Cosmicism

Ok I know more than half of you read that as COMICism and are now expecting something about Scott Adams or Jerry Seinfeld.
Sorry, I'm here to disappoint.

This is my post on cosmicism.
Cosmic, with an "s."

Really, this just flows from a rambling moleskin notebook entry I scribbled yesterday while waiting for John to finish up another 20 slides before dinner.

Cosmicism is a literary movement developed by HP Lovecraft (of whom I'm been reading a lot of lately.) Lovecraft was a "weird science" writer in the 1920s. He created the Cthulhu Mythos that I've been greatly enjoying. Lovecraft was himself a very intriguing personality. His life story reads like so many of his own tales (giant galactic monsters absent however.) His brief 46 year life is peppered with those around him suffering mental disorders, dying suddenly, and abandoning him moneyless, jobless, and depressed. Having started this literary wave of cosmicism, inventing the Necromnomicon, and bolstering weird science through pulp magazines I find it amazing that at the time of his early death (per colon cancer) he had never published an actual book.

So, what is the cosmicism and why have I chosen to be fascinated by it and therefore submit you all to my wonderings? Cosmicism is the idea that the universe is far too vast and unknowable for rational thought or meaning and all life is insignificant. Not nihilism. Humanity is not meaningless, just insignificant in relation to the vastness of the universe.
As Douglas Adams put it.
Space, is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is.

Whereas DNA (no really, Douglas Adams middle name is Noel. Same as mine.) used cosmicism in a humorous way to highlight the pretentiousness and self-important we all give ourselves, Lovecraft's method was much darker. He leaves one with a sense of utter hopelessness. He doesn't give his heros what they need to overcome their obstacles. He leaves them deranged, confused, and terrified. They might escape the evil, but they know their attempts are in vain for any extended period of time. I love it, it's realistic.

I love the way he handled Cthuhulu. He didn't really attempt to describe this entity of extreme terror and hideousness but he let you know that simply its presence made the entire crew of a poor, poor sailing ship lose consciousness and rationality at the sight of it.

He does the same thing in The Dunwich Horror, by having the monster remain invisable and at the end when they are attempting to destroy it. Instead of having the point of view be from one of the men near it, he has you far away on another hill, standing NEXT to the person with a telescope. He doesn't even let you hold it.

Its the idea that if mankind ever had to actually face the truth about our place in the scheme of things we would all go nuts.

I think it's fairly true.
This is why we have so many damn coping mechanisms (my personal favorite being bureaucratic tape) if we all keep ourselves so busy with the "non-important" things then we never have to face the music. Life is pointless, insignificant, and to short to really get anything done.
Like my Dad always told me, "Life sucks, then you die."

For those of you who know me you're probably confused and shaking your heads. There's no way someone as positive, naive, and ambitious as myself can actually believe or find comfort in this idea of cosmicism. Why not? Believing myself to be insignificant has been quite possibly the most liberating idea I've ever held onto. Nothing I really do will make that large of an impact so who cares if I screw it up? I'll never have the answers to everything, so why fret about looking for them? I'll get what I can out of life but won't get everything.
As one of the greatest minds of the future once uttered.

Life, loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it.

Thanks Marvin.