davidkm

Cox, 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.

This 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.