Hypnos, What the Moon Brings, Azathoth (H.P. Lovecraft, 1922)

Hypnos (1922) Another nameless narrator, this time a sculptor recounts the reasons he is afraid of sleeping. In his youth, he met a man a mysterious man at the railway station and was instantly struck by his eyes. Together, they studied the sacred arts and hidden mysteries of the world. The man also became a subject of his sculpting.

One night, the friend of the narrator manages to pass boundaries no mortal is meant to pass. Shaken, he tells of the horrific things he saw beyond the veil and urges, that they will from now on, try to avoid sleeping, even if it means taking drugs to stay awake.

It is impossible to stay awake and when the narrator finally falls asleep, he is woken by a horrific scream. His friend has vanished and the only thing he can find is a statue with the name Hypnos written on it. People around him state, that the man has always lived alone.

The story is a part of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. It leaves you with a question of if what you are told is true or not. The narrator does state, that the beings beyond the veil have altered the reality by removing peoples recollection of his friend, but it is also quite possible, that what he is telling is just a figment of his imagination. It is up to the reader to decide if the statement rings true or not.

Hypnos is a fine enough story and just like with all stories set in his dreamscape world, it's not really horror. These stories are more of melancholic fantasies of people dreaming of things bigger than they are and who are then caught by these elusive yet seductive dreams. In a sense, they are stories of people, who get a taste of their deepest desires only to get them taken away from them which then leads to a life of sorrow.

What the Moon Brings (1922) A short prose poem about a nameless narrator, who is trapped in a dreamscape of the endless garden and a city of the Dead. As such, this short snippet of a tale feels more like an exercise than a completed piece. It is, overall, a rather typical piece written by Lovecraft and in that, it doesn't contain anything particularly noteworthy.

Azathoth (1922) If the story Azathot feels like a short snippet, it does so because it isn't a complete story: it is a fragment of an unfinished story, a beginning, Lovecraft never completed. This opening details a modern world in which the narrator is tired. upon gazing at the star, he manages to see a world far beyond the understanding of mortal men.

Apparently, as Lovecraft wrote in one of his letters describing the story, he had intentions of writing something in the style of Arabian Nights, but from some reason or other, he never managed to finish it.