Ia Review!
Nov. 2nd, 2024 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidkmThis is likely no longer available, but who knows?
Cox, Cardinal, 2012, Codex L'ng, Starburker Publications, c/o 58 Pennington, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough PE2 5RB UK, saddle stitched, white paper, 100 copies, 12 pages, price unlisted, the Cardinal is on Facebook: ask him.
This codex follows the format of its predecessors. Each page bears a short poem and description. The descriptions links lovecraftian mythology with history. This codex seems more successful in this than the others. Perhaps because I am less familiar with Central Asia, or because Leng (here, L'ng) has always seemed as though it really could be in Central Asia. In any case, the descriptions have the ring of truth (or at least, of historicity). For example:
“Among the oldest Tibetan legends of the terrestrial land of L'ng is that of Gesar, who has aspects of a Bonist sacred king.” Or “described in Herodotus in the fifth century B.C. as gold digging ants, the curious insect-daemons of the outer darkness... pose many questions.”
According to Cox, there are two L'ngs: one in Central Asia, another in dreamland. This accords with Lovecraft's writing, but Lovecraft never said there were two. Cox does not repeat Brian Lumley's and August Derleth's errors in making the Mythos so matter-of-fact that it isn't even mythic anymore. No crimefighting Justice League style struggle between technocrats and eldritch horrors. Instead, Cox mimics the tone of anthropologists describing in matter-of-fact terms something they clearly don't understand. Something which, as is plain to the cognoscenti, is anything but mundane.
From Beast Men:
Enslaved by Moon frog-folk
Still they keep faith with the
Distant, cold, Sleeping God
Creatures crushed beneath chaos
Remember that the price is right, you have to act fast if you want it at all, and it's a charming little foray into the narrative as faux history genre, one that Lovecraft used all the time.
Cox, Cardinal, 2012, Codex L'ng, Starburker Publications, c/o 58 Pennington, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough PE2 5RB UK, saddle stitched, white paper, 100 copies, 12 pages, price unlisted, the Cardinal is on Facebook: ask him.
This codex follows the format of its predecessors. Each page bears a short poem and description. The descriptions links lovecraftian mythology with history. This codex seems more successful in this than the others. Perhaps because I am less familiar with Central Asia, or because Leng (here, L'ng) has always seemed as though it really could be in Central Asia. In any case, the descriptions have the ring of truth (or at least, of historicity). For example:
“Among the oldest Tibetan legends of the terrestrial land of L'ng is that of Gesar, who has aspects of a Bonist sacred king.” Or “described in Herodotus in the fifth century B.C. as gold digging ants, the curious insect-daemons of the outer darkness... pose many questions.”
According to Cox, there are two L'ngs: one in Central Asia, another in dreamland. This accords with Lovecraft's writing, but Lovecraft never said there were two. Cox does not repeat Brian Lumley's and August Derleth's errors in making the Mythos so matter-of-fact that it isn't even mythic anymore. No crimefighting Justice League style struggle between technocrats and eldritch horrors. Instead, Cox mimics the tone of anthropologists describing in matter-of-fact terms something they clearly don't understand. Something which, as is plain to the cognoscenti, is anything but mundane.
From Beast Men:
Enslaved by Moon frog-folk
Still they keep faith with the
Distant, cold, Sleeping God
Creatures crushed beneath chaos
Remember that the price is right, you have to act fast if you want it at all, and it's a charming little foray into the narrative as faux history genre, one that Lovecraft used all the time.
