Nerd Concepts episode 1

Here is my M2 video.  I decided to go with something light and fun for my second video before M3.  I had a couple of people watch it so far, I look forward to feed back. 

Welcome to Nerd Concepts, where every video I’ll be discussing a nerdy concept while wearing a wacky outfit.  Today’s concept is cosmic horror.  I just read to your from The Call of Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft’s classic tale of cosmic horror.  Lovecraft is considered the master of cosmic horror and with his works in the public domain, they’ve been adapted countless times.  A film, a board game, even a spoken word album.  Beyond direct adaptions, Lovecraft’s work has influenced countless movies, television series and other authors.  Cosmic horror preceded Lovecraft but has also continued on after his death.  Let’s begin our journey into cosmic horror.

Like that classic meme, cosmic horror is basically aliens.  These aliens, are a little less on our level though.  Cosmic horror usually concerns itself with a universe terrifyingly larger than ourselves and also terrifyingly different.  They weren’t just building pyramids. Aliens may not necessarily be from just other planets but parallel or higher dimensions.  Early work in concepts like relativity in 1905 and later the work of a man named Charles Fort in 1919 writing of unexplained events that had been pulled from newspapers influenced the genre. 

The beginning of the genre may be found in William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland published in 1908.  The tale concerns a house which is a gateway to far dimensions of terrifying monsters and ancient gods.  Cosmic horror is a glimpse into a universe far outside our control.  Gods do not wish to save us but are simply beings far beyond our understanding that are generally unconcerned with us.  To encounter these gods and their incomprehensible forms is generally to die or go insane.  

The genre usually works best when descriptions are vague but metaphorical so that fear of encountering the unknowable does not lose it’s mystique while still having an impact and weight.  These beings may consider humans somewhat useful as tools from time to time as in The Call of Cthulhu.  Other times the characters scent may be picked up by lower creatures from dimensions beyond our understanding, although these creatures make horrific predators.  This can be seen in The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long, a contemporary and friend of Lovecraft.  

Other writers of the era who worked to create the genre included Robert Chambers, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard who also created Conan the Barbarian, Robert Bloch who also wrote the novel Psycho and Ray Bradbury who wrote to Lovecraft for writing advice in his teen years.  

Although the genre was well constructed by the 1930s, it persists today.  The influence can been seen in many other works of fiction.  The summoning of the evil extra dimensional diety in the first Ghostbusters film is an often used example of cosmic horror.  The more recent series, True Detective, used many elements of Lovecraft and Chambers work when alluding to the cult’s beliefs. Literature was where the genre was born and it is still present there as well.  In the 1980’s and 1990’s writers like Thomas Ligotti kept the genre alive.  In 2016 the genre got yet another shot in the arm with the publication of The Fisherman by John Langan.  

Thanks for watching nerd concepts.  I hope you learned something nerdy.