{"id":1879,"date":"2019-04-29T20:32:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T20:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/?p=1879"},"modified":"2019-04-29T20:35:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T20:35:14","slug":"from-the-archives-of-essex-terror-the-barren-lands-the-horrors-of-essex-in-literature-and-the-popular-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/2019\/04\/29\/from-the-archives-of-essex-terror-the-barren-lands-the-horrors-of-essex-in-literature-and-the-popular-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"from the archives of Essex Terror: The Barren Lands: The Horrors Of Essex In Literature And The Popular Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Notes: To commemorate the final passing of Essex Terror, and it’s brief but now obsolete resurrection on an accumulation of things, I post here an essay on the existence, and some would say persistence, of Essex in literature and the popular imagination. And then, we shall never mention Essex, Terror, or any other related commodities ever again. Good-day!]<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/center><\/p>\n

The Barren Lands: The Horrors Of Essex In Literature And The Popular Imagination<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is not easy to feel sorry for Essex, but if you do it is likely to be for the way in which its very real horrors are ignored in favour of the (often wholly imaginary) terrors and the transitory transgressions of some of our citiziens, highlighted by a banal media incapable of self reflection \u2013 nor even at times self-awareness \u2013 and that for this the entire county is maligned, ridiculed and occasionally violently attacked [1]<\/em>. Although there are a number of reasons why an untrue vision of the county is almost always presented to the outside world [2]<\/em>, it is altogether less certain why the real malignancies of the county do not seem able to travel along with them.<\/p>\n

Even if the popular imagination is content to see nothing more here than a wasteland of retired criminals and talent show wastrels all choosing to remain trapped together in a vast bubble of garden centres and grooming parlours punctuated occasionally by roadside car crash memorials, occasional glimpses of the deeper actuality of our existence do seep beyond our carefully controlled borders, and an understanding of this is necessary to uncover the existential emptiness which fuels much of our more notable behaviour [3]<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As with all essays that touch upon the hidden but persistent horrors of the world, our first point of reference is to HP Lovecraft [4]<\/em>. Plagued by ominous dreams for most of his life, the vast majority of them depicted \u201ca slimy expanse of hellish black mire which extended about me in monotonous undulations as far as I could see.\u201d [5]<\/em><\/p>\n

His description of these hellish visions \u2013 which continued by saying that \u201c[t]he region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish, and of other less describable things [6]<\/em> which I saw protuding from the nasty mud of the unending plain\u201d [7]<\/em> \u2013 were unmistakably Essex in origin. When a young fan [8]<\/em> sent him photos of the marshlands of the Blackwater, Lovecraft was said to be overcome by a trembling fear that would never again leave his bones. \u201cIt\u2019s terrible \u2013 monstrous \u2013 unbelievable!\u201d [9]<\/em> he said. \u201cIt\u2019s too utterly beyond thought \u2013 I dare not tell you \u2013 no man could know it and live. Great God! I […] dreamed of THIS!\u201d [10]<\/em><\/p>\n

Lovecraft lived with the shuddering aftereffects of this revelation of the true location of his dreams for the rest of his life. Unsurprisingly, he refused all invitations to visit a place he had until then thought were glimpses of the true nature of hell.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps I should not hope to convey in mere words the unutterable hideousness that can dwell in absolute silence and barren immensity [11]<\/em>,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was nothing within hearing, and nothing in sight save a vast reach of black slime; yet the very completeness of the stillness and the homogeneity of the landscape oppressed me with a nauseating fear [12]<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

HP Lovecraft was of course not the first to chronicle the dispiriting nature of the Essex landscape. William Hope Hodgson [13]<\/em>, however, knew well their horrors from first hand experience. The son of an Essex Reverend from the evocatively named Blackmore End, he grew up so disgusted by his surroundings that he joined the merchant navy at the age of 13 in desperation, but ultimately discovered that no matter how far away he sailed the tides would always bring him back.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Boats Of The \u2018Glen Carrig\u2019\u201d [14]<\/em>, Hodgson describes the first view of the county from the point of view of a first time visitor. \u201c[W]e had come so close to it that we could distinguish with ease what manner of land lay beyond the shore, and thus we found it to be of an abominable flatness, desolate beyond all that I could have imagined.\u201d [15]<\/em> The only ingress is \u201ca slimy-banked creek\u2026 the banks being composed of a vile mud which gave us no encouragement to venture rashly upon them.\u201d [16]<\/em> As they travel inland it becomes plain that the land is \u201ca great plain of mud; so [great] that it gave me a sense of dreariness to look out upon it.\u201d [17]<\/em><\/p>\n

The similarities here with Lovecraft\u2019s visions are remarkable, lending credence to all manner of theories about the powers of the mind and the origins of consciousness [18]<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[As an aside, American interpretations of Essex are not always accurate. In “The Snow Goose” [19]<\/em>, Paul Gallico [20]<\/em> reimagines The Crabbus Man [21]<\/em>, one of Essex\u2019s most notorious nightmares, as a misunderstood, sensitive and altruistic recluse who carries in his deformed and monstrous breast the very best aspects of man. It is only the incredible ridiculousness of this transformation that saves it from becoming blasphemous.<\/p>\n

In stark contrast, it is the calls of The Crabbus Man that first alert the adventurers in \u201cThe Boats Of The \u2018Glen Carrig\u2019\u201d to the existence of life in the barren Essex wastes they find themselves approaching. \u201cAnd it was at this time, when I was awed by so much solitude, that there came the first telling of life in all that wilderness. I heard it first in the far distance, away inland \u2013 a curious, low, sobbing note it was, and the rise and fall of it was like to the sobbing of a lonesome wind through a great forest.\u201d [22]<\/em> (This great weeping is echoed in the lyrics of \u201cCrabbus Man\u201d [23]<\/em> by Vom Vorton [24]<\/em>, where it is declared that \u201cCrabbus Man Crabbus Man With His Knowledge He Will Do What He Can Crabbus Man Crabbus Down In The Caverns He Weeps And Plans.\u201d [25]<\/em>) In the fullness of William Hope Hodgson\u2019s vision, The Crabbus Man (and his offspring, or possibly corruptions) set upon the crew. \u201cAnd now we saw that it was full of crabs; yet they were not all small, for in a while I discovered a swaying among the weed, a little way in from the edge, and immediately I saw the mandible of a very great crab stir amid the weed\u2026 [A]nd thus we had full sight of it, and discovered it to be so great crab as is scarce believable \u2013 a very monster\u2026 And further, it was apparent to us that the brute had no fear of us, nor intention to escape,; but rather made to come at us.\u201d [26]<\/em> This is the true nature of The Crabbus.]<\/p>\n

The barrenness of the Essex landscape, both physically and spiritually, is difficult to comprehend for those not familiar with the terrain, hidden beneath a superficial void that barely hints at the infinities beneath. JA Baker [27]<\/em> describes it most beautifully in The Peregrine [28]<\/em>: \u201cFarms are well ordered, prosperous, but a fragrance of neglect still lingers, like a ghost of fallen grass. There is always a sense of loss, a feeling of being forgotten. There is nothing else here; no castles, no ancient monuments, no hills like green clouds. It is just a curve of the earth, a rawness of winter fields. Dim, flat, desolate lands that cauterise all sorrow.\u201d [29]<\/em><\/p>\n

His conclusion that Essex is \u201ca dying world, like Mars, but glowing still\u201d [30]<\/em> is probably more optimistic than these lands deserve.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/strong> \u2013 Most recently The Battle Of Basildon (March 2003), The Canvey Incursion (October 2007) and The Great Big Argument (ongoing).<\/p>\n

2<\/strong> \u2013 See the upcoming essay \u201cThe Essex Illusion: 100 Years Of Manipulation And Misinformation From Within\u201d.<\/p>\n

3<\/strong> \u2013 See \u201cEssex Girls? We\u2019re The Best\u201d, by Germaine Greer, The Observer, 5th February 2006.<\/p>\n

4<\/strong> \u2013 HP Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American writer who, with his interminable racism, misogyny and xenophobia, could well claim to be the foremost proponent of the Essex way of mind, even if he never dared travel to the county itself.<\/p>\n

5<\/strong> \u2013 From \u201cDagon\u201d (paragraph 4, line 3), written in 1917 and first published in Vagrant in 1919.<\/p>\n

6<\/strong> \u2013 A reference possibly to metal shopping trolleys, which had not yet been imported in any meaningful quantities to North America.<\/p>\n

7<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cDagon\u201d (paragraph 5, line 2).<\/p>\n

8<\/strong> \u2013 Ted Vaaak reveals his correspondence with HP Lovecraft in his memoir \u201cA Scream Or Two Before We Go\u201d, currently unpublished.<\/p>\n

9<\/strong> \u2013 Recounted in \u201cThe Statement Of Randolph Carter\u201d (paragraph 12, line 1), first published in Vagrant in 1920.<\/p>\n

10<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Statement of Randolph Carter\u201d (paragraph 15, line 1).<\/p>\n

11<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cDagon\u201d (paragraph 5, line 3).<\/p>\n

12<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cDagon\u201d (paragraph 5, line 4).<\/p>\n

13<\/strong> \u2013 William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) was born in Essex. His attempts to escape consumed most of his life, ending tragically in the even more hellish mires of the First World War.<\/p>\n

14<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Boats Of The \u2018Glen Carrig\u2019\u201d was first published in 1907 by Chapman and Hall.<\/p>\n

15<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Boats Of the \u2018Glen Carrig\u2019\u201d (chapter 1, paragraph 2, line 1).<\/p>\n

16<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Boats Of the \u2018Glen Carrig\u2019\u201d (chapter 1, paragraph 3, lines 3 and 4).<\/p>\n

17<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Boats Of the \u2018Glen Carrig\u2019\u201d (chapter 1, paragraph 5, line 2).<\/p>\n

18<\/strong> \u2013 Especially, but exclusively, the idea that the human mind exists beyond the physical dimensions of the universe and that our brains act as a conduit to this purely conscious realm, allowing seepages between closely proximous \u2018pipes\u2019. It is therefore likely that Hp Lovecraft\u2019s brain pipe was closely pressed against that of an Essexman\u2019s or Essexwoman\u2019s, and that his visions were merely the waking perambulations of an entirely ordinary days journeying transmitted into the sleeping (and therefore, more vulnerable) mind of HP Lovecraft. The six hour time difference between Essex and Rhode Island adds further data in support of this supposition, as the early morning is the safest time to enter the marshes, and the only hours in which you are likely to be able to escape.<\/p>\n

19<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Snow Goose\u201d was first published in 1941 by Knopf.<\/p>\n

20<\/strong> \u2013 Paul Gallico (1897-1976) was an American novel writer, who, along with \u201cThe Snow Goose\u201d, is most famous for the novel \u201cThe Poseidon Adventure\u201d.<\/p>\n

21<\/strong> \u2013 Although for centuries it was considered impolite to talk of the creature, in more recent years there have been various attempts at writing histories of The Crabbus Man, perhaps the best of which are \u201cNight Of The Crabbuses\u201d (1976) by Guy N. Smith, \u201cThe Crabbus Man Scratches Out\u201d (1997) and \u201cThe Crabbus Man Scratches Out Again\u201d (1999) by Toby Vok, and \u201cMcBluebeard\u201d (2009) by David N. Guy (no relation to Guy N. Smith).<\/p>\n

22<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Boats Of the \u2018Glen Carrig\u2019\u201d (chapter 1, paragraph 9, lines 1 and 2).<\/p>\n

23<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Crabbus Man\u201d was released in 2007 on Cowboy Democracy Recordings. The full lyrics (copyright Raz, Vom 2007) read:<\/p>\n

\u201cCrabbus Man
\nCrabbus Man
\nWith all his knowledge he will do what he can
\nOh, Crabbus Man
\nCrabbus Man
\nDown in the caverns where he weeps and plans<\/p>\n

down in the caves his pincers clacking
\nhe wonders why his life is lacking
\ndespite his father\u2019s financial backing<\/p>\n

he knows he cannot leave his lair
\nhe knows he\u2019ll never breathe fresh air
\nbut he doesn\u2019t mind, he doesn\u2019t care<\/p>\n

he understands the reason why
\nhe\u2019s been forced underground to die
\na single tear escapes his eye<\/p>\n

he knows they were right to ban
\nhis freakish limbs, unique to his clan
\ngoodnight, sweet crabbus man\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

24<\/strong> \u2013 Vom Vorton (1982-thepresentday) is a singer, songwriter and chronicler of beasts, witches and werwolves. He one day hopes to travel to the moon.<\/p>\n

25<\/strong> \u2013 see note 23.<\/p>\n

26<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Boats Of the \u2018Glen Carrig\u2019\u201d (chapter 6, paragraph 11, various lines).<\/p>\n

27<\/strong> \u2013 JA Baker (1926-1987) was an Essex writer, who was cruelly forced to live and work in Chelmsford for most of his life.<\/p>\n

28<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Peregrine\u201d was published in 1967.<\/p>\n

29<\/strong> \u2013 From \u201cThe Peregrine\u201d (chapter 1, paragraph 5, lines 1 to 5).<\/p>\n

30<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThe Peregrine\u201d (chapter 1, paragraph 18, line 9).<\/p>\n__________<\/br>

Support An Accumulation Of Things<\/a><\/h3>If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon<\/a> or my ko-fi<\/a>. <\/br><\/br>Patreon subscribers<\/a> get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.<\/br><\/br>(Ko-fi contributors<\/a> probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). <\/br><\/br>Thank you!<\/i><\/br><\/br>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Notes: To commemorate the final passing of Essex Terror, and it’s brief but now obsolete resurrection on an accumulation of things, I post here an essay on the existence, and some would say persistence, of Essex in literature and the popular imagination. And then, we shall never mention Essex, Terror, or any other related commodities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[583],"tags":[120,424,628,630,164,184,629],"class_list":["post-1879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-archives-of-essex-terror","tag-essex","tag-essex-terror","tag-hp-lovecraft","tag-literary-criticism","tag-terror","tag-the-crabbus-man","tag-william-hope-hodgson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1881,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}