NeMLA : Literature as Incantation: Magic Words and the World of Reading

THE LIVING BOOK: A MEDIEVAL THEME

IN CONTEMPORARY SUPERNATURAL LITERATURE
7.28 Literature as Incantation: Magic Words and the World of Reading
Location: Whistler Room

The concept that the divine manifests through the written word is hardly a recent

innovation. Islam posits that the Quran is the uncreated word of Allah, eternal

and alive as the divinity itself. The Gospels hold that the logo (Gr. word) is

God, and is the vehicle through which creation came into being. Vaisnava

Hinduism, likewise, holds that the Srimad Bhagavatam is Visnu incarnate in

literary form. This list is hardly exhaustive, but serves to illustrate an important

belief of some of the worlds major faith systems: the sacred text is not a mere

document, it is a living book, filled with the majesty and numinous terror of the

supreme reality.

In the early 20th century, this concept of the living sacred book was adapted by

American author Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Conversant in Eastern and Western

religion and mythology, Lovecraft is known to have adapted Judaeo-Christian and

Islamic motifs for his own literary purposes. However instead of using religious

literary devices on their own terms, Lovecraft subverts the standard devices,

forcing them into ambiguous and liminal territory where the familiar numinous

Abrahamic text becomes the malevolent and self-aware Necronomicon. Where

the Quran or Bible are direct conduits to the presence of the divine, instead the

living book in Lovecraft's universe lead to dangerous spiritual entities and regions.
 NeMLA : Literature as Incantation: Magic Words and the World of Reading

Where the Abrahamic texts are self-aware and written for a divine purpose, the

Necronomicon too demonstrates itself to be an active agent in the narratives in

which it appears.

In turn, Lovecraft inspired a generation of authors who likewise borrowed the

device of the living book, albeit in some cases of a less malicious temperament.

Both in text and in film, the motif of the living book is a common device that

creates liminal and numinous space by its interaction with the characters who

encounter it.

This paper will argue that Lovecrafts invention of the Necronomicon is a literary

device borrowed from classical and medieval religious tradition. It will identify

several examples of this motif in early religious texts, followed by contemporary

examples of the living book in supernatural fiction and popular culture.

HINDUISM (VAISNAVA)

The Srimad Bhagavatam (1.3.40) states:

idam bhagavatam nama

puranam brahma-sammitam
uttama-sloka-caritam
cakara bhagavan rishih
nihsreyasaya lokasya
dhanyam svasty-ayanam mahat
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TRANSLATION

This Srimad-Bhagavatam is the literary incarnation of God, and it is compiled by

Srila Vyasadeva, the incarnation of God. It is meant for the ultimate good of all

people, and it is all-successful, all-blissful and all-perfect.

PURPORT

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu declared that Srimad-Bhagavatam is the spotless

sound representation of all Vedic knowledge and history. There are selected

histories of great devotees who are in direct contact with the Personality of

Godhead. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the literary incarnation of Lord Sri Krishna and

is therefore nondifferent from Him. Srimad-Bhagavatam should be worshiped as

respectfully as we worship the Lord. Thereby we can derive the ultimate blessings

of the Lord through its careful and patient study. As God is all light, all bliss and

all perfection, so also is Srimad-Bhagavatam. We can have all the transcendental

light of the Supreme Brahman, Sri Krishna, from the recitation of Srimad-

Bhagavatam, provided it is received through the medium of the transparent

spiritual master. Lord Caitanya's private secretary Srila Svarupa Damodara

Gosvami advised all intending visitors who came to see the Lord at Puri to make

a study of the Bhagavatam from the person Bhagavatam Person Bhagavatam is

the self-realized bona fide spiritual master, and through him only can one

understand the lessons of Bhagavatam in order to receive the desired result. One

can derive from the study of the Bhagavatam all benefits that are possible to be
 NeMLA : Literature as Incantation: Magic Words and the World of Reading

derived from the personal presence of the Lord. It carries with it all the

transcendental blessings of Lord Sri Krishna that we can expect from His personal

contact.

CHRISTIANITY

Christianity, like Hinduism, has similar notions of a book or written message that

becomes human. This is articulated most clearly in the Gospel of John chapter

one:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and

the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through

him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has

been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not

overcome[a] it. [] 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling

among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son,

who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We might then consider Christ to use the words of Hinduism to be the literary

incarnation of God. Again, word is greek , which is a difficult concept to

translate (and I have an undergrad in classics, so I know what Im saying) is it

Word, or Revelation, or Discourse? Hard to say.

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ISLAM

We move then to Islam, which likewise contains a concept of a literary incarnation

of sorts. In Islamic discourse, the Quran is itself a very interesting and complex

concept. Together with God (Allah), it is held to be eternal that is, without

beginning or end the same cannot be said of anything in creation. If we try to

translate Quran (Quran, from the verb qaraa), we run into a problem, where in

modern standard Arabic its translated as to read, but really a more correct

translation is to read for educational purposes, so perhaps its not far off from

the Greek logos.

One example of the Muslim concept of the Quran as a being is found in Ahmad

in al-Musnad (394) and Ibn Maajah in al-Sunan (3781); classed as hasan by al-

Busayri in al-Zawaaid and by al-Albaani in al-Silsilah al-Saheehah (2829).

The Quraan will meet its companion on the Day of Resurrection when his

grave is opened for him, in the form of a pale man. It will say to him, Do you

recognize me? He will say: I do not recognize you. It will say: I am your

companion the Quraan, who kept you thirsty on hot days and kept you

awake at night. Every merchant benefits from his business and today you will

benefit from your good deeds. He will be given dominion in his right hand

and eternity in his left, and there will be placed on his head a crown of dignity,

and his parents will be clothed with priceless garments the like of which have
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never been seen in this world. They will say: Why have we been clothed with

this? It will be said: Because your son used to recite Quraan. Then it will

be said to him: Recite and ascend in the degrees of Paradise, and he will

continue to ascend so long as he recites, either at a fast pace or a slow pace.

Or, in more contemporary (yet inauthentic form):

Rasulullah Sallallahu alaihe wasallam) said: 'When a man dies and his

relatives are busy in funeral, there stands an extremely handsome man by his

head. When the dead body is shrouded, that man gets in between the shroud

and the chest of the deceased. When after the burial, the people return home,

2 angels, Munkar and Nakeer (names of two special Angels), come in the

grave and try to separate this handsome man so that they may be able to

interrogate the dead man in privacy about his faith. But the handsome man

says, 'He is my companion, he is my friend. I will not leave him alone in any

case. If you are appointed for interrogation, do your job. I cannot leave him

until I get him admitted into Paradise '. Thereafter he turns to his dead

companion and says, 'I am the Qur'an, which you used to read, sometimes in

a loud voice and sometimes in a low voice. Do not worry. After the

interrogation of Munkar and Naker, you will have no grief.' When the

interrogation is over, the handsome man arranges for him from Al-Mala'ul

A'laa (the angels in Heaven) silk bedding filled with musk. Rasulullah
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(Sallallahu alaihe wasallam) said: 'On the Day of Judgement, before Allah,

no other Intercessor will have a greater status than the Qur'an, neither a

Prophet nor an angel.'

Now this is interesting. Consider the two narratives. We have in both traditions

the idea that the Quran can only truly be seen when a person is dead. Then it is

perceived as either a very pale individual. The Quran is capable of speech and

intent, and has answers to hidden mysteries that the living do not. When dead

persons position in the afterlife is in dispute, the Quran encourages the dead to

recite the text itself, which is able cause them to rise (in terms of the status in

Paradise). In the second (and admittedly probably popular hadith, not authentic),

the Quran is able to forestall the two angels that interrogate all dead beings. So

here, the Quran has a decidedly chthonic character, and if not sinister, at least

mysterious to say the least. We could very fairly call it The Book of the Dead.

It is important to note also that Islam does have a grimoire tradition with such

popular books as the Picatrix and Shams ul Maarifa, but neither has any

connection with necromancy, as it is almost entirely unknown within the field of

Islamic studies, which deals rather with the jinn and planetary angels.

What does Lovecraft himself say of it? In the "History", Alhazred is said to have

been a "half-crazed Arab" from Sanaa in Yemen, and as visiting the ruins of
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Babylon, the "subterranean secrets" of Memphis and the Rub el Khaali in Arabia

where he discovered the "nameless city" below Irem. And we would do well to

ask: what is this city of Irem? To answer this, we need to consult the Quran,

chapter 89 (Al-Fajr), verse 6 to 9: Have you not considered how your Lord

dealt with 'Aad - 7: [With] Iram who had lofty pillars, 8: The likes of whom

had never been created in the lands.

From here, of course it moves to Thousand and One Nights, but ultimately the

oldest literary reference to the magical kingdom of Irem is the Quran, and Irem is

one of the centers at which the Necronomicon takes shape.

LOVECRAFTS NECRONOMICON

Lovecrafts Necronomicon is a very interesting book. Rather than calling up

demons from Hell, it eschews Judaeo-Christian paradigms and instead seems to

give instructions on calling down entities from space or from the dead. As I have

argued before, while Islamic lore does involve entities from outer space (Ghayat
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al Hakim is a good example), only the Quran contains the chthonic character so

referenced. We should also ask: is Lovecrafts Quran sentient? Certainly it does

not act or talk or speak in any of Lovecrafts own stories, and yet there is a sense

that there is a definitely malignant will that directs all those who come into contact

with it. Further, film adaptations of the book have certainly given an explicit

awareness to it, where Lovecraft invests it rather with implicit awareness. And

here, we note that the historical books referenced (namely the Srimad

Bahagavatam and the Quran) themselves have a similar type of sentience, which

is implied and not explicit in the Hollywood sense.

CONCLUSION

This paper has provided an overview of several sentient books in different

religious traditions, as well as considered various traditions that connect the Quran

with the Necronomicon. Is the Quran then the sole source for Lovecrafts

Necronomicon? Perhaps, but I would not go so far as to make that claim. What

is clear, however, is that it is the sole Arabic text which has such a chthonic and

self-aware character, and it is unlikely that Lovecraft would have been aware of

this when constructing so important a literary device.