What the Congo...? Why 'Kenya'?

I get that publishing, as far as the Cthulhu Mythos is concerned, depends largely upon what has gone before: after all this is a fascination based upon the writings conjured by a shared reality held in common by a bunch of struggling authors learning at the knee of HPL. I was cheered when I first heard rumours of Chaosium publishing a source-book about African Mythos weirdness; was I delighted by the result? I was not.

In HPL’s oeuvre there is a whole bunch of African nastiness taking place. In the works of Robert E. Howard there’s also a lot of African monkey-business. If these aren’t canon Mythos authors, I’ll eat my hat (and it has quite a few feathers). But was there a splat-book about Egypt? Or the strange goings-on of the Congo? No. It was about Kenya. Kenya! What the...?

In the whole body of HPL’s writings is there a reference to Kenya? No, there is not (and I’ve checked). Howard is less specific about where his mysteries occur, but they don’t feel like Kenya. So why go to all this effort?

Well it seems as if it has a bunch to do with the re-release of the “Masks of Nyarlathotep”. There’s a whole chapter devoted to the country in that work; it seems they wanted to go the further distance and write an entire source book on the place.

I get it: the Mau-mau Uprisings were pretty spectacular and scary; certainly grist for any Cthulhu enthusiast’s mill. After that, what do you have? Not a lot. Whereas, in HPL’s scribblings, the Congo is referenced in every story, from “Re-animator” to “Arthur Jermyn”. And let’s not even get started on Egypt...!

What I find surprising, is that the national boundaries of a country such as Kenya are fairly arbitrary. Any initial glance at the nature of that part of Africa reveals that such borders are a useless parameter when discussing the conflicts and ethnic tensions that abound. A serious sourcebook about this part of the world would overlook the political structures and go straight to the tribal ranges that are the root cause of problems such as the Mau-mau Uprising, or the ethnic-cleansing centred in Rwanda. In light of this, any publication about ‘Kenya’ is going to look like the cheesiest of tourist postcards.

And here’s another question: Japan. How often does HPL mention Japan in his work? Once? Twice? Try: never; at any time. And yet we have Chaosium-sanctioned splat-books about that country. Yes, samurai and ninja are cool; but they’re not part of the canon. Are we going to see Mythos pirates in the near future? Maybe a Big Bang Theory splat-book? Stay tuned...

Chaosium released a book in the ‘80s called "Terror Australis". That book was written by Melbourne-based writers Mark Morrison and Penny Love and edited by the Chaosium staff. Now, I know Mark and Penny (I’ve met them at least), and I know of other writers whose work has been mashed into unrecognisability by Chaosium; "Terror Australis" basically sucks. I know that the original authors would have given their best to that project but editorialisation has killed it dead. How do I know? In the same way that I would know that anyone writing about East Texas, as an East Texan, would have certain basic information in common with any other East Texan. As an Australian, I heartily believe "Terror Australis" was written by Martians.

In recent years we’ve seen a Call of Cthulhu re-vamp based in Ancient Rome (“Cthulhu Invictus”) which is entirely reasonable – Brian Lumley and Ramsay Campbell have both moved the Mythos’ roots well and truly into that fertile ground. But now there’s talk on the boards of a War of (American) Independence source book for the game. Why? To what purpose? Where is there a canon source for such a publication (apart from a dream fragment of HPL riding a horse alongside Ben Franklin)? And, outside of the US, who would be interested?

The War of American Independence is a big deal for those who live there. However, putting aside national pride, where exactly does it serve the roleplaying community (and any other publishing efforts to do with the Mythos) to create a sourcebook about it? As stated above, HPL didn’t set any of his stories during that time (except for that fragment, which was the recounting of a dream and not really ‘fiction’ in the truest sense), although as we all know he tends to wax lyrical about the architecture of the period in whatever he writes. The era just doesn’t really jump off the page as a prime location to base the Mythos.

Fifty, or so, years earlier, now that’s a different story. The Pilgrim Fathers, Salem, Cotton Mather, relict Vikings, French back-woods trappers, roaming Jesuits – what’s not to like? This is the time of the Wendigo; the era of the Croatoan Enigma (White Wolf got an entire Werewolf sourcebook out of that!); and there are scores of Mythos sources for this time, from Hydra, to Algernon Blackwood to Joseph Curwen. Joe Curwen!

In Mythos terms, comparing the First Settlement to the War of Independence is like comparing a fruit cake with a vanilla sponge. Where is the Mythos in Washington crossing the Delaware? Did Nyarlathotep influence John Hancock to sign his name extra large so that the Founding Fathers could all bitch about him later at the Declaration after-party? Ooh, spooky!

And what about later periods of American history? The American Civil War is a (literal) minefield of horror: uncontrolled drugs testing on the wounded; early experiments on submarine systems; slaves with peculiar religious observances; the madness of battle. How about the Indian Wars? Some of those guys who rode with Custer were as crazy as it’s possible to be: who takes a party cake on horseback to the Battle of the Little Bighorn? One of Custer's bros did. What about the rise of converts to santeria and other creole religions in Florida during the 1990s? There were cocaine cartels down that way using serious palo mayombe black magic to terrorise and murder their opposition – surely there’s writing to be done there?

But that’s the essential element of course: no-one involved in publishing for the Cthulhu Mythos cares about anyone outside of the US. I get it: there’s an economic down-turn going on; best to marshal your bucks where they’re sure to recoup a good return. America is a guaranteed market for Chaosium: print 10,000 copies of something with the stars-and-stripes on the cover and they’re sure to get sold. But what about Germany? What about Scandinavia? What about France? There are huge markets out there who’re pinned down by the fact that nothing is ‘real’, nothing is ‘definitive’, unless it emerges from the wombs of Chaosium, or Arkham House, or Pagan Publishing.

Here’s a heads up: what you guys are publishing has nothing to do with your professed canon source material. It has more to do with your own personal networks and past publishing efforts. I’m guessing that if HPL was on your boards as a committee member, you would have found some way by now to pay him off and scrape his annoying presence from your board-rooms. People say August Derleth did terrible things to HPL; have you guys looked at yourselves lately?

Just saying, is all.