4 ms·

I would have loved to read Lovecraft's reaction when we did unlock knowledge capable of destroying mankind with the atom bomb...

• aaronem 11y ago
  Well, we didn't, did we? We could make an unholy mess with nuclear weapons, but hubris aside, we can't kill ourselves with them. Lovecraft survived to the very verge of the atomic age, and it shows in his writing; one of Azathoth's epithets is "nuclear chaos". In other words, he took it about how his writings would lead you to expect.
  • panzagl 11y ago
    He missed the really good stuff though (fission, etc). It's one thing to say 'the end is nigh' another to actually have it come relatively close to happening.
    • aaronem 11y ago
      He knew about radioactivity; fission was theorized well before it was discovered, and his circle of sf/fantasy nerds was precisely the sort which would both know about what was then still a relatively obscure branch of physics, and contemplate at length its possible implications. It sounds like you're fumbling toward the question of what Lovecraft would've made of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Obviously there's no way to know for certain, but I think Charlie Stross has come as close as anyone could in his short "A Colder War", which is freely available online and quite engaging.
      • arethuza 11y ago
        I'm not sure "engaging" is the word I'd use - finding out what Cthulhu does with the souls it eats is rather disturbing.
        • aaronem 11y ago
          I said it'd keep your attention. I didn't say it was nice.
• Delmania 11y ago
  His short story The Color Out of Space has an amazingly accurate depiction of the effect of nuclear fallout on the land. People in it go crazy and shun the valley, but I think it's a good way to see what he would have thought about that development.