For this installment of the Lovecraft Holiday Special, we're going to do something a little different: while this is the second book review that has graced CheshireCatStudios, it can't simply be reviewed like Ender's Game by talking about the strength of the characters, narrative, and whathaveyou. Lets not mince words, the Simon Necronomicon is complete ass in my opinion, but my opinion is simply not enough in explaining how bad this stinker of a book really is. With that said, I'm going to do what college students do best and provide some citations from various sources to help illustrate my points. Granted, I did this anyway with Duke Nukem Forever, but this is going to be more academic than simply posting links to sources used since I had to not only look on the internet to debunk this hoax, but from books as well. But first, what the hell is the Simon Necronomicon, anyway?
First of all, the Necronomicon is a tome that was invented by American horror author H.P. Lovecraft who first introduced it in his story The Hound, a chilling story about two grave robbers whose lives take a turn for the deadly when they steal from a certain grave. Soon, Lovecraft used this infamous tome as a literary device in his other stories, becoming a reoccurring element like his famous fictional town of Arkham, the Miskatonic University, and his various gods and monsters like Cthulhu or the Deep Ones. The Necronomicon has become such a famous and popular book in modern culture that not only has it been featured in various movies and novels like the Evil Dead series, but fans throughout the years have asked him if it was a real book. In 1977, The Simon Necronomicon surfaced during the New Age movement, and has been considered part of that movement ever since. As to what purpose the book is meant to serve, the Simon Necronomicon appears to be a ritual text that shares numerous structural elements with the Bible in terms of genre, as it involves poetry (Simon, 153), a prose call narrative at the very beginning that involves the supposed original author of the text, Abdul Al-Alhazred (5), and various rituals that are to be performed (37). Aside from this, in my opinion, the editor, Simon, emphasizes very little on what the main purpose of this text is supposed to be except for that the book is meant to be a defense against the Ancient Ones, evil gods that intend to destroy humanity (x). When the Ancient Ones are mentioned, he means, of course, Lovecraft deities like Cthulhu or Azathoth, but gods from other traditions are also present, such as Tiamat. There are also Elder Gods who make their appearance within the text, like the Babylonian god Marduk, but more on this later. Throughout this review, we will see if this book holds up as an actual New Age text, or if it fails and is denounced as a terrible hoax.
Pictured: Cthulhu
Before we go further into the review, we of course need to identify the author of the Simon Necronomicon, as knowing a little about the writer of this tome can help us in seeing if it was written by someone who is studied in religious texts or beliefs. After all, as someone who has taken classes on religion (as if that means anything, derpherp) I think it is safe to say that if someone is writing something based on a religious tradition, they need to at least study all aspects of said religion before they embark on writing about it. Hell, you don't need to have taken a few measely classes on religion to know that, it is common sense! But anyway, let's continue before I rant this review into the ground. The author of the Simon Necronomicon, as suggested within the text, is the poet known as either the Mad Arab, or Abdul Al-Alhazred, who supposedly wrote this text after travelling and learning about the evils that lie hidden from mankind, so he wrote the original Necronomicon as a way to defend mankind against the Ancient Ones (5). The problem with identifying Alhazred as the author of the Necronomicon, however, is that he is a fictional character. You see, writer H.P. Lovecraft admitted that Alhazared was a fictional character that he created as a child after reading Arabian Nights ("Quotes Regarding the Necronomicon from Lovecraft's Letters"). Generally speaking, there is nothing wrong with having the author of a book be a fictional character if it is acknowledged within the story that the author is fictional, and that somebody else wrote the actual story (Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker and the Sherlock Holmes series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, for example). However, without trying to tread into dangerous territory, I think that it goes without saying that religious texts, for the most part, have an actual person as their author, and it is acknowledged as to who the author is (unless, of course, we have cases like the Tanakh (or The Old Testament, for our Christian readers) where the stories are so old that the authorship is unknown or incredibly difficult to determine). Thus, it is questionable to say that Abdul Al-Alhazared is the author of the Simon Necronomicon since he has been denounced as a fictional character by H.P. Lovecraft. So who does that make the true author of this cursed tome?
In truth, the Simon Necronomicon is credited to being written by an author who is known, in this text, under the pseudonym "Simon." As I said at the beginning of the second paragraph, it is important to emphasize what kind of research the author has undertaken in order to understand what he is writing about, so I need to mainly question what religious experience "Simon" has when writing the Simon Necronomicon, since it mainly borrows from the Babylonian mythology and religious traditions. Although there is no mention of "Simon's" religious background and tradition in the book itself, the information that "Simon" provides to show that he has had a 'holy experience' was that he supposedly had portions of the Necronomicon that were missing in his possession before meeting with other individuals to complete the text (vii), and that he supposedly lived in fear of his life due to constant surveillance by the Ancient Ones (viii). So far it sounds like a strange fantasy that H.P. Lovecraft fanatics would have, but that's not enough evidence to denounce "Simon" quite yet, so let's move on. According to the Library of Congress copyright catalogue, which keeps track of various works and who authored them, "Simon" can be identified as Peter Levenda, the president of the international division of a telecommunications company ("Sinister Forces")... uh oh, already "Simon's" credibility is in danger. Although Levenda holds interest in studying the occult, he would not appear to hold the necessary credentials or experience to write a religious text. What this means is that he has had no religious training, and although it may be questionable to identify him as "Simon," there is very little proof outside of the Simon Necronomicon that Levenda has had any religious experience that would allow him to write this tome. It's obvious enough that he certainly hasn't taken the necessary steps to research Babylonian mythology or religion properly, but we'll talk about that later. Thus, the authorship of the Simon Necronomicon calls its credibility into question, as the original supposed author, Alhazared, is reported by H.P. Lovecraft to be a fictional character, and the actual author, "Simon", provides very little information about himself that calls his credibility into question.
The fearsome writer of the Necronomicon... the president of a portion of a telecommunications company...
Next, the most obvious step in investigating whether The Simon Necronomicon is a hoax or not is to look at what traditions it draws from, and how accurately it incorporates religious traditions in order to create something new. With that said, this book draws from numerous religious traditions, particularly the Babylonian tradition, as gods like Marduk are constantly present as the Elder Gods, who are in constant war with the Ancient Ones, Babylonian god Tiamat included within their ranks. For example, an entire book is dedicated to Marduk, "The Book of Fifty Names," which appears to have been adapted from an existing Babylonian text of the same name (Simon, 121). A criticism of the Simon Necronomicon, however, is that many of the translations from Babylonian are wrong, and the Babylonian source material is used out of context when it is intertwined with fictional practices that were reported to have come from the ancient Necronomicon text (Tranquilson, "Comments on the Necronomicon"). An example of a mistranslation from Babylonian can be seen as early as the Simon Necronomicon's introduction, where Simon tries to manipulate the Babylonian word "KUTHA-LU", meaning "man of Kutha," to where it connects Babylonian mythology with Cthulhu, the most famous fictional character created by H.P. Lovecraft who made his debut in the story The Call of Cthulhu (Simon, xxxix, xix). However, as Tranquilson emphasizes, the proper translation of the term "man of Kutha" would have been "LU-KUTHA," which really weakens the credibility of the Simon Necronomicon as a legitimate sacred text (Tranquilson). Was it too much to ask for "Simon" to research other sources for accurate Babylonian translations instead of his entire Works Cited section consisting entirely of other texts written in the 1970's? That's right, with the exception of a few of his sources, most of the Simon Necronomicon's information is derived not from, say, ancient Babylonian tablets or texts, but instead contemporary works that happened to talk about Babylonian religion. As CCS writer zimes loves to say in his reviews:
But anyway, what "Simon" also does in the Simon Necronomicon is that he combines Babylonian mythology with fictional material, and claims that it is truthful and accurate. An example of this is the fact that he combines it with characters and elements from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the inspiration for the writing of the Simon Necrnomicon. Mention of famous Lovecraftian gods such as Cthulhu, Azathoth, and Yog-Sothoth are found throughout the book, such as in "The Book of Calling" (Simon, 96). As a result, many of the themes and ideas from Lovecraft's stories are found within this book, such as the concept of Cthulhu being dead but dreaming (a phrase that is common in stories involving the famous octopuss god) (Lovecraft, 379). "Simon" also includes chants that were inspired by many of Lovecraft's stories in the Simon Necronomicon, usually depicted in text as "IA NERGAL-YA! IA ZI ANNGA KANPA!" (Simon, 58). The stories where these chants appear include The Shadow Over Innsmouth (858) and, of course, The Call of Cthulhu (365). However, according to Babylonian researcher Tranquilson, these chants are fictional, as they have not been found in any Babylonian or religious texts that support their existence (Tranquilson). Obviously, this means that these chants, like many other things in this book, are pure invention, created by Lovecraft. A final interesting note is that Simon attempts to fuse the beliefs found in the Simon Necronomicon not only with Babylonian mythology, but with other world religions like Judaism, as seen in the book's introduction when it attempts to state that the Biblical Leviathan mentioned in the "Book of Job" is the same entity as Tiamat, one of the Ancient Ones (xxi). However, the Holy Bible is quoted out of context, and there is very little evidence found that supports this claim that Babylonian and Jewish/Christian religions intertwine, for while the Tanakh has incorporated mythology from earlier societies, they generally attempted to use these traditions as source material when creating new stories with unrelated characters (an example is utilizing the flood from The Epic of Gilgamesh as inspiration for the story of Noah's Ark). Therefore, while the Simon Necronomicon takes a stance that its tradition is interrelated with Bablyonian mythology and other religions like Judaism, its credibility is severely hurt as the translations from Babylonian to English are inaccurate, and Simon's connections of the Necronomicon's traditions with other religions is loose and taken out of context.
Pictured: Marduk. Not pictured: Cthulhu.
Finally, the most important question to ask about the Simon Necronomicon is whether it helps its readers relate to their contemporary world, or help guide them spiritually, in any way. While this may be misconstrued by many people, the main aim of religion is to provide people with a set of beliefs and practices that help them interpret their world and give it meaning, so this can mean Taoism providing people with the incentive to follow what comes naturally to them in order to follow their Tao, or it can mean that Christians try to act how Jesus may have wanted them to in order to live good and charitable lives (this is not intended to be any sort of religious debate, so I respectfully ask that no "Christian vs. Atheist" debates pop up in the comments section, please and thank you!). Although the Simon Necronomicon was constructed to be protection against the Ancient Ones and their incomprehensible evil, the biggest weakness of this tome is that it lacks any meaning or commentary that would help people relate to their contemporary culture, and provide them with a set of beliefs that would spiritually guide them and give their world meaning. While the Simon Necronomicon provides the reader with sets of practices and rituals, such as the "Book of Entrance, and Of The Walking", they serve no real purpose in terms of worshipping deities (35). The Simon Necronomicon, for example, fails to make any assumptions about mankind that match with our contemporary times, such as assuming the ideas of individualism, consumerism, meritocracy, or modernism. However, one could perhaps argue that the Simon Necronomicon plays on a central motif found in the works of H.P. Lovecraft, a fear of the unknown and the inconsequential, transient quality of mankind. In his stories, Lovecraft usually illustrated these themes through having his protagonists encounter extra-terrestrial beings or alien deities, and these encounters usually leave them with the knowledge that they are but a speck in the grand scheme of things. For example, in the story From Beyond, the narrator beholds a bizarre dimension that is opened up by his friend Crawford Tillinghast, and what he witnesses is incomprehensible and fantastical, such as when he saw creatures that were "both alive and otherwise [that] were mixed in disgusting array" (Lovecraft, 119). Like Lovecraft's work, the Simon Necronomicon could possibly be used to illustrate that, even with all of the advances that scientific technology had made at the time that this edition was published in 1977, there is the possibility of beings much larger than ourselves existing beyond our scope of observation, the Ancient Ones, and as a result we are still afraid of the unknown (Simon, x). While this may be an interesting concept to explore, the overall effectiveness of the Simon Necronomicon is weakened when, despite these possible relations with contemporary culture, it does not present the reader with much else in the way of spiritual guidance or commentary about the condition of mankind. I'm not being snoody or anything, but generally speaking religious texts come with some sort of belief or spiritual practices that help guide people in their personal growth and development, like the Tao Te Ching, the Qur'an, or the Bhagavad Gita. Therefore, although it may be interesting to consider that the Simon Necronomicon may be commenting on mankind's fear of the unknown, a significant weakness with this book is that it suggests little else about the human condition or religious practices to follow, and as a result it does not function as a traditional religious text.
In conclusion, the Simon Necronomicon cannot be considered a contemporary classic of world spirituality because not only is it devoid of any religious commentary that would help guide anybody spiritually, aside from rituals that are used to banish evil gods or honor benevolent ones, but its composition and background are so riddled with either anachronisms or misguided attempts to merge ancient Babylonian religion with fictional elements, that it cannot be affiliated with any serious religious practice. Numerous (legitimate) critics or scholars therefore denounced the Simon Necronomicon as a hoax on the grounds that much of the book is pure fiction (Alternative Religion, "The Necronomicon"). Despite this, however, there are still those who are convinced that the Simon Necronomicon is a real text that was written in ancient times by Abdul Al-Alhazared, and translated by Simon, and a real Cult of Cthulhu has been formed as a result (O'Toole). While it is not my aim to denounce any religious beliefs, for who am I to tell anyone what to believe or how to live, but those who use the Simon Necronomicon as a religious text need to do a little more research before following the word of "Simon" and the fictional Abdul Al-Alhazared. Therefore, although the Simon Necronomicon has been denounced as a hoax, and has too many inherent flaws to be considered a true classic of world spirituality, there are still many who consider it to be a legitimate tome of magic and occult evil.
The high priest of the real Cult of Cthulhu.. Zimes, is that you?
Works Cited:
Loucks, Donovan K. "Quotes Regarding the Necronomicon from Lovecraft's Letters."The H.P. Lovecraft Archive. 13 Apr. 2004. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www.hplovecraft.com/creation/necron/letters.asp>. Web.
Lovecraft, H.P. & S.T. Joshi. The Complete Fiction. Barnes & Noble: March 18, 2011. Print.
O'Toole, Edward. "The Cult of Cthulhu: Who Wrote The Necronomicon?"Aestheteka, Home of Beauty...and the Beast. Phenomena Esotericist-at-Large, July 2006. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. <http://www.aestheteka.com/cthulhu.htm>. Web.
"The Necronomicon." Alternative Religion. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://altreligion.net/?page_id=1630>. Web.
"Simon." Simon Necronomicon. New York: Avon Books, 1977. Print.
Tranquilson, Kalyn. "Comments on the Necronomicon." Chaos Matrix - [ChaosMatrix.org]. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos/texts/simnecro.html>. Web.
Wells, Jeff. "Weird Tales." . 24 Nov. 2005. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2005/11nov/occultnecronomicon.html>. Web.
3rd Annual H.P. Lovecraft Holiday Special (2011)
2nd Annual H.P. Lovecraft Holiday Special (2010)
1st Annual H.P. Lovecraft Holiday Special (2009)
