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Dagon

 Dagon
type
TVTItem
 Dagon
label
Dagon
 Dagon
page
Dagon
 Dagon
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"Dagon" is a short horror story written in 1917 by H. P. Lovecraft and published in 1919.It is presented as a Suicide Note written by an unnamed man who describes an incident that he experienced during World War I, when he was a sailor aboard a cargo ship. He and his crew were captured by a German sea-raider but treated with respect despite being prisoners of war. In fact, so good was their treatment, that the narrator was able to easily escape in the middle of the night in a lifeboat with enough supplies to last until he was either rescued by a passing ship or reached land.However, much to the narrator's shock, his boat turns up on the shore of an island, which he discovers to be a piece of the ocean floor brought to the surface by volcanic upheaval. Once the ground is sufficiently dry, he begins to explore this land, and on the other side discovers a strange obelisk which arouses his curiosity. However, that curiosity soon turns into outright horror when he glimpses a gigantic sea monster.The story is known for being among the earliest to explore some of the ideas Lovecraft would become known for — mankind's inevitable doom in an uncaring cosmos.Do not confuse this with the film named Dagon (which is actually an adaptation of a different Lovecraft story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth").
 Dagon
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2024-03-07T00:00:09Z
 Dagon
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2024-03-07T00:00:09Z
 Dagon
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Dropped link to TheShadowOverInnsmouth: Not a Feature - ITEM
 Dagon
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Dagon / int_1230b2fd
type
Quicksand Sucks
 Dagon / int_1230b2fd
comment
Quick Sand Sucks: Alluded to. When he first arrives the ground is too muddy to walk in, and he has to wait three days for it to dry and harden.
 Dagon / int_1230b2fd
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1.0
 Dagon / int_1230b2fd
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Dagon / int_1230b2fd
 Dagon / int_1f6983f7
type
Ambiguous Situation
 Dagon / int_1f6983f7
comment
Ambiguous Situation: It's hard to tell just what happens at two different points of the story. The first one is when the monster surfaces and goes over the obelisk; we don't know if it is praying to it, hugging it for some reason or performing something weirder. The second one is the very ending. It seems that the narrator, possibly already Driven to Madness, somehow sees the monster's hand reaching for him in his own house and jumps off the window to escape from it.
 Dagon / int_1f6983f7
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 Dagon
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Dagon / int_1f6983f7
 Dagon / int_3081bed
type
Unseen Evil
 Dagon / int_3081bed
comment
Unseen Evil: The narrator is convinced that something lurks at the bottom of the ocean. He may be half-right.
 Dagon / int_3081bed
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1.0
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Dagon / int_3081bed
 Dagon / int_479f9ad0
type
Characterization Marches On
 Dagon / int_479f9ad0
comment
Characterization Marches On: The creature seen in this story would later become known by other writers as "Dagon", a being in the Cthulhu Mythos often assumed to have some sort of connection with the Deep Ones or even believed to simply be a particularly large Deep One himself. However it is likely that this was not intended by Lovecraft himself, seeing as the creature is never actually identified by name, and seems to be itself praying to the obelisk. This is most likely due to confusion in regards to the "Dagon" referred to in Lovecraft's later story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Many readers assumed that the Esoteric Order of Dagon worshipped the creature from this story, though at least one critic has argued that they're actually worshiping Cthulhu. Whichever is correct is for the writer to decide.note Both interpretations aren't mutually exclusive. Since Dagon is the name of a "real" mythological god mentioned in the Bible, it is plausible that "Dagon" is the name used by the Order's founders refer to Cthulhu: being a biblical reference, the worshippers (former Christians who joined a cult) would immediately understand what they are worshipping.
 Dagon / int_479f9ad0
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Dagon / int_479f9ad0
 Dagon / int_47d56aac
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Fish People
 Dagon / int_47d56aac
comment
Fish People: Seemingly depicted on the obelisk.
 Dagon / int_47d56aac
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Dagon / int_47d56aac
 Dagon / int_5f8ddb2c
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Corpse Land
 Dagon / int_5f8ddb2c
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Corpse Land: The land is described as putrid with carcasses of decaying fish, as if the volcanic upheaval didn't give enough time for the aquatic life to escape.
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Dagon / int_5f8ddb2c
 Dagon / int_6a1c2a6
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Cosmic Horror Story
 Dagon / int_6a1c2a6
comment
Cosmic Horror Story: Possibly Lovecraft's first.
 Dagon / int_6a1c2a6
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 Dagon / int_6a1c2a6
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Dagon / int_6a1c2a6
 Dagon / int_6d332aea
type
Driven to Suicide
 Dagon / int_6d332aea
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Driven to Suicide: The protagonist. His experience turned him into a morphine addict, and when he runs out of money and can no longer afford the drug, he decides to kill himself.
 Dagon / int_6d332aea
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1.0
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Dagon / int_6d332aea
 Dagon / int_8774fb47
type
Eldritch Abomination
 Dagon / int_8774fb47
comment
Eldritch Abomination: The narrator describes the creature as one, though it's debatable whether it actually is an example.
 Dagon / int_8774fb47
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1.0
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Dagon / int_8774fb47
 Dagon / int_89b8822f
type
Go Mad from the Revelation
 Dagon / int_89b8822f
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Go Mad from the Revelation: The protagonist holds out alright up until the point where he observes the creature.
 Dagon / int_89b8822f
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1.0
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Dagon / int_89b8822f
 Dagon / int_99298c71
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Better to Die than Be Killed
 Dagon / int_99298c71
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Better to Die than Be Killed: How the text ends, with the author making a mad dash for the window to throw himself to his death rather than suffer whatever the Deep One would inflict upon him.
 Dagon / int_99298c71
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1.0
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Dagon / int_99298c71
 Dagon / int_ad22fa80
type
Apocalyptic Log
 Dagon / int_ad22fa80
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Apocalyptic Log: At the beginning of the story, the narrator says he'll jump out of the window right after finishing his account. It ends with him frantically scribbling his last words, apparently as some unknown horror is entering the room.
 Dagon / int_ad22fa80
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1.0
 Dagon
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Dagon / int_ad22fa80
 Dagon / int_b1c7f430
type
Sea Monster
 Dagon / int_b1c7f430
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Sea Monster: The monster and its fish people.
 Dagon / int_b1c7f430
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Dagon / int_b1c7f430
 Dagon / int_c34a1799
type
Kaiju
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Kaiju: The protagonist believes a mural of one of the fish people being roughly the size of a whale and skewering it with a trident to be an artistic exaggeration on the part of its illustrator. It isn't.
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Dagon / int_c34a1799
 Dagon / int_ca87e3ec
type
No Name Given
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No Name Given: We find out almost nothing about the narrator. Technically it's not even explicitly said if it's a man or woman, though context makes it very clearly a man.
 Dagon / int_ca87e3ec
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Dagon / int_ca87e3ec
 Dagon / int_cb70651c
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Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
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Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's possible that the narrator went insane and everything he saw was the product of his own mind.
 Dagon / int_cb70651c
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1.0
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Dagon / int_cb70651c
 Dagon / int_ccb636fe
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Kraken and Leviathan
 Dagon / int_ccb636fe
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Kraken and Leviathan
 Dagon / int_ccb636fe
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Dagon / int_ccb636fe
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Dagon

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Dagon
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Adaptation Expansion / int_587fc0fc
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American Literature (# to D) / int_587fc0fc
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seeAlso
Dagon
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Fish People / int_587fc0fc
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In the Style of / int_587fc0fc
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Laughing Mad / int_587fc0fc
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Mermaid Media / int_587fc0fc
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Monster Media / int_587fc0fc
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Quicksand Sucks / int_587fc0fc
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Short Story / int_587fc0fc