The Short Story Lover's Guide to Stephen King: Jerusalem's Lot, or OUTLOVECRAFTING LOVECRAFT

Discussing Jerusalem's Lot, we just have to start at the root, and in many horror works, especially of that time, whether the writer knows it or not, whether the writer likes it or not, that root is H.P. Lovecraft. Not that King tries to hide anything: the setting and background, a mansion inherited by a cousin; the main character, a single young man, the only and last descendant of an old family line with a dark secret; the "symptom", noises from inside the walls of the mansion, mistaken (or not) for rats running around... All these are carbon copies of Rats in the Walls by good old HP. There are still twists - King decides to introduce vampires into the story, and gives it a supernatural touch, while Old Howard's dirty secret is based off human depravity and is much more terrifying, although there's arguably supernatural forces at work here too.

 

If you don't know either work, don't worry, I've got you covered - there are absolutely ravishing narrations circulating on Youtube and it's an absolute hoot to just lie in bed in the dark and listen to these! There's no shortage of people posting their own versions, my favorite though is the professional production on the channel Salem's Lot UK (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4). Unfortunately, I can't find who the producer is, and to me it sounds like the source material was a cassette recording, so it might be old. Let me know if you know.

 

The short story was also recently serialized with the title "Chapelwaite", which was very watchable, but did some massive changes to the character set up, which in my opinion, take the story too far from its original dread, isolation, and dampen the final punch.

 

It wouldn't hurt to give Lovecraft's work a read or listen too, just to let the brilliance of King's pastiche wash over you all the stronger.

Jerusalem's Lot is an epistolary short story, it consists of letters written by aristocrat Charles Boone to a friend named "Bones", as well as of notes from the journal of his manservant, Calvin McCann. The events narrated take place in 1850 and are set in a town named Preacher's Corners, Maine. He and McCann have recently moved to Chapelwaite, the neglected ancestral home of his estranged late cousin Stephen (I love the fact that King couldn't resist inserting an off-page cameo appearance). The people of the town hate the Boones and their cursed house, Charles himself discovers there are strange noises at night which he attributes to rats in the walls.

 

The two men, Charles and Calvin, discover a map for a deserted nearby village, Jerusalem's Lot, at the bare mention of which townsfolk clutch their pearls. A short visit reveals that not even animals want to live there and in an abandoned church they find an obscene parody of the Madonna and Child, an inverted cross and a book written in a dead language, De Vermis Mysteriis, or "The Mysteries of the Worm". They flee the village, because in 1850, all these findings aren't cool, or postmodern art, or a goth teen's desperate attempts at seeking attention, like they would be today. They are terrifying. Plus, the Earth shakes not inconsiderably when they try and touch the book.

Back at home, they can't stand the loud ruckus happening behind the walls anymore. A closer look reveals two of Charles' ancestors' undead corpses in the cellar, which are described as "nosferatu". The two men flee the cellar, and Calvin seals the trapdoor. As any good aristocrat, Charles falls ill with the shock of the encounter while servant Calvin goes on with his life and cracks the cipher of a second book they find during their investigations. He finds that one of Charles' distant ancestors was the leader of an inbred witchcraft cult, while other relatives used the book at the church to summon an entity referred to as "The Worm".

The men decide to visit Jerusalem's Lot for a second time, where we'll firsthand witness the very definition of "blood calls to blood" and the mighty Worm personally making an entrance only to kill Calvin on his way out. In his final letter Charles says he will now kill himself and end his cursed bloodline once and for all. Little does he know that...

Jerusalem's Lot completely blew my mind away back when I was a teenager, so much that I still clearly remember the dread I felt when reading it. But it also impressed the now-me during my reread, I think King did an amazing job here. Some might say this is just fan fiction for a writer long dead, but come on, King even sounds like Lovecraft! Hell, he sounds more like Lovecraft than Old HP himself, he's Outlovecrafting Lovecraft! Lovecraft with a twist is a useful and one of my favorite genres, not the least because it's hard to sometimes take or tolerate HP's racist jabs, but the core of his writing is arguably the only horror niche left which can seriously inspire horror in the reader.

The conversion of the original theme of "cannibalism", using its supernatural penchant "vampirism" instead, is one of those neat twists used rightly and it works so well that King felt compelled to write a sort of sequel (or rather this is the prequel or origin story thereof) 'Salem's Lot, which is definitely the bigger, more famous work of the two. The novel disconnects completely from the Mythos, full-on delving into a vampire-universe of its own.

Talking about the Mythos, the two books diverge here too. While Lovecraft's lead refers to Nyarlathotep, a subordinate of Azathoth, in his delirium, it's a servant of YogSothoth that Charles Boone calls out to, ("“Gyyagin vardar!’ I screamed. ‘Servant of Yogsoggoth, the Nameless One! "The Worm from beyond space", "Star-Eater" and "Blinder of Time") - I feel like King corrected Lovecraft at his own game here, because in case of a match, YogSothoth can easily take down Nyarlathotep, my money's on my man Yog.

Jerusalem's Lot was a sort of introduction to Lovecraft for me. It is also one of the most effective books to scare the shit out of its readers, one of the most successful horror stories in terms of scariness. I very vividly remember the dread this story inspired in me when I was a teen. We had just moved into our own house and after sleeping my whole life in bunk beds in the same room as my siblings, I had my own room for the very first time in my life. A room in the attic. The head of my bed leaned on a little door which led to a sort of dark storage room whose door would open on its own on very windy days. Very bad Feng Shui, I know, but there really was no other place to put my bed. I was imagining hearing stuff going on in that little chamber and even undead people scratching with their long nails to get out, to get to me, rats trying to get to me.

It left a lasting fear of rats in me too, a motive, which King extends to his second story in the collection, Graveyard Shift... which we'll read next time.

Until then, stay safe!