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 direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation of flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
HP Lovecraft – The Call of Cthulhu opening paragraph
He’s right, you know.
Phil, what’s got you all Lovecrafted out? First the link to lolthulhu and now this? Though granted, Lovecraft is a fine horror writer and one of my favorites.
This Cthulhu thing has become its own little cult, you see. Exploring the far reaching edges of this little cult is a small bit of entertainment for me.
You should see eBay. There’s a guy there who has written a hymnal.
That and I finally reached the story itself in one of the books I bought. And as far as opening paragraphs go, that is one of the best.
I was going to follow this up with that quote about nihilists from The Big Lebowski, but my eyes were killing me.
“some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation of flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age”
Or there is option C, which comes naught from the Cthulhu mythos, but from “Excalibur”. Sleep in the arms of the dragon. The world is big and scary with plenty of things out there to kill you, but sometimes there’s not much else you can do than sleep in the arms of the dragon, and deal with what comes later when it may.
I dunno, are you sure it’s the dilation that’s affecting your perceptions? Or is it perhaps the first incipient stages of the madness that afflicts most Lovecraft characters after they’ve delved too deeply into That Hidden Knowledge?
Bwahahahaha….