BJ, to his friends
The Dreams in the Witch House did not clock in as one of my favorite Lovecraft pieces. Perhaps because I’m not a big math fan, I never really quite got myself interested in young Gilman or his plight (was he connected with the Gilman hotel in Innsmouth?), but the “quaintly” named “Brown Jenkin” scared the crap out of me! “Witnesses said it had long hair and the shape of a rat, but that its sharp-toothed, bearded face was evilly human while its paws were like human hands.” Brown Jenkin is referred to as a “blasphemous and diminutive hybrid”. And before he bit you, he would nuzzle you. Nuzzle, usually such a nice word, leave it to Lovecraft to make me cringe at the thought of a nuzzle.
Why did Brown Jenkins freak me out so much?
Because it reminded me so much of the damned possum puppet from Matthew Holness’ short story “Possum” from the New Uncanny anthology. I think that story is a gazillion times cooler knowing that it’s Lovecraft inspired. Possum fit the uncanny bill because it was an inanimate object acting like an animate object, but Brown Jenkin was creepy for many other reasons.
First, like I said, the nuzzling. He rubs around people’s ankles like an affectionate cat: “rubbing itself with a kind of affectionate playfulness”. It’s a horror! It can’t be cutesy and affectionate! The juxtaposition really works to creep me out.
It’s name. Brown Jenkin. When you call a scary thing a shoggoth or cthulhu or any of those names, it builds a kind of stately terror. But Brown Jenkin? That could be your next door neighbor. But it isn’t, it’s the little multi-lingual, bearded rat-person. Again, it’s the juxtaposition of mundane and god awful that really works to make Brown Jenkin (BJ to his friends) a real horror.
BROWN JENKIN EATS GILMAN’S HEART. WHILE HE’S STILL ALIVE. Gah! “The occupant was omitting sounds of veritably inhuman nature, as if racked by some torment beyond description. He was writhing under the bedclothes, and a great red stain was beginning to appear on the blankets” This is how Gilman met his end. “Everybody shrieked when a large rat-like form suddenly jumped out from beneath the exsanguined bedclothes and scurried across the floor.” It’s just gross.
The image of a rat disturbs us. Fat and sleek, hairless tails…rats have brought disease, eat the parts off lepers…we have a lot not to like about rats. To add a human face, one similar to that of an evil witch, and to give it the power of speech, and four little human hands just intensifies our repulsed feeling. Brown Jenkin is the scariest Lovecraftian horror I’ve yet to come across.
And finally…has everyone in Massachusetts read the Necronomicon? In stories like “The Festival” people just leave it out on their coffee table, for a little light reading perhaps?
Why did Brown Jenkins freak me out so much?
Because it reminded me so much of the damned possum puppet from Matthew Holness’ short story “Possum” from the New Uncanny anthology. I think that story is a gazillion times cooler knowing that it’s Lovecraft inspired. Possum fit the uncanny bill because it was an inanimate object acting like an animate object, but Brown Jenkin was creepy for many other reasons.
First, like I said, the nuzzling. He rubs around people’s ankles like an affectionate cat: “rubbing itself with a kind of affectionate playfulness”. It’s a horror! It can’t be cutesy and affectionate! The juxtaposition really works to creep me out.
It’s name. Brown Jenkin. When you call a scary thing a shoggoth or cthulhu or any of those names, it builds a kind of stately terror. But Brown Jenkin? That could be your next door neighbor. But it isn’t, it’s the little multi-lingual, bearded rat-person. Again, it’s the juxtaposition of mundane and god awful that really works to make Brown Jenkin (BJ to his friends) a real horror.
BROWN JENKIN EATS GILMAN’S HEART. WHILE HE’S STILL ALIVE. Gah! “The occupant was omitting sounds of veritably inhuman nature, as if racked by some torment beyond description. He was writhing under the bedclothes, and a great red stain was beginning to appear on the blankets” This is how Gilman met his end. “Everybody shrieked when a large rat-like form suddenly jumped out from beneath the exsanguined bedclothes and scurried across the floor.” It’s just gross.
The image of a rat disturbs us. Fat and sleek, hairless tails…rats have brought disease, eat the parts off lepers…we have a lot not to like about rats. To add a human face, one similar to that of an evil witch, and to give it the power of speech, and four little human hands just intensifies our repulsed feeling. Brown Jenkin is the scariest Lovecraftian horror I’ve yet to come across.
And finally…has everyone in Massachusetts read the Necronomicon? In stories like “The Festival” people just leave it out on their coffee table, for a little light reading perhaps?
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