Alan Moore Obscurities: Providence Book 3 (#9-12)

"I'm sorry.  I'm so very sorry.  I'm all finished.  Don't go near this" - Robert

This is the third and final volume of Moore's story of a man called Robert Black, a meek soul, who left his job at a large newspaper to tour around New England looking for material for a book he is writing on the beliefs of people that sit under the surface of the mainstream.  This has mainly taken the form of a tour round various H.P. Lovecraft plots until he finally met the man himself at the end of the previous and was invited to come visit him any time. It being the 1919 now, Robert is a very closeted gay man, part of the reason he left the city was that his boyfriend killed himself.  He's also experienced some very nasty sexual trauma on this journey when a mage swapped his body into a teenage girl then raped him with his own body.  Robert has tried to rationalise this away as a dream but it's clearly been getting to him.  In this book he'll finally meet the group known as "The Stella Sapiente" who have loomed large in his investigations so far.  And he'll also be spending some time with Lovecraft too, and as prophecies are fulfilled and the future is written let's see how this all winds up shall we?

Robert has arrived in Providence meeting a man called Henry Annsley who he's been told to meet via a chain of letters from people who know people.   Henry says it's quite the honour to meet him and asks how Providence is treating him.  Robert admits "I've already attracted my fair share of suspicious glances" as it is obvious he is from out of town.

Henry looks at him through magic spectacles and sees pink sea creature like beings circling Robert. Henry tells him not to worry about it.  He is one of the Stella Sapiente, who Robert thanks for being so open.  He notes Henry's glasses and Henry says they retrieve light from the "far violent frequencies and further still."  He also says they have always been open, only detractors say otherwise.

The beasties that lurk out of phase.

Robert says they have a reputation in places like Athol and Salem.  Henry says in Athol the Wheatleys are inbred trash and Salem got out of hand so they disassociated themselves from them.   Robet says in Salem he meet a Shadrach Annesley.  Henry says that's his uncle, but he'd heard there'd been an accident with a lightning bolt, such a shame.

Henry invites him into his home and workplace.   Their headquarters is offically elsewhere, but "the occult is that which is hidden,  Through our science we hope to reveal it."  They sit down.  Robert says the Stella Sapiente has become central to his books narrative.   Henry notes he must have read the occult book the Kitab and formed a peculiar impression of their activities in his travels.

Robert admits that he's "starting to think any peculiarities were thanks to my own mental condition."  He lost a loved one and it's unbalanced him more that he realised.  Henry says that some of their ideas can be disturbing in a fragile state.

Robert: "Oh no, please Mr. Annesley.  Nobody was to blame but me.  Some of the things I've imagined... well, they're just crazy.  I'm very impressionable, and things like the redeeemer propecy are intriguing..."

Henry says coming from New York such ideas could be unsettling.  Robert says he feels like he hasn't been getting the whole picture.  Henry tells him that they date back to 1686 when the Kitab was brought back to America and since then their interests expanded.

His own area of expertise is in "optics and metaphysics".  The redeemer propecy doesn't occupy them, with their view of time it's already been fulfilled.  Robert asks if it is true the order attemped a redeemer the same year they gifted the Kitab to Saint Anselms.

Henry says that sounds like Garland Wheatley's version.  Redeener is actually a rank within the organisation like a Tyler in Freemasonry, "only yokels take it literally."  In 1889 there was an arranged marriage, there order-head's daughter married his protege.  Their child was official condidate for the offical post of redeemer, "it's a purely ceremonial role, I assure you".

Robert says that sounds almost dull. What about the Kitab?  Henry says the book is their backbone, but by 1889 they had other editions so gave the original to Saint Anselms.  They have always enjoyed a close relationship with the Catholic church... but he is cut short by the arrival of a young man called Howard Charles.  Henry has been helping him with a geneaology project.

Howard introduces himself to Robert, impressed that he is from New York.   Robert says he's not as exciting as he probably imagines. He asks about the project and Henry says Howard is a direct descendent of Japeth Colwen who co-founded the Stella Sapiente.  Henry notes Howard and Robert have hit it off, why don't they take a walk, Robert probably knows things about his ancestor that Henry doesn't.

Howard also says he'd like to hear about Salem and he can show Robert round Providence.  Robert also has an invite later to meet someone else called Howard.  Henry tells Howard to show Robert various landmarks and they leave together.

The old church.

As they walk, Robert notes Howard's appearence is similar to to some woodcuts of Colwen he's seen only much younger. Howard says he's seventeen, and has led a sheltered life having hardly been out of Rhode Island his entire life.  Being related to Colwen makes him feel special, "like I'm involved with him and his world."  They chat a bit about Colwen then Howard shows him the "Babbit House" named after the people who live there.  "Things happen there, I guess most folks avoid it" he says.

He then takes Robert to St. John's Church, Robert tells Howard he finds him captivating and wants to here all about him.  We then jump to them reaching the church an impressive red brick building.  It's been shut up for a long time but before the Stella Sapiente were given leave to have meetings in the steeple.  They squeeze through some bent railings telling Robert he and other boys would play truant from school here.

They enter the church and climb the tower which still has lots of of books.  Apparenty the room was for Stella Sapiente's inner head.  Its secret chief.  Inside is the remains of the meteorite that hit the farmland outside of Manchester.  Robert asks what the boys would do here as he rifles through the bookcase.  Shyly Howard says they'd do some "cornholing".  Next thing we see is Robert sodomising Howard over the table.

Sexy times!

They leave the church with Howard saying he gets so little chance to do that in Rhode Island, it much be a "paradise" by comparison in New York.  Robert says it's  the same reason he moved there from Milwaukee.  He thanks Howard and asks if maybe they could get together later.  Howard says he's desperate to fit in and if anyone thought he was "queer" they'd stick him in hospital.  Robert understands and they part.

He arrives at the other Howard's house, the home of H.P. Lovecraft. His houskeeper and aunt answers the door to Robert. Saying that Lovecraft is very ill despite the brave face he puts on things.   He is pleased to see Robert and they sit down to talk.  Robert says his library is astonishing.  Lovecraft says most where inherited from his maternal grandfather.  Robert says that his aunt says his mother was in the hopsital, Lovecraft says he plans to go see her today.

Robert asks if his grandfather ever metioned an order called the Stella Sapiente? Lovecraft says he can't recall if he did but he was a Freemason so he may have.  The aunt comes back in and Lovecraft asks if she can recommend a place to stay for Robert and she gives him the address of some she thinks are availiable. Then Lovecraft and Robert leave to go and see Lovecraft's mother in the institution.

As they walk, Lovecraft rhaposdises about the city.  Robert asks if this affects his stories and Lovecraft says that while "I strive to capture certain local atmospheres, any weirdness springs from my own fancy." He goes onto say that he's been considering pursuing more comic material as a recent trifle, "Sweet Ermengarde" has proved popular.

Robert says it sounds great but stories like "Beyond The Wall Of Sleep" are visonary.  They procure some lodgings for Robert, who says it feels fantastic "I already feel as if I fit in like part of the furniture." He tells the landlady that Lovecraft  couldn't be better as a guide to this place and its history.

Lovecraft: "Oh, I fear you flatter an old man in his decrepitude.  I am but an unlettered autodidact... they I fancy I know this environs servicably well."

He goes on to say to himself that Providence "hesitates on the very cusp of another world... than... this".  Then his reverie is broken and he and Robert leave to head to the hospital.

Lovecraft ponders.

Robert asks how long she has been ill?  Lovecraft says she had always been highly strung but she wasn't hospitalised until last march.  She apparently reported seeing hideous creatures. Robert expresses sympathy wondering if his father and grandfather's death triggered it.  Lovecraft admits that he knew little of his father, a tradesman in gold and silver.

They approach the hospital down a long driveway. Robert says Lovecraft is delightful company, so hard to imagine him as the one who invented the monstrous "Mr. Slaader."  Lovecraft says he should read "Dagon" which is based on one of his dreams.   They reach the door of the hospital, Lovecrafts mother will come outside and meet him.  Robert is to retire to a discrete distance so she doesn't get upset.

 We then get two pages of Robert wating Lovecraft and his mother from afar, she seems to get upset and the nurse takes her back inside.  Lovecraft returns to Robert saying she is a little out-of-sorts.  Robert says she is a lovely woman with a real luminosity.  Lovecraft says she once whitened her face with arsenic.  As they walk away we see things from his mother's perspective as pink undersea-like creatures swim through the air around her and them.

The next chapter begins as we see a strange figure with a row of people on there knees either side of him as we hear on voiceover Lovecraft describing his excitment at treading the same streets as Edgar Allen Poe. The figure mutters "Ylyl yr nhhhgr.  Now is before" then we cut to Lovecraft and Robert sitting in a church graveyard talking.

Lovecraft and Robert chat.

Both are Poe fanboys, Robert says his stories are "intoxicating" and you don't know where or when they are meant to be occuring.  Lovecraft says there is a dreamlike nature to it quite unlike that of Dunsany.  Robert says he was astonished by the "white ship story" Lovecraft had written before he read Dunsany.  Lovecraft says that "merely perusing titles of his had inspired me."  They start back to Lovecraft's home.

Robert says Lovecraft discovering Dunsany must have been like discovering a kindred spirit.  Lovecraft agrees but says although his dream worlds are enticing he finds himself increasingly drawn to a certain realism in fantasy.  Lovecraft then tells Robert he has taken inspiration from Roberts work.  His diary entries "excited" a certain weird mood in him.

Lovecraft: "Before reading your unearthly impressions of New England, I'd not considered my native soil a suitable backdrop for the fantastical."

Robert asks if he is joking. Lovecraft says he's already appropriated the anecdotes about meeting Annesley on his arrival last month, replacing Annesley with the name Tillinghast.

Robert says does he mean going to Annesley lab?  Lovecraft says yes, though "mostrously embellished", he has not named where it's set but it is Providence.   It's all "splendid fun".  Robert says that knowing he's contributed really "peps me up."

Then a man with a top hat and smoking a pipe accosts them.  He is Howard the boy who had sex with Robert, but now he looks older, "akin to my illustrious forebear".  Robert introduces him to Lovecraft. When Lovecraft says his ancestory sounds fascinating, Howard says it is of consuming interest and he's been told of his essential nature.  He's off to meet Annesley at the sanctuary to discuss the festival just passed.  Robert and Lovecraft wish him well and carry on.

Lovecraft tells Robert that he's revealed "aspects of Providence previously unknown to me."  He's made admiring mention of Robert to some of his other correspondents.  Robert is surprised and flattered.  Lovecraft says that he's written to "Loveman", Robert says that's the man who wrote a poem about loving other men.  Lovecraft says he's just writing about the platonic ideal "rather than debase himself with the loathsome actuality".  Robert mumbles, "uh.. y-yes.  Disgusting".  Lovecraft says it's all the more execptional because Loveman belongs to that unlikeable tribe the Jews.

They arrive back at Lovecraft's home and Lovecraft returns Roberts writings.  Robert hopes he gets some more ideas from it and Lovecraft says that the Arab book, the Kitab, alone is priceless. He's already devised a name for the author and the book itself.  Robert asks Lovecraft about his childhood and he says he's always felt that one's background and lineage impart a form of destiny.

Lovecraft as a young boy.

He shows Robert a photograph which shows him with his parents and he is a young boy in a dress, "I confess it rook some time for me to aquire the habit of wearing trousers."  Robert is more concerned with his father, he thinks he recognised him.  Lovecraft says he was born in Rochester, New York. "A true son of mother England", Robert asks him what he means by that.

Lovecraft says that he was proud of his predecessors and warned Lovecraft not to fall into Americanisms of speech, he saw him as a man who "understood the import of ancient traditions." Robert asks that if he was a salesman, where did he travel exactly.   Lovecraft says Boston, Salem, New York and Chicago are places he recalls in his itinery.  Robert asks if he ever went to Manchester?   Lovecraft says not professionally but his grandfather had travelled there before his birth.

He then changes the subject saying that his elaborations of Robert's notions would be passed off as dreams.  He has learned that the majority "prefer that the weird not intrude upon the orderly, prosaic world of their sensibilities."  It is better they think them dreams than have the writers thought of as "morbid and deranged".

Robert says he seems to have a close relationship with dreams, "almost as if they represent a complete other world to you". Lovecraft says for a long time he's been blessed and afflicted with the most extravagant nightly deliriums. Robert asks if his grandfather's folk stories influence his dreams?  Lovecraft says his tales first instilled in him the sense of a New England haunted by mythic apparitions.

He'd recount tales of the things the swarthy immigrants did in the woods, the ghastly rituals brought from their homelands.   The darkness and superstitions in their slum neighbourhoods and blasphemies committed by their scarecly-human tongues.  The depth to which they might degenerate.  He said that if it weren't for certain fraternities "mankind's end would be lingering and ignobly mongrelised."

He shows Robert a photo of his grandfather saying he was a man of many accomplishments, "Whipple Van Buren Phllips". Hearing that his name was Van Buren startles Robert and he turns quite pale.   He hand back the photo saying he's stayed too long and should head back to his lodgings.  In fact he should head back to New York.  Lovecraft is surprised at how sudden this is.  Robert hurridly puts on his coat apologising for leaving so fast.  Lovecraft is understanding and wishes him "a long and prosperous career" to him.

Robert starts putting the pieces together.

As Robert walks through the snowy streets, various things he's been told start rattling around his head as he realises everything is connected,  and that it appears that Lovecraft is the child of the arranged marriage Annesley spoke of who was a candidate for the official post of redeemer.

He sits in his lodgings and writes a letter to Tom the gay policeman he met and coversed with in volume one.   He admits that he thinks there is "something awful in America."  And he mentions the things he's come across like the sea people in in Salem, Suydan in Red Hook, the meteorite in Providence church.  He's sending Tom his notes for the book that will only ever exist in that form.

Robert: "Everything is in it.  I think there's even a way that what's being prepared for the world could be prevented.  Or perhaps it's too late for that.  I think it's too late for me, anyway."

He realises that what he's stumbled into will swallow him.  He wishes he'd never left New York, that he'd never left Tom.  He starts writing that if he hadn't, right now they'd be kicking through the snow in Central Park... then he leaps to his feet saying "oh God.  Oh God."

An eye opens up above him as he backs against the wall, then the lisping man from Neonomicon who was called Carcosa appears and tells Robert that his service has been glorious.  His message has been received, his labours are now at an end.  Robert must rejoice as the redeemer lives.

Carcosa bids him sit and tells him that he is the system by which "it" communicates.  Roberts misery and despair has satisfied the propecy, he has surrended their stories to Providence and brought the good news to their saviour and redeemer.  Robert covers his face saying it's Lovecraft isn't it?  He'll return to New York tommorrow and not say anything.  Carcosa says that his significance is in supplying the redeemer with the things he needs to restore the world to its previous state.

Robert asks how can that be?  Lovecraft just writes pamphlets.   Carcosa says that he doesn't need to know, he simply needs to tell his stories.  He introduces himself as Carcosa and Robert says "you're somehow tangled through fiction".  Carcosa says that fiction isn't what he thinks it is.  By naming something they bestowed an identity.  What Robert thinks of as the real world is a dream that they were experiencing.  They are now in the church and Robert sodomised Howard because the stone absorbs sexual release.

Carcosa makes an unwelcome appearance.

Robert thinks he did something wrong, but Carcosa says the universe doesn't care.  He's not being punished, he's being appreciated.  He's come to reward Robert's endevour and he kneels before Robert and starts to unbuckle Robert's trousers and pulls them down.  We then see why he talks with such a strong lisp, his mouth is a remora like sucker thing, he tells Robert this was always his path and goes down on him as a horrified Robert calls out to God to save him.

The penultimate chapter begins with Robert telling Lovecraft haltingly that something had come to him, Lovecraft thinks he is talking about some insight or a feeling. Robert says "yes, something like that".  And we see him sitting in a train carriage with all the people and other beings he met along his journey.

He arrives back in New York, dishevelled and unshaven.   He goes to an automat and bumps into an older man called Charles who expresses concern at how bad Robert looks.   Robert mumbles that he got caught up in something he shouldn't have and Charles who thinks it's regarding his sexuality shows his concern. 

Robert is a broken man.

Later Robert mails his notes to Tom and goes and sits in the park, head in hands.  Then an old friend called Freddy who he worked with at the Herald walks up and says he looks "like the whole world's on top of you."  Robert says he had a bad time in New England, Freddy sits next to him saying he never thought "guys like you had any woes."

Robert asks what he means by a "guy like me?"  Freddy says he's a handsome writer whose got all the chicks flocking round him.  Robert says "Freddy, I... I'm queer."  This doesn't seem to bother Freddy who says there is no shame in that.  In his crowd of a Friday night if they can't find a girl they would just as soon as go with a "sissy."  He then grumbles that when Robert left the Herald he thought he might have a chance with the woman who worked there but she was letting old man Posey bang her.  He asks Robert about his book, but Robert says he can't put it into words.  They shake hands and Robert is left alone again.

In volume one we were introduced to places called "Exit Gardens", places in Central Park where people could choose to end their lives by being gassed while listening to a record. We see Robert enter the building, sign some papers and sit down.  A record plays and what happens next is the comicbook equivalent of a stream of conciousness as the rest of the chapter tracks the development of Lovecraft's writings, the percolation into mass culture and where we finally meet up with the events of Neonomicon which I covered here (warning, link VERY NSFW).  All interspersed with the relentless turning of the record as Robert's life ends.

The record keeps on spinning.

We see publishers making a decision that despite Lovecraft's old fashioned writing it should be published for a wider audience.  We see Tom speaking to his superior about Robert's writing on Suydam and how he'd like to investigate further.  We see Lovecraft getting married in 1924.  Then Mr and Mrs Suydam being found eviscerated.  Then we discover that many men were found dead and Tom is half out of his wits recuperating in hospital.  The policeman examines Robert's notes say that he was write about Suydam but the other stuff he doesn't know what to do about.  Another cop tells him to pass the notes over to the F.B.I.

We see August Derleth at the breakfast table in 1926, then someone looking for Pitman in the tunnels. We see the F.B.I discussing Robert's notes which they decide to do something about the fish people miscegenation on the Salem waterfront and they go and wipe them out.  More things occur, someone publishes an invented version of the Necronomicon which amuses Lovecraft greatly.  His myth-cycle of his works takes shape, put together by a young fan called Barlow.

Barlow is made a literary executor in the event of Lovecraft's demise.  Lovecraft is next seen being pronounced dead.  We see August Derleth being turned away as Barlow takes all the papers, but his friend says things will all work themselves out.  We see hippies discussing how Lovecraft knew things like the Necronomicon was real but masked things as fiction and we see various people creating their own hoax Necronomicon.  Then we see Edgar Rice Burroughs dropping in on the printing of a Lovecraft story while he decides to use "Kutulu" in one of his own works. 

Necronomicons come into being.

Necronomicons of varying vintages are linked to murders and we reach the present day with the investigation of the "head-and-hands killer".  Every element in this case is linked with H.P. Lovecraft's writings. Neonomicon then happens which leaves agent Merril Breqrw pregnant by a sea demon "Old One".  Since then she has gone missing and her fellow agents can't track her down.  Then we see patients at the Haven Psychiatric facility where she spoke with a fellow agent Aldo Sax who had been institualised after murdering several people and speaking only in the tongue of the Great Old Ones.  She breaks him and several other inmates who were part of the "head-and-hands" murder spree.

Then the agents see on TV the church with strange lights above it.  Agent Barstow picks up Robert's notes which are still in storage at the F.B.I and heads off to fellow agent Carl's place because things are getting crazier outside. Back in the past, the record finishes, Robert is gone.  At Carl's house Barstow  and agent Fuller spot demonic creatures watching the house and they all go inside to formulate a strategy.

Demons watch Carl's house.

Carl ponders that the life of another world fond purchase in the human mind.  Thrift store paperbacks, first editions, "any effective narrative acts as a contagion I guess".  Whatever is happening now it's got printed works running right through it. All Lovecraft's stuff and all the criticism he's been reading and now there is the testament of Robert Black.  If even half of it is true then Lovecraft's stories have been engineered to cause what is happening now.  Especially the Necronomicon, "an imaginary volume that generated several real ones, along with a bunch of screwball occultists insisting it's all true."

He wonders if they can find Merril at Saint Anselms where the real Kitab is located. He says that the Stella Sapiente originated in Manchester and she might be there.  Barstow wonders if she'll be at the church in Brooklyn while Fuller peers out of the window at the watching demons.  Fuller says his family are safe at the bureau but Carl says "I don't know what safe means now.  The world is turning into something else."  They decide to get on the road and make it to the car and drive away slowly and carefully so the "Nightgaunts" don't attack.

As they drive, Barstow says she feels like she is dreaming.  They are on an urgent journey to someplace faraway to do something she doesn't really understand.

Carl: "Dreams and our world are two extremes of a bi-polar reality, that can flip from one state to the other.  It shifted in our favour aeons ago, commencing human history.  Ever since, interests from the displaced reality have tried to shift it back."

Fuller says that their dreams are a vanquished reality and it's trying to overthrow them.  The Kitab was a book transmitted to him as a propaganda weapon says Barstow.  She then says she doesn't think they are driving on a real highway.

Geography is compressed, they are already in Pennsylvania, the "logic is fucked."  How can the redeemer prophecy be responsible?  Carl says there have already been places where the dreamworld intersects theirs.  The Stella Sapiente's strategy was to get knowledge of these to the redeemer via a herald.  H.P. Lovecraft was the redeemer.  Robert Black was the herald.   Neither of them knew it, they met just before Lovecraft's most productive year.  After that Lovecraft's storie came to permeate western culture.

It was so unlikely but no one questions things like the Necronomicon fakes and other writers playing along.   Has that happened before with any other work of fiction?  It's like a religion only "more radical and aggressive."  Fuller notes that they all appear to be taking the weirdness in their stride. Carl says that the world inside them is changing, maybe it's the only world that's changing.  Then they are in New England.

Barstow says the Sat Nav says they are in Massachusetts, "this is what they call Lovecraft country."  She asks why the streets aren't full of people freaking out.   Carl says they are probably swallowed up by "dream detachment" same as they are.   Fuller realises he won't get beack to his wife and kids, Barstow can't recall if she has a boyfriend or not.

Carl says that after what happened at Salem, Merril insisted nothing sexual had occured, yet she looked pregnant when she broke Aldo Sax and the others out of the mental hospital.  He assumes she was impregnated by a Deep One although that's not supposed to be possible.  Only human male and marine female bears children.   They arrive at Saint Anselms or what Lovecraft called "The Miskatonic" university.

Um yes...

Sitting on the front door step is a professor who says his students are inside dancing.  He asks to borrow Fuller's gun and blows his brains out.  They go inside and find one of the escaped mental patients playing guitar for several severed heads placed around him.  Carl opens the door next to him and finds several headless and handless bodies dancing around.

As they leave, Fuller has now forgotten he has a wife and kids. They were told that the "lady" took the Kitab away and that was most likely Merril.  Carl says that it's because of a section Robert copied from it which has a way of stopping what's happening.   They don't know about Robert's copy so perhaps it's not too late to fix things.

They set off on foot unable to remember if they came by car.  Strange tentacled plants litter the ground.  carl ruminates on how influential Lovecraft's Arkham was on American culture.  They decide to follow the street into town in the hope they'll find Merril.  Then they bump into three other travellers. A small man called Mr. Annesley, with two taller companions Mr. Orne and Shadrach.

They join Carl and co. in their hunt for Merril.  Annesley is a member of the Stella Sapiente. He bemoans the trvails their order suffered through the twentieth century, which culminates ih the fact that when the redeemer died he was almost unknown and their plan seemed to have failed.  Carl replies that he can hear what Annesley is saying but he's not taking it in, "things keep slipping my notice.  How long has the sky been like that?" Annesley says it's not the sky, then he exclaims that others have gathered round the manger, "they have waited for us!"

And there is Merril, with Aldo Sax and two others plus some fungal looking creatures.  Merril thanks them all for coming and says that it's time for them to begin.  They make their way onto the bridge with no reason to delay.  She tells them the strange woman is housing an observer of the great race of "Yith". They are cone shaped so she is having trouble with having limbs. They look up at the sky as strange lights seem to be watching, "I think that's Azathoth."

Azathoth is watching.

The other man with Merril is Joshi, the worlds foremost Lovecraft scholar.  He found his way here as they all did.  Merril then starts putting everyone in position for the birth.   She admits to Carl that she knows the baby is controlling her, she also confirms that women can get pregnant from the Deep Ones it's just safer the other way round.  Her baby will be "their heirophant, dreaming of a new planet."

Then Carcosa appears.  He says their world is slipping away as they submit to a stronger fiction.  It's time for Merril to give birth, she asks if she can keep Carl with her and Carcosa says she can.  She sits down and as Carl apologises to her for letting her get into this mess by sending her to Salem, Annesley reads the incantations.  It finally comes out, a small tentacled beast which she holds gently and it latches it's tentacles onto her nipples to feed.

Merril holds her spawn of darkness.

Carcosa then takes the little creature, he has many thousands of miles to cross before he can rest and dream.   Merril says she feels sad, but Carl says it's better the baby goes with them.  Merril asks if the baby will remember her, but Carcosa says he won't, he is barely aware of the universe as it is and he bids her farewell.   Joshi puts his jacket round Merril say "is this our new world?"  Merril responds "I think it's Yuggoth now" as Carcosa places the baby into the water.   She thinks maybe it's always been Yuggoth.

Joshi: "Hm, and human reality has only ever been a fragile construct that we briefly imposed on the fundamental chaos of existence."

Where does it leave them though?  Merril says they have ended up as Lovecraft's characters.  Joshi says that the only options appear to be madness or suicide.   Merril says there is always acceptance, like at the end of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".

Joshi says he can't agree, that the narrator embracing his fate is emphasising the horror.  But Merril says Innsmouth's protagonist ends up the happiest of all Lovecraft's characters.   Joshi wonders what need this new world for F.B.I agents and literary scholars.  Carl then points to a large cloud with tentacles coming out of it heading their way.

Joshi says that is Shub-Niggurath who Lovecraft described as a cloud.  Merril says they better get off the bridge and move on.  Carl is contemplating Robert's notebook still.   He says inside is information, symbols and talismans which can stop all of this.  But Joshi dismisses that as one of "Derleth's embellishments".  Carl says they could save the world.

Merril: "Carl, I... I don't think that this is that kind of story.  It's not about what humans want anymore.  I think we should go with the Innsmouth tide.  I think we should learn to dwell amidst wonder and glory forever."

Joshi and Merril then walk off and Carl asks what he should do with Robert's book.  Merril tells him to do what he has to do. So he tears the book to pieces and lets them fall off the bridge.  Which brings this series to an end.

The final end of Robert's work.

Well it's been one hell of a journey and honestly in places I have only scratched the surface of what is going on.  Robert's notes are included except between chapter 11 and 12 of course which make up the book that played such an important role in inspiring Lovecraft.  Robert was told from the start that his book would be important, of course why it was going to be important he wasn't told until the end.  The treatment of Lovecraft in this book feels like an apology for how he was demeaned in Neonomicon.  I love the idea of his works being used to allow the realm that is dreams to assert itself as the new reality. It even managed to save Neonomicon, a series I really hated for all the gratuitous rape in it, as Merril gives birth to a being that will become a god in good time.  Robert's ending is very sad, his suicide after realising he's been a pawn in a cosmic game of chess as we are told how Lovecraft's stories and ideas spread into winder culture is effectively portrayed.  Jacen Burrows's art is magnificent as usual, making the escalating weirdness of the final chapter seem mundane which is exactly how it needed to be portrayed. This is a story about stories and the power of words to change reality, as a Lovecraft fan I appreciated this time how he came across as an eccentric who just wrote whatever he was inspired by including the events he read about in Robert's book, which had been engineered just for him.  Robert his herald, Lovecraft the redeemer.  Robert killing himself when he finds out how he was used, Lovecraft continuing on in blissful ignorance.  The final chapter is very weird and it's interesting how the characters choose to live in the new reality as Carl destroys the one thing that could help undo it.  Was he doing it of his own free will?  No one can tell anymore.  This is a really good series from Alan Moore, a real comeback after him neglecting his comicbook work for his boring prose novel.  I highly recommend it especially to anyone interested in Lovecraft and general weirdness in their comicbooks.

Alan Moore Obscurities: Providence Book 1(#1-4) NSFW

 NSFW/Trigger warning: images of full frontal male nudity and incest rape.

"It's the risk you run if you're a dreamer.  Fact and fancy get mixed up, and dreams can come to rule your waking circumstances" - Tom Malone

"Objection!"  This series which ran for twelve issues last year and is currently in the middle of of being collected is too new to be considered an obscurity, you say. I say, had you heard of it?  The fact I couldn't walk into Forbidden Planet and pick up this volume relying instead on Amazon and the fact it's another for the small publishing company Avatar Press really makes it an obscurity from the start.  Which is a shame because, at least on the basis of this first trade, it's something of a return to form for Moore.  Now I must iterate that I am writing this up before reading the next volume in the collection, but on the basis of these four issues we've got something rather good forming.  It's a return to the Lovecraftian themes that inspired the repugnant Neonomicon (links to a very NSFW post), but unlike that vile piece of filth this captures the subtle building horror that so defined Lovecraft's work and lacks the unpleasant reflections of the real Lovecraft's asexuality against a backdrop of extremely graphic rape and abuse. Set in the 1920's we follow a journalist called Robert Black who has decided to write a book based on the underbelly of American small time life and the sinister things he discovers as he keeps probing deeper.  Each chapter ends with text diary entries that at first seem like padding but actually start expanding the story in a most interesting fashion while allowing us to get to know Robert more intimately via his ruminations and theories. I'll be concentrating mainly on the comic portions which are drawn by the talented Jacen Burrows because adding in summaries of the prose sections would probably triple the length of this already lengthy post. So let's begin and see long Moore can hold out before the inevitable rape happens.

We begin in New York 1919, a man called Jonathan whose face we never see is standing on a bridge in a park tearing up some romantic letters and tossing the pieces over the railing.  Then we cut to the offices of the newspaper The Herald.  There the boss, an older man called Mr. Posey is lecturing the others - Prissy the secretary, journalist Mr. Dix and our protagonist journalist Robert Black - on how journalism is trailing in the gutter now thanks to the antics of Hearst.  Journalism was once known for its courage, now "it's a badge of shame is what it is."

Robert Black, foreground.

They have one half page left to fill for tomorrows edition, Dix suggests something on local legends like the Jersey Devil.  Prissy pipes up and asks Robert about the book she remembers hearing about that "sent everybody crazy". Robert says it's called "Sous Le Monde" back in the 1880's, Prissy says no, wasn't it called something like "The Yellow Thing?"

Robert says she means "The King In Yellow" by Robert Chambers, which was written round the turn of the century, which was based allegedly on the scandal round Sous Le Monde.  He decides he will investigate further because it'll get him out of the office and his bickering co-workers.  There is a doctor who lives locally who wrote an essay on it, so Robert looks up his address as they had previously interviewed his landlady on an unrelated matter and leaves. 

We then see Jonathan silently walking towards a building in the park, to jump slightly ahead, this is an "Exit Garden" where people can go to end their lives peacefully. As Robert walks we get some flashbacks, first to him as a young boy and our first hint that he is from a family of German Jewish immigrants as first they argue about what he'll be when he grows up, then him as a young man leaving for New York while his father asks him "what do they have in New York that's not in Milwaukee?"

He stops off an an automat to grab some lunch and bumps into a friend called Charles who asks if he is still seeing "Lillian?"  Robert says he and "Miss Russell" broke up, "it was getting too close for comfort".  Charles says he recalls Robert saying he was going to write a book wasn't he?  Robert says he's been doing lots of planning, very little writing, he doesn't have a subject yet to be truthful.

Robert: "I want something that cuts to the heart of this country and these times.  That's talks about things nobody's dared talk about before.  You know? Not just another slice of life in the City of Bachelors."

After that he leaves and we get more flashbacks.  Him getting the job at the Herald where Posey tells him his personal life is his own business and not to bring it to work.  Then him skulking down the docks.   Then a woman whose face we don't see introducing herself as "Lillian Russell".  Then him naked in Lillian's bedroom as he admires all her books.  Finally he arrives at where Dr. Alvarez is living.  The landlady, Mrs. Ortega, wearing a furcoat and nothing else, lets him in warning that it will be cold inside Mr. Alvarez's rooms.

Memories haunt Robert.

Alvarez introduces himself and says the primitive air conditioning is keeping the place cool for his health.  Robert says Alvarez wrote an essay about Sous Le Monde for a Spanish literary magazine and could he ask him about it.  Alvarez spots some underwear on the floor and picks it up.  Robert apologises for interrupting Alvarez and Mrs. Ortega's love-making.

Alvarez: "Love is the only substantial thing.  It is noble in its noises and its odours.  From where I look at this, to not love is to waste the existence.  Even life is a small matter beside it.  You see, it is not interrupted by death.  Without it, the world cannot be endured."

Another cut to Jonathan now inside the Exit Garden, choosing some music to listen to on the gramaphone.  Then back to Alvarez and Robert.   Robert asks him what attracted him to Sous Le Monde?

Alvarez says it has a mention of an Arab alchemical text which had connection to his work at the time, "Kitab Al-Hikmah Al-Najmiyya" which means "Book of the Wisdom of the Stars".  For many years it was considered a fiction, but Guillot, the author of Sous Le Monde has read it.  It linked with Alvarez's interests and work at the time.  That was the prolonging of life.  Guillot reported that the Arab text had four methods, two of which - reviving cadavers and transplanting souls - seemed mystical.  "Others, perhaps, were more scientific" says Alvarez.

Dr. Alvarez and Robert chat.

Robert asks if he had read the Arab book himself.  Alvarez says not the original, but he knew of a copy in America which proved authentic and Sous Le Monde had proved useful in that regard.  Alvarez then goes on to say he thinks as literature Chambers' The King In Yellow was better. He tells Robert that Chamber's book is almost prophecy, set in their times with a just concluded war with Germany and "the lethal chambers we have in New York now".  He then asks Robert about working for The Herald.

Alvarez: "Before my illness, I greatly admired its offices.  The statue of Athena, the brass owls with electric eyes flashing... 'Al-Hikman Al-Najmiyya', there, too, is wisdom among the twinkling stars, is it not?"

Robert says it's a lovely thought, then questions Alvarez about his illness, did it start in 1905?  Alvarez says it was then he and his colleague Doctor Este tested their proceedures on themselves, but Este died and he is now confined to his cold rooms.

He doesn't seem all that bothered by his predicament, "life does not trouble me".  Robert notes that most people in New York mind their own business.  Then Alvarez gives him an idea.

Alvarez: "In America, we are allowed our privacy, yes? We are allowed our secrets.  I have my secret and you have yours, I think other people, also. There is a concealed country, therefore, hidden below the society we show the world. Uncomfortable truth, it lurks behind our pretences. This truth, it is a land sunken beneath many fathoms.  Were it on day to rise and confront us all, what would you do, Mr Black?  What would any of us do?"

After a cut to the man overseeing Jonathan's death checking if he is dead at the Exit Garden, we return to Alvarez and Robert.  Getting ready to leave, Robert thanks him for giving him a lot to think about and then asks Alvarez about the tragedies surrounding Sous Le Monde.  Alvarez says it was just coincidence exploited by the publishers.  Robert says he guesses that sinks his story, but talk of the hidden America is an idea he'll be chewing over.

Alvarez bids Robert farewell.

Alvarez shakes his hand as says he hopes his words on love have sunk in as well, "we must never discard those we are loved by. Lacking them, we are cursed." He says without Mrs. Ortega his world would fall to peices and that he has enjoyed their lively conversation.  As Robert leaves, Mrs. Ortega asks him not to print any lies about Alvarez, Robert says he would never put anything dishonest to print.  She thanks him saying, "Dr. Alvarez, he is the loneliest people, in this world, no one is like him".

Robert walks down the street, it's night now.  He remembers a conversation with Lillian who had met Mr. Posey at a charity function and this has freaked out Robert for some reason.  Then we see him walking out on her because of this and she pleads with him, saying she loves him:

Lillian: "How can you be so cowardly? You hide your religion, you hide the truth about us... you cover your feelings, it's like you don't have any.  You're cold, Robert.  You're really cold."

And Robert finds his way back to The Herald.  Posey is bemoaning the laws that will become Prohibition and how they are a sop towards the women who will be voting for the first time.  Although he thinks even if they pass it, it won't be enforced.

Robert tells them there wasn't a story in the Sous Le Monde business after all but Alvarez himself might make an interesting story.  Dix then says he has filled the half page so they won't need a story afterall. It's about the man who ended it all that day in the Bryant Park Exit Garden.  Robert mutters to himself about how The King In Yellow predicted it, while Prissy and Dix look for the biography file.  Turns out his surname was "Russell".

Robert controls his emotions.

Robert freezes, his back to them.  Mr. Posey says he remembers Jonathan, a successful young lawyer and oh didn't he say he knew Robert to Posey once? Robert stammers that he knew him a little.  And as Posey wonders why a man like Jonathan Russell should want to end it all, we realise that Jonathan Russell was Lillian Russell was Robert's boyfriend and when Posey says they could dig around and look for a motive, Robert silently panics, and tells the first lie he can think of, that Jonathan read Sous Le Monde (his notes accompaying this chapter do confirm it was "Lily" who introduced him to Sous Le Monde but obviously it's not why he killed himself).  Dix says he can work that into the copy, Posey seems satisfied and with his back stilll to them Robert looks quietly saddened. The first chapter ends with Mrs Ortega knocking on Alvarez's door and shedding her fur coat to reveal her naked body for him.

We begin chapter two with a short flashback of Robert taking his leave of The Herald for now to start doing research for the book he's decided to write based on his conversation with Alvarez who told him a man called Suydam had the copy of the Arab alchemical book.  Posey wishes him good luck and says that The Herald has a police contact in Brooklyn he might want to speak to... and Robert is greeted by the very handsome Tom Malone who thanks Robert for his "eloquent letter".

Detective Tom Malone.

Robert shakes his hand saying he'd imagined someone older, Tom says because his letter mentioned Guillot and Chambers he's a man after his own heart.  He's had Robert meet him here in Red Hook because he wants to show Robert where Suydam works.  It's a church now used as mostly a dancehall and in the cellars underneath Suydamn lectures on Occult Philosophy.  Although from the noises "you'd think it was a witches' coven or an orgy".

Tom admits that he's studied mystical and mysterious texts and had thought policing Red Hook might be glamourous and exotic due to the mixture of people there, "in plain truth, Red Hook's a heaving slum, with nothing extraordinary about it."  After some chat about crime, and Robert admits he's here not as a journalist but researching a book and wants to try and track down the original alchemical text and Suydam who had a copy seemed the best place to start.  Robert says that he finds the idea of alchemists in modern America interesting.

Tom says he'd be interested in reading a book about that, they talk somemore about Suydam's love of underground spaces and Tom brings up Jung and how cellars and caves correspond to the unconcious mind.

Robert: "Well, if dreams are parts of us that we've hidden away or buried, I guess it makes sense."

They've been walking all this time and have travelled close to where Suydam lives.  Tom asks Robert to sit with him in a nearby cafe to watch out for Suydam when he comes out to take the air in the nearby park.

We jump forward a little in time and Robert has finished telling him about how the death of his "friend" had made him want to leave New York and if Suydam catches his imaginations he may never go back to The Herald. Sympathetically Tom slides his address over to Robert and when Robert goes to take it, Tom places his hand on top of Roberts telling him to come and see him if he writes the book or not.  Then he spots Suydam and Robert goes out to speak to him as Tom watches thoughtfully and drinks his coffee.

A significant touch.

Robert introduces himself to Suydam saying he is an occult scholar and Dr. Alvarez recommended him.  Suydam invites him back to his house, outside of which is a Kurdish man selling peacock feathers.  Inside Robert notes Suydam has a basement, Suydamn says it is unusable right now due to a gas leak.  Suydam says that his transcript of the Kitab Al-Hikmah Al-Najmiyya came from suppliers in Salem where there is a Brotherhood devoted to the book.

He says that his contacts in Salem and their associates are intrigued by a different world that may "precede or even underlie our own".  Robert asks if that means prehistoric remains buried under towns?

Suydam: "Not exactly.  It is more in the way that dreams or impulses of which we are not conciously aware may underlie our waking actions."

The Kitab explains it more fully, it is a book considered blasphemous and heretical amongst the Arab peoples.  Robert says Alvarez had said it was relevant to his work about proloning life and avoiding death.  Suydam says says the four methods concerned diet, temperature, transfer of the soul and finally revival of the cadaver of which the last interests him the most.

Suydam adds to Robert's knowledge.

Suydam then hands him a pamphlet on the Salem Brotherhood and tells him he's been dealing with them and buying their "folk artefacts" for forty years.  As he leafs through it, Robert asks him if he has anything concerning the Kabbalah, his grandfather had great respect for it.  Suydam says "rightly so.  Its mysteries are inexhaustible".  He says he is currently researching the "Qupoth" it's adverse aspect which includes beings such as "Lilith" and after telling him that "older Kabbalistic traditions... insist that dream and reality are part of the same sphere" he charges Robert a dollar for another pamphlet on the matter.

Then a woman comes in and Suydam says that his business with Robert is concluded.  Robert can stay and peruse more pamphlets and let himself out as Suydam has to hurry away to inspect some "merchandise".  Robert can let himself out.  But after they have gone, Robert is alone and as he makes to leave, he notices the basement door is open.  He walks downstairs and finds a torch on some shelves and sees a pentgram in a circle on the wall and a stone staircase leading down.

The black ocean under Suydam's house.

He walks down the steps and finds himself in a dank cave system, the floor is littered with human bones and skulls much to his horror.  Futher on he shines the torch out over a black ocean with strangely carved columns rising out of it.  Then suddenly a luminescent female humanoid yelling "HooHooHoo" at him starts chasing him, he runs losing his hat as he runs.  It get's closer and closed and he trips and falls and everything goes black...

....only for him to wake up on the basement floor, no steps down to be seen and no occult symbol on the wall.  Standing over him is a sympathetic Suydam and Miss Gerritsen.  Suydam says the fumes must have overcome him and he had a nightmare. Robert babbles about the cave and the ocean and being chased by Lilith, which Suydam puts down to his subconcious mind.

As he collects himself and leaves, he psychoanalyses himself, that Lilith was representative of Lily and the cave his subconcious guilt at not doing more to help her.  He then asks them if he had a hat when he came in?  Suydam and Miss Gerritsen say they didn't see one.  And that seems to satisfy him.  He waves them goodbye as they wish him well and the final image of the chapter is the three claw-mark like scars on the Kurdish seller's face.

Sinister.

After leaving a New York in the grips of what looks like a strike so severe Vaudeville are out on the streets, Robert arrives in Salem.  He's booked in at a nice looking hotel with a creepy manager who, like many locals has an unnervingly wide mouth, deep, wide-set eyes, small ears and sallow skin. Robert says he is hoping to find and talk to a man called Tobit Boggs who has a gold refinery there, he's a contact Suydam mentioned to him.

The creepy manager gives him directions and Robert makes his way there and overhears a weird conversation as two men are discussing some "considerable bounty" which has come into Boggs' possession which sound like it might just be about rare bottles and also well, something a lot more sinister.  Because when we see what they are, they are just bottles but have blobs inside them and tiny speech bubbles with unreadable text coming from a couple.  One of the other men quickly covers them up.

Tobit Boggs centre.

Boggs greets him with pleasure saying he has a card from Suydam saying he'd be coming to see him.  The other two men are leaving, one of them says bluntly to Robert that it "smells to me like you're a Jew, would that be right?"  Robert lies saying he might have Jewish ancestors, while the man tells him not to worry, he actually likes Jew smell.  His friend scolds him and Boggs laughs and shows them out while Robert sits meekly and waits.

Boggs returns and asks what Robert wants and Robert tells him he heard he had made a copy of an alchemical text about fifteen years ago.  Boggs said he it was "Hali's Booke" and he had "old Garland Wheatley from out Athol way write that out in Fair for me".  He was associating with The Order then before their split in 1912.  Robert is surprised The Order was still going strong then.

Boggs says they are still going strong today, 1912 was just when the schism happened, " 'course my folks hadn't been welcome since Granpappy Jack forty year afore that" Boggs goes on to say. Boggs says Captain Jack Boggs got into it via the other sea captains although it was when he brought back "Granma Pathithia-Lee" back with him that seemed to be when they turned against him.  Boggs says he can show the old sea tunnels to Robert if he wants and Robert says yes.

As they walk down the street Boggs tells Robert that his best bet as a next move would be to visit the Wheatley Clan out past Athol.  There's a bus tomorrow, then they both come across a swastika drawn in chalk on the pavement.  Boggs grumbles about the "big-eared, crowdy-eyed bastards" who did it, "they know this is our baptizin' season".  Robert asks what it is and Boggs says it's a symbol from India, and out on the islands it's known as bad luck "or worse".

An ominous sign.

He carefully walks round it saying that the waterfront folk have been shunned since Granma Pathithia-Lee, "people don't want different races breedin' together".  Robert commiserates with him saying people can be so primitive.  They arrive at their destination at the main refinery office.  There is Boggs' wife, she is from the islands herself, and has a very piscine appearance and speaks no English. 

Boggs tells Robert that the tunnels were mainly used by his Grandfather to bring immigrants from the islands, "it's how we look out for one another".  He opens a hatchdoor in the floor and tells Robert to go in first and he'll follow with the lamp.  As Boggs follows he rather overshares describing his wife as a "quite a catch" and "them island women... they don't mind it in the mouth or nothin'" Robert notes the tunnels seem ancient.

There are dirty pictures scrawled on the walls, which Boggs says were done mainly by the women.  It seems island women adapt to marriage with mainlanders better than the otherway round.  Captain Jack also read about the island in the Kitab.  They unlatch a heavy door and it opens out into a large cave with the sea, black and brooding in front of them.  Suddenly reminded of his "dream" of being chased by Lilith in the cave, Robert gets freaked out and so Boggs takes him back out and he takes his leave.

Some of Robert's dream.

That night he as a five page tour-de-force of a symbolic dream by Moore that I am quickly going to summarise as dealing with his grief at losing Jonathan/Lily, guilt over hiding his Jewishness, shame at his homosexuality, lots of fish related imagery including them all being gassed to death with piles of bodies under the images of swastikas in an Exit Garden and the owner of the Exit Garden saying he'll be getting to Robert soon enough, all wrapped up in puns and wordplay and just fantastic writing overall.  It ends with him getting into bed with Tom saying he wants to go to sleep and forget about it, does Tom love him enough to let him do that in peace?  Then he wakes up and all he can say is "the hell?"

Next day he catches the bus for Athol, as the bus makes its way along the coast road, one of the kids calls "howdy, all you sunk 'un ones! Howdy" to something moving in the water.  Robert asks if they are seals, then further words sputter out as everyone on the bus turns to look at him, all scowling all fishfaced.  Then the father says, yeah they're seals. And a freaked out Robert goes back to his to the parish magazine of the fishface people which has some piscine priest's fishy takes on parables and signs off with the cheery "Oannes keeps you safe within his mouth".

Creepy as fuck.

At the barber's shop in Athol, Robert collects some gossip on the Wheatleys, he's been in Athol a week and nobody can tell him much about them.  The barber says if he's after "Warlock Wheatley" he has a farm out on North Orange road, to be truthful.  They're poor as dirt, "and nobody round here thinks much of 'em".  Robert queries why he's called a "Warlock", the barber says folk call him that because he goes on like he's a medicine man.  He gives Robert directions there and off Robert goes.

As he walks there he reflects in a conversation he had with the local librarian, the Wheatleys came from Salem and most of the Wheatleys in Athol are fine, upstanding citizens but some branches are not. 

Librarian: "Bloodlines can degenerate over time. Intellectually, morally... even physically".

She doesn't know Garland Wheatley and if he's from the declining stock she doesn't want to. The way these people live, well, "it's nothing to shout about."

He arrives at the farm and there doesn't appear to be anyone around. He approaches the barn, then Garland Wheatley appears and tells him to move away, there's slaughtering done in that barn and blood soaks into Robert's shoes. He is surly and when Robert tells him Boggs suggested he come here and Garland says "that wall-eyed bastard owes me thirty bucks".

Meet Garland Wheatley.

Robert goes on to say he's writing a book and is interested the copy of Hali's Booke he copied for Boggs.  Garland says he hasn't seen it since 1912, "when ny privileges was took away."

Garland: "See, this society I belonged to give Saint Anselm college in Manchester a copy o'the book aroudn 1890. That was when they was havin' all their big ideas. Anways, we had a fallin' out.  They don't allow me in their library now."

He then grumbles some more about how they'd looked down on them and mentions a stone they brought back from farming land and they claimed it vanished before he could see it (shades of "The Colour Out Of Space" perhaps?).  He was bing shut out by the "blue-bloods" they have their own plan for the Order.  They want to fufill the "Redeemer prophecy" and the "poor relations wasn't consulted".

Robert notes that the Redeemer prophecy appears in Hali's Book. Garland says the Redeemer is the "feller gonna put the world to right again".  The Order decided it'd be one of their own then gave the book to St. Anselms, "reckon they were done with it."  But after a fire which destroyed pretty much all the books but never touched Hali's St. Anselms didn't want it either.

Garland bemoans their high-handedness and says he's a better "cunnin'-feller" that what they are.  He waited and when the Redeemer thing still hadn't happened in 1912 he put his proposal togther and he and his daughter Letty were immediately expelled from the society. Robert says it sounds like the prejudice he heard aimed at Boggs and Garland decides he can meet his daughter.

Garland's daughter Letty.

Robert is unsure, but Garland wants him to have the whole story and also it'll be good for Letty to see some new blood, "she's dreadful isolated".  Robert asks what happened to his wife, Garland says she was found with all her bones broken which happened right after he objected to the Order creating their own Redeemer.  After their expulsion Garland says they Order had enough influence to keep him away from the book.  So it's just you and your daughter says Robert.  Garland says, well there's also Letty's offspring, "could be us Wheatleys gets the last laugh over them gentlefolk an' their Redeemer".

Inside the house a dull looking woman called Letty is sitting at a table and doing some drawings.  She is happy to see Robert and Garland leaves them alone to chat.  Robert makes small talk about the renovations Garland told him they were having.  Letty says it's for her boy, he's getting too big for his shed.  Robert says that's Willard ins't it?  Letty says "Lord, what did I say?  I didn't say John-Divine did I?"

She then vehemently says John-Divine definitely isn't Willard's name and what is his book about?  He tells her and she offers him the pictures she's drawn saying a book should have pictures. Robert takes them politely and asks if she still sees the boy's father. 

Letty's drawing of "John-Divine"

Letty then reveals what happened, she only saw the father one time.   Her memories are hazy but she was taken up onto the hills by the Sentinel Elm.  Garland was present, although Letty says "he was and he weren't, kind of". She says her dad was like an inseminating syringe, "that's how he worked daddy".   She remembers the flowers and the nightjars and Garland saying "We'll show them stuck-up bastards".   Then he was having raping her and:

Letty: "He was... just big balls, you know?  Just hangin' there... It was fireworks, like what they say in the books.  The love.. fireworks right up to the sky".

Well done Alan, you managed to hold out until the fourth chapter

Garland then reappears and says Willard wants to see Robert and he's out in the shed, but he's got one of his "queer humours on him today".  Robert mustn't get riled by anything he says.  So tentatively Robert goes out to see him.

Inside the barn is a large male, he's a dark grey colour and a definite bestial aspect to him.  Robert says he's surprised he's not in college, Willard says he's six and-a-half and continues playing with the tesseract cubes he has.   Robert tries some small talk saying his mother and grandfather seem like nice people.

Willard: "They's a hindrance, thuh both of 'un.  On'y reason they's heeyun is cuz it's haow the story's gotta be. In the 'deener story, s'gotta be thuh crazy granpappy, un' thuh whaht-faced wunnun , un' thuh bad-lookin' bwoy.  Thet's whah ah ain't warmin' tuh yuh. Yur aht uv a diff'run story awlduhgethuh".

Confused Robert says "I-I am?" and Willard says yes and he thinks he's putting a spoke in the Wheatley's wheel.  Robert stammers that he is just here to meet his family.   Willard tells him to stick around and leaves.  So Robert takes a look around and sees a photo on the wall with Willard putting his arms round someone invisible.

Willard Wheatley.

Garland and Letty come in and Robert says he upset Willard.  They say he'll be better after his nap.   Garland starts to hurry Robert back to the road and Letty turns and says "Oh, mercy, what's he done?"  Robert turns to see her talking to some invisible beings.  Garland tells Robert "this is a personal family concern".

He takes Robert to the front gate and apologises to him.  Robert says that's fine and he he is grateful for telling him about Saint Anslem.  Garland says he'll be heading to Manchester then and hopes he has better luck than him.   He hopes "as you'll speak kindly of us Wheatleys when your books all done".  Robert says he can't wait to follow his new lead. They wish each other well and Robert sets off down the road back to Athol.  Bringing this chapter and the volume to and end with an excerpt from the HP Lovecraft story "The Ancient Track".

Robert heads back to his hotel, deep in thought.

So, I must reiterate, I am assessing these volumes as they come.  I haven't read volume 2, and will most likely have a full wrap up overall when I come to do the third and final volume.  So based on what we have so far, it's very good stuff, Moore on the best form he's been on for a long time.  It's full of those lovely ironies and juxtapositions Moore has always done so well.  The main one being that our protagonist is searching for a hidden America while he himself hides his religion and sexuality. In chapter one we have the comparison between the physically cold Dr. Alvarez who values his relationship with Mrs. Ortega above all else and believes that life cannot be endured without love, while the emotionally cold Robert abandoned Jonathan/Lily who killed himself because well, life cannot be endured without love.  We explore the symbolism of dreams in chapter two, but that is used to create the lie he didn't have a genuine real life experience down in the caves under Suydam's house.  And of course in chapter three his epic dream is screaming out all sorts of things he is being somewhat naive about as well as acting as prophecy for the Holocaust.  Lovecraft used fish people breeding with normal humans in "The Shadows Over Innsmouth" as being symbolic of his fear of racial mixing because he was a massive racist.  But chapter three asks us how people might react to their fish people neighbours and ironically it's with social exclusion and out-and-out racism, the fish people and their mixed offspring are creepy no doubt, but seem to be harmless and although they peg Robert as a Jew, show no prejudice towards him. They're just living their lives, raising their kids and though of course future issues could show them as actively evil, so far they seem innocent enough.  The same can't be said for the unpleasant Garland Wheatley, raping his daughter despite acting as the physical embodiment of somekind of god himself, he still planned and executed it.  That said, I find this rape justified by the context it takes place in and has interesting ramifications in the half-god "Dunwich Horror" son/s, Willard or John-Divine. Finally let me praise the artwork of Jacen Burrows.  He has a hard task, he's locked into a four panel layout with the occasional half or full page panel.  Yet he manages to block his scenes so the talky stuff is compelling to follow as well as capturing the era beautifully and giving us fine facial and body language.  Although it's only four issues collected, the inclusion of Robert's notes, the excerpt of the pamphlet on The Order and the fish people's church magazine means you get plenty of material for your money and I am eagerly awaiting the next installment which of course will be chronicled here.