Spirits of earth and air,
Ye shall not thus elude me: by a power,
Deeper than all yet urged, a tyrant—spell,
Which had its birthplace in a star condemn’d,
The burning wreck of a demolish’d world,
A wandering hell in the eternal space;
By the strong curse which is upon my soul,
The thought which is within me and around me,
I do compel ye to my will. Appear!–From Lord Byron’s “Manfred”

The Night Land, mixing supernatural and science-fiction elements, blends technological and supernatural worlds in a weird topological landscape of meaningful and meaningless images where the mind, scared of its own shadow, fills in the rest. Then, proto-typically stirring the same cauldron from which the macabre cosmic images of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu would be steeped in, The Night Land set the stage for the 20^th century’s “Dying Earth” theme. Continue reading Dwellers on the Threshold:The “Night Land” and the “Anamnesic Imagination” Part 3–Invoking the Muse. →