Friday, July 25, 2008

22 Tammuz 5768: The Three Weeks/Merry-Go-Round Day/Sysadmin Day/Day-Out-Of-Time

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Help Protect Land Conservation Program”.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:Today’s H. P. Lovecraft story, in lieu of a weird thing, is “The Dunwich Horror”.


WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Theological review of “The Dunwich Horror”:

Finally H. P. Lovecraft tries for a decent plot! The abnormal and loathsome Whateley Family are working towards bringing the Old One Yog-Sothoth into our world. Yog-Sothoth intends to wipe humanity off the Earth and use it for his own fiendish purposes, and it is up to Dr. Armitage of Miskatonic University to prevent this evil plan from going too far. We also get a glimpse at the history and intentions of the Old Ones and the Necronomicon.

Unfortunately, Lovecraft is still stuck with the same sorts of problems previously complained about. He gets himself in severe trouble for equating the unusual with evil and immorality, making his human villains physically sick, malformed, mentally ill, developmentally disabled, and inbred—people who are unlikely to be effective minions. To get around this obvious problem, Lavinia Whateley bears Yog-Sothoth’s child, Wilbur Whateley, a Satan-like hybrid, creating the new problem of how a human is supposed to produce live offspring with an Old One when human-great ape hybridization (something much more expected to be viable) does not work. (It was tried in the Soviet Union.) The Old Ones are still stuck on the “loser” level of pseudo-deities, being dependent on humans to complete their schemes. Getting very stale, we still have no idea why the Old Ones want the Earth. All in all, one step forward, two steps back.

Theological rating: D.

Scariness rating: Plastic skeletons are scarier than this.


Next up: “The Whisperer in Darkness”.

Shabbath shalom

Aaron

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