RKNet Blog... Thing

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

Something I have learned over the past decade is that every investigative hero requires the correct and proper equipment. One thing they require is a sensible bag to store manuscripts and treasures in. Indiana Jones had his modified gas mask bag. Dean Corso from “The Ninth Gate” had his canvas satchel. Spider Jerusalem had his leather book bag. Currently I use a Megatokyo bag shoulder bag or a Burton snowboarding rucksack depending on what I’m doing. Both have served me well and see many wonderful sights. When I was first exposed to the Mythos I don’t know what my bag was. I would have been at school and just started doing my GCSEs. I believe that I used a cheap nasty messenger bag at the time.

My first exposure to the Cthulhu Mythos was rather appropriately took place outside of a library. Somehow talk drifted to the Necronomicon. A goth kid from the sixth form had bought a copy of it into school. “This is a famous book of occult bad ass,” was how it was described to me. No word or mention of Mr Lovecraft or of the books fictional origins. Sadly for my fifteen year old self a little research soon uncovered the books falseness.

Many people though still think that the Necronomicon is a real book. The copy that the acquaintance in the sixth form had was undoubtedly now a copy of the Simon Necronomicon. But first the fictional history of the book.

First mention of the book appears in the 1921 story “The Hound” (published 1924) as a book written by the “Mad Arab” Abdul Alhazred who was mentioned in a story written one year earlier called “The Nameless City”. The Necronomicon itself is mentioned in no less then five of Lovecraft’s Mythos stories. With references made to the tome in “At the Mountains of Madness” and “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” among other stories.

In the 1921 story “The Nameless City” the rhyming couplet by Abdul Alhazred is given at two points in the text. This couplet appears in “The Call of Cthulhu” from 1928, it is identified as a quotation from the Necronomicon. The couplet is the one at the top of the essay. Some description of the text is given in “The Dunwich Horror” with the book being often described as bound in leather and having metal clasps to keep the large book’s pages safe from damage.

The authenticity of the Necronomicon has been in question since the time of Lovecraft with the author often being asked about the book. His answer was always that it was an invention of his own. In a letter to letter to Robert Bloch in July 1933 he clearly writes: “As for the “Necronomicon”—this month’s triple use of such allusions is bringing me in an unusual number of inquiries concerning the real nature & obtainability of Alhazred’s, Eibon’s, & von Junzt’s works. In each case I am frankly confessing the fakery involved.”

But still rumors of the books authenticity persist. These rumors helped by various differing editions of the Necronomicon being published in the years since Lovecrafts death. One of these the Simon Necronomicon mentioned above was released in 1977 by Schlangekraft, Inc. in a limited edition of 666. The book was later released in paperback and has never been out of print since. Unfortunately I’ve never read the Simon Necronomicon. So I can only give a quick digest of the information on Wikipedia. But it might be of interest if anyone wants to read further into the subject after.

The book claims in it’s introduction that it is a translation of the Greek Necronomicon. The content of the book is mostly based on Sumerian mythology with attempts to tie various entities in Mesopotamian mythology to correspondent entities in Lovecraft’s Mythos. Eh, what else is there to say? It’s black magic bullshit with curses and summons written in a mix of English and ancient Sumerian. With warnings all over the book claiming it’s danger. The back cover saying that this book is “the most potent and potentially, the most dangerous Black Book know to the Western world.”

Whatever the truth is and I suspect that the truth is fictional. The Necronomicon has a place in pop culture like no other book. With references to the book appearing in the Evil Dead film series, web comic Megatokyo and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld book “Moving Pictures”.

Will.

Next a journey into the occult underground of The Invisibles and Chaos Magic.

Pages of obvious interest:

The H.P. Lovecraft.com page about the Necronomicon, contains further information about the Necronomicon.

A while back I wrote an article discussing the less-than-finer points of an invention known as the “shenis”. The inventor happened by here just yesterday and decided to let me know that she wasn’t terribly enthused by my rather negative first impression.

Well, once the subject of “what’s a girl to do when there’s no sit-down toilet services available?” was broached, someone was kind enough to mention a similar invention they’d heard of in years past.

The invention in question was developed in 1988 by a Dutch woman named Moon Zijp and is called the P-mate. It’s a simple cardboard funnel, really. It can be folded for discreet and space-saving storage. It comes with a baggie for disposal (or sanitary storage if immediate disposal isn’t available). Most importantly, it allows women the alternative of peeing standing up when conditions merit it.

Now maybe it won’t let you pee off the side of a boat as perfectly as a twelve inch golden dong, but at least I won’t have to worry about urine in my purse afterward. For purchase of the P-mate in the US, please see their US-based order-and-info site.

This time he is taking aim at the global warming issue, as it has been stirred up lately by both An Inconvenient Truth and the subsequent answering television ads claiming that CO2 is a way of life.

This isn’t as decisive and cutting as I am accustomed to reading from Mr. Long, but as he himself admits, it is a very complicated and difficult for Joe Average to approach in an impartial and a well-informed manner.

Still, if you ask me, it ties back into personal responsibility. His assessment was very neutral, very info-gathering oriented rather than firing off his usual heavy slug of strong opinion. This was more of a buckshot approach, scattering some lead over this very broad and dangerous topic to make sure to hit at least a few key points.

One approach that he only hinted at, and I would have loved to see him persue, would definitely have been for him to raise the flag of Personal Responsibility. Little steps will help immensely in this situation, and people who are passionate about the environment (or claim to be so) need to take more action if they really do have ideas. To some degree, the early 90’s thought process of “it takes everybody to save mother earth!” is correct. However, realisitically, not everyone can devote the kind of time necessary to finding cures for our greatest sources of pollution. In this case, it really is up to the vocal, independant movements to muster up the courage to get out there and support the fine minds that will bring us alternatives to our current mode of life.

Which is really what it takes. Science got us into this particular postion. The industrial revolution’s brand of science, anyhow. Interchangable parts lead to disposable parts, the study of electricity leading to power plants of varying degress of smoke-belching, the development of vehicular advancements, the invention of plastic, the machinery that allows us to automate and speed up production of goods, and the list really does go on and on.

Realistically there are a lot of things that could stand to be shifted around. I myself don’t have a whole lot of ideas, but I know when something is a flat-out wasteful idea! In that light I myself do some little things which will in some way help. I won’t be toppling any major issues or winning a Nobel prize for my efforts, but it’s surely better than nothing.

Soon, I think it’d be a good idea for a lot of us to do a little inventory and see how many wasteful and how many useful things we do every day. The idea there is to knock a few items off that wasteful list, and add a few to the useful list. How about Monday? As of Monday morning, start making a few mental notes on your habits and - if you can - jot them down or type them out and see how you’re doing.

I will if you will. Who is with me?