THE DEEP ONES: "The Evil Clergyman" by H. P. Lovecraft
ForumThe Weird Tradition
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1semdetenebre
"The Evil Clergyman" by H. P. Lovecraft
Discussion begins November 9, 2022.
First published the April 1939 issue of Weird Tales.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41909
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Dagon and Other Macabre Tales
The Tomb and Other Tales
Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/ec.aspx
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYu5sUgUO8Y
MISCELLANY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evil_Clergyman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSt8FyaKEtc
https://www.hplovecraft.com/
https://tinyurl.com/5rpbx93b
Discussion begins November 9, 2022.
First published the April 1939 issue of Weird Tales.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41909
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Dagon and Other Macabre Tales
The Tomb and Other Tales
Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/ec.aspx
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYu5sUgUO8Y
MISCELLANY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evil_Clergyman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSt8FyaKEtc
https://www.hplovecraft.com/
https://tinyurl.com/5rpbx93b
2semdetenebre
Is that cover the Weird Tales version of a bodice ripper? :-D
3AndreasJ
HPL would presumably never have intended to publish this as a story in its present form. But I thought it interesting to note that style, with the narrator recalling having done things but not why, resembles more polished stories based on dreams, like "The Statement of Randolph Carter", which we did this summer.
Like that one, this was one I hadn't re-read since my first encounter with Lovecraft fifteenish years ago. Unlike that one, however, I remembered essentially zilch of this one, so reading it now was basically like reading something new.
Like that one, this was one I hadn't re-read since my first encounter with Lovecraft fifteenish years ago. Unlike that one, however, I remembered essentially zilch of this one, so reading it now was basically like reading something new.
4papijoe
>3 AndreasJ: I think your analysis of the dream genesis is spot on.
It is startlingly well plotted for a dream, if some of the action is a bit surreal. While that prevented the immersion factor that would make me consider this a great story, it didn't negate the the appealing strangeness of the piece.
While there is no background on the plot points, I got the impression that the interaction between the two devices projected the narrator back in time to the evil clergyman's final moments before he was to be forced to hang himself. With the narrator's appearance the EC saw a means of escape which was foiled by the deployment of the Flashlight out of Space. But since there is little context provided this is pure conjecture.
It is startlingly well plotted for a dream, if some of the action is a bit surreal. While that prevented the immersion factor that would make me consider this a great story, it didn't negate the the appealing strangeness of the piece.
While there is no background on the plot points, I got the impression that the interaction between the two devices projected the narrator back in time to the evil clergyman's final moments before he was to be forced to hang himself. With the narrator's appearance the EC saw a means of escape which was foiled by the deployment of the Flashlight out of Space. But since there is little context provided this is pure conjecture.
5housefulofpaper
This reminded me a little of some of the Fungi From Yuggoth poems - both they and this reported dream are small distilled servings of "Lovecraftian-ness". It did also have a recognisable dream logic about it.
