it helped inspire HPL's story.
- "The Captain of the Polestar" (1885), by Arthur Conan Doyle.
- THE PURPLE CLOUD (1901), novel by M.P. Shiel. The arctic section is only at the beginning, but is quite surreal.
- "The Arctic Death" (1927), by Willford Allen.
- "In Amundsen's Tent" (1928), by John Martin Leahy. Early treatment of the idea of an antarctic alien so horrible it makes men mad.
- "The Ice-Demon" (1933), by Clark Ashton Smith.
- AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS (1936), short Novel by H.P. Lovecraft.
- "Who Goes There?" (1938), short story by John W. Campbell, Jr. -- possibly inspired by HPL's idea of an antarctic shoggoth. Basis for THE THING.
- "The Coming of the White Worm" (1941), by Clark Ashton Smith.
- "The Thing from the Barrens" (1945), short story by Jim Kjelgaard. Weird creature from the arctic extremes of North America.
- "The Polar Vortex" (1946), short story by Malcolm Ferguson. Student driven mad in a Antarctic observatory.

Thanks a lot, Platypus. I read them all but for the last two ones which look promising, judging by the short description. I am definitely going to get them.

If my memory does not fail me, there is a short polar section in Frankenstein, isn’t there? It has been a long time since I read the book.

Very good story (no horror, more scifi) is "The Formidable Secret Of The Pole" (1936) by Jean Ray.

Minicthulhu Wrote:
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> If my memory does not fail me, there is a short
> polar section in Frankenstein, isn’t there? It
> has been a long time since I read the book.

Yes. Victor pursues his nemesis to the polar regions, where Victor meets his end, and it is implied his monster will die as well. In a frame story, Victor meets a polar exploration ship, and tells his story before dying; after which the monster appears to get in a last word. I thought of this, but did not think it quite counted, as the only horror encountered there, apart from the ice and cold, is the monster itself, who originated in Germany.

Platypus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Arctic/Antarctic Horror
>
> - THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM (1838), novel
> by Poe. The antarctic section is only at the end,
> but of course it helped inspire HPL's story.
> - "The Captain of the Polestar" (1885), by Arthur
> Conan Doyle.
> - THE PURPLE CLOUD (1901), novel by M.P. Shiel.
> The arctic section is only at the beginning, but
> is quite surreal.
> - "The Arctic Death" (1927), by Willford Allen.
> - "In Amundsen's Tent" (1928), by John Martin
> Leahy. Early treatment of the idea of an
> antarctic alien so horrible it makes men mad.
> - "The Ice-Demon" (1933), by Clark Ashton Smith.
> - AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS (1936), short Novel
> by H.P. Lovecraft.
> - "Who Goes There?" (1938), short story by John W.
> Campbell, Jr. -- possibly inspired by HPL's idea
> of an antarctic shoggoth. Basis for THE THING.
> - "The Coming of the White Worm" (1941), by Clark
> Ashton Smith.
> - "The Thing from the Barrens" (1945), short story
> by Jim Kjelgaard. Weird creature from the arctic
> extremes of North America.
> - "The Polar Vortex" (1946), short story by
> Malcolm Ferguson. Student driven mad in a
> Antarctic observatory.

With regard to Shiel's novel The Purple Cloud, there is a shorter, original version which is better than the overly discursive version Shiel wrote for book publication. He also expanded another early serialized novel, The Empress of the Earth (retitled The Yellow Danger), and, late in his career, The Lord of the Sea was revised and republished. Again, the originals are reputedly better, but I only speak from experience in the case of The Purple Cloud-- the serial versions of The Empress of the Earth and The Purple Cloud can be found in Works of M.P. Shiel Vol. I (Reynolds Morse Foundation 1979).

jkh

The Ice Entity (1937) by Jack Williamson is another example of weird fiction taking place in Arctic wastes.

Yesterday I finished "The Great White Space" (1974) by Basil Cooper which is strongly influenced by "At The Mountains Of Madness" though not so good. By the way, one of the characters is called Clark Ashton Scarsdale. :-)
[www.goodreads.com]

Although I have not, in fact, read it, Basil Copper's THE GREAT WHITE SPACE may be in the same vein.

Edit: Ok, so it was already mentioned.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 15 Oct 22 | 02:30PM by Jojo Lapin X.

What about Tim Curran's HIVE?

Thank you for the tip, "Hive" looks promising.