H.P. Lovecraft: False Prophet on Cryonics?

The blog "Depressed Metabolism: The Science of Personal Survival" came out with an interesting H.P. Lovecraft piece recently. In it, S.T. Joshi's assertion that Lovecraft anticipated cryonics research in his story "Cool Air" is brushed aside. The blog article also criticizes Lovecraft for bad (or at least vague) science. It concludes:

But what is remarkable about Dr. Muñoz’s approach is that he reaps the metabolic advantages of induced hypothermia without these temperatures preventing his mind from functioning. Dr. Muñoz seems to be unusually “alive” at ultra-profound, or even, high subzero temperatures! Because the EEG of a human brain becomes flat below 20 degrees Celcius, some other process must be involved, perhaps the “incantations of the mediaevalists, since he believed these cryptic formulae to contain rare psychological stimuli which might conceivably have singular effects on the substance of a nervous system from which organic pulsations had fled.”

This is a difficult rebuke to dismiss, especially with solid science backing the claim. While it may mean Lovecraft's scientific explanations within stories were not always well used, well elaborated, or realistic by twenty first century standards, it hints at several other observations too. For instance, the possibility of Lovecraft getting too much credit for being forward thinking. There's little denying his infusion of cosmic horror, complete with outlandish monstrosities and histories, revolutionized horror and surrounding artistic spheres. The Lovecraft philosophy, whereby man is akin to an insignificant ant in the scope of the vast universe, is essentially correct, if disagreeable to some.

Yet, Lovecraft the scientist seems a weaker persona in his works. In stories like "Cool Air" and "Herbert West: Reanimator," it's Lovecraft's gradual, atmospheric revelation of the horror that accounts for his effectiveness. What's in the stories for scientific cause, I doubt many take seriously. In his "Reanimator," the bubbling reptile matter and mysterious potions hardly account for Lovecraft as a predictor of modern resuscitation techniques. Similarly, as "Depressed Metabolism" notes, Lovecraft cannot be given wholehearted credit for predicting cryonics/cryogenics. It's perhaps these omissions and vagaries that prevent HPL from being consistently inducted into the more esteemed circles of Science Fiction literature. You'll often find his books shelved in sci-fi, and read several articles a year about the sci-fi related weirdness of Lovecraft's alien beings, but rarely will you see him compared with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, or H.G. Wells.

Maybe it's good that this is the case. After all, while Lovecraft's concepts and terrors contain unmistakable crossings into the science fiction realm, he cannot be easily placed along other sci-fi writers. With the exception of some of the ghostwritten revisions, there are no spaceships in Lovecraft, only brain canisters. Lovecraft's aliens don't care to interact with humanity unless it suits their rare self-interest, unlike many traditional sci-fi dramas from "Star Trek" to "Star Gate." And in Lovecraft's universe, the only beauties tend to lie in dreams or art: any sense or knowledge taken from the whirling void induces only madness--a major departure from many traditional science fiction conclusions about the effects on man's mind of an increased awareness of the universe. However, H.P. Lovecraft may have anticipated the fuller truth of what peering into the blackness of space has done and will do to us, even if his sci-fi mechanics in storytelling were lacking.

-Grim Blogger