Lovecraft’s Inspiration for At the Mountains of Madness: The Paintings of Nicholas Roerich
Posted on
May 20, 2011 by
Paul
One of Lovecraft’s most famous works of literature, and certainly his longest, is the magnificent novelette
At the Mountains of Madness. This work is one of the best examples of a particular facet of the Cthulhu Mythos: the survival of intelligent and powerful creatures of a time before the coming of Man. In this theme we see the invalidation of our conceptions permanence and safety. If such societies could have existed, and fallen, then so can we humans. Such ancient cultures, if revived, could pose an existential threat to humanity as a whole, or at least our dominance over this planet. In
At the Mountains of Madness, this theme is explored through the devise of an expedition to the south pole. There the narrator, William Dyer, along with his research team of fellow scientists and explorers, uncover an ancient city – along with the improbable survival of a few members of the ancient race which built it. Frequent readers of this blog may remember my
horrified lament at the failure of James Cameron’s attempts to film this particular work; listeners to the podcast may recall our gushing over this story in our
readers guide to the Cthulhu Mythos.