"Man Sees Godzilla Embrace a Monument. Fishy!" (Miskatonic Press, Vol. 2)

Miskatonic Press started because I couldn't remember which stories I'd already read in my H.P. Lovecraft anthology. When I finished a story, I would go to the table of contents and write a one-sentence summary of what happened (usually in a humorous way). I would typically phrase them like a newspaper headline or the tag line for a movie. This post covers a story called, "Dagon."

This story begins with a lament that all my fellow writers will, no doubt, identify with: "I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer."

The writer Thomas Mann said that writers are "people for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." I tend to agree. This blog post, for instance, took me a stupidly long time, proof that I am indeed a writer despite evidence to the contrary (For example, I Googled this blog and nothing came up. Reader, please let me know how you managed to find it).

Anyway, the narrator goes on to tell the story of how a ship he was traveling on fell prey to pirates! (He should have opened with that, honestly). Without going into any juicy detail, he relates that he managed to escape in a small boat. He freely admits that he was, "never a competent navigator," and becomes instantly lost.

The incompetent navigator takes a little nap and wakes up, "half sucked into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire," where, "there was in the air and in the rotting soil a sinister quality which chilled me to the very core." In other words, Florida.

He goes on to further describe the swamp: "The region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish, and of other less-describable things." I was wondering when Lovecraft was going to bring fish into this...

After a lengthy hike through the bogs, the incompetent navigator reaches a giant dark canyon that reminds him of Satan's climb through darkness from Paradise Lost. I'm guessing it's probably unwise to follow in Satan's footsteps and descend into the pit.

He descends into the pit.

At the bottom of the canyon, we come across another common Lovecraft trope: a mysterious stone object carved by inhuman hands. In this case, it's a giant monolith covered in hieroglyphics of an aquatic nature, and a bas relief of humanoid creatures: "damnably human in general outline despite webbed hands and feet, shockingly wide and flabby lips, glassy, bulging eyes, and other features less pleasant to recall." I typed these descriptors into an AI image generator, which declined to create an image since the request violated AI content policy. Truly horrifying stuff.

While staring in horror at images which in 100 years time would damage an AI's delicate sensibilities, the incompetent navigator sees another thing that I won't bother trying to get a picture of:

"Then suddenly I saw it. With only a slight churning to mark its rise to the surface, the thing slid into view above the dark waters. Vast, Polyphemus-like, and loathsome, it darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith, about which it flung its gigantic scaly arms, the while it bowed its hideous head and gave vent to certain measured sounds. I think I went mad then."

Source: heroica

That's about it, honestly. Our narrator doesn't recall much after that, but when he finally returns to civilization, he shows great interest in the ancient Philistine legend of Dagon, the Fish-God. Oooooohh, that's why the story is called "Dagon."

The Fish-God gets an honorable mention in another of Lovecraft's stories, "The Shadow over Innsmouth," which is one of my favorites despite the fact that it's 60% New England architecture and only about 40% fish-people.

Explore the internet rabbit hole! I checked it first, and it doesn't lead to a fishy monument or anything:

• "The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft" (Chartwell Classics). This is the edition of Lovecraft that I have at home, and I enjoy it immensely. It's a nice hefty tome with a beautiful illustration on the cover.

• I made a dig at Florida earlier. I then looked up pictures and videos of the Everglades, which is actually quite beautiful. An Everglades Documentary: Follow the Water

• Ian Richardson reading Book 1, Verse 84-124 of Paradise Lost, in which Satan makes a speech after being cast down to the pit (as one does).

• Chameleon Memes, "20 Trauma Memes to Make You Laugh Through the Pain."