Revisiting Cosmic Horror and Cosmic Awe
Cosmic horror, or the germinating idea of it I think arose before H. P. Lovecraft. The King in Yellow is a short story collection written by Robert W. Chambers in the nineteenth century, which has strong elements of horror but what is most interesting is that the stories start off sinister and dark and become lighter as you go toward the end of the book. Or so I’ve read elsewhere. I haven’t yet read Chambers’s work. It would seem to me that cosmic horror and cosmic awe are two sides of the same coin. Bear in mind that these are only my own humble musings. I have no idea what others may think about this subject.
I think that adding elements of horror or awe in a story adds richness, depth and complexity that can stay with a reader long after they’ve finished reading the story. Why do I say this? I believe it encourages a reader to indulge and delve into their deepest, darkest emotions, to let one ponder on fearful what-ifs; what if life has no purpose and how random it seems, how cruel and dark? Often, it IS cruel and dark. Delving into the ocean of the mind, where one can lose their minds, literally, if they dwell in these depths for too long, is a perilous business.
I have delved such depths. It isn’t for the faint-hearted. It can be enlightening in its own way and destructive too. But there is the Other side - such stories with the element of awe allows one to climb the highest heights of Reverence, Divine Awe, for which there is no emotion greater or more noble. I have risen this high as well and it gives one great joy that can last for hours or even days. I often think of Shakespeare and Tolkien on this side of the coin.
It isn’t hard to imagine why this may be. When one looks out at a brilliant, clear night sky, it truly is awe-inspiring. The mind can ponder on the heavens and who put them there; that there is a Grand Architect/Creator, with a mind that is incomprehensibly intelligent, who condescends to Man though He doesn’t have to, that there is a grand purpose to life and our existence, that there is a reason why symmetry and information in all life exists and why Man exists here on a special blue planet; Mathematics and scientific concepts we don’t yet understand may be revealed; secrets He may eventually share with us in Promised Paradise.
When I ponder on such vast greatness and let my mind wander on the darker what-ifs - such as what if there were no chance for salvation and we truly were on our own, or alone in the universe, what if I believed there is no God, or there were no benevolent gods? What if life really were an accident? Then that same vastness of the cosmos could induce terror. In fact, I have actually pondered those very things and the very same space we inhabit in this universe can cause great fear. Why? Because if it is true that there is no God, the accidental way we arrived could end up being the same way we leave - by accident and all of the things Humans have achieved are all for naught and any celestial body or powerful Being or alien civilization could destroy us would not care or notice. Or if we are all the Life there is in the universe we could destroy ourselves or simply die at the entropic end of the universe, if we even last that long as a species. Alone. Just as I think Cosmic Awe infuses Life with purpose, Cosmic Horror renders it an absurdity.
Then there is the thought, mentioned before, that there could be strange things and laws in the cosmos that we are unaware of, places where science has no answer for us, things, myriads of things we can’t explain or understand and even more things out there that we are not even aware that we are ignorant of. This could be good or bad, who knows? That thought could allow one to meditate in either direction.
No matter what end of the scale we’re talking about we are touching the Sublime, the Supernatural, the Divine. It isn’t just secular literature that touches on this. Though the Bible doesn’t talk directly about cosmic horror and awe in a literary way, it does deal with the Divine and the supernatural, and Fear, as it is dealing with God and the Devil and in the Bible one can find both indirect examples of cosmic awe and cosmic horror, in my opinion, if one chooses to apply certain scriptures in a certain way.
1 Corinthians 15:41 - “The glory of the sun is one sort, and the glory of the moon is another, and the glory of the stars is another; in fact, one star differs from another star in glory.” - Apostle Paul.
There is also this, which I find both poetically beautiful and terrifying:
Jude 1:12-13 - “These are the rocks hidden below water at your love feasts while they feast with you. . . .wild waves of the sea that cast up the foam of their own shame; stars with no set course, for which the blackest darkness stands reserved forever.” - Jude.
Great ponderings for meditation and also for stories, surely. Happy writing.
