219:" (1926), which records that Carter "went back to Arkham...and had experiences in the dark, amidst the hoary willows, and tottering gambrel roofs, which made him seal forever certain pages in the diary of a wild-minded ancestor." However, the Carter of "The Unnamable" does not believe in the supernatural, which would conflict with the supernatural events of "The Statement of Randolph Carter". The Carter of this story also seems to be a reflection of Lovecraft himself, as shown when: "he added, my constant talk about 'unnamable' and 'unmentionable' things was a very puerile device, quite in keeping with my lowly standing as an author. I was too fond of ending my stories with sights or sounds which paralysed my heroes’ faculties and left them without courage, words, or associations to tell what they had experienced." This is quite in standing with Lovecraft's work up to this point in his career, much of which uses similar plot devices to those described, such as entities beyond comprehension and protagonists driven mad by their experiences.
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Carter, indicate a devil-like figure. There are references throughout the story to the creature having horns and hooves, and Carter, when relating how he found the thing's bones in the attic of the old house, mentions "four-inch horns, but a face and jaw something like yours and mine." There are also references to the thing's "blemished eye," and a "screaming drunken wretch that they hanged for having such an eye." Eventually, the legends, in the words of Carter, "take on a spectral character - I suppose the thing, if it was a living thing, must have died." After their encounter in the cemetery, Manton describes the monster as "everywhere -- a gelatin -- a slime -- yet it had shapes, a thousand shapes of horror beyond all memory. There were eyes -- and a blemish." Tellingly, the men are left with wounds of hooves and horns.
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As the narration closes, this unnamable presence attacks both Carter and Manton. Both men survive and awaken later at St. Mary's hospital. They suffer from various lacerations, including scarring from a large horn-shaped object and bruises in the shape of hoof-prints on their backs. Manton describes
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The
Unnamable: Lovecraft leaves the exact nature and origins of the Unnamable itself vague. It is hinted that it was born in the late 17th or early 18th century, and kept hidden away in the attic of the now-abandoned house associated with the legend. The original reports of the creature, as told by
201:— a slime; a vapor; — yet it had shapes, a thousand shapes of horror beyond all memory. There were eyes — and a blemish. It was the pit — the maelstrom — the ultimate abomination. Carter, it was the unnamable!
226:. Manton is principal of the "East High School", while Moe taught at Milwaukee's West Division High School; Moe, like Manton, is a religious believer, in contrast to Carter's (and Lovecraft's) skepticism.
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A collection of public domain H. P. Lovecraft short fiction
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who features in some of
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H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Duane W. Rimel, Feb 14, 1934
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Facts
Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
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389:"H. P. Lovecraft's 'The Unnamable'"
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934:The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
315:An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia
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132:Beyond the Wall of Sleep
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797:The Colour Out of Space
671:Herbert West–Reanimator
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1237:Lovecraft: A Biography
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685:What the Moon Brings
552:The Terrible Old Man
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959:Poetry and the Gods
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636:The Quest of Iranon
358:Definitive version.
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241:Jean-Paul Ouellette
119:by American author
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