PROPPING UP THE MYTHS – PALEOBABBLE STYLE

Propnomicon Expedition Patch

One of my favorite blog sites is one called Paleobabble.  It is generally comprised of actual scientists and experts debunking hoaxes and pop culture twaddle.  The 21 January 2012 post on Paleobabble leads to an article talking about the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse belief. 

    Update May 2014, Paleobabble has moved to a new location 
    although the old articles will remain in place, for the time    
    being although comments are closed.

As I read the article, I was surprised to find that H. P.Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos is given some credit in anthropological circles for the pop Maya Apocalypse genre.  The following is part of a fascinating interview by Maggie Koeroth-Baker interviewing anthropologist John Hoopes.

 

Propnomicon prop creature

 Here is an excerpt:  “Also, the most recent research I’ve been doing, and I haven’t published on this yet, but I’m finding links between the work of H.P. Lovecraft and influence of that on 2012. Michael Coe was a huge Lovecraft fan, even. I’m working on a manuscript on that right now. But Lovecraft is at the root of a lot of the ideas here, like the cycles of destruction, for instance. That’s not Mayan, that’s Lovecraft. Lovecraft himself had a lot of skepticism and felt that spiritualism was appropriate for fiction but didn’t believe any of it in everyday reality, and he kind of used his fiction as a way to mock those beliefs a little. But now that’s being used as reality.”

 

Brendon Lenzi bottle

I really urge you to read the article in full and follow the links.  I was surprised at how powerful the diverse influences as Age of Aquarius hippies, horror fiction (H. P. Lovecraft),  Aldous Huxley, and others  in archeo-mythology and pseudo-archeology.

Its funny how this feedback loop exists between fiction writers and pop culture “facts”.   Who knows, the props featured on such sites as Propnomicon and the like, may eventually be enshrined as fact in a few centuries, or maybe even sooner. 

 

                                                          CoastConFan

Florian Mellies desk of horrors