Cosmic horror definition

These are the horrors at the heart of Lovecraft’s desolate universe. Romance and

material possessions have no place in his world, though the acquisition of ancient

relics, books and documents play a vital role. Roland (2014)

Roland, P. (2014). The curious case of H.p. lovecraft. Plexus Publishing.

The lovecraftian idea of cosmic horror is founded in the supposition that the

human mind is, ultimately, the helpless prisoner of the macrocosm, the

futility of all its microcosmic ambitions and self-delusions being illustrated

and defined by the magnitude and strangeness of a cosmos to which the

principle of “as above, so below” is flatly inapplicable. Joshi (2007)

Joshi, S. (2007). Icons of horror and the supernatural: an encyclopedia of our

worst nightmares. Greenwood Press.

It is, in essence, a distillation of the sensation of “cosmic horror” allegedly

generated by too keen an awareness of human and scientific ambition as impotent

and futile follies; it imagines a universe dominated by malevolent godlike aliens,

whose apocalyptic reemergence is inevitable even though their present dormancy

restricts them to relatively tentative abominations. Stableford (2004)

Stableford, B. (2004). Historical dictionary of science fiction literature. Scarecrow

Press.

Atmosphere description on the book

In the whole atmosphere seemed redolent of unhallowed age, of unpleasant

crudeness, and of secrets which should be forgotten. Lovecraft (1999)

Lovecraft, H. P. (1999). The call of Cthulhu and other weird stories. Penguin

Books. https://books.google.at/books?id=KLKQB55ucpAC

They pulled down the masses into an atmosphere of nightmares and phantasies,

one where fearsome danger could be sensed in every dank, impenetrable shadow.

Shea (n. d.)

Shea, L. (n. d.). The Monstrous Vision of the Cthulhu Call - book 1 - horror. Lisa

Shea.
Cosmic Horror definition

This genre is known due to the way the writer states the story that commonly is
about creatures from underworld, aliens, or any other monster that the reader may
not imagine would be described. As Joshi (2014) mentioned the Lovecraftian idea
of cosmic horror is based on the human mind is supposed to be weak before the
magnitude of the cosmos and the mystery that this has, and no one can explain or
figure it out how it works.

Cosmic horror genre usually shows enigmatic stories that human beings can not
believe they existed, however this type of stories do not offer neither romance nor
material possessions placed in his world since the ancient relics, mystery books,
documents and box take place in those stories (Roland, 2014). By finding an
answer to the existentialist question whether if the event is real or not and which
clues the protagonist might see to conclude he is going to be in danger to know the
truth.

The mystery in this genre engages the reader to continue reading the story and the
background that is described throughout the book can have an impact. So, the
darkness that this type of story has when explaining the event, the clues, the
witnesses, and the proof to find an explanation to something that is irrational before
protagonist’s eyes.

In addition, cosmic horror genre tries to provoke and stimulate readers’ imagination
and goes beyond the human mind’s limits; it goes over the mystic culture that allow
to create an emotion of fear because of the fantasy and enigmatic characters and
scenes that the author has written. Bass (2019) claimed “it often sees early 20 th
century amateur detectives uncovering clues of an ancient evil, battling cultists and
monsters, and fighting to keep the Elder Gods from scaping an eternal prison”. +

There is a mysterious atmosphere during the story where characters are involved
to figure it out what it’s going on in different places. On one hand, the whole story is
dark and shadow environment in which the protagonist tries to find what his relative
wrote about it. On the other hand, the story description is based on a peculiar
situation where everything is out of this world, and nobody knows what kind of
explanation they could say since one event with another one is connected. Shea
(n. d.) said the tale pushed people into an atmosphere where everybody has
nightmares, phantasies, and visions, and also where the fear can be felt in every
dank afterward one character has nightmares that engages a person who starts
being like a detective to find the truth.

Moreover, those scenes are carried out on 18 th century when there are no
technological resources to clarify the weird event or any other method to find out.
Thus, the reader may feel the fear and curious to know what’s next in the story
because according to the tale, there is a creature that nobody has seen yet, and
there is just a description how this monster might look like and the environment
where this last lives.

Once the main character finds clues and witnesses, the atmosphere changes even
more because he notices there are places where the creature may be located,
however the right area where the monster is, it is not from this world, that point
eradicated in the ocean is from the cosmos. As Lovecraft (1999) stated “in the
whole atmosphere seemed redolent of unhallowed age, of unpleasant crudeness,
and of secrets which should be forgotten”. In addition, story ends with the
protagonist knows the truth and is afraid of dying due to the reality behind the weird
nightmares, events and visions.