Dark Mythos
Dec. 24th, 2024 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidkmSchwader, Ann K., 2007, In the Yaddith Time, Mythos Books, cover and numerous interior illustrations by Steve Lines, introduction by Richard L. Tierney, perfect-bound paperback, 54 pages, ISBN 978-0-9789911-5-9, $10.
Schwader does, seemingly with little effort, what many have tried and failed to accomplish: produce Mythos poems that lie squarely within the genre, are original and entertaining, and make good poetry. Doesn't sound so hard, but I've read plenty of slush that says it's difficult indeed. I have learned to expect something really entertaining from Schwader's Mythos efforts, but this book is a tour de force. Each of the 36 poems stands on its own, yet together they tell a story, just as Lovecraft did with "Fungi from Yuggoth." I can't reproduce the story, but I can give you a taste of its components. It begins quickly.
From "The Finding"
Like slaughter lambs to marvel at that frame
of twisted yellow metal holding rough-
cut stones and latticework of alien make.
This was our first – & mankind's last – mistake.
And things go from bad to worse. From "A Fatal Flaw"
Madness grows
like any other malady: in genes
these most ingenious fools read like a book
of Holy Writ, & from that Scripture took
false comfort in deciding by such means:
Classic description from "Inside the Ghooric Zone" typifies her adherence to the strictures of Cthulhu Mythos form
Black viscous pools within whose fetid deeps
writhed Things our Captain knew – but would not name --
assailed our reeling senses. Sentient flame
eliminated temples, fanes, & keeps
Yet she seems to go beyond the fields many Mythos writers have known. The unwilling wanderers visit many extraterrestrial sites only hinted at by other chroniclers. Schwader describes more fully places of which we have heard before, so we visualize clearly that which was once hidden from us, yet she still imbues them with the mixture of malevolence, madness, and revulsion that Lovecraft first employed. From "Lost Celaeno"
Our instruments revealed no other lives
within this labyrinth, & yet it seemed
that shapes slipped past the corners of our eyes.
She refers to so many of the classic texts the book affords a special delight to those who are familiar with the Mythos. However, I think even if you have never read a word by Lovecraft, Long, Chambers, or Lumley, these poems will still engender a frisson of horror.
The voyage into darkness, death, and madness continues, flawlessly articulated and inexorable. Did I mention that they are all sonnets? The cover and other illustrations, somewhat reminiscent of the work of Denis Tiani, perfectly complement the text. If you like the Mythos or dark fantasy poetry in the broadest sense then you really must have this book.
Schwader does, seemingly with little effort, what many have tried and failed to accomplish: produce Mythos poems that lie squarely within the genre, are original and entertaining, and make good poetry. Doesn't sound so hard, but I've read plenty of slush that says it's difficult indeed. I have learned to expect something really entertaining from Schwader's Mythos efforts, but this book is a tour de force. Each of the 36 poems stands on its own, yet together they tell a story, just as Lovecraft did with "Fungi from Yuggoth." I can't reproduce the story, but I can give you a taste of its components. It begins quickly.
From "The Finding"
Like slaughter lambs to marvel at that frame
of twisted yellow metal holding rough-
cut stones and latticework of alien make.
This was our first – & mankind's last – mistake.
And things go from bad to worse. From "A Fatal Flaw"
Madness grows
like any other malady: in genes
these most ingenious fools read like a book
of Holy Writ, & from that Scripture took
false comfort in deciding by such means:
Classic description from "Inside the Ghooric Zone" typifies her adherence to the strictures of Cthulhu Mythos form
Black viscous pools within whose fetid deeps
writhed Things our Captain knew – but would not name --
assailed our reeling senses. Sentient flame
eliminated temples, fanes, & keeps
Yet she seems to go beyond the fields many Mythos writers have known. The unwilling wanderers visit many extraterrestrial sites only hinted at by other chroniclers. Schwader describes more fully places of which we have heard before, so we visualize clearly that which was once hidden from us, yet she still imbues them with the mixture of malevolence, madness, and revulsion that Lovecraft first employed. From "Lost Celaeno"
Our instruments revealed no other lives
within this labyrinth, & yet it seemed
that shapes slipped past the corners of our eyes.
She refers to so many of the classic texts the book affords a special delight to those who are familiar with the Mythos. However, I think even if you have never read a word by Lovecraft, Long, Chambers, or Lumley, these poems will still engender a frisson of horror.
The voyage into darkness, death, and madness continues, flawlessly articulated and inexorable. Did I mention that they are all sonnets? The cover and other illustrations, somewhat reminiscent of the work of Denis Tiani, perfectly complement the text. If you like the Mythos or dark fantasy poetry in the broadest sense then you really must have this book.
