A cult book on the Book Club program, the tenth episode of a series that you can listen to again on the France Culture website and that we dedicate to all these works which have created around them a fervent readership, a community of faithful and of enthusiasts. Today The hallucinated mountains by Howard Philips Lovecraft, very short novel by this American writer born in 1890 and died in 1937, initially published in three issues of the magazine Amazing Stories in 1936.. The original manuscripts were written on the backs of several envelopes of his correspondence. Their facsimiles appear published by the Holy Fathers and give us the opportunity to talk about this great legendary expedition, in the company of our guests, David Camus, author and translator of the complete Lovecraft published by Mnémos, as well as that of Montagnes hallucinés published by Saints Pères, and Christophe Thill, specialist in the work of Lovecraft and author of a Lovecraft Guide published by ActuSf editions.
Bad kinds Listen later
Reading listen 59 mins
The voice note
Clément @clement.livres’ question to David Camus: “The short story of The Hallucinated Mountains is my favorite by Lovecraft. It’s the one where I read the most this mixture of fear and fascination, of desire to know what is beyond. And the whole story is constructed like that, we push the limits, we push the frontier. And it gets more and more frightening, we go deeper and deeper, until we finally reach the edge of madness. In this news, what struck me was the enormous scientific presence. We have geologists, we have paleontologists, they talk to us about geography, they give us precise coordinates, they tell us about drilling experts. And so, this scientific universe is what ultimately leads us to the final madness. So, I wondered, how did you apprehend this scientist? How did you confront it? Was there any particular work to be done? And then finally, what is the place of the scientist in this short story compared to Lovecraft’s other works?”
David Camus explains: “As for the scientists in The Mountains of Mind, Lovecraft was always fascinated by that. For example, he is fascinated by Einstein. It’s not a new thing, but already as a teenager, he was writing, he produced a small journal on astronomy, he wrote about the stars, he had a small chemist’s workshop and he did experiments at home. He was always fascinated by these things and it was always very present in him. So, it is not contradictory with a feeling of poetry. It simply accompanies it and perhaps even underlines it, it highlights it.”
The Scientific Method Listen later
Reading listen 59 mins
The great game of musical pages
Like every day at the end of the show, the time has come to play our great game of musical pages. To play with us, it’s very simple: if you spot, during one of your readings, a passage that evokes a piece of music, take a photo of it or write down the text, and send it us via the show’s Instagram account or on our email “[email protected]”.
Today, we owe the find to Thomas R. Via the Book Club email. This is a passage from Plague by Albert Camus (Folio/Gallimard)
Archives
ST Joshi, broadcast The scientific methodNicolas Martin, France Culture, 06/07/2019
Francis Lacassin, broadcast Critic’s columnFrance Culture, 12/19/1969
Musical references
Alberto Wolf, Tekeli-Li
Ligeti, 10 pieces
Ligeti, Volumina for organ
Cab Calloway, Saint James Infirmary
Find us on Twitter via the hashtag #bookclubculture and on Instagram at @bookclubculture_And on the show’s website by clicking on the “Contact the show” envelope, or by email: [email protected].
