h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Necronomicon - A846740
Author: Tobes - U205774

Flushed with success, I submit a second Entry for Peer Review. Just wanted to clear up a thing or two about the Necronomicon...

I'm surprised that King Cthulhu hasn't been around to comment on this entry. Or anybody else, for that matter. It looks well written to me! Good work.

Yeah, good stuff.

In a fit of shameless self-promotion, can I suggest a link to my edited entry on H.R. Giger? A653393 Giger published a collection of his paintings under the title "Necronomicon".

Other than that, excellent.

h.

What exactly do you mean by "Most Likely Quote" and "Least Likely Quote"?

looks good.

i'm not knowledgable on the subject, so can't comment on content, but the style is there and it seems well structured.

can't say fairer than that!

I must read some HPL sometime...

Possibly by coincidence... Some very good collections of HPL works have just been reissued in paperback, so a quick trip to a bookshop for anyone interested may be in order.

H.

Read "The Shadow out of Time" and "The Shadow over Innsmouth".

Bookshops round my way are rather light on English language editions; I'm in sunny Strasbourg!

Maybe a gentle hint to a family member will lead to gift-wrapped weirdness and witchcraft this winter...

I might mention that there is a shop named after a South American river which could possibly help you...



Among others.

H.

yes, i'm aware of Orinoco.fr!

Yes, I'd've thought so too Gnomon I saw this, didn't have time to read it and presumed that someone would bring it back to my attention... which has eventually happened

That said, I don't have a lot to add... obviously there is a huge range of articles that could be written covering various aspects of the Mythos, but being a piece centred on the Necronomicon much of what might be added would probably be widening the scope too much. The main problem is that Lovecraft himself wrote so little in detail about the book, and indeed the vast majority of books, gods, events that are accepted as belonging to the Mythos were penned not by Lovecraft but by writers in his tradition, most notably starting with August Derleth. Maybe a brief mention of these things would help... along with a note that each writer usually came up with an addition of their own in the way of spooky forbidden books. I don't, unfortunately, have an anthology to hand, but generally speaking the narrator would hop along to Miskatonic University, have a bit of a peep in the Necronomicon and find a reference there to some even *more* unspeakable book, find it and hence the ensuing havoc. So the Necronomicon itself usually served as a touchstone of sorts in Mythos fiction - because it was so sparsely sketched by Lovecraft himself, later writers usually used it as a base from which to create their own versions of its evil without risking the ire of devotees by trying to tamper with the sacred work itself.

I'll be back if I think of anything more...

A good entry. If you can possibly find a copy of L. Sprague DeCamp's biography of Lovecraft, he goes into more detail how Derleth and others tried to organise (and adulterate) the Mythos into some sort of order. I have read the book but don't own it, so I can't offer any details. Derleth added Gods of his own, that much I remember.

Stephen

'Ullo all, I've managed to log on again (at last)...

"Most likely quote" and "Least likely quote" just seemed like amusing, but relevant things to add on to the Entry. After all, I couldn't *not* mention "That is not dead" etc, and it tickled me to underline the blasphemous tome's fictionality in the manner shown...

I don't want to overload this Entry with too much Mythos inter/cross-referencing, but I think I would quite like to mention some of the other heretical volumes - "Unaussprechlichen Kulten", "De Vermis Mysteriis", etc. If I get the chance today or tomorrow, I'll set to it.

Cheers all for helpful comments once more.

No worries Tobes! With a subject this vast, getting the right balance is pretty difficult, but I think you've done pretty well on this one

But then, I'm not a scout, so attach no significance to my opinion

I would have thought that the opinion of Cthulhu himself would be significant!

Danke Gnomon, you're too kind

Mwgl'nafh fn'glui R'lyeh, etc. Well, I've found a lovely site that lists those heretical tomes in full, so I've simply name-checked a couple and added an external link. *And* I've added a link to your Giger Entry, Hoovooloo. You lucky people

Perfect place to link to for an article such as this, I would've thought

I really enjoyed this entry. I bought two books of his short stories from Oxfam recently, and I'm working my way through them slowly.

The header probably won't make it through sub-Editing to be honest, and I really have no idea what the quotes are at the bottom. Who is being quoted?

Alas, poor sub-header. The quotes at the bottom (I assume you mean "Most likely" and "Least likely"?)... I've attributed the first one - last time I looked, there was a thoroughly informative footnote on it. The second one is just yer standard "This book is not real" spiel printed on the inside front of novels and such works. It's a gag, if you will.