The horror genre, which is so often filled with grotesque imagery and stomach churning yarns, causes many people in our society to overlook it as nothing more than cheap and uncivilized thrills. As a large fan of the genre myself this is often disheartening. H.P. Lovecraft who is well renowned for his stories of human insanity and fear of the unknown is a prime candidate for proving that the horror genre is in fact a significant part of our media experience. In the short story, The Music of Erich Zann, Lovecraft uses vivid imagery, human emotion, and symbolism, to explore the human psyche and show us that horror has the power to reach deep into our minds and explore the parts of our humanity that we fear the most.
So often, one of the most "damning" qualities of horror is in its imagery. Lovecraft’s descriptions of the Rue d’Ausiel are however pieces of a painting that are meticulously put together to create a vision of our own humanity. He describes Rue d’Ausiel with images of crooked buildings that, “lay across a dark river,” where it was, “always shadowy . . . as if the smoke of the neighboring factories shut out the sun perpetually.” The bridge leading to Rue d’Ausiel was, “ponderous,” and made of, “dark stone.” With this vernacular he creates an image of a dark hamlet that sets into our hearts a deep foreboding. His visions of darkness create a feeling of fear about such a place. Many times these dark places go unexplored just as the parts of our psyches that we fear go unexplored. Lovecraft uses this as a foundation to build a story that builds little by little on our desire to explore the unknown. Similarly the actual events and experiences of our relatable narrator are done through strong imagery. This is done to compel fear and thought within us. As the narrator enters the attic of Erich Zann’s residence in the Rue d’Ausiel we experience the harshness of the storm outside with images like the, “shutter rattled loudly,” and the, “candles sputtered.” The storm becomes so harsh that, “The glass shattered shiveringly.” There is great discomfort that we experience at the effects of such a storm. As the scene reaches its climax and the narrator goes to grab Zann we are left with this uncomfortable image, “I felt his still face; the ice cold, stiffened, unbreathing face whose glassy eyes bulged uselessly into the void.” Such dark graphic imagery isn’t meant to create disgust within the reader. It is instead there to evoke true human emotion. This vivid and detailed imagery builds the walls of our mind up into rooms we more and more desire to explore. We are led into our own dark place within our own psyche and shown the realities there. This creates an environment where it is safe to face the fear.
This human fear is the very heart of Lovecraft’s story. By drawing deep into the minds of his characters, his readers are able to relate to the human emotions. The young narrator’s human curiosity and desire to understand leads him further into the exploration of darkness. He mentions how he, “was haunted by the weirdness of [Zann’s] music,” and how, “The longer I listened, the more I was fascinated.” This sense of curiosity at something new, strange, or unknown is a common human experience. Lovecraft uses emotions and crafts them well into the personality of our narrator, the setting, and the experience of what we read. Continuing on in the exploration of emotion Lovecraft writes, “I often heard sounds which filled me with an indefinable dread.” It is apparent that the two primary emotions, but not all, that Lovecraft uses are curiosity as well as fear. Lovecraft chooses these two purposely because they are two emotions that are required for exploration of the mind. In order to examine ourselves we have to find the curiosity to drive us to explore our most feared thoughts and feelings. Fear and curiosity counter balance each other in order to create a clean path to travel. Lovecraft himself said, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Fear is one of the most shunned emotions in our culture. The horror genre is door into exploring fear, and most importantly, fear within ourselves.
Indeed Lovecraft shows us fear within ourselves by implanting the human psyche into the very existence of his story. Through symbolism he personifies the very environment in which the story takes place. Our unnamed narrator begins the story by stating, “my health, physical and mental, was gravely disturbed throughout the period of my residence in the Rue d’Ausiel.” This minor detail is vitally important to the relation to the following descriptions of Rue d’Ausiel. He described the street where the place lay as, “narrow and steep,” and goes on to say, “It was almost a cliff, closed to all vehicles, consisting in several places of flights of steps, and ending at the top in a lofty ivied wall.” This leads one to wonder at this man’s mental state. In this, Lovercraft is creating a skewed, uneven setting for this area and its current state of disrepair, as symbols of the narrator’s current emotional and mental health. Previous to all this the narrator says, “I . . . yet have never again found the Rue d’Auseil.” This plays into our view of his mental state causing us to wonder if he imagined the place or if he has just completely lost track of the area. More so it seems that the area was pillar of his state of being and once overcome no longer existed. This setting and the events represent the narrator’s journey into the realm of his own fears. Perhaps they are fearful simply because they are unknown portions of his soul.
We too have deep recesses within our minds to explore. Lovecraft shows us the importance of fiction like this by creating a safe realm in order to explore these emotions. Despite the horror we may feel while engaged in the process of reading the story, we can step away later aware of our own safety but also aware of our own humanity, mortality, and strength. It’s thought provoking, it’s strengthening, and it’s entertaining. Lovecraft proves in one piece that the horror genre is in the very soul of our cultural bias against pursuing fear. When it is presented to us, it isn’t as scary as we thought.
Summing it Up
Deaths: 1
Language: 1
Gore Factor: 3
Sex Factor: 0
Scare Factor: 4
Fun Factor: 5
Overall Rating: 5