#At the mountains of madness summary manuals#

Tins of food eaten all at once scientific manuals and gear stolen human bodies curiously dissectedвЂ¦ Further, the more incomplete of the half-vegetable monsters have been buried, their graves marked with this вЂњdot patternsвЂќ which seem to us immediately to be an alien braille. Our вЂњwhat happened,вЂќ novella-pinioning moment comes when Dyer and Pabodie catch up to LakeвЂ™s forward team only to find them dead, dead to the dog: The energetic professor, the generically вЂњsailoryвЂќ Scandinavian sailors, the unnamed academic assistants, and the sled huskiesвЂЉ-вЂЉall have been gruesomely murdered. This was my first word of the discovery, and it told of the identification of early shells, bones of ganoids and placoderms, remnants of labyrinthodonts and thecodonts, great mosasaur skull fragments, dinosaur vertebrae and armor plates, pterodactyl teeth and wing bones, Archaeopteryx debris, Miocene sharksвЂ™ teeth, primitive bird skulls, and other bones of archaic mammals such as palaeotheres, Xiphodons, Eohippi, Oreodons, and titanotheres. (Remember this, the material/real basis of his fiction.) For example, consider DyerвЂ™s ecstatic and strange-sounding but ultimately scientific take on LakeвЂ™s finding of the cave, in which we donвЂ™t need a single element of the supernal or otherworldly: Lovecraft builds his fiction with meticulous attention to the natural world. LovecraftвЂ™s vision of an other world within our own world is not fantasy, nor the type of вЂњgee-whiz, wouldnвЂ™t that be somethin!вЂќ science fiction in which the latest not-even-practical-enough-to-merit-being-called-an-advance вЂњadvancesвЂќ are spun forward into fabulous new iterations.

There, Lake finds an aeon-spanning cave, from which he recovers the desiccated bodies of several radially symmetric, many-tentacled, starfish-headed, half-vegetable, man-sized beingsвЂЉ-вЂЉthe aliens who left the strange tracks, millennia ago. Sane men going insane in an utterly blankВ terrain.Д®arly on, Lake sees a set of inexplicable triangular tracks in the rocks and eventually sets off to lead a small team further inland, arriving at a previously undiscovered and incredibly tall mountain range in the wild landвЂ™s heart. LovecraftвЂ™s classic tale of Antarctic science-terror, At the Mountains of Madness, follows geologist Dyer and his team of expertsвЂЉ-вЂЉincluding Pabodie, the engineer, Lake, the biologist, and Danforth, the neurasthenic youthвЂЉ-вЂЉas they traipse across our southernmost continent, taking bores of ancient strata of rock. Most recently, IвЂ™ve enjoyed this text for exactly the pleasures of unraveling the structure of the novella, one which can seem intentionally awkwardвЂЉ-вЂЉthe multiple elaboration of a single вЂњwhat happened?вЂќ moment, a moment of sublime WTF-nessвЂЉ-вЂЉof cosmicВ vertigoвЂ¦ In honor of the continual freezing of the catвЂ™s water, IвЂ™m holding off on reviews of a Jean-Christophe Valtat novella in order to return to a hypnotically grim novella from my youth that I read periodically. Various editions, including several freeВ online At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror is a master class in supernatural terror.Electric Lit is 12 years old! Help support the next dozen years by helping us raise $12,000 for 12 years, and get exclusive merch! These milestones of the macabre will compel you to read on, even as you attempt to flee the waking nightmares they inspire. The Statement of Randolph Carter: The lone survivor of an unspeakable incident, Randolph Carter relates his brush with the underworld. The Dreams in the Witch-House: In the crooked bedroom of an ancient abode, a mathematician's feverish studies lead him to a dark discovery. The Shunned House: Two men investigate the mystery of a sinister old house: the scene of unexplained deaths and weird apparitions. In the barren, windswept Antarctic, an expedition uncovers strange fossils. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.'-Stephen King At the Mountains of Madness: Lovecraft's indisputable masterpiece. Lovecraft-and few of his stories are as chilling as these canonical tales of terror. Few writers can evoke such nightmarish visions as H.