The Dreams in the Witch House

I understand why Walter Gilman spent so much time in bed in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dreams in the Witch House”. The poor lad was bored to the point of distraction! Personally, I almost fell asleep halfway through my reading of this piece, and after I was done I needed a nap before I felt prepared to pen this entry about the work. (This after about a pot of coffee, no less.)

Fresh from my siesta, I perused this story a second time and found it no more appealing. Having said that, here’s what I think is going on in this story: You’ve got Gilman, a youth who likely was never tightly wrapped in the first place, living with a couple of similar nut jobs in some sort of macabre fraternity house with a horrific history. He’s attending college in Arkham, studying mathematics and otherwise trying to tinker with the “space time continuum”, and he’s getting a tad burned out. He feels ill and starts having hallucinations and dreams about shapes. (Geometry, anyone?) So he does what quite a lot of overtired, stressed out people do when they’re confronted with more than they’re physically or mentally capable of handling: he snaps. Yes, he snaps, but not before spending an extended period descending into madness, sleepwalking and having sensory delusions. What does he do both during and after this decline into lunacy? He kills people, most notably small children, in a state of seeming unconsciousness, and ultimately he kills himself.

Or, at least, I hope that’s what happening in this story, otherwise I’m going back to sleep. If there’s no deeper meaning to this than the flimsy story Lovecraft gives us? I find it without redeem. The characters were one dimensional. The setting was bland, which was a first for Mr. Lovecraft, at least in the stories of his we’ve read so far in this course. The action was nearly nonexistent.

I liked that the hauntings, so to speak, Gilman experienced involved a woman accused of being a witch. Had Lovecraft followed this angle more closely and given me more about the history of the witch house (and, subsequently, the witch), I think I would have liked this story more. As it was, it seemed like a topic introduced then skimmed over too quickly to be consequential.

I did notice in this work - more than in others of his - Lovecraft’s seeming racism and misogyny. It’s pretty telling that the only female in this work is the wizened Keziah and the only person of color is the uber threatening evil black man. Of course, it’s likely indicative of the time in which he was writing and not terribly misplaced for that era.

I said at the beginning of this course when we read “Pickman’s Model” that I’d reserve judgment on whether or not I liked H.P. Lovecraft’s work until we’d read more of it. After this the fifth story we’ve read, I have to say I don’t see myself actively seeking out other works of his after this course.

Rosemary's Baby

Of all the books we’ve read so far this term for this course, Rosemary’s Baby was the quickest read. I believe I read it – all told – in about two hours, thus making it what I’d like to call a great book for an afternoon at the beach. This was also the first book we’ve read that I’d seen the movie before I read it. I think to some degree this affected my reading of this work. I knew what was going to happen – or at the very least some version of what was going to happen – before I ever cracked the spine of this novel, and I believe that helped keep me engaged in the work.

I felt this was a very compelling premise for a novel, and doubly so because of the era in which it was written. When Rosemary’s Baby was initially published in 1967, the subjects tackled in this work – Satanism, group sex, human sacrifice – would have been revolutionary, and I was impressed by the Levin’s treatment of them. The best way I can describe his approach is as being much the same as what people often say of old movies: the camera fades or the scene changes before you see the murder/sex/body/etc. This is effective because we as the readers are given enough credit to follow along with the story without Levin necessarily having to pile on the gore or the risqué.

The characters I found for the most part to be engaging if not always particularly memorable or well developed. I loved Hutch, period, and was genuinely sad when he died. I hated Guy outright. He seemed, simply put, too easily seduced by the “dark side”, too readily inducted into the cult. Rosemary I, as a mother, could sympathize with and on the whole I liked her as a person, but I did find her to be somewhat naïve. To an extent, I suppose it could be argued she needed to be for the story to work. Levin’s depiction of the Castevets I felt was competent but not stirring. I never really felt one way or the other about either of them. Other characters I wanted to know about. For example, I wish Levin had taken the time to develop the character of Terry Gionoffrio. I would have liked to have known about her past. The other cult members also seemed vague and not as well defined as I’d have liked.

The plot was very active and, as I stated above, I found this novel to be very fast paced hence my ability to digest it so quickly. (The fact that it’s only 218 pages probably didn’t hurt, either.)

There are of course obvious parallels between this novel and the Christ story, beginning with the female lead herself, Rosemary. She’s clearly portrayed as a Madonna figure. The conception itself, taking place during a dream state, is reminiscent of the “virgin birth” of Jesus Christ to Mary. Guy very much resembles Mary’s husband Joseph. The idea that Adrian’s birth will lead to a new age is very much one that’s addressed in both the Old and New Testaments. I found all the various ways Levin’s story mirrored the Biblical one to be a very effective frame for the novel.

In short, it’s a good book, a quick read, and I had fun reading it which is, as we all know, what matters.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

I liked this story. I really did. It was active, the characters were engaging, and the plot stimulated and held my interest. I’m a history buff so I found the back story – of how Innsmouth came to be what the narrators learns from Zadok Allen it is – very compelling. The setting was richly detailed as well.

However, if I had to sum it up this piece in one word, it would be this: Overkill.

Yes, I said overkill, an overabundance of unnecessary description of setting and characters. I get that the seeming frog people are “repellent”; Mr. Lovecraft tells me so on practically every page. Naturally, I expect a city of amphibians to smell a little fishy; there’s no need to reacquaint my nostrils with the stench in every other paragraph. When our narrator’s in jeopardy in his room at the Gilman house, Lovecraft goes into such excruciating detail about the potential escape routes that I lost track of how he finally did manage to escape. I could make similar remarks about all the descriptions of the town we get as Lovecraft moves the narrator about it. Though I knew the narrator had a map, I felt lost through much of his travels.

The amount of “telling” in this piece is another aspect I found somewhat off-putting. Though I realize Lovecraft’s style is/was illustrative of the time in which he lived and wrote, it was difficult to overcome my contemporary biases as well as everything I’ve been told about showing as opposed to telling. I wonder how much of this story might have been edited out of this work had it been published more recently. Having said all that, there was to some degree a nice balance of showing versus telling. There was just so much of both that I found the telling at least to be overwhelming

In conclusion, after having spent so much time pointing out what I didn’t care for, here’s more of what I liked about this work. I enjoyed the premise very much. I loved the historical feel. By that I don’t mean the actual period during which the action took place, rather I mean the amount of history the narrator learns about Innsmouth first from the station ticket agent, later from Miss Anna Tilton and the young grocery store clerk, and finally from old Zadok Allen. I thought the ending of the story was brilliant, when the narrator realizes why it was said he had “Marsh eyes” and decides to accept and even embrace his fate. It was a great plot twist mostly in that I didn’t see it coming.

Of all the Lovecraft we’ve read so far in the course, I’d say this was my second favorite. I liked “The Thing on the Doorstep” slightly more.