The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers was first
published in 1895. The title is the name
of a play that is only mentioned. The
play ties the short stories within the book together and has a theme of driving
those who read it insane. A name used in
the book is Hastur; it could refer to the name of an entity, a place, or the
king in yellow.
I bring this up as I recognize the name from my pastime of
early American horror. My favorite author
is H.P. Lovecraft. H.P. was a horror
writer as well as a prolific correspondent; furthermore I own more books of his
letters than his stories. Lovecraft
mentions Hastur in ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’ published in 1931. It is unclear if Lovecraft's Hastur is a
person, a place, or an object (such as the Yellow Sign) this ambiguity is
recurrent from Chambers through Lovecraft.
And now a great tangent…
I learned about Lovecraft as I studied religions, mythos, and many other cultish, spellish, and mystic ideologies. I used the wondrous library system that links together all the public (and some private colleges) collectively. I studiede very aspect of magic and mysticism I could get my hands on. Of course I failed the classes I was actually assigned. I did end up taking English and religious studies so that I could get credit for all the effort I had resolved to continue. Here is some trivia for you the reader: H.P. Lovecraft has a writing style and a gene named after him that is called lovecraftian.
Now back to the story at hand…
I learned about Lovecraft as I studied religions, mythos, and many other cultish, spellish, and mystic ideologies. I used the wondrous library system that links together all the public (and some private colleges) collectively. I studiede very aspect of magic and mysticism I could get my hands on. Of course I failed the classes I was actually assigned. I did end up taking English and religious studies so that I could get credit for all the effort I had resolved to continue. Here is some trivia for you the reader: H.P. Lovecraft has a writing style and a gene named after him that is called lovecraftian.
Now back to the story at hand…
Lovecraft also makes
mention of the play the King in Yellow in a letter referring to the play as an
incantation for an eldritch being. So
was someone or some group setting me up?
Did they have knowledge of what my future address was to become? Was this the second most elaborate lark I
have been a part of?
Whatever the answer, I was opening books I had put away decades ago. I was researching with multiple sources and plowing back into a quest that had been forsaken.
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