The Temple of Dagon

I recently bought a paperback copy of the Simon Necronomicon. I may go into much more depth on it at a later date, but there are just a few things I would like to say about it. I bought it simply because I thought I would get a laugh, as most of you know my thoughts on the book (like the fact that is was simply a creation of Lovecraft and never written )

The book stresses the importance of preserving Lovecraft's original intention in his writings as opposed to those who wrote inspired by his works. It gives several examples of how people have 'gotten things wrong' so to speak.

At the same time it goes on to talk about the 'battle of good and evil' in Lovecraft's work, which was more of Derleth (and others) idea pushed into the mythos. The book is very contradictory.. that is just a small example.

Also numerous passages in the introduction try overly hard to make sure that if someone tries to dispute something, they will be covered.

For example: They make it clear that the original manuscript is not held by them (not even a copy?) so no one can ask to see it.

They say how those who translated parts for them have vanished. And that those who supplied them with supplemental data are either unknown, missing, went insane, died, or ran off somewhere never to be contacted again.

The book even says that the translations might possibly be seen as being 'modernized' by certain translators - obviously an attempt to automatically answer any questions dealing with language (and writing style) discrepancies.

Now I don't know how many people think the Simon Necronomicon is the real deal, but I would venture to say these things:

1) They do not know much about Lovecraft
2) They just skipped the introduction

:smt005

Personally, if I read a book claiming to be the Necronomicon and I don't end up getting any crazier than I already am, I figure its not the real thing.

Aleister wrote:Now I don't know how many people think the Simon Necronomicon is the real deal

There are enough of them out there to make one believe that a nuclear holocaust wouldn't be a complete waste.

Seriously, the Dunwich Herald's editorial by Bram Barker, "The Necronomicon is not Real," isn't actually about there being believers. They actually were the inspiration for the article.

nortonew wrote:Personally, if I read a book claiming to be the Necronomicon and I don't end up getting any crazier than I already am, I figure its not the real thing.

thats what i say

E. A. - I just read the article on your site that you mentioned. That is quite a straight forward answer for them

I laughed out loud when I read the reader response too. "I have spent the last twenty years of my life dedicated to moving dread Cthulhu from South Pacific to Lake Erie, and progress is being made."

That line alone makes me want to make an animated gif of Lovecraft spinning in his grave :violent1:

Heh . . . the reader response is obviously somebody having fun, but Bram was inspired to write the article after I told him about an old buddy of mine who bought into the Simonomicron hook, line, and sinker.

That dude turned weird real fast, but it still took me about a month to realize that he was dead serious about believing that book to be the real deal.

Many occultists dead or alive, like Crowley or Kenneth Grant say it is not important if the book is real or not. It is essential that people actually believe it to be real and truth.

*looks around for an article he had about that thought*

Adrian wrote:Many occultists dead or alive, like Crowley or Kenneth Grant say it is not important if the book is real or not. It is essential that people actually believe it to be real and truth.

I've heard that claim before.

IMO, most of these "occultists" are just a different breed of LARPers. I haven't met one yet that convinced me he or she actually believed, so much as they've become enamored of the romance of the idea and just wanted badly to believe it's true.

Chaotes mostly believe in the Nec only when they perform some rites that need you to believe in the Mythos 100%. Satanists do have their own run of the mill Mythos section in their bible but that cheap trick works anyway. And the ones that believe in it don't concern themselves with convincing anyone I imagine. They're the ones nobody has probably seen or heard of. Besides, the Nec does confirm its existance by its non-existance. How can it not be if it once has been? But yeah, theres a difference.

nortonew wrote:Personally, if I read a book claiming to be the Necronomicon and I don't end up getting any crazier than I already am, I figure its not the real thing.

I don't think nowadays the Nec would drive anyone insane. How could it?

Adrian wrote: I don't think nowadays the Nec would drive anyone insane. How could it?

Well, the bible and the koran still seem to drive some people insane, so I'm fairly sure that books are still capable of doing it...

The Bible and the Koran do that in an earthly matter, but the Nec... it doesn't deal with any of this earth... The Bible is safe madness - Nec's is the unknown and cosmic.

Around 1927 Lovecraft wrote up a 'History of the Necronomicon', simply because he referenced it so often that he felt he should give some background information. The actual content of the 'book' is scarce in his actual writings. The longest real quotations from the book are found in 'The Dunwich Horror' and 'The Festival'.

Lovecraft was once asked by James Blish why he did not go so far as to actually write the thing in its entirety, and he say that "...one can never produce anything even a tenth as terrible and impressive as one can awesomely hint about".

The point is, the mysteriousness of the book is what caused its intrique, not what was in it . (which for the most part was a couple of paragraphs, some chants, and thats it)

Quite true - I don't know any book that is more powerful remaining unwritten than a book fully written in volumes. In the end the author of any fictional book wishes to make the reader feel something from it. And the Nec, that isn't even written, does that by mere quotations. Awesome.