Dennis Biba

Readers who still enjoy Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s texts in the 21st century (and there are plenty of reasons to do so) cannot avoid critically examining the racism inherent in them. The problem is not so much the author’s political stance, which by today’s standards would have to be considered white supremacist of the worst kind. Such a confusion of author and work is hardly productive. However, Lovecraft’s work is so permeated with racism that it is difficult to ignore. Not only are individual passages irritating – think, for example, of the degenerate fish people from the story The shadow over Innsmouth (1931/36) – but rather xenophobia and narratives of cultural decline run through almost all of his texts. However, the short story In the walls of Eryx, which Lovecraft wrote together with Kenneth J. Stirling in 1936 and published three years later, is an exception in several respects.

The setting itself is unusual: we find ourselves on the planet Venus, which (according to the scientific knowledge of the time) is covered in humid tropical rainforests. Humanity is engaged in large-scale space travel and is scouring the solar system for raw materials. The colonists are particularly interested in a special crystal, because even small quantities of it contain a considerable amount of energy. It is fortunate for them that there are large deposits of this rare rock on Venus, but unfortunate that Venus is already inhabited by intelligent beings. These ‘lizard people’ are described by the narrator, prospector Kenton J. Stanfield (probably a reference to the co-author’s name), as primitive without exception, but in the course of the story they turn out to be presumably more intelligent than the inhabitants of Earth. Not only do they have a sign language that is communicated via tentacles (in true Lovecraftian fashion), but they are also apparently skilled builders, even though their weapon technology is far inferior to that of humans.

On an exploratory mission through the jungle, Stanfield gets a taste of their architecture. On a high plateau, he gets lost in an invisible structure whose walls are so cleverly arranged that it is easy to get in, but almost impossible to get out again. A structure reminiscent of the invisible labyrinth in Edmond Hamilton’s 1926 short story The Monster-God of Mamurth, which inspired Kenneth J. Stirling to imitate it. Stirling’s first draft of the story has not survived, and the final version was probably heavily revised by Lovecraft. Whether the structure on Venus was built by the lizard people to lure unsuspecting travellers into a trap, or is even a remnant of an even more powerful civilisation – here Lovecraft loosely ties in with his Cthulhu mythos – is not conclusively clarified.

However, the irony with which the authors contrast the narrator’s voice with the reality described cannot be overlooked. While the inhabitants of Venus remain peaceful and passive, Stanfield underestimates their abilities and is led to ruin by his own greed. Only the colonisers from Earth are aggressive, whereas the lizard people limit themselves to guerrilla tactics. From the outset, the war against the alien species is not glorified as a civilising struggle for survival, but is soberly described as a war for raw materials. The outcome is equally sober, as the story ends tragically for more than one person. However, as the protagonist gets lost not only in invisible walls but also in his own prejudices, readers recognise his madness all the more clearly, a madness that stems not from a single individual but from an entire colonial power.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Kenneth J. Stirling (1936): In the walls of Eryx [short story]. USA.