In the face of “Fear of the Unknown”: H. P. Love-craft's Cthulhu Mythos

Abstract

Abstract: H.P. Lovecraft incorporated traditional horror into science fiction, creating a hybrid mythos called the “Cthulhu Mythos” with “cosmic fear” at its core. He redirected the traditional horror towards the infinite external space that humans have yet to explore, implying the human condition in the universe with the concept of “fear of the unknown.” When the sea of faith retreated, and the realm of faith was dead while the other of science was powerless to be born, and Lovecraft, a disoriented mechanistic materialist, looks back to mythology which was the initial attempt made by human to comprehend the world. He reconsiders the relationship between humanity and the cosmos by creating pesudo-mythology as a means of understanding the world and employs it as a form of resistance in response to his age.

Key words: H.P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu Mythos, fear of the unknown, reflection on science and technology

摘要： 洛夫克拉夫特以“宇宙恐惧”为核心,将传统恐怖融入科幻故事,创造出一种混合型的神话故事“克苏鲁神话”。他将“恐惧”转向人类尚未涉足的无限外部空间,以“未知恐惧”暗示人类在宇宙中的处境。在信仰退潮、宗教世界废弃而科学世界尚未成形的时代,这位前后无依的机械唯物主义者回溯到“神话”这一“人们为理解世界而做出的最初尝试”,通过创造“伪神”和“伪神话”作为一种理解世界的方式,重新思考人类和宇宙之间的关系,并作为反抗手段来呼应他所处的时代。

关键词: 洛夫克拉夫特, 克苏鲁神话, 未知恐惧, 科学技术反思

Zhang Xiaoling. In the face of “Fear of the Unknown”: H. P. Love-craft's Cthulhu Mythos[J]. Comparative Literature in China, 2023, 0(4): 73-86.

张晓玲. 面对“未知恐惧”——洛夫克拉夫特的克苏鲁神话[J]. 中国比较文学, 2023, 0(4): 73-86.

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