Azathoth, the novel

Hodgson · Post by **Hodgson** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:43 am

Near the end of his life, Lovecraft planned to write a novel called Azathoth. S.T. Joshi speculated in his biography of Lovecraft that, based upon a surviving fragment, the work would have been similar to Kadath.

But if the novel could have been of any kind, what would you have liked the story or style to be?

For those who may not remember their Azathoth, here is a description from Kadath:

There were . . . incalculable local dangers; as well as that shocking final peril which gibbers unmentionably outside the ordered universe, where no dreams reach; that last amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the centre of all infinity - the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; to which detestable pounding and piping dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic Ultimate gods, the blind, voiceless, tenebrous, mindless Other gods whose soul and messenger is the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:58 pm

i like end-of-the-world scenarios. he could have written a super-epic involving global war with the deep ones, the return of cthulhu & co., and the annihilation of existence by azathoth. i mean, if it's his last novel, he has to pull out all the stops

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:59 pm

I've read the fragment, and it seems to me like he ditched it and wrote "Dream-Quest" instead using a similar idea.

Hodgson · Post by **Hodgson** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:04 pm

JJ Burke wrote:i like end-of-the-world scenarios. he could have written a super-epic involving global war with the deep ones, the return of cthulhu & co., and the annihilation of existence by azathoth. i mean, if it's his last novel, he has to pull out all the stops

That's more or less what I was thinking. After all those stories of the secrets remaining tucked away, he might have brought them out into the open. I imagine that "Call of Cthulhu" might be at one point in time and William Hope Hodgson's nightmare world of The Night Land in the future, with Azathoth somehow explaining the transition, the world's final slide, as it were.

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 12:51 pm

I doubt Lovecraft ever would have written something like that, he was more about creepy than scary.

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:31 pm

give hpl more credit.. he would make it artistic and philosophical

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 5:39 pm

Yeah, but it's still not his angle. It's like expecting Poe to have written a novelisation of "Die Hard With A Vengeance". Including Sammy L's character.

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 5:47 pm

ok then what do you think a novel called azathoth should be about?

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 1:11 pm

Some sort of Azathoth-ean cult, or something. Maybe. I mean, "The Dunwich Horror" is pretty much Yog-Sothoth's biggest role, and he's little more than a plot device. "The Call of Cthulhu" was also pretty devoid of actual Cthulhu for the most part.

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:26 pm

i think hpl nearing death would have been more concerned with sweeping revelations, and more inclined to try describing the things he would have danced around earlier

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:49 pm

Maybe. I still don't think so, his forte seemed to be how well he skirted around things.

Hodgson · Post by **Hodgson** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:05 am

". . . the monstrous nuclear chaos beyond angled space which the Necronomicon had mercifully cloaked under the name of Azathoth."--Whisperer in Darkness

". . . Azathoth, which rules all time and space from a curiously environed black throne at the centre of Chaos."--Dreams in the Witch House

"the ancient legends of Ultimate Chaos, at whose center sprawls the blind idiot god Azathoth, Lord of All Things, encircled by his flopping horde of mindless and amorphous dancers, and lulled by the thin monotonous piping of a demoniac flute held in nameless paws."--Haunter of the Dark

The word nuclear has been interpreted by others to mean nuclear energy, but I know of no reason to assume that Lovecraft meant that. The basic meaning of the word is "central" or "relating to a core". He might not have had a theory of multiverses but he might have imagined more than one universe linked by an ultra-spatial power.

Is it possible he might have meant the novel to illustrate that more clearly by fusing the atmosphere of his more successful mythos stories with the dream-worlds of his older writing (Kadath, White Ship, etc.)?

Azathoth's centrality to all universes would be in keeping with the idea of his omniscience as well as of a chaos forming the juncture between universes governed by different laws.

Yea or nay?

Hodgson · Post by **Hodgson** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:12 am

Here's a chapter of a story that seems to play out the same idea.
http://www.apocprod.com/Pages/de_aequil ... %20end.htm

Hodgson · Post by **Hodgson** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:17 am

Hodgson wrote:Here's a chapter of a story that seems to play out the same idea.
http://www.apocprod.com/Pages/de_aequil ... %20end.htm

Which also features--Gandalf.

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:25 am

looks like a decent story, but gandalf? oy vey.. that scares me. maybe i'll have the courage to read it one of these days

The Temple of Dagon

Azathoth, the novel

Azathoth, the novel

Azathoth and Multiverses