Blind Read Through: H.P. Lovecraft; At the Mountains of Madness, pt. 2

This is the first of the novellas by Lovecraft, that I’ve gone into.  The organization and tentative handling of the pacing is an interesting elongation of what the short stories experience.  This blind read recap comes from chapters 3 and 4, which basically covers the insinuation of something happening.

The crew goes to the destroyed encampment of Lake and they find that it has been completely devastated.  It seems like it may have been from a weather event, but things are stranger than they seem.  Plus there is a missing expedition member, Gedney, and a missing dog as well.  Everyone else was killed, some in what looked like weather, though the circumstances are suspect, but there are some far greater horrors in store.

Many of the expedition members and dogs, were cut up with strange and horrible precision.  Doctor precision.

The group makes a search for Gedney, and fly over the strange igneous rock, which doesn’t seem quite normal.  In fact Lovecraft describes them as being like paintings of Nicholas Roerich.  There is a strange feeling in the air.

Danforth and our narrator eventually go out over these peaks, frequently referred to as Mountains of Madness, and they come upon an “elder and utterly alien earth”.

To the best of my knowledge, these are the first real cliffhanger endings.  Every chapter so far has left the reader with something to chew on, and come back to.  This type of cliffhanger chapter end, has come into more prominence in writers like Dan Brown and James Patterson, and it’s interesting to see Lovecraft developing something like a 1930’s movie ending.  It almost seems like when Flash Gordon is in the car and goes over the cliff, just to find next week, that he jumped out of the car at the last second.  Lovecraft is just using his weird horror to elicit those feelings.  Truly a master of atmosphere.

The chapters at times feel a bit plodding, but they slowly develop into one serious and terrifying event to end them.  It almost feels like each chapter is a book to itself, and the whole novella is part of a series.

It is also interesting to see the narrator be an archaeologist, because the utterly alien horrors that are inherent to Lovecraft are coming from a place of empirical thought, which gives the horror a little more credence when it happens.

I’m going to read through two more chapters on Friday which will take me over halfway through the novella, so if you want to join me feel free!

Also a great way to get through this if you’re new to Lovecraft is to listen to Will Hart’s podcast of it: