Meanwhile--

Terrence has finished up British Gods.

1924. The work is an academic text authored by Ben Best and published by Oxford University Press. It’s primary focus is on Celtic, Roman, Sumerian and other gods believed to have been worshiped in southwest Britain from about 50 B.C. to 650 A.D.

Along with many other deities, mention is made of Shub-Niggurath. She is generally thought to be a local aspect of the Celtic goddess Brigid who in one aspect subsisted on nothing but the milk from Otherworldly flocks of cows and sheep and was known as “Mother of the Flocks”. Brigid was honored at the spring feast of Imbolc when the land returned to life after winter and the first animals of the year were born.

Shub-Niggurath may have been a deity imported via Gaul, with which the western British tribe of the Durotriges traded freely, but her origins would not seem to be Gaulish either and perhaps worship had started with the Assyrians. Shub-Niggurath seems to have boasted a fierce reputation and although her worship did not spread far it was followed with fanaticism by certain peoples who then seem to have prospered in their harvests and in battle. In return the tribes are thought to have made blood sacrifices to ‘The Goat with a Thousand Young’ in the great Forest of Dean where she dwelt. When the Romans reached the towns of Gloucester, Bath, and Cirencester, many officers and men adopted her worship as did some of the Saxon kings when they pushed this far west centuries later.

Hm! Interesting. Terrence didn't know about that one. Always nice to see a fertility goddess with a (once) devout following. It's like a cool throwback.

...didn't Valentine claim that the devil was, or was an agent of, Shub-Niggurath? That's a very strange detail for her to know.

He recalls Tolkien mentioning something about Best's interest in a possible modern inheritance of Nodens worship - is it possible that the same is going on for this other obscure deity? Or at least, that modern traditions have taken up the name in some sense?

Terrence will grab his coat and head to the university to see what he can find.

Historically, worship of Shub-Niggurath was most common in the West Country; however, one of the largest sites was in what is today the hamlet of Clare Melford in Suffolk.

Fair enough! Weird. He writes down the place name all the same, but - probably this whole thing was a lark. Tragic. Fun to get into some local history for once, though. Terrence would have liked to have a pint with the guy and pick his brain, if he were still around - alive? - no, he's probably not dead - if he were still around.

FROM TERRENCE'S NOTEBOOK

Some core tenets:
1) The King in Yellow is a very good and powerful book
1a) It is a book with the power to change society and even humanity, if enough people read it and internalize its message
2) Society fears change
2a) Thus the book is banned, under pretense of it being inappropriate and dangerous
2b) [Echoing reasons books have been banned in the past.]
2c) [See Plato's Republic]
3) But this restriction is harmful to people and to their free thought
3a) Perhaps the most important and crucial thing we have as human beings!
4) It is the duty of society to let minds be free, and the duty of enlightened people to, regardless of their society, read the book nonetheless

Notes to self:
- Probably draw from anarchist thought but avoid going too far or recognizably in that way, as it's a divisive political topic.
-- In fact the King in Yellow doesn't advocate anarchy, quite the opposite, but - no, the actual logic will be obvious to people once they've read the book, the essay's job will be to remain appealing to any reader regardless of their beliefs going into it.
- Will probably have to address actual contents some:
-- a) To make the essay recognizable to people who have already read the book (which is, although not the objective, would be a nice side effect of publishing it if he were to make some like-minded friends from it)
-- b) since it is a source of universal truth and will inherently enrich the essay
-- c) ...since people like Oscar seem to get so hung up on the first act - even Terrence kind of remembers it not making much sense on his first read-through - and it'll be really important to get them to read it all the way through so that they get the entire text

Possible other arguments:
-- Perils of current society, present book as antidote (<-- Too cliched??)
-- Perils of all society up until now (war, suppression, structural violence, aimlessness, etc), present book as antidote (<-- Too radical??)
- Supposed "harms" of text
--- (Note: parallel to other suppressed works - Religious manuscripts, research e.g. Linnaeus, but more approachably artistic works now popularly accepted [do research])
--- Florence syndrome

----> Terrence's notebook runs out here and he has to stop to find another one

Meanwhile--

The nice thing about Inaaya is that she is a little predictable. He can head to the library, and have better than even odds of finding her. It's a little more public than he'd like it to be for this conversation, but the publicness is probably going to make Inaaya more comfortable and more likely to answer, so it's worth it. "I have some questions about occult bullshit, and you seemed like the best person to ask. Or, well, occult-definitely-something and occult-probably-nonsense"

Did Sal-- no, probably not, everyone knows she reads tarot cards for a living. "Sure, go ahead?"

"Has anyone said anything about spooky space whistles. Hang on--" He rummages around for a piece of scrap paper that nobody loves, and draws a rough sketch of the winged figure. He's not much of a visual artist, but it's legible. "Apparently these are made of meteorites."

"...well, there was the whistling sound the night before the murders, and the one Randolph Carter heard, but I haven't heard much from the," vague gesture, "people I meet at work. Where'd this come up?"

"I managed to bat my eyelashes at an officer to look at the whistle that was heard the night of the Roby murders. That's what that is. I've also seen one other somewhere else."

"Huh." She examines the drawing. "Where'd you see the other one?"

"Friend of mine. They weren't keen to discuss it. Which is some of why I'm asking you." (He should really explain the dream thing, but also the prospect sounds as appealing as nailing his own hand to the desk, so he is holding off on doing it for as long as practical.)

Oh she does not like that. "Any connection to all of our everything?"

"Nothing except the whistle, unless you count 'is a Bohemian' as a connection."

"Huh," she says again. "Sorry, what'd you say their name was?"

He smiles very pleasantly. "They're a friend. I don't think you know them."

would you please just tell me the name of this person so I can follow up on who they are and why they have the same whistle Roby had this is going to get her nowhere "Fair enough. Well, I don't know much about weird whistles that I haven't told you, but I can look into it, thank you."

"--There's another thing. A probably-complete-bullshit thing. You know how Oscar mentioned dreams? I've been having them too. About the winged thing the whistle is in the shape of, among other things. And this all happened before I saw any of the whistles."

That visibly gets her attention. "When did this start?"

On the one hand he was asking her for a reason, on the other hand he feels like a bug on a microscope that has made the mistake of doing An Interesting Behaviour. "It started about the time we went to talk to Alexander Roby."

Scribble scribble-- she hasn't bothered to get a new sheet of paper, this is on the same page as what looks like a mathematical proof-- "What other things?"

"...other assorted giant monsters. Things that I'm fairly sure are human sacrifice rituals to some assorted giant monsters. My own entrails."

"That sounds extremely unpleasant, I'm sorry. ...if you don't want to tell me details that's fine but I would like to know them?"

"Those are pretty much the details? It was mostly-- images. Images that were more disturbing than they had any right to be. --There was a key that turned into a little human figure? I have no idea if that helps."