The LHC Experiment: A Natural Draw for H.P. Lovecraft References

A great physics experiment about to re-create the conditions of the big bang, seeking understanding of exotic particles? The question isn't how does this relate to H.P. Lovecraft's creations, but rather how can Lovecraftian--especially Cthulhuvian--references be avoided? The Large Hadron Collider is a natural draw for elements of weird fiction, mostly as lighthearted jokes, but more so for envisioning something disastrous happening as the great machine awakens. Yet, some have wondered why the LHC is so fertile for apocalyptic and specifically Lovecraftian references?

The answer lies in the strangeness of the experiment itself and our own obsession as a race with mortality. With a particle accelerator that tears through the boundaries of our understanding, it's only natural the project connects with literary themes maximizing the weird. As in most cases of pending apocalypse, the Collider's perception in culture takes a humorous face--including its Lovecraftian analogies. I think the comic referencing HPL's Elder Gods above from "The Pain" series is a fine example.

Almost no one really expects the thing to summon forth unimaginable powers from another dimension. Yet, based on our limited understanding of what the Collider could do--or might lead to in technological and scientific advances involving the fabric of known reality down the road--we have to at least touch on the possibility. The extreme improbability of one of Lovecraft's eldritch horrors appearing as a result of the experiment, and our acknowledgment of that, is just one way of dealing with the unease generated by this step into uncharted waters. Most make passing reference to Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian monstrosities in relation to the LHC because they are unknowable powers ready to brush humanity aside without even pausing to weigh moral implications of doing so. Maybe this is why Lovecraft's symbols are such an appealing and truthful depiction of our anxiety. Even as jokes, the uncaring entities of a Lovecraftian universe threatening to trample our world is the same uncaring universe that might be unleashed on us if we tamper with things beyond our understanding.

The slightly more probable black holes or time-space quirks that could be generated by the LHC might as well be Cthulhu or Azathoth. As destructive forces, they are just as uncaring and blind in their recognition of our existence and our undoing. While most scientists believe it's unlikely anything catastrophic will come of the experiment, there's always the possibility that it could, however unlikely. And being creatures obsessed with our own demise, on both a mortal and macro scale, we inevitably envision death fantasies wrought by the LHC. Personifying potential destructive forces as tentacled blasphemies beyond time just makes our dreams of doom a little more tangible. This is why H.P. Lovecraft, a man of science and strange terrors, will find his symbols applied so readily to CERN's underground wheel of wonders.

-Grim Blogger