The Colour Out of Space

“West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”

These lines begin high in the hills with a view of open, unpeopled countryside, then works its way down the slopes and valleys and ends in the darkest gullies at the feet of the hills and with the very small, concrete image of the hidden brooklets. The effect is one of secrets and brooding loneliness, which highlights the loneliness of the human race in a universe ineffably alien and indifferent.

“It is not because of anything that can be seen or heard or handled, but because of something that is imagined. The place is not good for imagination, and does not bring restful dreams at night.”

One of the overwhelming themes of “The Colour Out of Space” and many of Lovecraft’s stories is the idea of human beings coming in contact with the incomprehensible and unimaginable, things so alien that even to see them may drive the viewer “mad.” Something has infected this region that humans aren’t meant to understand, and it exerts a subtle influence over people’s minds.

“[T]he secrets of the strange days will be one with the deep secrets; one with the hidden lore of old ocean, and all the mystery of primal earth.”

This line is reminiscent of one of Lovecraft’s better-known quotations from The Road to Madness: “But more wonderful than the lore of old men and the lore of books is the secret lore of ocean […]; for ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time” (Lovecraft, H. P. The Road to Madness: Twenty-Nine Tales of Terror. Random House Publishing Group, 2011).