A Detailed Abstract and Literary Evaluation

Increasing on the themes launched in “Dagon,” and presaging the fleshed-out Deep Ones of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” “The Doom That Got here to Sarnath” is arguably Lovecraft’s finest effort in crafting a narrative within the fashion of Lord Dunsany. Certainly, critic Kenneth Hite – in his seminal commentary Tour de Lovecraft – struggles to restrain himself in gushing reward for the story, calling it, amongst different issues: “a terrific, terrific story,” “like caramel,” “one in all [Lovecraft’s] three finest pre-1926 tales,” “his excellent ‘Dunsany’ story,” “surprisingly mature,” and asserting that Lovecraft “writes nothing to the touch it for 2 extra years, though ‘Cats of Ulthar’ comes maybe shut.”

Whereas I’d shrink back from discrediting such early tales as “Randolph Carter,” “The Outsider,” “The Image within the Home,” “The Anonymous Metropolis,” and “The Horrible Previous Man,” Hite is right in his evaluation that the story is his finest copy of Dunsany. Particularly, he notes that Lovecraft is pastisching Dunsany’s “Time and the Gods,” and that Lovecraft’s contribution is writing a narrative which is extra developed (maybe much more padded and plodding), and which expresses its unique mythology in a far darker voice.

Dunsany’s mythos has a Late Classical tone – much like the finely-cadenced, orderly histories of Virgil and Ovid (pragmatic, aristocratic, and indifferent) – whereas Lovecraft’s “sound like early fantasy, one thing desperately smooshed collectively by Hesiod or hinted at by Euripides and translated by a shocked Cotton Mather.”

In brief, Lovecraft’s historiography is dramatic with a tragic sensitivity to the roles of destiny, hubris, and pathos in what he presents to be the cataclysmic downfall of a worthy civilization – one introduced down not by its earlier cruelty (as most fashionable readers will naturally suppose), however by its lack of watchfulness and its incapability to take historical past significantly.

So opens our story, which works on to explain the circumstances which led to the collapse of a antediluvian civilization which might appear to be on par with the Babylonians, Persians, or Syrians when it comes to scale, tradition, and would possibly. They started as a tribe of nomadic herdsmen who started to develop in affect as they regularly colonized the port cities alongside the River Ai till they’d surged right into a superpower. Surrounded by deserts, but thirsty for extra territory, they turned their consideration to the sinister and silent lake the place the Ai deposits its water. It was right here that the colonists erected their capital – constructed from scratch – the citadel of Sarnath.

However whilst Sarnath bloomed right into a Shangri-La, Xanadu-style “pleasure dome” dripping with tradition and decadence, there have been tensions between the settlers and the locals – a wierd tribe who inhabits the close by metropolis of Ib, the place they worship the Nice Water Lizard Bokrug. These beings are so weird in look that they have been rumored to have descended from the moon:

Repulsive to have a look at, hear, or watch transfer, the individuals of Ib posed no rapid risk to the individuals of Sarnath (certainly, they have been “weak, and comfortable as jelly to the contact of stones and arrows”), however – just like the previous man with the vulture eye in Poe’s “Inform-Story Coronary heart” – their nonconformity turned the topic of obsessive hate and prejudice on the a part of the Sarnathians.

One evening, overcome by their disgust, the lads of Sarnath made prepared for warfare, massacring the unarmed residents of Ib, razing the town, and carting off the idol to Bokrug as a trophy, putting in it in their very own temple in homage to their gods. Earlier than leaving, they pushed the corpses into the lake with their lengthy spears (“as a result of they didn’t want to contact them”) together with all of the rubble left over from their unusual, monolithic, stone structure.

The lads of Sarnath now have full dominion over their land: there are not any threats, no rivals, and no challengers: all worry the facility of Sarnath. However earlier than they’ve an opportunity to rejoice, one thing unusual occurs: the night after the raid, “bizarre lights have been seen over the lake,” the large, stone idol of Bokrug disappears with no hint of proof, and the chief priest of Sarnath is found useless on the ground, having written the hieroglyph for “DOOM” on the now-vacant altar in his remaining moments.

Many are disturbed by this, however most giggle it off and transfer on. Solely the monks and previous ladies maintain the story at the back of their minds and are silly sufficient to worry its implications.

A full millennia later, no doom has come to Sarnath: “the marvel of the world and the satisfaction of all mankind was Sarnath the magnificent.” It continues to thrive as an unchecked metropolis of would possibly — 50 million robust — though it has unquestionably develop into lazy, decedent, and eccentric in these later centuries.

Lovecraft describes its lush extravagancies and imaginative facilities in liberal element, starting from rudimentary air con, scented fountains, ornate mosaics and murals, subtle botanical gardens, and amphitheaters so giant that they may very well be flooded to reenact sea battles and permit gladiators to spar with captured sea monsters.

Now yearly, on the anniversary of the bloodbath of Ib, the individuals of Sarnath threw an ideal celebration. It was presently – and solely presently – that the waters of the lake tended to rise, as with a flood or tide, however a sea wall held them again (a wall, by the way, which was the one protection on that facet of Sarnath: it was fully unprotected by fortifications on its lakefront boundary, as if to taunt the sunken corpses of Ib).

For the 1000-year anniversary, a particular shindig was deliberate, and ambassadors, nobles, and all method of dignitaries from Sarnath’s neighboring allies flooded into the town to share the spectacle and keep in mind the well-known Sack of Ib.  

The evening begins nicely, with elaborate meals, together with curiously giant fish from the lake, and indulgent leisure. However not everyone seems to be comforted: the previous ladies and the monks (who “appreciated not these festivals”) have nonetheless, centuries later, maintained their quiet worry of Ib, and because the revels crest at midnight, the monks (who nightly monitor the lake from a watchtower, as they’ve for a millennium) discover a inexperienced, misty vapor rises from the ugly water, heading for Sarnath. Quickly after, repulsive shadows are seen descending from the moon, into the mist.

The party-goers are shocked and horrified to see the waters of the lake surging to engulf Sarnath, and all the visiting dignitaries quietly packed and fled the town in instinctive terror. The calmness finally descends into panic:

Whereas the guests are in a position to escape, it seems that the locals have been massacred, however nobody is aware of for certain: after the survivors return to their international locations to inform the story, the world round Sarnath is fully prevented and uninspected for years.

Lastly, some adventurous younger males determine to research, however discover the town fully vanished: though the lake continues to be there and the acquainted landmarks, there is no such thing as a signal of Sarnath, simply “marshy shore, and the place as soon as had dwelt fifty million of males now crawled the detestable water-lizard.”

There may be one, single relic left to indicate that the wasted land across the lake had ever been visited by a civilization – the once-missing, green-stone idol of Bokrug the Nice Water Lizard.

From that day ahead, the detestable picture of Bokrug was worshiped by all people all through the land of Mnar.

Fashionable readers will doubtless interpret this story – as they’re fully justified in so doing – as a type of “I Spit on Your Grave”/”Final Home on the Left”-style story of cathartic revenge towards a brutal oppressor. If this have been historical past as a substitute of literature, such an interpretation can be apparent and mandatory. I’ve little doubt, nonetheless, that Lovecraft supposed it to be a wholesale tragedy – extra of a “Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath”/”The Hills Have Eyes”-style drama of degeneracy triumphing over a set of doomed, engaging heroes.

Apart from their apparent hubris (Lovecraft presents a number of examples of how the individuals of Sarnath slowly lowered their guard till just a few monks and previous ladies held any worry for the creatures of Ib), the residents of Sarnath are depicted as being civilized, achieved, and distinctive, having achieved feats in science, engineering, economics, and the humanities which put them nicely forward of any historic human civilization up till the Industrial Revolution. His gushing descriptions of their achievements and opulent existence – rendered with none vital detractions save from their lessening worry of Ib and their increasing imperialism – fails to paint them as something lower than an admirable empire.

However like all kingdoms, this one has its date with destiny: in an outline that unquestionably borrows from the cataclysmic failures of the Babylonian, Roman, French, and Russian empires, Lovecraft has Sarnath overtaken by its enemies within the span of a single disastrous evening. As talked about within the introduction (and though I do perceive feeling sympathy for the victims of Sarnath’s savage genocide), I believe that Lovecraft’s final message is much less one interesting to multicultural tolerance than it’s one lamenting the stress-free of watchfulness and the loosening of traditions. Sarnath, he appears to argue, fell prey to its personal consolation and lack of vigilance fairly than to its simply deserts, and the squamous creatures of Ib are hardly supposed to be pitied a lot as feared.

An anthropological studying of this story (one the place the Beings of Ib are learn as analogous to minority races, indigenous peoples, or immigrant populations) is a very miserable factor to ponder, and though Lovecraft absolutely wouldn’t have had any issues with such a monstrous factor, I nonetheless imagine {that a} extra helpful interpretation lurks beneath the apparent allegory of racism and imperialism. As with “Dagon,” I imagine that the core concern and chief anxiousness is much less one in all inside battle between human factions and extra of a fear of what degenerate impulses have been effervescent up within the collective unconscious of humanity writ giant: briefly, that this – like “Dagon” – is a parable supposed to explain humanity’s looming descent again into its animalistic, uncivilized roots.

To be honest, Lovecraft’s social resolution to this is able to itself be arguably uncivilized (viz., a militaristic, authoritarian state rooted in flushing out crime and “degeneracy” by way of drive – see: “On the Root”), however there’s something unquestionably prescient and compelling (significantly in our age of social media, political division, mass killings, and deaths of despair) concerning the narrative that we’re turning into one thing detestable and abhuman. The lads of Sarnath repelled the Beings of Ib so as to create an area for human flourishing, in a really utilitarian sense: it was sadly achieved by way of imperialism, slavery, and capitalism, however the finish outcome really was a metropolis on a hill that embodied the loftiest ambitions of humanity.

Sarnath’s empire represented the apex of science, engineering, and the humanities, attracting pilgrims and vacationers from all of the corners of the globe. It’s an epicurean’s paradise, dedicated to pleasure, aesthetics, indulgence, achievement, and studying. And on the finish of the story, the individuals of Mnar now not lookup in awe at its partitions and towers, however bow down in worship to Bokrug, the water-lizard.

As soon as once more, we could also be sensible to not interpret Bokrug – not less than for a second – as a innocent indigenous deity suppressed by Anglo-Saxon imperialists or Christian Nationalists, however as a very repellent totem of evil. If that’s the case, then what does Bokrug symbolize? I’d argue the descent right into a purposeless existence – shapeless, aimless, and hopeless. Bokrug is a masturbatory god, one who symbolizes a round existence with out ambitions or aspirations, a gelatinous, pulpy deity like his worshipers who resists the urge to create and settles for an uninspired lifetime of fruitless consumption.

I’d additionally argue that it’s an existence that Lovecraft himself feared he was personally experiencing: regardless of his well-known conceitedness and chauvinism, he was deeply insecure and ashamed of his household’s psychological well being, poverty, and even their seems. He feared that civilization as a complete, his household significantly, and he personally have been on a death-spiral to insanity, degeneracy, and disgrace, and it’s price contemplating that the Beings of Ib worshipping Bokrug at first of “Sarnath” will not be terribly completely different from the people of Mnar doing the identical at its finish.

This can be a narrative – for all its apparent parallels to racism and imperialism – which is in the end much less concerning the Different amongst us and way more concerning the Different inside us: our potential to be overtaken by our most depressing and m0nstrous impulses, to be dragged again down into the muck and mire of evolution, again into the primordial soup the place we are going to present no higher contributions to our communities and civilizations than half-sleeping toads burping from their muddy nests.

Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t spend not less than a while drawing consideration to Lovecraft’s influences, from which he attracts liberally, to the purpose of pastiche. The obvious of those is Dunsany, particularly his “Idle Days on the Yann” (see our evaluation of “The White Ship” for a abstract) and the whole lot of his Time and the Gods anthology (which was additionally a potent affect on Tolkien and Le Guin). Lovecraft borrowed Dunsany’s “olden time” method of talking, his unique naming conventions, his elaborate alternate universe, his epic drama, his decadent epicureanism, and his supernatural mythos (viz., aggressive, animalistic races, pantheistic gods, magic, monks, and wizards).

Subsequent, Lovecraft borrowed from two particular biblical narratives. First is the story, from 1 Samuel 5, of how the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines and introduced into the Temple of Dagon the place it was saved in entrance of Dagon’s idol. This got here to no good, nonetheless, as a result of the following morning the idol was first discovered toppled, after which – the next morning – it’s found viciously smashed. Quickly, plagues of rats and boils devastate each Philistine metropolis the place it’s moved. Unnerved, the Philistines ship the Ark again to Israel at the back of a driverless oxcart.

Secondly, there’s the story of Belshazzar’s Feast from Daniel 5, the place the eponymous Babylonian king holds a brazen orgy the place he makes use of golden chalices and plateware stolen from the Jewish Temple for his company. On the apex of the wild occasion, a phantasmic hand seems and scrawls a message of doom on the wall (therefore the idiom: “the writing on the wall”) to point the approaching, catastrophic finish of Belshazzar’s reign. Certainly, that very evening the town of Babylon is invaded by the Persians and Belshazzar is assassinated through the chaos.

Lastly, there’s the unavoidable affect of Poe, who had a powerful predilection for tales about debauched, aristocratic events which can be ruined by the specters of doom and decline. Most well-known, in fact, are “The Masque of the Pink Dying,” “The Haunted Palace,” and “Hog-Frog” (every of which additionally see a prince and his courtiers destroyed in a single evening”), however don’t neglect “The Shadow – A Parable,” “Metzengerstein,” “William Wilson,” and even “The Cask of Amontillado,” all of which function the destruction of a dynasty on the end result of some feast or competition.

Likewise, Sarnath is introduced low within the afterglow of its crowning expression of victory over Ib, Bokrug, and all they symbolize – the Shadow-Facet, the Id (cf. “Ib”), the subterranean soul. This will all be summed up within the Stoic statement of Ralphie Parker: “Life is like that. Typically, on the peak of our revelries, when our pleasure is at its zenith, when all is most proper with the world, essentially the most unthinkable disasters descend upon us…”