0:03

Hello and welcome to meet us pod. I'm your host de Mitas. For

0:08

this episode, I'll be reading HP Lovecraft Dagon. HP Lovecraft

0:14

was born in 1890 in Rhode Island. He was friends with

0:18

Harry Houdini and he inspired Batman Black Sabbath and more.

0:24

You can check out more about HP Lovecraft on his Wikipedia page,

0:28

or you can go to hp lovecraft.com links in the show

0:33

notes without further ado, day gone by HP Lovecraft.

0:50

I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since

0:56

by tonight, I shall be no more penniless, and at the end of my

1:03

supply of the drug which alone makes my life and durable, I can

1:07

bear the torture no longer. I shall cast myself from this

1:12

Garret window into the squalid street below. Do not think from

1:18

my slavery to morphine, that I am a weakling or a degenerate.

1:24

When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess,

1:28

though never fully realize why it is that I must have

1:34

forgetfulness or death. It was in one of the most open and

1:44

least frequented parts of the Pacific that the packet of which

1:49

I was super cargo fell a victim to a German sea Raider. The

1:55

Great War was just then at its very beginning, and the enemy

1:58

Navy had not reached its degree of ruthlessness so that our

2:03

vessel was made legitimate prize. Whilst we have her crew

2:09

were treated with all the fairness and consideration do us

2:12

as naval prisoners. So liberal indeed, was the discipline of

2:18

our captors. That five days after we were taken, I managed

2:23

to escape alone in a small boat, with water and provisions for a

2:27

good length of time. When I finally found myself adrift and

2:32

free, I had a little idea of my surroundings. Never a competent

2:38

navigator. I could only guess vaguely by the sun and stars,

2:43

and I was somewhat south of the equator. Of the longitude I knew

2:48

nothing, and no Island or coastline was in sight. The

2:54

weather kept fair, and for uncounted days, I drifted

2:59

aimlessly beneath the scorching sun, waiting either for some

3:03

passing ship, or to be cast on the shores of some habitable

3:08

land. But neither ship nor land appeared. And I began to despair

3:15

and my solitude upon the heaving vastness of unbroken blue. The

3:22

change happened whilst I slept. It's details I shall never know.

3:31

from my slumber, though troubled and dream invested, was

3:36

continuous. When at last I awake, it was to discover myself

3:44

half sucked into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire, which

3:48

extended about me in a monotonous undulations as far as

3:53

I could see. And in which my boat Lake grounded some distance

3:59

away. The one might well imagine that my first sensation would be

4:06

of wonder at so prodigious and unexpected a transformation of

4:10

scenery. I was in reality more horrified than astonished, for

4:17

there was in the air, and in the rotting soil a sinister quality

4:22

which chilled me to the very core. The region was putrid with

4:29

the carcasses of decaying fish, and of other less describable

4:34

things which I saw recruiting from the nasty mud of the

4:39

unending plane. Perhaps I should not hope to convey in mere words

4:45

the unutterable hideousness that can dwell in absolute silence

4:50

and barren immensity. There was nothing within hearing and

4:56

nothing in sight. Save a vast reach of black sly And yet the

5:01

very completeness and the stillness and homogeneity of the

5:06

landscape impressed me with a nauseating fear. The sun was

5:13

blazing down from the sky, which seemed to me almost black, in

5:18

its cloudless cruelty, as though reflecting the inky Marsh

5:23

beneath my feet. As I crawled into the stranded boat, I

5:28

realized that only one theory could explain my position.

5:33

Through some unprecedented volcanic upheaval. A portion of

5:37

the ocean floor must have been thrown to the surface, exposing

5:42

regions which for innumerable millions of years, had lain

5:47

hidden under unfathomable watery depths.

5:51

So great was the extent of the new land which had risen beneath

5:55

me, that I could not detect the faintest noise of the surging

5:59

ocean, strain my ears as I might. Nor were there any sea

6:06

fowl to prey upon the dead things. For several hours I sat

6:11

thinking or brooding in the boat, which lay up on its side

6:16

and afforded me a slight shade as the sun moved across the

6:20

heavens. as the day progressed, the ground lost some of its

6:25

stickiness, and seemed likely to dry sufficiently for traveling

6:30

purposes in a short time. That night, I slept but little, and

6:37

the next day, I made myself a bag containing food and water,

6:42

preparatory to the overland journey in search of the

6:45

vanished sea, and possible rescue. On the third morning, I

6:52

found soil dry enough to walk upon with ease. The odor of the

6:58

fish was maddening. When I was too much concerned with graver

7:02

things to mind so slight and evil, and set out boldly for an

7:07

unknown goal. All day, I forged steadily westward, guided by a

7:15

faraway hammock, which had rose higher than any other elevation

7:19

on the rolling desert. That night, I kept an eye on the

7:25

following day, still travelled towards the hammock. Though the

7:30

object seems scarcely nearer than when I had first spotted.

7:37

By the fourth evening, I attained to the base of the

7:39

mound, which turned out to be much higher than hitted appeared

7:43

from the distant and intervening Valley, setting it out in

7:48

sharper relief and the general surface. To weary to ascend. I

7:55

slept in the shadow of the hill. I know not why my dreams were so

8:01

wild that night. But before the waning and fantastically gibbous

8:06

moon had risen far above the Eastern Blaine, I was awake, and

8:11

a cold perspiration. Determined to Sleep No More. Such visions

8:18

as I have experienced were too much for me to endure again. And

8:23

in the glow of the moon, I saw how unwise I had been to travel

8:28

by day. Without the glare of the parching sun, my journey would

8:34

have cost me less energy, indeed. I now felt quite able to

8:41

perform the ascent, which had deterred me at sunset, picking

8:46

up my bag, I started for the crest of the eminence. I have

8:53

said that the unbroken monotony of the rolling plane was a

8:57

source of vague or to me. But I think my horror was greater when

9:02

I gained the summit of the mound and look down on the other side

9:06

into an immeasurable pit or Canyon, whose black recesses the

9:11

moon had not yet soared high enough to illumine I felt myself

9:16

on the edge of the world, peering over the rim into the

9:19

fathomless chaos of eternal night. Though my terror ran

9:24

curious reminiscences of Paradise Lost, and of Satan's

9:29

hideous climb through the unfastened realms of darkness.

9:35

As the moon climbed higher in the sky, I began to see the

9:38

slopes of the Valley were not quite as perpendicular as I had

9:42

imagined. The ledges and outcroppings of rock afforded

9:48

fairly easy footholds for the descent. Whilst after a drop of

9:54

a few 100 feet, the declivity became very gradual urged on by

10:01

an impulse which I cannot definitely analyze, I scrambled

10:06

with difficulty down the rocks and stood on a gentler slope

10:10

beneath, gazing into the stag in depths where no light had

10:16

penetrated. All at once my attention was captured by a vast

10:20

and singular object on the opposite slope, which rose

10:24

steeply about 100 yards ahead of me, an object that claimed

10:30

widely in the newly bestowed rays of the ascending moon, that

10:34

it was merely a gigantic piece of stone, I soon assured myself

10:40

but I was conscious of a distinct impression that its

10:44

contour and position are not altogether a work of nature.

10:51

A closer scrutiny filled me with the sensation I cannot express.

10:57

For despite its enormous magnitude, and its location, and

11:02

an abyss which had yond at the bottom of the sea, since the

11:05

world was young, I perceived beyond a doubt that the strange

11:11

object was a well shaped monolith was massive bulk had

11:17

known the workmanship, and perhaps the worship, of living

11:23

and thinking creatures, dazed and frightened. Yet not without

11:29

a certain thrill on the scientists or archaeologists

11:33

delight, I examined my surrounding more closely. The

11:39

moon, now near the zenith, shown weirdly and vividly above the

11:45

towering steep that hemmed in the chasm, and revealed the fact

11:50

that a far flung body of water flowed at the bottom, winding

11:55

out of sight in both directions, and almost lapping my feet as I

12:00

stood on the slope. across the chasm, the wavelets washed the

12:07

base of the Cyclopean monolith on whose surface I could now

12:12

trace both inscriptions and crude sculptures. The writing

12:19

was in a system of hieroglyphs unknown to me, and unlike

12:24

anything I had ever seen in books, consisting for the most

12:29

part of unconventional alized aquatic symbols such as fishes,

12:34

eels, octopi, crustaceans, mollusks, whales, and the like.

12:40

Several characters obviously represented and marine things

12:44

which were unknown to the modern world, but whose decomposing

12:47

forms I had observed on the ocean risen plane. It was the

12:52

pictorial carving, however, that did most to hold me spellbound,

12:57

plainly visible across the intervening water, on account of

13:01

it their enormous size, were an array of bass relief, whose

13:06

subjects would have excited the envy of adore. I think that

13:13

these things were supposed to depict men, at least a certain

13:18

sort of men, though the creatures were shown disporting

13:22

like fishes and waters of some marine grotto, or paying homage

13:27

at some monolithic Shrine, which appeared to be under the waves

13:31

as well. Of their faces and forms I dare not speak in

13:36

detail, for the mere remembrance of them makes me grow faint.

13:42

grotesque, beyond the imagination of a poem, or a

13:47

bulwark. They were damnably human and general outline

13:52

despite webbed hands and feet, shocking, shockingly wide and

13:56

flabby lips, glassy, bulging eyes, and other features less

14:01

pleasant to recall. Curiously enough, they seemed to have been

14:08

chiseled badly out of proportion with the scenic background, for

14:13

one of the creatures was shown in the act of killing a whale

14:16

represented as but little larger than himself. I remarked, as I

14:22

say, on their grotesqueness, and strange size, but in a moment

14:29

decided that they were merely the imaginary gods of some

14:33

primitive fishing more seafaring tribe, some tribe whose last

14:38

descendant had perished errors before the first ancestor of the

14:43

Piltdown or Neanderthal man was born. awestruck at this

14:50

unexpected glimpse into the past beyond the conception of the

14:54

most daring anthropologist, I stood musing while the moon cast

15:00

Square reflections on the silent channel before me. Then,

15:06

suddenly, I saw it. With only a slight churning to markets rise

15:13

to the surface. The thing slid into view above the dark waters,

15:19

vast, poly famous like and loathsome, and darted like a

15:25

stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith. About what it's

15:30

flung it's gigantic scaly arms and while it bowed, its hideous

15:35

head and gave vent to a certain measured sound. I think I went

15:43

mad then of my frantic ascent of the slope and Cliff, and my

15:53

delirious journey back to the stranded boat. I remember little

16:00

I believe I sang a great deal. I laughed oddly, when I was unable

16:06

to sing. I have indistinct recollections of a great storm

16:14

sometime after I reached the boat. At any rate, I know that I

16:22

heard peals of thunder and other towns, which nature others only

16:29

in her wildest moods. When I came out of the shadows, and was

16:36

in a San Francisco hospital, brought together by the captain

16:41

of the American ship, which had picked up my boat in the mid

16:44

ocean. In my delirium, I had said much, but found that my

16:50

words had been given scant attention. Of any land upheaval

16:56

in the Pacific, my rescuers knew nothing. Nor did I deem it

17:00

necessary to insist upon a thing that I knew they could not

17:04

believe. Once I sought out a celebrated indologist and amused

17:13

him with a peculiar questions regarding an ancient Philistine

17:16

Legend of Dagon, the fish God but soon perceiving that he was

17:23

hopelessly conventional, and did not press my inquiries. It is at

17:28

night, especially when the moon is gibbous and waning, that I

17:32

see that thing. I tried morphine, but the drug has given

17:38

me only transient searcys and has drawn me into its clutches

17:43

as a hopeless slave. So now I'm going to end matters, having

17:49

written a full account of the information, or the contemptuous

17:52

amusement of my fellow man. Often, I asked myself, if it

17:59

could not have all been a pure Phantasm a mere freak of fever

18:04

as I lay Sun stricken and raving in the open boat after my escape

18:07

from the German man of war. This I asked myself, whatever does

18:13

there come before me hideous, vivid vision and reply. I cannot

18:18

think of a deep sea without shuttering at the nameless

18:21

things that may be at this very moment. Crawling and floundering

18:26

and it slimy bed, worshipping their ancient stone idols and

18:30

carving their own detestable likenesses on submarine obelisks

18:35

of water soaked granite. I dream of the day when they rise above

18:39

the billows and drag down in their wreaking talons the

18:43

remnants of puny, war exhausted mankind. A day when the land

18:49

shall sink and the dark ocean floor shall a sin amidst

18:54

universal pandemonium. The end is near. I hear the noise of the

19:02

door as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It

19:09

shall not find me God that hand the window the window

19:23

thanks for listening to Dagon by HP Lovecraft our music is

19:27

brought to us by od Sprite. You can check out more at odd

19:31

sprite.com me just pause the production. Meet us media. All

19:36

rights reserved unless otherwise specified. We'll see you next

19:41

time folks. Have a good one.