H.P. Lovecraft Sundays #11

Sunday is here again and it's time for H.P. Lovecraft. Today I read two short stories from the massive anthology:

"The Street"

4 stars

"There be those who say that things and places have souls, and there be those who say they have not; I dare not say, myself, but I will tell of The Street."

In this short story, Lovecraft describes about a place called The Street, which is presumably Boston. He indicates that The Street started off being a very lovely place filled with colonial people who had good deeds in mind. Of course The Street did not remain to be a beautiful place.

The inhabitants began to change. More and more immigrants came, which began to destroy the land.

There was the Industrial Revolution then there was World War I.

Terrorists came to the land in dreams of destroying. But...The Street had a soul of its own and could not take any more "evil." The Street decided to destroy itself, taking all the people down with it.

In this short story, it is obvious that Lovecraft has hard sentiments towards immigrants. He also shows us that he does not like what we have done to the land. We have come to destroy what the Founding Fathers started.

As an immigrant myself, I did not find this piece offensive at all. In fact, I found it to be very poetic. I completely understand what Lovecraft was saying. Earth has a soul and we should come to respect it.

You can listen to the audio:

"The Doom That Came to Sarnath"

3 stars

"There is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream and out of which no stream flows. Ten thousand years ago there stood by its shore the mighty city of Sarnath, but Sarnath stands there no more."

Many years ago stood a very prosperous place called Sarnath. At its beginning Sarnath's people wanted to conquer everything around it. They started off by destroying the neighboring, ancient land of Ib.

Ib was as old as the lake. It was inhabited by strange creatures that came from the moon. They also worshipped a lizard god.

When the Sarnathians came, they destroyed everything in sight and took away the deity that represented Ib's god.

Thousand of years pass and Sarnath became a very powerful and rich place, but it all changes in one night. Strange green lights are spotted by the lake. The lake begins to rise engulfing everything around it, and the people begin to see the strange creatures of Ib.

Years later, people from neighboring lands go in search of Sarnath. They find nothing of the great land and only find the deity of the lizard god.

This short story was strange like many of Lovecraft's other stories. It's very similar to the other ones with having strange creatures of other lands that bring doom to Earth. This one did not grab my attention as much as "The Street" but I can clearly see how this is another explanation for the strange world of Lovecraft.

You can listen to the audio:

You can read these two tales in the H.P. Lovecraft Archives.