The Mardi
Gras season has about ended here on the Gulf Coast with Fat Tuesday looming
in a couple of days. This year Friday
the 13th was followed by St. Valentine’s Day and just a few days
later, Fat Tuesday will begin and signal the ending of the Mardi Gras season for 2015, so it seemed a post was in order with this plethora of diametrically
opposing holidays.
New Orleans is linked to one the most central of Lovecraft mythos stories, The Call of Cthulhu, which was written in 1926, but did not see print until February 1928 in Weird Tales. Interestingly, Lovecraft didn’t actually visit New Orleans until June of 1932[1], eventually getting in touch with author and editor Edgar Hoffman Price at his apartment in the French Quarter near where Lovecraft stayed at a hotel. Mutual correspondent Robert E. Howard had alerted Price via telegram to Lovecraft’s presence in the Crescent City and that led to a writer’s confab that lasted many hours. I only wish we could have a transcript of their long conversations. It’s just too bad that Robert E. Howard couldn’t have made that meeting in NOLA, but the stars just weren’t right.
Well it wasn’t even close to Mardi Gras in June ‘32 when H.
P. Lovecraft paid a visit to New Orleans.
But the weirdness and rule of inversion that is the soul of Mardi Gras
just seems to lend itself to his writings nonetheless. The human arbitrary temporal measure of days
and times just don’t seem to work within the magic crescent of New Orleans so
the fact that Lovecraft wasn’t in N.O. during Mardi Gras. Synopsis of the story, Call of Cthulhu
With all that said, to celebrate the 2015 Mardi Gras season,
I put together a photographic ad hoc tableau of artifacts celebrating a H. P.
Lovecraft New Orleans Mardi Gras and the looming end of the 2015 season in the
mood of his story Call of Cthulhu.
Featured in this photo set is a 19th century Italian cast
iron mask form for making traditional carnival masks, as well as a fairly old
conch horn, typical of the Caribbean and used in certain rites not condoned in
the Catholic Church. In voodoo
ceremonies the loa, Agwe[2] is called with one of these conch shell horns.
Scattered about the photos about are some original Native American Gulf Coast potshards dating from before the “discovery” and colonization of the area by D’Iberville in 1699. The flints are imports that the Biloxi Indians and other coastal tribes traded for with northern tribes, as there was no local source on the coast. These also predate “discovery” so they are fairly old. As background, I have included an interesting French contract document dating to the 1680s. Although it has little to do directly with the proceedings, it just seemed too cool to not have in the photo, with its intricate stamps and the hand-laid paper. A note to prop makers, the 300 year old paper is not yellowed nor does it look like the edges were burned. Also in the picture is a (20th century modern) hand-hammered iron knife made from a single piece of iron with a dragon handle. Although not old, it also seemed rather appropriate for inclusion in a Weird Fiction tableau.
Scattered about the photos about are some original Native American Gulf Coast potshards dating from before the “discovery” and colonization of the area by D’Iberville in 1699. The flints are imports that the Biloxi Indians and other coastal tribes traded for with northern tribes, as there was no local source on the coast. These also predate “discovery” so they are fairly old. As background, I have included an interesting French contract document dating to the 1680s. Although it has little to do directly with the proceedings, it just seemed too cool to not have in the photo, with its intricate stamps and the hand-laid paper. A note to prop makers, the 300 year old paper is not yellowed nor does it look like the edges were burned. Also in the picture is a (20th century modern) hand-hammered iron knife made from a single piece of iron with a dragon handle. Although not old, it also seemed rather appropriate for inclusion in a Weird Fiction tableau.
In the story, Call of Cthulhu, inspector John Raymond
Legrasse[3] of the New Orleans police contacted the American Archeological
Society in 1908 about a figure found, “in the woods and swamps south of New
Orleans during a raid”. Previously
Legrass had captured some items from a voodoo meeting. He led a party of police who found some
“oddly marred” bodies used in a ritual.
But you know the story. If you
haven’t, you can download the story from the links below. Consider that these items are from
Legrasse’s collection made over a number of years.
The swamp featured in Call of Cthulhu was supposed to
be quite close to the French Quarter, just outside the original old walls of
New Orleans. This leads me to believe
that the area suggested just might be near Chalmette, which coincidentally
is the site of the Battle
of New Orleans, which just so happens to have celebrated its bicentennial just last month on the 8th of January 1815. The coincidences just seemed to be too good
to pass up! There is an interesting military graveyard at the site dating from 1815 to the near present.
Anyway, most of the figures, icons, and the like in these
photos were made by that ceramic artist Michael Moses, whose diversity
shows in the plethora objects he has made over the years. The rest of the items are a mix original
artifacts, one of which is the voodoo related conch horn. Some other items here are antiques dating
from the time of European “discovery” or before. The Mythos ceramic figures are made of pottery clay and fired at a high temperature (twice) and
should last centuries, even when dropped in a swamp.
Mardi Gras has always had a wild kind of pre Christian
flavor, so this assemblage seems to work out well in association. I thought a cornucopia of Chthonian goodies
would be a fine ending to the season.
The collection needed a little airing out so a photo shoot just seemed
to follow. Hopefully this will get
folks reading HPL’s Call of Cthulhu, if they haven’t already or at least
be amused by the assemblage of items, both original and spurious. Keep on reading. CoastConFan
[1] Info on
Lovecraft’s visit to New Orleans http://mfkorn.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-novel-sold-and-mention-made-of.html
and https://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/lovecraft-and-new-orleans/
[2] As a bit of coincidence, see also Kenzaburo Oe’s story, Aghwee The Sky Monster from his book, Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness (1994). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agw%C3%A9
Additionally, one of Michael Moses’ other pieces of pottery
is called The Day he Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away (not shown). Here's another one, the loa called
Agassou, one of Papa’s Agwee’s crew, is in the form of a crab. Now it just so happens that Agassou is close in sound to Sargasso –
the place of giant crabs and groping tentacles in the novella, Boats
of the Glen Carrig by William
Hope Hodgson (see my post about same), whose influence on HPL is discussed
therein. This is all just happy coincidence
and makes the story work even better by this bit of serendipity. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agassou and http://altreligion.about.com/od/symbols/ig/Vodoun-Veves/Agwe.htm
. Also Agwe's female counterpart is La
Sirene, the siren of the seas, the conch horn also comes into play with this. It doesn't take much of this kind of loose association to make it all appear to be part of the whole narrative. These kinds of random and weak association can enhance the backstory of a prop or in a RPG/LARP scenario sequence. [2] As a bit of coincidence, see also Kenzaburo Oe’s story, Aghwee The Sky Monster from his book, Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness (1994). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agw%C3%A9
[3] John Raymond
Legrasse, inspector of the New Orleans police from 1904 to 1916, after which he
enlisted in the U.S. army. He was
discharged in 1919 after a tour in the military police and returned to New
Orleans. Born in 1874, in New Orleans,
Legrasse was of Creole descent and educated at parochial schools and later at
Tulane. He was in the N.O. police from
1894 to 1916 and again from 1919 to 1927, after which he retired. Legrasse passed away in 1932 and his estate
funded the Legrasse Endowment for Cultural Studies in 1932. The collection was housed in a private
residence for years.
Some links of interest to you Lovecraft and New Orleans fans
Lovecraft friends http://www.hplovecraft.com/life/friends.aspx
CoC RPG ref Sourcebook for New Orleans http://www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/The_New_Orleans_Guidebook
CoC RPG ref book, The
Great Old Ones http://www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Tell_Me,_Have_You_Seen_The_Yellow_Sign%3F and
https://www.pelgranepress.com/trail/files/conversions/Tell_Me_Have_You_Seen_The_Yellow_Sign.pdf
A little more True Detective http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/03/true_detective_louisiana_is_more_than_just_the_setting_it_s_the_inspiration.html
Cthulhu leather mask
https://www.etsy.com/listing/100648031/leather-cthulhu-mask-burgundy-and-copper
Call Girl of Cthulhu film http://wtmd.org/radio/2014/08/05/wtmds-first-film-screening-call-girl-of-cthulhu-on-aug-20/
An kickstarter article about a NOLA-based CoC set of RPG scenarios https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goldengoblinpress/tales-of-the-crescent-city-from-golden-goblin-pres
An overview of some CoC RPG titles https://www.sfsite.com/11b/chao21.htm
Free downloads of the story, Call of Cthulhu
Download Lovecraft audio books http://www.openculture.com/2014/10/h-p-lovecrafts-classic-horror-stories-free-online.html
The complete works of H. P. Lovecraft for Nook and Kindle (free
-- why pay more) http://arkhamarchivist.com/free-complete-lovecraft-ebook-nook-kindle/
The complete works of H. P. Lovecraft in PDF form (708
pages) free again -- https://maggiemcneill.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/the-complete-works-of-h-p-lovecraft.pdf
Some posts about the Cthonian inspired ceramic works of Michael Moses
Propnomicon post on MWM staff head http://propnomicon.blogspot.com/2011/01/cthulhu-fhtagn-moses-edition.html
The Cthulhu box by Michael W. Moses http://mwmosespottery.blogspot.com/2014/09/post-titleblue-white-delft-style.html
One of my posts about the same ceramic box http://coastconfan.blogspot.com/2014/09/michael-moses-pottery-and-lovecraft.html
Cthonian staff head http://coastconfan.blogspot.com/2014/09/michael-moses-pottery-and-lovecraft.html
Cthulhu reverse glass painting icon by Michael W. Moses http://coastconfan.blogspot.com/2010/09/cthulhu-icon-painting.html
A cryptic figure in a still life http://coastconfan.blogspot.com/2011/01/bulb-vase-still-life.html
A little lagniappe:
An article by Robert Bloch, Poe & Lovecraft, 1973: http://alangullette.com/lit/hpl/bloch.htm
Text Copyright
© by William Murphy, aka CoastConFan, 2015
as well as some photos.
as well as some photos.
Finally I have found something which helped me.Appreciate it! Visit: Video Pipe Inspections New Orleans
ReplyDeleteHeading to NOLA for the first time in June -- and want to experience as much Lovecraftian/occult flavor as possible. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you are making it to NOLA. You might consider visiting the house of the serial murderess Delphine LaLaurie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphine_LaLaurie
DeleteYou can also visit the tomb of Marie Catherine Laveau in St Louis Cemetery No 1. There are some pretty good guides around and I recommend groups when visiting the cemetery, although it’s not nearly as dangerous as it had been in decades past.
If you see Inspector Legrasse, tell him I haven’t deciphered that inscription yet, but the stars are almost right.
CCF
Thanks for sharing, nice post! Post really provice useful information!
ReplyDeleteCông ty vận chuyển hàng nước ngoài FadoExpress hàng đầu chuyên vận chuyển, chuyển phát nhanh siêu tốc đi khắp thế giới, nổi bật là dịch vụ gửi hàng đi mỹ, gửi hàng đi nhật và gửi hàng đi pháp và dịch vụ chuyển phát nhanh đi hàn quốc uy tín, giá rẻ