Alan Moore Obscurities: Providence Book 2(#5-8) NSFW

NSFW Warning:  Full frontal demon penis and vagina, and a rape scene.

"I-it's like underneath everything there's just... just this chaos" - Robert Black

Providence is one of Moore's most recent works, drawn by the very talented Jacen Burrows which blends many H.P Lovecraft story plots and tropes into one road trip being taken by central character the closeted gay Jewish journalist Robert Black.  It's 1919 and he left his job at a large New York newspaper to start researching a book about the story of life going on in the underbelly of New England.  He's already met a community that's been breeding with fish people and the monstrous teenage offspring of an Old God who used the father of his mother as a vessel for his power.  He's also been introduced to tales of a magickal group known as "The Stella Sapiente" who have their fingers in all the various occult goings on in the area.  His research has lead him to seek out a book called the "Kitab Al-Hikmah Al-Najmiyya" which means "Book of the Wisdom of the Stars" of which the college St Anslem has a translation of and that's his next stop.  There is a theme in this volume of dreams and the subjective nature of reality as Robert has some very nasty brushes with things he find difficult to process as actually happening to him even though to our eyes, they did.  And H.P. Lovecraft makes a small appearance to, thankfully being treated much better this time than Neonomicom did to him. As before each chapter is followed by Robert's copius hand-written notes on what he's discovered and his thoughts on the events which I am not covering in any detail as otherwise it'd stretch this post out to ten times the length.  But if you are interested in picking this series up and are put off by the fact there are only four issues per trade, there is plenty of added value. Let us continue.

We begin with Robert recounting his arrival in Manchester where the college of St. Anselms is to a priest there called Father Walter Race who he fills in on the book he's researching.

Father Race: "...Saint Anselm seems to have attracted every squinting eccentric or outlandish rumor in the region. Sometimes you'd almost think that mystery had contaminated the brickwork".

Robert mentioned he'd heard about a mysterious meteorite (The Colour Out Of Space) and also the Arab alchemical work they have in the library and wasn't it gifted to the college by a philanthropic group?  Father Race says he must be talking about the Kitab which he's enjoyed a "long relationship with that particular conundrum".
The Stella Sapiente gave the college the book, Father Race doesn't know much about them just that they are important benefactors who gave the college its motto, "Initium Sapiente Timor Domini.  The Fear Of The Lord Is The Beginning Of Wisdom".  Robert will have to wait and see the librarian who is back next week before he can look at the book.  Robert asks about hotels in the region, Father Race says the hotels fill up fast in August but there are lodging houses around "Goff Falls".  Also if he wants to kill some time he can go check out the meteorite site which the goverment is poking around.

Hector North accosts Robert.

Father Race leaves to teach a class and a man comes up to Robert saying he recognises a New York accent when he hears one and he must be here for the Kitab. Robert asks if he is familiar with it and the man says he studied it when he was a first year medical student back in 1904.  Robert asks if he is part of the faculty here, the man says he's not "Catholic" enough, he's travelled around a lot with his "friend" since they were in Flanders during the war, he also offers to walk Robert to Goff Falls.

Robert tells him he's researching a book and the man says he thought Robert looked like someone who knew his way round Greenwich Village.  Robert laughs and says it's nice to meet a "kindred spirit".  He then asks, "you and your.. friend.  Is your persuasion why your 'not Catholic enough' to join the faculty?" The man says that's the least of it, and gives Robert his address if Goff Falls proves "tiresome."  He and his friend, "always appreciate a male body in good condition". He finally introduces himself as "Hector North" (Herbert West: Reanimator) and Robert leaves for Goff Falls.

He meets a teenage girl on a bridge and asks her the way to Goff Falls in a somewhat patronising manner.  The girl calls him out saying she's a "student of some standing at Saint Anselms".  Robert apologises and is surprised a girl of thirteen is attending there.  She tells him she just "got real smart".

Robert tells him he was directed by Doctor North, she says he's not a very reputable fellow, "I'm told when he studied here his behaviour was simply shocking", she rooms near him and doesn't think he's a very nice man.  Then she points him to Goff Falls saying the houses there have been there since the sixteen hundreds.  Robert says he is sorry for talking down to her, she introduces herself as Elspeth and they part.

Eslpecth Wade.

Then we cut to Robert speaking to the landlady of a large detached house at Goff Falls.   She tells him that the house predates Manchester, predates everything, there was just wilds north of of Salem.  They go inside and she says there is a gable room he can stay in for a few weeks.  Robert asks if she has lived here for a long time?

Mrs Macey: "Oh my, goodness, no, no.  I've not been living here for a long time.  Mostly I'm in another space nearby, where I can keep an eye on things.  I see what goes on."

She tells him that a team from St Anselms came and measured the room, but she didn't speak with them directly so she doesn't know what they wanted, probably too much for an uneducated person like herself.  She shows him into the room, apologises for the clutter and asks for his two dollars rent in advance in case she isn't there for his departure.  She says if she isn't around it's an honour to have him stay, "the work you're doing, it's both hard and glorious".

She says he'll be wanting to look around Manchester "seeking out all the scandals and secrets our little town's concealing".  Robert mentions the meteorite and she says it came down forty years ago and destroyed a family called the Forresters although they could have moved out. She tells him where to go and gives him a key and off he goes to the crash site.

Once there he gets talking to an Agent Frank Stubbs who says this assignment is "horseshit".  The men there keep coming down sick all the time and they aren't officially there.  He says the thing fell out of the sky on the eleventh June 1882.  Landed by the well which he points out to Robert.  The Forresters who lived there called Father Bradley, the man who founded Saint Anselms, who turned up with some Church Benefactors to check it out.

At the meteorite site.

They go to look at the well as Stubbs goes on to say that although the meteorite was taken away and studied it eventually evaporated and everyone who studied it and came out that night are dead now.   The Forresters were infected with "some kind of moss" and all died raving about colours that weren't there.  Then the government got involved:

Agent Stubbs: "You take a look at this place:  people gone mad and perished, land dying by the year... and this was something natural.  Now, you imagine somebody coming up with a weapon... a gun or a bomb that could do the same thing".

He then asks where Robert is staying and Robert describes the house, although Stubbs says he heard the real old place wasn't to let.  Robert says it must be a different house, then he leaves thanking Stubbs for his time.  He returns to the house and goes to sleep.  Then he wakes up in a car being driven by a giggling man.  Robert tells him he had the strangest dream, that he had arrived in Manchester and found lodgings and visited a blighted farm.  The giggling man says he's in a maze and by the time he realises he's in it, it's too late..

Then Robert wakes again in the bed in his lodgings.  Sitting in the same room as him is a naked woman breastfeeding a small grotesque human with a tail.  The woman looks just like the landlady Mrs Macey.  She talks in strange riddles to him as Robert freaks out and starts getting dressed.  She tells him "in those parts foreign to Euclid do we reside, of where the animal is thought to be indigeneous".

A nightmare?

Robert flees the house and when he sees the car driven by the giggling man, he wakes again and gets dressed again running from the house and past the car again and ends up at Hector North's house.   He stumbles through his story on the doorstep and Hector invites him inside much to the annoyance of his... friend James.  Hector apologises for the smell from his "taxidermy" hobby. As Robert enters, James checks to see if anyone has seen them then closes the door.

As Robert sleeps, Hector and James argue about him.   Hector wants to do... something to him saying nobody knows he's here and nobody will miss him.  James says a "scandal here in Manchester could finish us".   Then we cut to Robert and Hector eating breakfast as served by James.  Hector snipes at James who responds with irritation.  Robert says as his job and rooms in New York are gone now he'll press on with his book.

Hector whispers to him that James will be out of the house that afternoon, "we could meet up here, spend some time together, play some games".  Before Robert can reply, someone knocks at the front door.  Robert answers and goes pale when he hears what the person has to say.  Apparently there had been a letter asking about them.  Hector comes to the door as well leaving Robert alone.

A few minutes later he returns and tells Robert he'll have to go, he and James have to leave Manchester.  Robert says he's knows what "it's like when there's business you'd prefer to keep buried."  Hector says "God, you have no idea."  Hector bids him farewell, while James snaps at him to hurry up and call the removal people and Robert leaves.

Hector and James have to make a getaway.

He bumps into Elspeth who was the one who delivered the message to Doctor North.   She asks why he wasn't at Goff Falls and Robert says he has a nightmare that scared himself silly.   He asks why the message so upset Hector but Elspeth says she doesn't know, it was just from some Canadian fellow in the military trying to track Hector down for a reunion. Then she mildly scolds him for "interrogating" her as they walk to St. Anselms and the are both quiet for a while.  They arrive and Elspeth say she might see him later and they part.

He goes inside as says that he knows the librarian is away for a week, but Father Race tells him the librarian has been back for a week now.   Robert mumbles he must have misunderstood before.  Father Race introduces him to the librarian Dr. Henry Vantage who takes Robert to the library saying he understands Robert is here for Hali's book.  Apparently it was gifted to the college just before the old library burned down.

Robert asks about the Stella Sapients and Vantage shows him a photo of the group which includes Garland Wheatly and his daughter as seen in volume one.   There is also one Edgar Wade, Elspeth's father who died when she was eight.  Vantage queries Robert knowing the Wheatleys and Robert admits he met them and "they're certainly unusual". Vantage says that's an understatement.  It was Wade who insisted they be banned from the library.

The Stella Sapiente

He gets out the translated Kitab, Robert says they sure do keep it secure and Vantage says it "might break out".  Robert can look at it but not take it away, sayimg he won't damage it, while Vantage says it wasn't damage to the book he was worried about.  He leaves Robert reading it and making notes.  The book is obviously a version of Lovecraft's dark magickal book also written by an Arab, the "Necronomicon".  Robert's hand written notes on it included in the seperate section. 

After he is done we see him shaking Vantage's hand who says he's was looking forward to meeting him since Father Race told him he was going to come a couple of weeks ago.  A flustered Robert says it was like yesterday to him.  Vantage laughs saying "times flies as we get older" and wishes well on the rest of his journey, hoping his research comes to a satisfying close and he leaves a confused Robert in his wake.

Robert bumps into Elspeth again and tells her he must be crazy, Vantage thinks he arrived in Manchester three weeks ago.   He babbles that something must be wrong with him, he doesn't even know what day it is.  She tells him it's September the tenth and he can recover in her lodgings if he likes.  They pop into a shop so he can buy a new raincoat to replace the one he left in the Goff Fall's lodging house then they arrive at her place.

He starts telling her how he feels like he's having a nervous breakdown and maybe he should stop researching the book. But he's been given another lead, a photographer in Boston called "Pitman" (Pickman's Model), and also he's been researching the Stella Sapients and he knows one was her father.  While he rambles, Elspeth starts removing her clothes.  What follows is a rape scene so horrifying, so despicable, so monumentally fucked up that I... have to applaud it.  No really, just read on.

Robert realises she's naked and starts to leave, then suddenly he finds his mind has been transferred into Elspeth's body, "no, you... this isn't my voice!"  The mind in Elspeth's body wasn't hers either, it is a much older being now in control of Robert's body and he says he hasn't has a phallus for a long time and now he's looking forward to using it.  The being tells Robert to lie on the divan and open Elspeth's legs, he doesn't want to bruise her body as he'll have to live with it when he's done.

Just couldn't help yourself eh Alan?

As he penetrates her/him he tells Robert not to worry about Elspeth, she died in her father's body.  As Robert writhes and screams under the assault the being says there have been dozens he's violated like this. He then says something in French and continues the rape. When he's done Robert lies in the foetal position as the being in his body tells him, "all that remains is for you to go forth into the world and act your part to its conclusion".  Then he swaps their minds back saying Robert has an "energetic frame" although his size has left Elspeth's body sore.

Robert can only stammer, "O-oh God you... on my God".  "Elspeth" lights a cigarette and tells him to be on his way in case she decides she wants some more. Robert stumbles away into the pouring rain, breaking into a run.  Then he comes across the car driven by the giggling man but he runs on and away from the horror and confusion he experienced in Manchester.

We cut to him having been shoved off the bus in Boston, a man drinking close by asks what's got himself so rattled.  Robert stammers, "I think I might have gone crazy.  I-I think I might have raped a young girl."  The drinking man shrugs and says "well.. you wouldn't be the first".  And the scene pulls back to show a crowd of people fighting in the streets.

The man says he doesn't sound like a "raper".  He doesn't seem the type, "you seem more shell shocked, like the fellers abroad."  He then asks what brings him to Boston on such a grand old night?  Robert asks what's going on and it turns out the police, of which the drinking man is one, have gone on strike and so chaos has broken out.  Robert can't believe this is what the country is like when there is no police.

O'Brien steers Robert to his destination while Boston riots.

The man says it's hardly a country at all with nothing holding it together, "and Boston's the very start of America mind.  I'm thinking it's seen one revolution, and it's shy of another."  Robert says it seems chaos is what is underneath.  The man tells him about last January when a molasses tank exploded.  The police cleaned it up and came under attack by rioters while their requests for a pay rise was ignored.

They walk together into a quieter area, they arrive at Pitman's house and the man introduces himself as Eamon O'Brien.  He tells Robert the boys in gaiters are more likely scared of you than the other way round.  The sailors were rushed and told to fire over their heads but the sailor who gave the order was accidentally shot. O'Brien says some might envy his death, when the strike's finished there is little fear of getting jobs back after. He asks Robert if he wants him to knock on Pitman's door?

He does so and Pitman peers out and O'Brien introduces Robert to him saying he's in a bad way.  Robert stumbles over his words as he says he saw Pitman's work at the Wheatley farm.  Pitman semi-reluctantly lets them both in. He starts to say that in Manchester there was "this girl Elspeth Wade".   Pitman says he knows the Wades and offers him a bed for the night to recover.

With Robert in bed, Pitman goes down to speak to O'Brien who is admiring one of his pictures.  Pitman says it's an imginative interpretation of the Boylston Street Subway.   O'Brien says there was a terrible explosion there summer before last, "people dead, bodies unrecovered.  A gas explosion, so they reckoned".  O'Brien says the painting is very real looking.  Pitman offers him a drink, "now your talkin' a language I can understand" replies O'Brien.

Next morning Robert apologises for just turning up in a state.  Pitman says if he's been involved with the Stella Sapiente that can be pretty bad  He says the Wades can intefere with people's minds, "what they want is to exchange dreams and reality".  Robert wonders if his missing three weeks and the business with Elspeth was all a dream. Pitman says that could be so, and if he wants to stay as long as he needs he can.

Robert then introduces himself properly as a writer doing a book on ancient traditions surviving in America.  Pitman says he can get settled and then he'll answer his questions and show him around.

Robert: "That's swell.  Thanks for everything Ronnie.  You've really helped me put things in perspective. 'Illusion'.  Huh."

Later they both take a walk outside, Pitman telling him of the tunnels under Boston used by the Freemasons.  Robert says he hadn't realised how influential the various occult groups have been on early American history.   They return to Pitman's studio and he asks if Robert saw his photo of the Stella Sapiente there.

Robert says yes, and he remembers seeing a photo of Wade at Elspeth's place too when he had his "hallucination".  But it felt so real, how could he have dreamed that?  Pitman tells him that the Stella Sapiente can enter the dream-world while concious.  Like Jung's ideas except more physical.

Pitman: "It, uhm, it treats the unconcious as a literal underworld.  I, uhm, I find it very useful for my paintings".

He tells Pitman that occultism and art have been connected since the first cave paintings, the symbolists, surrealists, cubists are all "trying to be more real than reality."

Pitman's art.

He takes Robert into another room and shows him a painting of demonic creatures feasting on humans.  He calls them "Saphrovores", they are a common motif in his work.   Robert guesses they represent the lower classes erupting into violence.  Pitman says that's one interpretation.  Robert asks how he uses occult techniques to inspire his work when it seems more political.

Pitman says he can show Robert his method, he doesn't show it to everyone but "I just feel that you, uhm, you deserve to know."  He says by literally going underground he can reach-the dream world.  Robert thanks him for his kindness as they decends the stairs.  He wonders how this helps him enter a different state of awareness. 

Pitman: "Uhm. Well, you are.  It doesn't matter whether you, uhm, you believe it.  You, uhm, you said you'd seen the book of theirs at St Anselms.  It mentions uhm, it mentions a Redeemer."

Robert says yes, it's the being whose meant to make "all the Earth put right".  He figures he's a messiah figure, bringing about the Kingdom of Heaven.

Pitman says not really, more the world of dreams "that's been suppressed by our reality.  They, uhm, they want ro restore it."  Robert asks if they can change human psychology so the unconcious dominates the rational self.  Robert says that's one way of looking at it.  They reach the bottom and Robert asks if they have reached a place where they can experience dreams as real.

Pitman tells him to sit on a box facing away from the tunnel.  He says he's not tyrin to scare him, just that he "should be given the chance to understand".  And he mustn't look around no matter what happens.  Pitman then leads a demonic creature out of the tunnel and introduces him as "King George".   He wants to talk, that's all.

George says Robert has pretty hair, "it is red ones I like best." Robert asks what he is, and George says he's one of the boys "who work downstairs".  Robert asks where he comes from and George says from between his mother's legs.

King George: "But not to be funny, we are downstairs from world, upstairs from dream.  We are halfway in middle."

Robert asks if there are many more "boys" like him. George says more than five, all living under Boston.   He ask Robert if he is happy in Boston.  "I... no. No, I-I don't think I'd be happy anywhere right now".  Pitman explains to George that Robert had some bad things happen to him in Manchester.  George says "the old man who is another old man who is a girl who is other people, yes?  Poor Robert".

George says they are below them but one day they'll eat their bodies, "you must smile Robert". Robert says he will, then asks George if he knows what goes on in Boston. George says they do the best they can, the fighting above has left five dead not more good than the sweet time though. He's referring to the molasses explosion which allowed them to feast on many humans.

King George is an affable demon.

Robert asks if that isn't cannibalism?  George says no it isn't because humans aren't anything like them.  Robert asks what would happen if people found out about them, why do they trust Pitman? Why is he trusting him?

George: "You are good boys.  Ronnie, he is like our family, yes? And you, Robert.  You do your work, and then you are gone.  Our worry is for you."

Robert wonders if this is his unconcious warning him.  Kind George gets up and walks up to Robert standing just behind him. He tells Robert about rot.  Everything rots in the end including America and the rest of the world.   They eat the rot and Robert as a journalist eats the rot up above.   He must remember that cemeteries to him are orchards to George, everyone in life has a purpose and no one goes to waste.  He tells him to be happy and Pitman leads him back to the tunnel.  They speak some runic language then George is gone and Pitman takes Robert back upstairs.

Back upstairs Robert is sitting looking thoughtful. Then he tells Pitman that what happened was unblievable, experiencing hypnotism just by physically descending.   He wonders if that's what happened in Suydam's house when he found the cave and black sea.  Pitman says he hopes he's helped him understand.

Robert says he sure has, especially the business with Elspeth being a dream.  Pitman starts to say that's not what he meant, then cuts himself off saying maybe he needs to speak with someone who understands and can explain dreams more clearly.  He tells them there is an author in Boston who knows all about the dreamworld, "his name is Carver".  Robert says he's been here ten days so he really ought to go, Pitman says he's enjoyed having him but "Randell Carver" (The Statement of Randolph Carter) would be more helpful.

Robert goes to pack his things saying it looks like Pitman has more work to do, and Pitman says he developing a piece based on the police strike.  On the doorstep, Robert bids Pitman farewell saying he knew his work was political. Then as he walks off we cut to Pitman developing a photograph of the creatures George is one of eating dead protestors.

The final chapter begins with Robert already friends with Carver.  He'd lent Robert a manuscript of one of his stories about an incident when a giant glowing flying manta-ray like creature floated above Boston and a man called Tillinghast who claimed to have mentally ridden the creature round the heavens.  This sparked an idea for a story, "so I suppose you could say all of my tales are inspired by dreams and delusions, even if they're sometimes those or someone else."

Robert asks if dreams are essential to unlocking the Stella Sapiente's whole philosophy.  Carver says he is quite certain.

Carver: "Dreams, writings, and our outlandish human imaginings  They're at the very heart of it."

Robert then comments on another story he lent him by H.P. Lovecraft called "Beyond The Wall of Sleep" and says it's ideas are powerful.   The pamplet it is in are what Carver's own stories have appeared in offering great consolation during an otherwise unaccomplished career.

Robert can't believe that, but Carver says he has lived an uneventful life and his exploits have been wholly imaginary. He tells his life story which was growing up outside Manchester where he was truly contented for the only time in his life.  Robert asks if his dream experiments are "a consolation then, for a vanished childhood?" Carver says he supposes so.

Robert and Randall talk dreams.

He says his abilities culminated in 1898 in a full dream-world, a whole continent with mountains and fabulous denizens. But after that his abilities faded and he could no longer reach the further ethereal territories. So he turned to occultism.  They discuss a friend of his who committed suicide when something happened to him in a cemetary and Robert commiserates having also have a friend/lover commit suicide.

Carver says he knew the place was dangerous, but it ended his diabolism and he embraced decadence.  As they talk alternate panels show dream imagery.   He puzzles about the dream country and how it seemed both from another world and also of their own.   His approach to dreams is the "seven hundred steps to deeper slumber".

He tells Robert a representative of the Stella Sapiente's met a Freemason called Albert Pike in 1863, they discussed the dreamworld.  They view it as physically existing in Earth's past, "supplanted by our world but capable of future resurrection" .  He plundered the idea shamelessly for his stories.

He's thinking of an offering called "Twilight Odyssey" which an explorer discovers a region of the congo where the pre-human dream-world still persists, "much influenced by Lord Dunsany's 'Idle days On The Yann' obviously". Robert says isn't that the speaker they are going to see tonight, he's not familiar with his work.  Carver is a fanboy saying his heroism inspired him to join the French Foreign Legion. Although he admits what little action he saw he found terrifying.

Robert then asks if his seven hundred steps techiques is physical like Pitmans.  Carver says no and that what he has told him puzzled him. His approach is purely cerebral and decides to show it to Robert and they close their eyes.  They walk down the seven hundred steps to induce a lucid dream.    As they descend Robert says the stairs keeps changing shape. Carver says this is because they are in a strata where ideas are less fixed.

As they descend, George pokes his head through a window and says he is happy to see Robert.   They go deeper and Robert comments on how real it feels like his experinence in Pitman's place.   They reach the seventh hundred step. Robert comments on how vivid it is, Carver says it's only the upper limits of the dreamland, where recent waking memories could be found.

They bump into Pike, and the Stella Sapiente fellow they were discussing earlier as well as a bunch of Klansmen.   Carver says they coud be symbolic.  If they want unearthly matters they most venture onwards.  Robert says he remembers the Stella Sapiente man from the photo, "van Buren".  Carver says maybe so, but now they have to concentrate as they are "approaching the ragged outskirts of dream."

Robert points out a humanoid with a strange head, and Carver says that's what makes the Stella Sapiente's notion of reality engulfing our own so alarming, "the fauna here is frightfully diverse and becomes more prolific the further we travel..."

They are in a cemetary where the corpse eaters that Pitman paints so he must travel here too.   He asks if the Stella Sapiente's Redeemer is only wishful thinking.

Carver: "Reasonably so, and even should such a person exist, he is apparently useless unless contacted by an equally unlikely messenger.  While such a meeting would be undoubtably catastrophic, it seems improbably certainly in our lifetimes."

Robert says that's reassuring, then asks about the tower he can see.   The corpse eaters use it to access the lower reaches.  Robert asks if the dream world is literally underground, but how is that physically possible?

A herd of dream cats.

Randall says he's not sure it is.  Then many cats begin to apppear.  Apparently they lend their "sleek assistance to a dreamer's travels."  But they are surrounded by a horde of them who start carrying them up to the moon which Robert gets super excited about.  But then they are grabbed by large bat-like creatures who fly off with them   They tickle them and this makes Robert and Carver fall. But they open their eyes for real and are back in reality again.

Robert is impressed by what he's experienced.  Carver says it was Lord Dunsany's fictions that first got him to dream.  So they leave the house and start walking towards where Dunsany is going to be doing a reading.   On the way they bump into Hector and James, Hector panics asking why he has followed them.  James says it's just coincidence and they move on.

Robert and Carver arrive at the hall where the reading will take place.  They sit at Carver points out H.P. Lovecraft sitting a couple of rows in front of them.  Dunsany sits and reads while Carver and Robert fanboy about him in the audience.  Once his reading is over, Robert says he could listen to him all night.   Later people come up and have him sign books for them.

While Carver goes to the toilet, Robert approaches Lovecraft who says he doesn't approve "of fawning upon those that one admires" and can see that Dunsany barely tolerates his fans.   Robert gets a bit flustered and Lovecraft softens saying he is a "blundering curmudgeon" and if Robert wants Dunsany's autograph he intended no personal criticism.  Robert says he'd actually read his story and he understands if... Lovecraft cuts him off saying unlike Dunsany he can't get enough of flattery.

Meeting H.P. Lovecraft for the first time.

Robert tells him he is an author touring New England in search of inspiration.  Lovecraft says he must visit Rhode Island where he resides.  They shake hands and Lovecraft gives him his address.  They part with Robert saying it was an honour to meet him.  Carver returns and they talk about how memorable Lovecraft's stories are.   Carver asks if he'll see Robert tomorrow and Robert says he'll be around for another week before moving on.  He wishes Carver "sweet dreams" and they go their seperate ways.

So another eventful journey for Robert Black.  And this volume continues the sly humour at his expense of things actually physically happening to him that he writes off as dreams and hallucinations.  Of course there is nothing funny about the rape he is subjected to, but it's such an utterly creepy concept that in the context of a book based around the horror lurking under various respectable facades it feels justified if appalling and I appreciated that Robert didn't just walk it off but had to be convinced it was a dream before he could cope with what had happened to him.  Mind raped into someone else's body, then physically  raped by a being wearing his body like an off-the-peg suit.  Brrr. We're taken on a tour of some of Lovecrafts more famous works, from Hector North and his mysterious "taxidermy" hobby causing scandal enough to make him and his partner flee, to the non-Euclidian geometry of the Goff Falls house which causes him to time travel three weeks into his future, to Pitman who uses very real, and surprisingly affable monsters in his artwork.  What's also interesting is that several times Robert is told his work is important and that he has some role to play in some undefined future happening, hopefully to be revealed in the final volume which isn't out until the middle of September. The machinations of the Stella Sapientes seem to be driving Robert's journey as everyone has turned out to be linked to them so far.  It remains to be seen what role Mr. Lovecraft himself will play in the book, but you can almost imagine he's been on a similar journey to Robert's gaining inspiration for his fictions here at the start of his career.  I also liked the cats appearing as guides in the dreamworld. Lovecraft was a cat person and they appear often in some of his works. Overall this volume kept the quality of the first one, dealing more with the workings of the mind than the physical bodies of volume one. Jacen Burrows artwork continues to impress, he manages to make two men having long coversations look interesting and his King George was appropriately creepy.  So I'll be covering the final volume before the end of the year, I'm fascinated by how all the plot threads are going to come together and if Robert will ever manage to write his book and what will happen if and when it is finally published.

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.