“In the eighteen-thirties occurred a literary dawn [spearheaded by Edgar Allan Poe] directly affecting not only the history of the weird tale, but that of short fiction as a whole; and indirectly moulding the trends and fortunes of a great European aesthetic school.“ — H.P. Lovecraft
“Proto-cosmic horror? Did I miss that [Poe] story somehow?” — Some Poindexter on social media

We here at the DMR Blog always strive to deliver what our readers want. Nothing says “Christmas” quite like a post on Edgar Allan Poe and cosmic horror.

Oh, yes. Statements of fact do bring out the “helpful” comments from the Gamma-boys and Secret Kings of the Internet. One such can be seen cited above. His was a drive-by, with no follow-up, but we can be sure he carved a notch in his monitor after posting that witty query.

His passive-aggressive question was in regard to this statement from Edgar Allan Poe: 170 Octobers Ago:

“Whether it be psychological suspense, proto-cosmic horror, detective mysteries or proto-SFF/Lost World adventure, the Man From Baltimore got there first.”

The term “cosmic horror” can be a slippery and many-tentacled thing. There are numerous definitions out there on the Webz. My definition is: The universe is mad, at least in regard to humans understanding it.

Let’s define “proto-cosmic horror”, shall we? I chose that term very carefully. Here is how the Cambridge English Dictionary defines “proto”:

“first, especially from which other similar things develop; original”

I’ve also seen “primitive” used as a synonym.

In my opinion, several of Poe’s works constitute the first, primitive inklings from whence Lovecraft’s fully-imagined cosmic horror developed. I never, ever stated that any of Poe’s classic tales were examples of true “cosmic horror”. That was not my intent, nor did I state anything like that.

One instance of when Poe intimated such a mad universe is in the decidedly un-cosmic “The Premature Burial”:

“There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad Humanity may assume the semblance of a Hell-but the imagination of man is no Carathis, to explore with impunity its every cavern.”

Is Poe calling into question the mind of Man or the Reason behind the Universe itself? Poe, more than anyone else, created the “unreliable narrator'“ in weird fiction. That literary device was crucial to HPL and those who followed after. Steven Craig Hickman, in his well-wrought essay, “Cosmic Horror: Spinoza, Poe and Lovecraft”, quotes from the—seemingly—prosaic “The Black Cat”:

“For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not – and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified – have tortured – have destroyed me. Yet I will not attempt to expound them. To me, they have presented little but Horror – to many they will seem less terrible than baroques. Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common-place – some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects.”

What about this from “A Descent Into the Maelstrom”?

“The ways of God in Nature (as in Providence) are not as ours are: nor are the models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness and profundity of his works; which have a depth in them greater than the Well of Democritus…”

In addition, the endings of “Meztengerstein” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” both hint at forces in play far beyond the paradigms we know.

I recommended Hickman’s essay above. Fossemo’s “Cosmic Terror From Poe to Lovecraft” is also worth reading.

Finally, there is The Lovecraftian Poe. I have not read the tome in question. However, obviously, numerous academics and authors thought it worth contributing to. The concept of Poe presaging concepts fleshed out by Lovecraft is not new or outlandish or alien.

Unless, that is, you happen to be ill-informed or a Secret King.