Weird Fiction discussion

This month, October, we are reading "The Strange High House in the Mist," the next short story in the Dream Cycle. It is eight text pages, or 23 paragraphs long, if you prefer that measurement. I notice, looking it over, that it is all narrative and description, no dialogue to speak of. (I couldn't resist. Sorry.)

"The Strange High House in the Mist" was written on November 9, 1926. The handwritten manuscript is available to be read online if you don't mind H. P.'s handwriting. it was first published in the October 1931 issue of Weird Tales. The plot concerns a character traveling to the titular house which is perched on the top of a cliff. It seems to be inaccessible both by land and sea, yet is apparently inhabited. What gives? Let's find out, shall we?

It astonishes me. This story has no less than 1,101 ratings on GoodReads. It averages a rating of 3.3. Here is just the first paragraph:

In the morning mist comes up from the sea by the cliffs beyond Kingsport. White and feathery it comes from the deep to its brothers the clouds, full of dreams of dank pastures and caves of leviathan. And later, in still summer rains on the steep roofs of poets, the clouds scatter bits of those dreams, that men shall not live without rumour of old, strange secrets, and wonders that planets tell planets alone in the night. When tales fly thick in the grottoes of tritons, and conches in seaweed cities blow wild tunes learned from the Elder Ones, then great eager mists flock to heaven laden with lore, and oceanward eyes on the rocks see only a mystic whiteness, as if the cliff’s rim were the rim of all earth, and the solemn bells of buoys tolled free in the aether of faery.

How is it that so few see the artistry in this writing, or realize how unique, how unparalleled it is? When I read it, I gasp in awe that a person once lived who had the genius to put words together this way, handwritten, on a sheet of paper.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Thanks for highlighting the prose Dan. It's so easy to forget that this was written with very few edits and without the benefit of modern tools available to writers, just incredible.

I've only read a little HPL but I figured I'll jump into this story and see how I go. Here's what I understood of the story:

Considering that Olney is a philosopher, he is someone who is dedicated to the pursuit of truths of existence. When he first arrives at Kingsport he seems defeated, longing for something out of the ordinary.

“… his eyes were weary with seeing the same things for many years, and thinking the same well-disciplined thoughts.”

Then “The Terrible Old Man” provides the needed spark with the story of the mysterious house on the cliffs.

Olney journeys to the mysterious house and gains incomprehensible knowledge not intended for humans.

Then after his return he sees the world in a new way:

“The sameness of his days no longer gives him sorrow and well-disciplined thoughts have grown enough for his imagination.”

His wife becomes stouter, his children duller, and he smiles with pride “when the occasion calls for it”, and they leave Kingsport to a mundane neighbourhood.

This story appears to be about the consequences of the pursuit of knowledge?

To me it seems ambiguous if the outcome for Olney was positive or negative? He is no longer saddened by his mundane existence, but the phrasing doesn’t seem to be positive either.

There are two particularly mysterious figures in the story, the ancient man in the cottage and the dark figure that we never see. I’m taking these as symbols of some kind but not quite sure what that symbolism is.

The ancient man seems to be the conduit for the knowledge, so perhaps is the symbolic of the knowledge itself?

The dark figure is still curiosity for me.

Curiously Lovecraft repeats this passage at the beginning and end of the story, speaking about the morning mist:

“White and feathery it comes from the deep to its brothers the clouds, full of dreams of dank pastures and caves of leviathan.”

I'm curious if that literal repetition has some significance.

This story was challenging read for me. With this kind of prose I take my time to extract the story from the words. That being said that effort is worthwhile when the story contains deeper meaning to uncover and I enjoy the investigation. That plus some ambiguity makes for a memorable story that we can continue to think about.

The appearance of conventional human sea gods was the only thing that seemed a little out of place for me, but maybe it also has some more meaning to uncover.

Overall I really enjoyed the tone of story. I’ll probably to revisit in the future after reading some more HPL, but for now four stars for this one for me. ★★★★

And I laughed out loud with this comment :)

I notice, looking it over, that it is all narrative and description, no dialogue to speak of. (I couldn't resist. Sorry.)

I had the same struggles you did Kevan in trying to determine exactly what was being symbolized or what returning from the quest more okay with an increasingly stout wife and then moving away from the village could really have meant. I took it that the quest itself was a philosophical quest, and that the result of its success was Olney's increased understanding and being more content with his circumstances. He was no longer needing to quest. But I am not at all confident that was all Lovecraft meant to show. It doesn't seem enough, does it?

I too read the story very closely, some paragraphs and sentences multiple times. What really helped me was to try to visualize what Lovecraft was depicting as it I were seeing it in a film version. The house on the edge of a coastal cliff with only an east facing door, meaning the first step out would involve perhaps a 500-foot drop into the Atlantic Ocean was amazing. Therefore, most visitors to the house must arrive inter-dimensionally since they can't enter through the door.

I also liked trying to imagine what the contents of their conversation must have been. We're given the subject matter, but not the particulars. I can imagine myself as a scriptwriter wanting to write some of those particulars for the film version. What would I have Olney and the cottage owner be saying, exactly, in my film? It's fun to try to fill in that blank.

This, incidentally, was the last Dream Cycle story, the latest one before HPL's death, that he wrote solo for publication. We still have two more Dream Cycle stories left to enjoy, one to read in November, the other in December, but both are posthumous, at least in part, and written with correspondent friends, again at least in part. I don't expect these next two offerings to be as strong as this month and last month's stories were.

But I am not at all confident that was all Lovecraft meant to show. It doesn't seem enough, does it?

Yes, that was my take as well. That line "never fails to smile correctly with pride when the occasion calls for it” made it ambiguous for me.

But thinking some more about this:

I took it that the quest itself was a philosophical quest

That sounds like good way of looking at it. As a philosopher his quest for philosophical matters is now over, and I'm interpreting that he now lives a mundane life but he no longer has the longing that caused him sorrow.

I do wonder if there is significance to the part of Olney's that was lost in the mist. He gained something (knowledge/truth?) but what did he lose? But I'm content with leaving that as an interesting unknown.

I too read the story very closely, some paragraphs and sentences multiple times.

Great that's how I'm finding myself reading this kind of prose. I'm enjoying the opportunity to slow down and dissect good writing, and short stories like this one are a great for that.

And thanks the visualisation/reading suggestions too, that idea of imagining a script for missing dialog is super interesting.

We still have two more Dream Cycle stories left to enjoy

Nice, I'll look forward to them.

I also wonder if the change in Onley after the visit to the house was a good thing. He seemed contented with less-maybe because he knew that evening/night could never be repeated. Life seemed to have lost enchantment after that.

I finally read this story, and I really enjoyed reading your observations and interpretations. I'm giving it five stars for the reasons you've provided: the prose and the ambiguity of the message behind it. The writing in particular is remarkable in how each word feels so carefully weighed to evoke a deep sense of meaning and mystery. That's what I've enjoyed most of the Dream Cycle in general.

I agree that it's not quite clear whether or not the change in Olney after his experience is purely positive. He seems contented with less afterwards, but at the same time, there's something amiss. Something not quite right or genuine about him now. Dan, your argument that Olney seems to have been on a philosophical quest, makes sense, and if that's true, then did he find what he was looking for? Or did he realize that he would never actually get the answers he was seeking? The reason he wanted to investigate the house in the first place was because he had "wistful longings of the unknown". If there are no unknowns out there for you to long for, you automatically revert back to simple pleasures of the mundane. One could argue that he lost an essential part of who was because of that, and so it doesn't have to be an either or answer; he is both saddened and happy about what he learned.

At the same time, though, I think the Terrible Old Man might have a point: "the man who came down from that crag was not wholly the man who went up, and that somewhere under that gray peaked roof, or amidst inconceivable reaches of that sinister white mist, there lingered still the lost spirit of him who was Thomas Olney". (210). My first thought was actually that Olney's spirit had been replaced. With what or who I don't know.

Kevan, you mentioned the dark figure and wondered about the symbolism of it. I 'm not sure I know the answer, but I think it has something to do with dreams, as "there are strange objects in the great abyss, and the seeker of dreams must take care not to stir up or meet the wrong ones". (208-209). He must have stirred up or met the wrong dream! Is that what's taken hold of him now? That dark shadow? Is Lovecraft actually saying that to be content is to be lost?