"Ex Oblivione" by H.P. Lovecraft, Narrated by Eldra Echo #lovecraft #vtuber #horrorauthor #audiobook

My theory: "Ex Oblivione" is actually about Howard Philips Lovecraft's struggles in regards to his failure to get into an Ivy League university. That said, it's a theory that holds less water than my canoe. But hey, that's the great thing about having a YouTube channel: you can just write whatever you want in the description box. Potatoes. Bubonic plague. Kalamazoo. See? It's that easy.

We've read at least a few Lovecraft stories that handle Lovecraft's feelings regarding his inability to serve his country due to his ineligibility to join the military. Those stories included "Polaris" and arguably, "The White Ship." Lovecraft is by no means unique in that his personal life and feelings influence his writing.

It's no secret that Lovecraft very much desired to get into an Ivy League university -- specifically, Providence's own Brown University. Where this desire came from is anyone's guess. According to https://www.hplovecraft.com/life/family.aspx , Lovecraft's maternal uncle was a Brown alumni, so perhaps that was the influence. Perhaps it was just the local prestigious university and that alone was enough to make it Lovecraft's dream college.

I think the repeated mention of a bronze gate in an "ivy-covered" wall is referencing the Ivy League universities. I think it's that simple. That said, I was not able to find a gate that matches the description of the gate featured in the story. Brown's entrance gate, at least at the time of this writing, is not solid, but barred. It would be trivial for anyone to see past the bars of the gate, which ruins the point of "Ex Oblivione." The Van Winkle Gates (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Wickle_Gates) are also made of wrought iron, not made of bronze.

That said, on the very Wikipedia page about the gates, and in the thumbnail of this video, you can clearly see that H.P. Lovecraft was familiar with these gates given he was literally photographed at the gates. The story is from 1921, the photograph from letters from 1929 or later, but I don't know if that discrepancy is relevant. Like the narrator in "Ex Oblivione," Lovecraft likely passed these gates multiple times in his life.

There's some sad irony to the fact that Lovecraft did make it into Brown, but only posthumously, and his works are one of the great draws of Brown's special collections department. It's like that one Van Gogh episode of Dr. Who.

Text source: https://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/eo.aspx
Thumbnail source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Wickle_Gates#/media/File:The_iconic_Van_Wickle_Gates_at_Brown_University,_one_of_America's_prestigious_%22Ivy_League%22_colleges,_in_Providence,_the_capital_of,_and_largest_city_in,_Rhode_Island.jpg
Other thumbnail source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Wickle_Gates#/media/File:H._P._Lovecraft_at_the_Van_Wickle_Gates.jpg
Background source: All VTS, baby!
Narrator: Eldra Echo

Видео "Ex Oblivione" by H.P. Lovecraft, Narrated by Eldra Echo #lovecraft #vtuber #horrorauthor #audiobook канала Eldra Echo