In the last post we discussed the idea of three major branches of conspiracism and some of the differences between them. Now I want to move back to talking more about similarities, by discussing some of the recurrent literary themes of Conspiracism, and relating them to Lovecraftian horror and weird fiction in general. There are four I particularly want to highlight at this stage. Others will emerge during the course of this project and some more general concepts, such as the importance of orientalism within both conspiracism and weird fiction, deserve particular separate discussion. Those four themes are:
The Theme of Deep Time,
The Promethean Theme,
The Theme of Blood and
The Theme of Harmful Sensation.
The Theme of Deep Time
One of the most obvious connections between Conspiracism and weird horror, and one that particularly shines through when it comes to the literary borrowings of the former from the latter, is the obsession with deep time; the idea of events that happened before recorded history that somehow still resonate down and affect the events of today. Some conspiracists attribute the power of the Cabal to arcane scientific or magical knowledge passed down from advanced civilisations that existed before some historical catastrophe. The common theme in both weird horror and conspiracy lore is that these ancient survivals are generally malignant in character. Particularly of interest in the early development of this concept is the borrowing of themes from Victorian sensation writers (particularly Edward Bulwer-Lytton) by Theosophists such as Blavatsky, which then went on to influence Lovecraft, who was also certainly aware of the original material, having an extremely broad knowledge of the history of supernatural fiction, as demonstrated in his
remarkable long essay on the subject. Also of note is the Atlantis obsession sparked by Ignatius Donnelly's
Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World in 1882. Deep Time gives a cosmic weight to both weird tales and conspiracy discourse, tying events in the present day to grander cycles of events.
The Promethean Theme
The promethean theme has its popular origin at least, perhaps, in Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein; the recurrent tragedy of humans 'playing god' and being destroyed in the process. For some conspiracists, this involves specific faustian bargians, made with supernatural or extraterrestrial powers, but plenty of examples of the pure 'mad scientist' type character, in the vein of Fritz Lang's Rotwang, can be found in conspiracist lore. The more general theme is one of a particular sort of anti-intellectualism or anti-scientism, often wrapped up in a particular sort of Christian ideology; since the original temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden was 'to have knowledge of good and evil and become like God' any attempt to extend humanities capabilities too far carries echoes of this hubris. The chief difference between weird horror and conspiracism is that conspiracism tends to contrast 'evil' systems of knowledge with a 'good' system of knowledge related to the process of conspiracist research.
The Theme of Blood
The importance of monstrous genetic inheritance to both conspiracists and to writers like Lovecraft and those who follow him too closely probably says something about the common influence of long-debunked racial theories as much as direct borrowing. Well developed branches of conspiracist lore deal with the idea of 'Illuminati bloodlines', ancient powerful families that may or may not have some sort of supernatural component and who are the power behind the cabal, themes which are echoes in Lovecraftian tales of people who find some sort of diabolical pact or miscagenation with inhuman entities hidden in their family past. The Theme of Blood in conspiracism is a deep one, tied in particularly strongly to historical anti-Semitism; it plays on the idea of the 'enemy within', superficially the same as 'normal' people but actually part of an ancient heritage working against the established order.
The Theme of Harmful Sensation
The
'motif of harmful sensation' is a common enough literary device in which the sight or sound or touch of some apparently innocuous object causes physical or psychological damage to the person experiencing it. One particular subset of this motif that is of interest is the one whereby this sensation can be used by one person to gain influence or control over another. This supernatural concept is rife within conspiracism, sometimes addressed directly and sometimes indirectly. It is one of the explanations for what would seem to be the inexplicable habit of the cabal whereby they leave symbolic clues embedded in events they have orchestrated; these symbolic clues are in fact designed to work on the human subconscious, operating as part of a system of mind control that is more or less magical, even if dressed up in scientific garb.
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