Cosmicism

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Cosmicism is the literary philosophy developed and used by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft in his weird fiction.[1] Lovecraft was a writer of philosophically intense horror stories that involve occult phenomena like astral possession and alien miscegenation, and the themes of his fiction over time contributed to the development of this philosophy.

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[edit] Principles of cosmicism

The philosophy of cosmicism states that there is no recognizable divine presence, such as God, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence, and perhaps are just a small species projecting their own mental idolatries onto the vast cosmos, ever susceptible to being wiped from existence at any moment. This also suggested that the majority of undiscerning humanity are creatures with the same significance as insects in a much greater struggle between greater forces which, due to humanity's small, visionless and unimportant nature, it does not recognize.

Perhaps the most prominent theme in cosmicism is the utter insignificance of humanity. Lovecraft believed that "the human race will disappear. Other races will appear and disappear in turn. The sky will become icy and void, pierced by the feeble light of half-dead stars. Which will also disappear. Everything will disappear. And what human beings do is just as free of sense as the free motion of elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, feelings? Pure 'Victorian fictions'. Only egotism exists."[2] Cosmicism shares many characteristics with nihilism, though one important difference is that cosmicism tends to emphasize insignificance rather than outright meaninglessness. For example, in Lovecraft's Cthulhu stories it is not so much the absence of meaning that causes terror for the protagonists, as it is their discovery that they have absolutely no power to effect any change in the vast, indifferent, and ultimately incomprehensible universe which surrounds them. What meaning may or may not be invested in the actions of the gods and monsters of Lovecraft's stories is completely inaccessible to the human characters. Nihilism at least allows one to rest content in the fundamental absurdity of the universe (cf. Camus's L'etranger); cosmicism offers no such foundation - humans are simply incapable of knowing and affecting the powers that shape the universe.

Lovecraft's cosmicism was a result of his complete disdain for all things religious, his feeling of humanity's existential helplessness in the face of what he called the "infinite spaces" opened up by scientific thought, and his belief that humanity was fundamentally at the mercy of the vastness and emptiness of the cosmos.[3] In his fictional works, these ideas are often explored humorously ("Herbert West: Reanimator," 1922), through fantastic dreamlike narratives ("The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath," 1927), or through his well-known "Cthulhu Mythos" ("The Call of Cthulhu," 1928, and others). Common themes related to cosmicism in Lovecraft's fiction are the insignificance of humanity in the universe[4] and the search for knowledge ending in disaster.[5]

[edit] "Cosmic indifference"

In Lovecraft's fictional works, humans are often subject to powerful beings and other cosmic forces, but these forces are not so much malevolent as they are indifferent toward humanity.[6] This indifference is an important theme in cosmicism. The noted Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi points out that "Lovecraft constantly engaged in (more or less) genial debates on religion with several colleagues, notably the pious writer and teacher Maurice W. Moe. Lovecraft made no bones about being a complete atheist, and he considered religion not merely false but dangerous to social and political progress." As such, Lovecraft's cosmicism is not religious at all, but rather a version of his mechanistic materialism." Lovecraft thus embraced a philosophy of cosmic indifferentism. He believed in a purposeless, mechanical, and uncaring universe that human beings, with their limited faculties, could never fully understand. His viewpoint made no allowance for religious belief, which could not be supported scientifically. The incomprehensible, cosmic forces of his tales have as little regard for humanity as humans have for insects.[7]

Though hostile to religion, Lovecraft used various "gods" in his stories, particularly the Cthulhu related tales, to expound cosmicism. However, Lovecraft never conceived of them as supernatural; they are merely extraterrestrials who understand and obey a set of natural laws which to limited human understanding seem magic. These beings, the Great Old Ones — though dangerous to humankind — are neither good nor evil, human concepts of morality having no meaning for these beings. Indeed, they exist in cosmic realms beyond human understanding. As a symbol, they represent the kind of universe that Lovecraft believed in — a universe in which humanity is an insignificant blot, destined to come and go, its appearance unnoticed and its passing unmourned.[8]

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Joshi, The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, p. 12.
  2. ^ Quoted in Michel Houellebecq, H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (1999), referenced in Andrew Riemer's "A nihilist's hope against hope", 2003.
  3. ^ See Fritz Leiber's excellent discussion of cosmicism in "A Literary Copernicus," in Discovering H. P. Lovecraft, ed. Darrell Schweitzer (1987).
  4. ^ Price, "Lovecraft's 'Artificial Mythology'", An Epicure in the Terrible, p. 247.
  5. ^ Price, "Introduction", The New Lovecraft Circle, pp. xviii–xix. Price writes: "One seeks forbidden knowledge, whether wittingly or, more likely, unwittingly, but one may not know till it is too late... The knowledge, once gained, is too great for the mind of man. It is Promethean, Faustian knowledge. Knowledge that destroys in the moment of enlightenment, a Gnosis of damnation, not of salvation."
  6. ^ Price, "Lovecraft's 'Artificial Mythology'", p. 249.
  7. ^ Mariconda, "Lovecraft's Concept of 'Background'", pp. 22–3, On the Emergence of "Cthulhu" & Other Observations.
  8. ^ Burleson, "The Lovecraft Mythos", Survey of Science Fiction Literature, p. 1284.
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