Dagon (Gothic literature) 1 of 2

So, what can we say about a piece of writing like “Dagon”? It’s a suicide note written by a morphine addict driven nuts while lost at sea by the sight of a giant fish-man worshiping an obelisk. Wow.

The first questions that occur to me are “why do people like this? Why do I like this?” Then I immediately reconsider approaching the question that way. It isn't because we should avoid talking about people, or why they are the way they are, but because focusing on ourselves and our likes and dislikes is a tangly sort of maze from which we might not escape. Better to look at what the good of the thing at hand is, or what good there could be, and maybe gain some insight about ourselves along the way.

So, “Dagon” has a few themes (all interrelated, classic Lovecraft, and literarily Gothic): the unknown, the alien, and the unnatural.

Most of you don't have to worry.
Dagon would only hide under a waterbed.

The Unknown

Everyone has experience of the unknown. I mean both that they have been faced with darkness and mystery, and that they've come to know something that was unknown before.

Science-Fiction is Aspirational

In my series on magic, I defined magic as using apparently unrelated means to achieve some end. Also, in that same series, I pointed out that, for those without the necessary knowledge and experience, any sort of skill seems “magical” in this sense. Given this, what exactly is the difference between fantasy and science-fiction? I mean, besides the outfits, the shape of the doohickeys they use, and drastically unequal degrees of personability, what distinguishes Snape saying, “Expelliarmus!” and zapping someone with a ray, from Captain Kirk saying, “Set phasers to stun,” and zapping someone with a ray? Quite a few things, you reductionist!

Sci-fi stories say: "our courage and ingenuity will take us
boldly where no man has gone before."

A big one is this: science-fiction presupposes that, although the forces and methods shown in the story may be currently undiscovered and practically “magical,” they are discoverable, and we will use the same kinds of means we've used so far to find them out and use them to our advantage.