what's 'un' a name?

'The Unnamable' starts off very akin to one of HPL's rare (but treasured) comedy stories - a nice bit of self-referential whimsy which has the horror story-writing 'Carter' berated by a friend for writing horror tales filled with dreadful cliché. In particular

"my constant talk about "unnamable" and "unmentionable" things was a very peurile device quite in keeping with my lowly standing as an author".

HPL's canon is certainly full of this device, though it's hardly peurile. Used extravagantly to the point of near-self-parody it may be, but the consistency of its use - the power of its suggestion of things to horrible to even describe articulately - is absolutely essential to the efficacy of his stories. A random example:

"Yet when I looked [...] I saw [...] only the blackness of space illimitable; unimagined space alive with motion and music, and having no semblance to anything on earth"
('The Music of Erich Zann')

Describing something without describing it is quite the feat! 

The story also has what in the comedic story would be the punchline but here has a frightening irony: when the cynical friend is forced to say of their terrifying experience, "Carter, it was the unnamable".

*

'Carter' here is obviously HPL himself, with 'Whispers' magazine manifestly 'Weird Tales'. Is 'Joel Manton' based on a real friend? The story mentions he's a schoolmaster. No doubt it's in the biographies. Hopefully heir brush with 'the unnamable' is entirely ficticious!

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