The Call of Cthulhu (and Mathematical Reality)

TAGS:

Download or edit the free picture The Call of Cthulhu (and Mathematical Reality) for GIMP online editor. It is an image that is valid for other graphic or photo editors in OffiDocs such as Inkscape online and OpenOffice Draw online or LibreOffice online by OffiDocs.

On reading William Hope Hodgson\u2019s The House on the Borderland, H.P. Lovecvraft\u2019s, At the Mountains of Madness, and A. Merritts\u2019s, The Metal Monster in my innocence I was
caused to write the following:

Perceptual aberrations, including time distortion (drug
induced or not) where time speeds up and slows down come to mind during the
reading of certain of Hodgson's passages. Further, an odd preoccupation with
geometric forms as revealed in Lovecraft's, "At the Mountains of
Madness" and A. Merritt's, "The Metal Monster" where living
things and architecture take the forms of "sentient cubes, globes and
tetrahedrons forming into gigantic shapes" are also indicative of
perceptual aberrations on the part of these authors. And, one might wonder (as
in the case of certain visionary science fiction writers, such as Phillip K.
Dick) whether Hodgson actually began to believe his visions were (also like
certain writers of prophecy) genuine "revelations". Oddly, Hodgson
ranges in subject matter all the way from, "a dog, a cat, a silent sister,
and a moldering mansion and underground tunnels replete with ominous, boiling
rivers - all all the way to the creation and termination of the Universe
expressed as colored lights, mists, globes, flashes and a wondrously beautiful Maiden
as proper subject matter for the transit from the observable to the purely
metaphysical. One saving grace of his exposition of "Borderland" as
a convincing document is that certain passages are obscured or missing by which
any remaining mysteries might have been obfuscated.

Another transition - from the impersonal to the
untrustworthy (?) personal viewpoint - would cause "me" to say as I
read "Borderland," I initially thought Hodgson needed a story to meet
a deadline, and combined two unrelated fragments of fiction he was working on
into an incongruous whole. Who were those Swine Faced Monsters, anyway?
Recently, I had seen an illustrated edition of "Dante's Inferno" as
imagined by Gustave Dore, and wondered whether they were visitors from Dante's
vision of the inhabitants of Hell? And (please forgive me) I found Hodgson's
page after page expose of globes, lights of various colors, shapes forming and
dissolving and occluding one another somewhat tedious. I suppose a more
intelligent reaction should have been one at a fireworks display - or, a
"feeling that I was missing something here." Of course, the colors, and shapes represented stars and globular clusters, but Hodgson carried his
exposition a little beyond the obvious.

Now, on reading Lovecraft\u2019s, The Call of Cthulhu and the explanatory notes which accompany the
story I am moved to alter my perspective significantly. Everything changes when
a reader using Bayesian Constructs - in this case learning in science and
mathematics - adds a depth to fantasy fiction beyond what the author might have
intended. Put succinctly, the original becomes a unique version based on the
reader\u2019s past experiences, not just what the author provides.

On page 164 of the Penguin Classic Collection, S.T, Joshi includes
an explanatory note on the narrative of one, Johansen who describes events on an island
where he and some companions encounter buildings of strange form. Lovecraft
records that Johansen said, \u201cThe
geometry of the dream place he saw was abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely
redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours.\u201d Eliminating Lovecrasft\u2019s
affection for adjectives, adverbs, etc. what can be made of the mention of spheres and
dimensions of the Old Ones said to be apart from ours? Further, what can be made of angles changing
from obtuse to acute? Lovecraft
suggests that, \u201cThe sun of heaven seemed distorted when viewed through the
polarizing miasma welling out from the sea soaked perversion.\u201d Joshi quotes in
an explanatory note regarding, At the
Mountains of Madness,\u201cThere were geometrical forms for which a Euclid could
scarcely find a name \u2013 cones of all degrees of irregularity and truncation;
terraces of enlargements, broken columns in curious groups; and five-pointed or
five-ridged arrangements of mad grotesqueness.\u201d

Is Lovecraft speaking of a \u201cdifferent reality\u201d here, or is
it all gibberish? The same question could be asked Hodgson, and Merritt who in his "The Metal Monster" covers page after page with almost exclusive descriptions of odd geometric forms.

Incidentally, Euclid worked in two and later three-dimensional
geometry. Why did Lovecraft choose him of all people to be mystified by
geometry experience by aliens from another world with perceptual abilities
superior to humans? References suggest Lovecraft had difficulty with mathematics in school.

Of course, the sensible topic found in mathematics is
Algebraic Topology. H.
P. Lovecraft once pointed out that the most merciful property of the Universe
is that the human mind cannot comprehend it; such comprehension would be the
ultimate form of "madness." Lovecraft's complaint might have derived from the perplexity he experienced in math class. Topologists contemplate shapes of more than
three dimensions, which humans cannot perceive directly. Are Topologists,
\u201cmad\u201d?

Henry
Markram of the Blue Brain project in Switzerland studies complex structures and
their functions within animal brains; these are structures described by
algebraic topology and referred to as \u201dcliques.\u201d In these \u201ccliques\u201d connected
functional units (neurons} form into surfaces over simple or complex
multidimensional cavities. Examples \u2013 Three functional units could form a two
dimensional triangle; four a three dimensional tetrahedron; more functional
units could form seven dimensional shapes difficult to represent visually. One
value of such cliques in compartmentalized, complex systems could be transient
or permanent information flow and storage by formation and collapse. Further,
the cliques could remain or collapse as stimuli affect them. In a clique, the
many functional units become more likely to function and remain together.
Studies of such cliques in computer simulations show that a stimulus will cause
simple cliques to form initially, and then progressively more complex as the
stimulus continues. Such connectedness would allow cliques to process
information to achieve remarkable tasks. The most complex structures are
however formed from small numbers of connections allowing for efficient
information flow and processing. Investigators will now attempt to link these
systems to the concept of \u201cintelligence.\u201d Is it a holographic projection of the
information in these patterns?

Is
such a conception of intelligence madness? Edwin Abbott explores the matter in
his classic, Flatland, where its
inhabitants who could not visualize three-dimensional objects such as spheres
except, at best, as light projections as circles. See the light projection
provided above to show how humans are limited in perceiving a four-dimensional
cube.

From
this viewpoint, one might state that Lovecraft is formulating gibberish. In his portrayal of the reaction of Johansen and his companions he could have suggested
that the fellows were bewildered, for the Universe is not only stranger than we
think, but stranger than we can think, except with he aids of science and
mathematics. Otherwise, anyone who looks into matters beyond the \u201cFlatland\u201d perspective with be driven
mad and will want all of the results of their studies burned. Further, what
would be the benefit in moments of pure
insight? If such moments changed our worldview would we hope that, \u201cIf Heaven
ever wishes to grant me a boon, it will be a total effacing\u201d of that chance
inspired moment? Albert Einstein put the
matter rather well when he stated that, \u201cThe best ideas are formed
completely within the human mind without reference to observable objects.\u201d As
experienced, human reality is too simple, and misleading.

Further, Lovecraft (for all all of his erudition derived from autodidact learning) might in the use of these words be revealing a certain neurasthenia when contemplating the Old Ones - their conceptual capacities go far beyond those which humans are capable; and that experience "shook" human confidence in our "smugness of superiority" - an unallowed experience Lovecraft found "loathsome." For a dramatization of these effects see the silent film, The Call of Cthulhu, (HPLHS Production), where the reactions of the actors to events are expressed in the facial expressions of the actors and the musical soundtrack; these expressions of surpassing varieties of emotions of horror and repugnance may be beyond those present day viewers are capable. Especially interesting are the expressions of exhaustion of the capacity to experience what their world had to offer, with the congruent desire to withdraw into seclusion - akin to the "institutionalization" experienced by hospitalization or incarceration. Lovecraft did live alone (rarely mentioning others living with him); did he experience a kind of institutionalization, ascribed to the Old Ones lurking underground?

\u201cYour
Old Buddy,

Whizbang!!\u201d

Free picture The Call of Cthulhu (and Mathematical Reality) integrated with the OffiDocs web apps