And a spurious book by Roger Bacon recently appeared in a major bibliography which actually included the holding as being Miskatonic University Alan On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 3:43 PM, kaligrafr <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Aloha, > > Daniel Harms wrote: > >> * One recent phenomenon has been the "mainstreaming" of such >> material. I'd point to Tyson's Necronomicon books and Tarot deck, plus >> Konstantinos' NOCTURNICON, for evidence of that tendency. >> > Lovecraft used the storytelling device of made-up literature in order to > lend > verisimilitude to his tales. He also made up a university--Miskatonic--with > a > world renowned collection of occult lore, librarians, quotations, and all > the > scholarly stuff that goes along with rare books. > > I've never figured out exactly why, but actual versions of some of > Lovecraft's > made-up books appeared, some, apparently, in the rare book collecting > world, > others in the general market. We can get a number of rather different > versions > of *The Necronomicon,* for example. > > And Lovecraft's made-up book title has become, in today's occulture and pop > culture, > a sorta term of art. It resonates with creepy horror hidden magic dangerous > entities and the like. I suppose that the term helps sell books and such. > > Interestingly, the quasi-reality of Lovecraft's made-up books probably > surpasses > their literary reality, to the point that, in the eyes of some occulture > minded > delvers into hidden things, Lovecraft himself had to conceal the real > existence of > these forbidden books with literary devices. > > It's an interesting sort of mind bending...style of book collecting. > > Musing I Hold An Irreal Degree From Miskatonic University... > Lettered On Other Dimensional Stock Using Ink That's The Color Out Of > Space!?! > Bwah! Hah! Hah! Rose, > > Pitch > -- Best wishes Alan Pritchard MPhil FCLIP MBCS Tel: +44 (0)1202 417477