A Book of Unspeakable Things: Works inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book

[ellen_datlow]

A Book of Unspeakable Things: Works inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book was created for a French exposition commemorating the 70th anniversary of Lovecraft’s death and edited by Patrick J. Gyger. The introduction talks about Lovecraft as a “science fiction writer” and describes how this Commonplace Book, kept from 1919 and 1934, recorded ideas that the author planned to use in developing his later fiction.
Twenty, one-page pieces of text and one hundred pieces of art were commissioned. The book contains most of those commissioned (the text is in both French and English). The first half of the book consists of pieces by Lucius Shepard, Jeffrey Ford, James Morrow, Norman Spinrad, Ian Watson, Terry Bisson, Paul Di Filippo, Christopher Priest, and several French writers. The second half is filled with eighty-nine pieces of Lovecraftian inspired art by John Couthart, H. R. Giger, and other artists whose names are unfamiliar to me. All in all, a wonderful artifact
Thank you so much, Jeff, for acquiring this copy for me. It's yummy.

I misspoke, it is available for sale-someone I know bought one:

Maison d'Ailleurs

This is what the person told me:
Yes. I had to email a query about ordering, but I got a quick response. I
think it came to about US$50, including airmail shipping, and I was able to pay via paypal.
You can contact them at: maison@ailleurs.ch

Comments

[oldcastro.net (from livejournal.com)]

Hi Ellen,

Related to this is The Commonplace Book Project (http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/if/games/lovecraft/). It's similar to the Book of Unspeakable Things, but it features (free) interactive fiction based on Lovecraft's Commonplace Book.

Unspeakable book

[(Anonymous)]

Hi all,

I published the book, so I am very glad Ellen mentionned it. It is indeed an exhibition catalog. The exhibit itself has almost 500 works, and the volume is like a companion piece. The show has been created by Maison d'Ailleurs and might tour (maybe to Nantes; both are often related, as I used to run the Nantes festival and am still involved there). The interactive fiction is also part of the whole exhibition around the Commonplace book.
As for HPL being an SF writer, this is of course a deliberate point I try to make in the intro. A lot of HPL works and ideas come for interest in science (relativity, astronomy, etc.) and one of the most interesting things I see in his writings is how he shows that us humans are nothing when put into a wider perspective, and a rational one too (which is even scarier than having a dead great uncle coming back from the dead for me). It could be a long debate, but I don't think that in his case horror (as a form) and SF (as a type of narration) exclude themselves... But then obviously there are stories of his that would contradict that...
Best, Patrick

Re: Unspeakable book

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Welcome Patrick,
Thanks for coming by and clarifying about the book.
I'd love to be able to see the exhibit--maybe it'll come to NY some day.

Re: Unspeakable book

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks Ellen... The show is available from today (we're taking it down in a bit more than an hour) so if anyone is interested... cheers, Patrick