American Horror

Part 3: Watch the Skies
Formlessness was one of H.P. Lovecraft’s favorite notions. His tendency to describe the creatures in his stories as indescribable has become something of a running joke in the horror genre, but at its heart is something sinister.

If something truly lacks a shape, I cannot understand it. If it has no borders for my eye to trace, I cannot comprehend it or, if those borders are constantly changing, I can do little more than spend my mental energy constantly attempting to comprehend it. Something like that would be visible and invisible all at once and my mind would quickly exhaust itself trying to reconcile that fact with the more comfortable physics of the world. In fact, since sensory perception is largely an involuntary function, my brain would be attempting to comprehend without my active participation. The gears of my intellect would be stripped alarmingly fast.

But forget trying to understand the formless, hungry blackness that wishes me harm. Let us instead ponder what existence without a shape would consist of. No form means no real physical identity, no sense of self. Constant changing of shape would also mean that the physical interface with the world would constantly be changing in turn. Basic understanding of the material world would be blunted. The struggle for comprehension would be titanic, leaving only utter madness and hungry instinct.

Because everything needs to eat. (more…)