Posts

Showing posts from January 28, 2019

Does Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space reference the concept of radioactivity?

Image
14 3 I've read several interpretations and background information on "The Colour out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft, which all say his goal was to create a kind of truly alien monster - a color instead of a bodily being. However, today, the story sounds too much like a description of radioactivity: mutating plants and animals, creeping sickness and decay, the diminishing material of the meteor. Even the "strange colors" can be interpreted as gamma radiation (radioactivity was discovered when photo plates close to Uranium were changed, as if they had been exposed to light). In 1927, when the story came out, radioactivity was already well known, but not so feared. In fact, it was still the time of radio-quackery, when slightly radioactive potions, creams and powders were sold as "miracle