For the significance of the library and the dark secrets its books contain, I was inspired by references made by other Cthulhu Mythos writers. When Lavinia alerts Neal to the dangers of books in The Locked Room, she has good reason for the warning.
The Necronomicon is the most famous Lovecraft invention. The book first appeared in his short story "The Hound." Written by the Arab poet, Abdul Alhazred, the Necronomicon is the primary reference for non-human entities, including the Great Old Ones and Elder Things. Alhazred lived in Sanaa, Yemen in the 700s. Some believe he'd been driven mad by the secrets he discovered. According to local reports, he was attacked by an invisible monster during broad daylight and devoured in front of witnesses. In Arkham Files, I created appendices to the Necronomicon. They are not written in the same language as the Necronomicon but are instead in an unknown variant of Arabic. Neal had been tasked by his advisor Thaddeus Shrewsbury to translate them.
The Ausssprechliche Kulte by Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt was created by Robert Howard in the short story, "The Black Book." It was later referenced in several of Lovecraft's stories. Von Junzt describes secret cults and the deities they worship. One copy of the book is known to exist in the library vault at Miskatonic University.
In Visions from Beyond during his first visit to the library vault, Neal discovered a crystal manuscript in the Shrewsbury cabinet. A slab of translucent crystal which weighs no more than a feather, it has embedded within it a bronze-colored three-dimensional script composed of swirling arabesques of staggering complexity. Neal hasn't begun to decipher it, but the crystal manuscript will play a key role in later stories. In The Locked Room, a ghast is seen carrying an ancient tome into the house on Birch Street. It turns out to be the dreaded Book of Azathoth.
In Arkham Files, mysteries revolve not only around the books but also the languages they are written in. Neal is a linguist. He'll need that skill to translate the many unknown languages found in the vault. The importance of deciphering unknown scripts was developed by the Arkham Round Table in response to Azathoth's love of cryptic codes. Azathoth is a master of computer programming. He delights in using esolangs (esoteric programming languages) in his code. He also has developed devilishly complicated codes for sending messages. The Round Table assumes he would be intrigued by the starfish script and the other ancient languages Neal attempts to decipher.
A note on the library itself: I chose Schneider Hall on the Wellesley College campus to represent Miskatonic Library. When it was constructed in the late nineteenth century, Schneider was a marvelous structure with witch's-cap turrets. It has since undergone extensive remodeling and no longer has the turrets. The vault of the Miskatonic Library is based on the book vault at the Morgan Library in New York City.
The Locked Room on Archive of Our Own
The Locked Room on FanFiction
I hope Silbrith's post succeeds in refuting Neal's claim that I invented the library vault purely to torture his counterpart in Arkham Files. The library vault is NOT the same as the file room, Caffrey! But just think of all the mysteries you might uncover if only you'd spend more time there.
ReplyDelete-- Diana