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“The peace and safety of a new dark age”

 

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

H.P. Lovecraft, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’

Created in DAZ Studio and Photoshop.

A rare old piece of Australian History

Sydney_Bulletin

The Sydney Bulletin went under in the Great Depression. That fine old Surry Hills tabloid is little remembered these days, but one of its claims to immortality is that the paper’s reporting of the Alert incident in 1925 provided one of the inspirations for H.P. Lovecraft’s novella, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.

After some research (‘midst ancient tomes by midnight at the Australian Museum in College Street) I am pleased to be able to share the front page of the Sydney Bulletin of April 18 1925. The now-famous headline reports the arrival of the Alert at Darling Harbour after a terrifying encounter in the South Pacific.

Click for a high quality PDF copy of the Sydney Bulletin Alert Report (PDF 353K)

MYSTERY DERELICT FOUND AT SEA

Vigilant Arrives With Helpless Armed New Zealand Yacht in Tow. One Survivor and Dead Man Found Aboard. Tale of Desperate Battle and Deaths at Sea. Rescued Seaman Refuses Particulars of Strange Experience. Odd Idol Found in His Possession. Inquiry to Follow.

A Little Lovecraftian

investigator den

A character piece I put together in DAZ Studio and Photoshop. A Call of Cthulhu investigator in that den of safety and calm, the library. At least until you start reading old books…

Click for larger image.