Talk:The Haunter of the Dark

Untitled
I probably shouldn't write this here, but my copy of The Haunter of the Dark starts with a poem by "Nemesis", "I have seen the Dark Universe young, where planets roll without aim, where they roll in their horror unheeded, without knowledge or lustre or name" Can anyone shed some light on what this is? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.187.6.201 (talk) 10:53, February 24, 2006


 * I think it's supposed to be a passage from one of those weird old books, like the Necronomicon or something. Basically, Lovecraft liked using such things to set the mood.
 * -Zero.exe — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zero.exe (talk • contribs) 12:12, August 2, 2006 (UTC)


 * It's actually derived from one of Lovecraft's own poems, Nemesis.-- Auric   talk  00:27, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

Merged Shining Trapezohedron
The following is the original page history for the "Shining Trapezohedron": -,-~ R 'lyeh R isin g  ~-,- 01:07, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
 * 21:32, 25 January 2006 RlyehRising (cpyedt, +hd's, +ref, +cat, -"Elder Thing" lnk:these are different "Old Ones")
 * 21:02, 11 December 2005 Coleopterous m (add link)
 * 23:08, 26 November 2005 Coleopterous m (link to specific section)
 * 18:44, 12 November 2005 Coleopterous (minor wording)
 * 23:31, 4 November 2005 Marudubshinki m (Popups-assisted redirection bypass from Starry Wisdom Cult to Cthulhu mythos cults)
 * 23:31, 4 November 2005 Marudubshinki
 * 19:59, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162
 * 17:52, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162
 * 17:34, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162
 * 17:29, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162
 * 17:28, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162
 * 17:24, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162
 * 17:23, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162
 * 17:22, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162
 * 17:21, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162
 * 17:13, 1 October 2005 65.96.178.162

Merge with Robert Harrison Blake
Blake deserves his own article as there is much more to do with the character than just "The Haunter of the Dark"

I'm thinking that the Blake stuff should be included here because the fairly complex situation--involving a series of stories written by two separate authors, and characters that are based on both authors plus a third--ought to be in one place, and the best known element of the sequence is "The Haunter of the Dark". It's hard to tell the story in pieces. Nareek 12:13, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. The whole Blake thing seems entirely separate. Maybe put in a sidebar in the Haunter of the Dark that redirects to the main Blake page, mentioning the back-and-forth "manhandling" (as Lovecraft put it), but certainly not just lump the two together. Kind of like how we have it in the trivia section right now (except I just added in the link to R.H.B.'s page.) :) -Zero.exe


 * It's not really a question of whether Blake "deserves" an article--it's a question of how to organize the information in a way that makes sense for the reader. The subject is a trilogy of stories that as far as I know has no accepted name. There's a character who is unnamed in the first story, is called Robert Blake in the second, and is dead at the start of the third, which to me makes telling the story of the trilogy under the title "Robert Harrison Blake" problematic.  Nareek 19:34, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Plot summary
This article lacks a valuable synopsis; It seems much more interested in exploring the lore and the connection with the other two stories in the cycle than it is in actually describing the events of the story. It almost appears to assume the reader has already read the story. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.157.199.39 (talk) 13:30, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I entirely agree. It's all about the "shining trapezohedron", whereas the story is actually about Blake's foolhardy attempt to penetrate the secret of the disused church (which turns out to be the trapezohedron), and its sequel.  I've re-written the Summary using a small amount of the original, but the previous version is below in case it is of use in some other Lovecraft-related article Chrismorey (talk) 23:22, 7 July 2015 (UTC)


 * The story takes place in Providence, Rhode Island and revolves around the Church of Starry Wisdom. The cult uses an ancient artifact known as the "Shining Trapezohedron" to summon a terrible being from the depths of time and space.


 * The Shining Trapezohedron was discovered in Egyptian ruins, in a box of alien construction, by Professor Enoch Bowen before he returned to Providence in 1844. Members of the Church of Starry Wisdom in Providence would awaken the Haunter of the Dark, an avatar of Nyarlathotep, by gazing into the glowing crystal. Summoned from the black gulfs of chaos, this being could show other worlds, other galaxies, and the secrets of arcane and paradoxical knowledge; but he demanded monstrous sacrifices, hinted at by disfigured skeletons that were later found in the church. The Haunter of the Dark was banished by light and could not cross a lighted area.


 * The Shining Trapezohedron is a window on all space and time. Described as a "crazily angled stone" and a "nearly black, red-striated polyhedron with many irregular flat surfaces," it is unlikely to be a true trapezohedron because of the Old Ones' penchant for bizarre non-Euclidean angles. It was created on dark Yuggoth and brought to Earth by the Old Ones, where it was placed in its box aeons before the first human beings appeared. After the passing of the Old Ones, during the final stages of the lower Triassic period, the trapezohedron was salvaged from the ruins of their cyclopean cities by the serpent people of Valusia. Eventually, after the bloody extermination of the serpent people at the hands of the advancing pre-human hordes of Lomar, the device found its way into the possession of the primitive men of Lemuria, Atlantis and in later cycles the Pharaoh Nephren Ka of Egypt until at last it was unearthed and brought to New England.


 * After the death of Robert Blake, who came to grief after discovering the Shining Trapezohedron and deciphering texts about it from ancient evil cults, the artifact was removed from the black windowless steeple where it was found by a Dr. Dexter and thrown into the deepest channel of Narragansett Bay. It was expected to remain there, under the eternal light of the stars, forever; yet, Robert Bloch's sequel, "The Shadow from the Steeple", proved that Nyarlathotep had cheated Dexter, forcing him to peer into the stone and throw the stone into the bay, where the eternal darkness of the depths gave the Haunter the power to remain perpetually free; it used this power to merge with Dr. Dexter and make him one of the world's leading nuclear scientists-in charge of atomic investigation for warfare.


 * Nyarlathotep appears in this story as the "three-lobed burning eye", a huge bat-winged creature, with a burning tri-lobed eye appearing unseen from the Trapezohedron. Blake realizes the horror can only travel in the dark. When a storm and power blackout envelop the city, he scribbles down his findings, concluding the story with his terrified record of what he can only glimpse of the approaching beast. "I see it-- coming here-- hell-wind-- titan-blur-- black wings-- Yog-Sothoth save me-- the three-lobed burning eye..."

Orientation to Bloch
The whole article IMO is overly centered on Robert Bloch and his two works which bracket "Haunter". There is no reason why Bloch's works and concepts should not feature in WP, but preferably not so as to take over an article about a work by another author, especially one better-known than Bloch. I've edited the plot summary (see above) but the rest needs attention too Chrismorey (talk) 02:14, 8 July 2015 (UTC)