From: ingria@bbn.com (Bob Ingria)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: The Necronomicon and H.P. Lovecraft
Date: 27 Aug 92 20:02:24 GMT
Reply-To: ingria@BBN.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com
In-reply-to: sloth@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au's message of Thu, 27 Aug 1992 08:55:08 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.085508.16312@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> sloth@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Andrew Bulhak) writes:

   I recently checked through some library catalogues, and found, much to
   my amazement that the Necronomicon, by Abdul Alhazred, really exists,
   and that there is a copy in the Uni. of Boston library.
   Previously I thought that the Necronomicon was made up by H.P.
   Lovecraft, author of the Cthulhu Mythos stories.

It WAS made up by Lovecraft.  However, there are several fake
Necronomicons (Necronomica for you prescriptivists out there) which
have been published:

The ``Simon'' Necronomicon - this is the most widely available form.
It's a black paperback with a pentagram on the cover.  It's also
available in a harcover version and I even have a Greek translation of
this (from Kaktos Press, Athens).  There is apparently a coven of
witches (or whatevers) in NYC that practice ``Necronomicon Magic''
using spells from this book.  (The last time I was in Magickal Childe
bookstore in NY, many year ago, one of the calendars of events listed
regular classes in Necronomicon Magic.)

An ``Arabic'' Necronomicon - this is total gibberish consisting of the
same Arabic phrases repeated over and over throughout the book.  One
of the authors of this hoax keeps threatening to publish ``The
Necronomicon Letters'': the letters from people who took this thing
seriously and demanded to see the original manuscript, get money to do
research, etc.  This one is rare.

A ``Voynich Manuscript'' Necronomicon - this one was perpetrated by
Colin Wilson, unless I have my occultists confused.  Has a prologue
about how the Necronomicon manuscript was discovered in the plaimpsest
of some other manuscript and painstakingly recovered.  Out of print, I
believe.

Lyn Carter's Necronomicon - appeared in an issue of The Crypt of
Chthulhu within the last couple of years.

Gene Wolfe's _Peace_ has an excerpt from the Necronomicon in the next
to last chapter or so.  The joke here is that the name Necronomicon is
never used, but the description of the book makes it clear what the
book is.

The NY Public Library on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue has (or had)
a card catalog entry for the Necronomicon.  This directs you to a book
seller's professional journal, which tells the story of a bookseller
who, as a lark, put out an announcement that he was selling an old
tome called the Necronomicon, whose Ex Libris plate showed that it had
been withdrawn from the Miskatonic University library.  The article
then went on to explain the joke.  I assume the card was there because
the librarians got tired of arguing with people about whether or not
the Necronomicon existed, so they put in an entry that would obviate
the need for discussion.

There are probably others, but these are the ones that I can think of
off the top of my head.

HPL also wrote a brief (one or two page or so) history of the
Necronomicon, which details the various editions and translations that
play a role in his mythology.

   Does anyone know:
	   - Are the passages quoted from the Necronomicon (about
   shoggoths, the old ones, et cetera) genuine?

Well, since Lovecraft invented them, of course they're genuine!

	   - How much else in Lovecraft's stories is true?

The mythology is mostly made up, except for obvious borrowings like
Dagon.  However, HPL's brilliance, and one of the reasons why The
Necronomicon captures our imaginations and beliefs so strongly is that
he mixes his mythical books casually in with real works (like the
Malleus Malleficarum and Murray's _Witch Cult in Europe_) making it
difficult to tell the players without a score card.

	   - What were the circumstances of Lovecraft's death?

He died dirt poor because he never developed the genius to market
himself as well as his talent and audience would have allowed.  Poor
HPL.

-30-
Bob

That is not dead that can eternal lie
And after strange eons even death may die.