Doing Unto Others

[perzephone]

Ok, I have a confession to make. Back when I was younger, like 10 - 14 or so, I honestly believed that The Necronomicon was real, that you could summon demons with it, that the Mad Arab was a real guy. It never dawned on me that the reason me actually trying to summon the entities mentioned within didn't work was because it was fiction - I thought I was doing something wrong. (I opened some other doors in the process, and there are things that are very old out there, and probably shouldn't be named, but that's another time & another tale).

At some point, someone told me that H.P. Lovecraft wrote The Necronomicon, and that it was fiction. This, to me, was worse than learning that the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus were my parental units sneaking around at night hiding eggs & delivering Christmas presents. I think I may have actually cried. "What do you mean, it's not real? It's in the bookstore right next to The Satanic Bible and Magick in Theory and Practice... if it was fiction, it'd be sitting in the sci-fi section, right? RIGHT?!"

I don't think I've ever recovered from my betrayal. I know this because... on the pagan forums I frequent, and even in WoW sometimes, or general conversation, I run into people who still talk about the infamous book in hushed tones. Things like, "the Vatican keeps a copy of the Necronomicon in its secret vaults".... or "how do I get a copy of the real Necronomicon, you know, the one bound in human skin?"

When I hear these things, I get very mad and feel it immediately necessary to burst their bubbles. "The Necronomicon is nothing but pulp fiction written by H.P. Lovecraft. Get over it!" And then I stomp off, or do the internet equivalent of stomping off. If they persist, my asshat gets even bigger & more flamboyant & I start linking to the publication history, or tell people where to find said publication history.

I feel shitty and mean for doing it, but I can't help myself. I'm hoping eventually I can just get to the point where I can smile knowingly & nod, but it's been like, 20 years with no sign of that healing ever happening.

Comments

[sunflowerp]

"... written by H.P. Lovecraft."

I would say, "invented by"; while HPL makes many references to it, I've yet to run across any indication that he ever constructed a text to go with his references.

Various others have done so; the most-available/well-known (mass-market publication and all that) is the Simon Necronomicon.

I can't quite tell if you know that and are just using the "Lovecraft wrote it!" phrasing for simplicity/impact and/or out of frustration with folks who are taking a very long time to get over being 14, or if you're missing a few of the puzzle pieces yourself. If the latter - or even if the former but you wouldn't mind more counter-evidence to throw at the persistent - I can provide several links.

(Oddly, I'm not a Lovecraft fan or even a horror fan myself; my interest is via my pet theme of "history of the neoPagan movement", of which the Simon Nec is very much a part.)

Sunflower

The Finer Distinctions

[perzephone.livejournal.com]

'Invented' probably is a better term, considering that there is no actual Necronomicon & Lovecraft mostly referred to it, & then other authors referred to it, until enough people had referred back to it that Simon decided to make a buck or two, hah.

Then there are all these spin-offs from Simon's, like The Leaves of R'lyeh.

But yes, me saying "Lovecraft wrote it!" always has the unspoken & very pouty "So nyah, I stomp on your beliefs!" at the end. (And, uh, don't tell Cthulhu that I go around stomping on His faithful followers, lest He smite me).