Aloha,
Daniel Harms wrote:
>
> As for the Lovecraft connection – his friend Long created an
> explicitly Ganesh-like being, Chaugnar Faugn, for his “The Horror in
> the Hills,” which Lovecraft incorporated into his “The Horror in the
> Museum.”
>
The catch with this and many other literary influences on occulture
seems to show up when the literary creation (of recent and known
origins) is asserted to precede and give rise to the historical cultural
expression (often of somewhat known origins). Literary suspension
of disbelief carried over into occulture.
I think it's a kind of slash fan quasi-history.
Yes, Chaugnar Faughn appears in Frank Belknap Longs' story and
has been included in the Cthulhu Mythos pantheon. But no, I don't
think that the Hindu deity Ganesha derives historically from an
entity such as the one described in Long's story.
Thanks to the popularity of Lovecraft and the other Cthulhu Mythos
authors, references to the Cthulhu Mythos by occult writers and
movements, games, movies, the internet, and widespread love of
creepiness, this inversion of the Cthulhu Mythos fictional story
universe for history as we know it happens a lot. Occult trads and
movements adopt the fictional reality and drop the history.
Much as I enjoy Lovecraft, I feel obliged to make this point.
Musing Alumni Of Miskatonic University Wandering In the Arkham Asylum! Rose,
Pitch
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