*a single snowflake falls upon the scorched earth*
I wasn't going to do Fandom Snowflake, but I'm enjoying the stuff everyone is choosing for Day 7, so naturally I wanted in on this one:
Day 7
In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Instead of a Tolkien thing, I'ma go ahead and share a Lovecraft thing (probably not too surprising at this point).
This is a passage from The Whisperer in Darkness, one of Lovecraft's later novellas. The narrator, Wilmarth, presents the transcript of a record made by his correspondent, Akeley. The latter, dragging a phonograph around (as one does when one suspects aliens are living in the hills out back one's farm), has recorded part of an overheard, unseen ritual:
Akeley had given me a transcript of what he believed the spoken words to be, and I glanced through this again as I prepared the machine for action. The text was darkly mysterious rather than openly horrible, though a knowledge of its origin and manner of gathering gave it all the associative horror which any words could well possess. I will present it here in full as I remember it-and I am fairly confident that I know it correctly by heart, not only from reading the transcript, but from playing the record itself over and over again. It is not a thing which one might readily forget!
(INDISTINGUISHABLE SOUNDS)
(A CULTIVATED MALE HUMAN VOICE)
. . . is the Lord of the Woods, even to . . . and the gifts of the men of Leng . . . so from the wells of night to the gulfs of space, and from the gulfs of space to the wells of night, ever the praises of Great Cthulhu, of Tsathoggua, and of Him Who is not to be Named. Ever Their praises, and abundance to the Black Goat of the Woods. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Goat with a Thousand Young!
(A BUZZING IMITATION OF HUMAN SPEECH)
Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!
(HUMAN VOICE)
And it has come to pass that the Lord of the Woods, being . . . seven and nine, down the onyx steps . . . (tri)butes to Him in the Gulf, Azathoth, He of Whom Thou hast taught us marv(els) . . . on the wings of night out beyond space, out beyond th . . . to That whereof Yuggoth is the youngest child, rolling alone in black aether at the rim. . . .
(BUZZING VOICE)
. . . go out among men and find the ways thereof, that He in the Gulf may know. To Nyarlathotep, Mighty Messenger, must all things be told. And He shall put on the semblance of men, the waxen mask and the robe that hides, and come down from the world of Seven Suns to mock. . . .
(HUMAN VOICE)
. . . (Nyarl)athotep, Great Messenger, bringer of strange joy to Yuggoth through the void, Father of the Million Favoured Ones, Stalker among. . . .
(SPEECH CUT OFF BY END OF RECORD)
Aside from name-dropping half of Lovecraft's major pantheon, this scene is very interesting to me because of the glimpses it gives us of the Mi-go (the alien visitors in question). The Mi-go are my favorites for many reasons, one being that, even while they are given actual voices and demsytified somewhat more than most of Lovecraft's antagonistic forces, the information we are given is just enough to exponentially increase the number of questions I have about them and their motives. For instance, I'm curious about their relationship to Nyarlathotep et al.--they are clearly implied to serve the Outer Gods, but the Mi-go don't strike me as slavishly worshipful types (more, as incurably curious folk who know a good collaborative opportunity when they see one). Their "buzzing voice" is described as terrible to hear, and one later learns that they do surgery on themselves in order to be able to produce semblances of human sounds. They are fucking clever and unnerving and I just love them to bits.
Non-canon stuff:
- This is my fanon Mi-go theme music ("my fanon" bears repeating; I'm sure this innocent theremin composer had nothing of the like in his mind).
- This is my favorite Mi-go fanart [image is slightly gory/body horror and may be disturbing to some].