I am back with some H.P. Lovecraft. The last time I picked up Lovecraft, I learned of The Call of Cthulhu, which is perhaps his most famous work. This week, however, I delved into the tale of The Whisperer in the Darkness.
I find it quite uncanny. At the time that I decided to pick up Lovecraft again was the same time that I came across the story of Mel's hole. For anyone who is unfamiliar, it is a very bizarre account of a hole with no bottom to it. Mel, being a fisherman, starts sending down fishing line to measure the hole, and even after it surpasses the length of 80,000 feet, he still does not reach the bottom!
The story grows even stranger than that, with the listener having to infer that there is something, perhaps supernatural or other worldly, interfering with earthly affairs. And I only bring this up because you will see the resemblance mirrored in this tale momentarily...
The Whisperer in the Darkness unfolds "with the historic and unprecedented Vermont floods of November 3rd, 1927," which releases a horrific mystery onto the region:
"They were pinkish things about five feet long; with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membranous wings and several sets of articulated limbs ... covered with multitudes of very short antennae, where a head would ordinarily be."
(This image was created using an AI art generator on NightCafe)
These grotesque beings remind the locals of legends that plague the region, of "a hidden race ... among the remoter hills." Recollections of "queer footprints ... curious circles of stones ... certain caves."
Details are recalled of this hidden race: flying, red crab-like creatures with bat wings who communicate in buzzing voices. "These things seemed content, on the whole, to let mankind alone; though they were at times held responsible for the disappearance of venturesome individuals." It is believed that they visit earth for minerals that they cannot find anywhere else.
Soon, our author begins receiving letters from a man named Henry Akeley. This man claims that not only does this hidden race of creatures exist, but he has proof of them:
"I have certain evidence that monstrous things do indeed live in the woods or the high hills ... I have seen footprints ... nearer to my own home ... And I have overheard voices in the woods ..."
Akeley reports that the creatures are here for minerals -- but that they are also here to spy on us. He says that everything changed for him after discovering "a great black stone with unknown hieroglypics," and he believes the creaturesp mean to be rid of him because of what he knows...
So, given it's the year 1927, Akeley mails the narrator his evidence, which consists of photos and a phonograph.
"I now began to believe in the most abnormal and incredible wonders. The array of vital evidence was damnably vast and overwhelming."
At some point, Akeley does his best to even mail the black stone to the author, but it is intercepted, more than likely by the creatures...
(The mysterious black stone...)
Meanwhile, Akeley starts experiencing terrible incidents on his property, such as the ravenous barking of his dogs, knowing "all too well of the things which must be lurking near." The author receives "a frantic letter which disturbed me greatly" -- talk of bullets zooming outside the farmhouse, dogs being shot dead, "myriads of claw-prints," and Akeley's telephone wire being cut.
The incidents continue... One night, one of the creatures fights the dogs. "I found great pools of blood ... beside pools of a green sticky stuff that had the worst odor I have ever smelled. ... Five of the dogs were killed ..." Akeley begins to grow more paranoid, insisting that "they don't mean to let me get to California now" and to "smash that record ..."
The next letter the narrator receives suddenly takes on a very abrupt change of tone. Akeley admits that he lets "a messenger from the outside" into the house, and that the creatures are "in reality awesome and mind-expanding and even glorious ..." He now claims that they are nothing to fear, and that he actually plans on traveling to their home planet! Strangest of all, Akeley now insists that the narrator come to visit him and "bring along the phonograph record and all my letters to you as consultative data."
With that, the narrator embarks for his acquaintence's abode. When he arrives, he is informed that Akeley suffered an asthma attack and will not be himself. However, upon seeing his host, the author is "sorry I had done so, for it made my host's strained, immobile face and listless hands look damnably abnormal and corpse-like." He tells our author that the creatures "found a way to convey human brains without their concomitant physical structure," and this is how he will travel to their planet, Yuggoth.
During the author's final night, he hears the creatures in the house, with their "blasphemous buzzing." He takes off, but not before stumbling upon the foul state of his host...
"That whisperer in darkness with its morbid odor and vibrations! ... that hideous repressed buzzing ... and all the time in that fresh, shiny cylinder on the shelf ... poor devil ... For the things in the chair, perfect to the last, subtle detail of microscopic resemblance -- or identity -- were the face and hands of Henry Wentworth Akeley."
This was a decent little short story! 🙏 I couldn't help but pick up Little Red Riding Hood vibes during the scenes when the narrator encounters Akeley. Anybody with 60 IQ points can infer that Akeley is actually one of the creatures, yet he remains so dense about it.
Like, "Akeley, what's that horrible smell?!" "Oh, I just haven't been able to bathe for a bit." "But Akeley, why is there a slight vibration whenever I'm in the same room with you?!" "T-the mountains can cause disturbances in --" "And why do you have the lights off?!" "Never mind that!! Anyway, did you know the creatures are extremely vulnerable to light? --"