Under tha Sea: Death!
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davidkmCox, Cardinal, 2010, Codex Dagon, 12 page but unpaginated saddle-stitched pamphlet to be given away at Weird Winter, Reading Central Library, United Kingdom, December 2010. Numbered edition of 100 on plain white paper. For information: 58 Pennington, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough PE2 5RB United Kingdom or e-mail cardinalcox1@yahoo.co.uk
I don't know why I have started getting Cardinal Cox's free chapbooks or what have you, sent winging across a pond so wide I have no hope of attending the events at which the booklets are to be distributed gratis. Of course I'm grateful; they are very nice publications. I only hope the readers of Star*line, perhaps months after the fact, have a hope of getting copies themselves. E-mail Mr. Cox and offer to send him money. I will hope for the best.
This is the second Lovecraftian chapbook from Cardinal Cox. It is witty and humorous, and that's the way I like them (chapbooks of Lovecraftian poetry I mean). There may be some folks reading this review who don't know that Dagon is an aquatic old one, a supernatural being who, while not precisely evil, is nevertheless inimical to humans and human society. Dagon is worshiped by a race of intelligent fishlike creatures who live a very long time and inhabit cities in some of the deepest parts of the world ocean. The literature referring to Dagon is somewhat ambiguous about the question of evil versus alien, but Lovecraft was pretty clear that what seemed evil to us was really more like indifference.
This book contains seven poems and an essay about the evolution of the Deep Ones, Dagon's aquatic worshipers. The poems refer to literary traditions ranging from traditional Japanese legends to the short stories of HG Wells. From "Haploteuthis Ferox" (which should be italicized and the specific name should be in lower case)
Arms welcome him to the dark wet world
Mollusc muscles pull the helmet apart
The tight embrace of the fatal sweetheart
Eyes roll as though in ecstasy pearled
Referencing a short story by HG Wells. Another refers both to Lovecraft's "Pickman's model" and to worldwide legends of dogheaded people. The book opens with an hymn to Dagon. One poem conflates the idea of the Deep Ones with Irish mythic history with interesting results. And why wouldn't Japanese myths be turned into Japanese monster movies and then perhaps Hollywood remakes? The essay is entitled "An evolution of the Deep Ones." Cox here considers the well-known theory that humanity's hairless condition might have evolved as a response to living in the sea. If it did, are the Deep Ones our sister group? Maybe that's why we can interbreed with them, even though we cannot interbreed with our closest relatives known to science, the chimpanzees.
Any fan of Cardinal Cox or of the Cthulhu Mythos or indeed of fantasy/mythic poetry would probably enjoy this book. And the transformations of various forms of literature into annals of the cult of Dagon are charming and amusing. There is definitely something in Codex Dagon for the irreverent.
I don't know why I have started getting Cardinal Cox's free chapbooks or what have you, sent winging across a pond so wide I have no hope of attending the events at which the booklets are to be distributed gratis. Of course I'm grateful; they are very nice publications. I only hope the readers of Star*line, perhaps months after the fact, have a hope of getting copies themselves. E-mail Mr. Cox and offer to send him money. I will hope for the best.
This is the second Lovecraftian chapbook from Cardinal Cox. It is witty and humorous, and that's the way I like them (chapbooks of Lovecraftian poetry I mean). There may be some folks reading this review who don't know that Dagon is an aquatic old one, a supernatural being who, while not precisely evil, is nevertheless inimical to humans and human society. Dagon is worshiped by a race of intelligent fishlike creatures who live a very long time and inhabit cities in some of the deepest parts of the world ocean. The literature referring to Dagon is somewhat ambiguous about the question of evil versus alien, but Lovecraft was pretty clear that what seemed evil to us was really more like indifference.
This book contains seven poems and an essay about the evolution of the Deep Ones, Dagon's aquatic worshipers. The poems refer to literary traditions ranging from traditional Japanese legends to the short stories of HG Wells. From "Haploteuthis Ferox" (which should be italicized and the specific name should be in lower case)
Arms welcome him to the dark wet world
Mollusc muscles pull the helmet apart
The tight embrace of the fatal sweetheart
Eyes roll as though in ecstasy pearled
Referencing a short story by HG Wells. Another refers both to Lovecraft's "Pickman's model" and to worldwide legends of dogheaded people. The book opens with an hymn to Dagon. One poem conflates the idea of the Deep Ones with Irish mythic history with interesting results. And why wouldn't Japanese myths be turned into Japanese monster movies and then perhaps Hollywood remakes? The essay is entitled "An evolution of the Deep Ones." Cox here considers the well-known theory that humanity's hairless condition might have evolved as a response to living in the sea. If it did, are the Deep Ones our sister group? Maybe that's why we can interbreed with them, even though we cannot interbreed with our closest relatives known to science, the chimpanzees.
Any fan of Cardinal Cox or of the Cthulhu Mythos or indeed of fantasy/mythic poetry would probably enjoy this book. And the transformations of various forms of literature into annals of the cult of Dagon are charming and amusing. There is definitely something in Codex Dagon for the irreverent.
