Postponement: Reading Club: H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness - Εικόνα

In October, the SNFCC Reading Club welcomes Dimosthenis Papamarkos as facilitator of the club meetings. 

Dimosthenis Papamarkos was born in 1983 in Malesina of Locris. He studied Ancient Greek History in Athens and Oxford. He has published novels, short stories and graphic novels. In 2014, his short story collection Ghiak, which has been translated into Russian and German, earned him the Petros Haris Foundation / Academy of Athens award, as well as the award for best Short Story/Novella of the magazine Anagnostis. Papamarkos has also written theater and screenplays, and has translated classical Greek dramas for productions of the National Theater of Greece and the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. While an Onassis Artistic Research Fellow, he wrote the theatrical play Ston Koraka. He works as a content creator for projects of the Faliro House film productions company.

On Tuesday, November 15, Book Club facilitator Dimosthenis Papamarkos will welcome participants at the NLG Reading Room, to exchange views based on the book of the month.

October: H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness

In 1930, Miskatonic University’s “Pabodie Expedition” takes off from Massachusetts in order to study the geologic history of the Antarctic. It is one of the most well-organized and technologically advanced expeditions of its time. Nevertheless, it will end in disaster and its consequences will threaten the future of human civilization. This is why geologist William Dyer, university professor and head of the mission, decides to reveal in writing everything that happened during the expedition’s stay in the Antarctic, pleading that there will be no future attempt to further explore the place. Written in 1931, during the latest and most mature period of H. P. Lovecraft’s literary production, the novella At the Mountains of Madness is a landmark for both the “Cthulhu mythology” and the fantasy-mystery genre as a whole. It manifests a writer who dares reconcile in his fiction his time’s scientific vanguard with a tradition of (high or low) literature that goes well beyond the narrow boundaries of the genre. At the same time, the story offers a fascinating and multi-layered narrative that vividly captures the period’s euphoric atmosphere about the great discoveries and conquests of human intellect. Moreover, the novella is also a cautionary tale and an agonizing warning for the future: the overconfidence of modern-day humans in dealing with nature and its history entails the danger of committing a deadly hubris.

H. P. Lovecraft bio
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (better known as H. P. Lovecraft)
 was born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. As a sickly child, Lovecraft only attended school sporadically and never formally finished high school, a fact that deprived him of the opportunity to enroll at Brown University, as was his plan. Nevertheless, he was home-schooled and his family environment shaped the uniqueness of his literary voice. As an autodidact, he managed to acquire a broad education in a variety of disciplines, from history, philosophy and economics to architecture, chemistry and astronomy — and, of course, literature. He was an avid letter writer, one of the greatest of the 20th century, and a mentor to a host of other writers, with whom he kept in close contact by correspondence up until his death. At the same time, he left his mark in the world of magazines, as a repeat contributor to amateur journals and pulp magazines of his time. During his lifetime, he received little recognition from his contemporaries. And his work would perhaps have remained unknown if two of his pen pals had not founded the publishing house Arkham House in 1939, with the exclusive mission (initially) to preserve Lovecraft’s works and keep them in print. When in 1937 H. P. Lovecraft died of cancer at a Providence hospital, he would surely not have imagined that in the years to come he would be recognized as perhaps the most influential weird and horror fiction writer of the 20th century, and the founder of a new fantasy mythology, that of the Cthulhu.
 

Tuesday 15/11 | 18.30-20.30
Reading Room- NLG 4th Floor

For adults | Up to 30 participants
Free of charge; online preregistration required 
 

Facilitator: Dimosthenis Papamarkos
 

Pre-registration starts on 03/10, at 12.00

To participate in the Reading Club, it is necessary for those who hold a position to have read the book of the month. (It is also useful to have it with them).
 

The book At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft is available in Greek by Aiolos Books. 
 

As part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center's collaboration with the National Library of Greece, the book for the Reading Club has been chosen by NLG staff members.

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