Hyperstitions within Hyperstitions: Lovecraftian name-anomalies

Background I: Reading Undercurrent’s translation of Houllebecq’s work on Lovecraft, I suggested a minor correction about a misspelled word which I suspected should be actually a French modification to the original name: Rûb-al-Khâlie instead of Rûb-al-Khâlid (the original spelling in the book which is not correct); following this correction I asked Undercurrent about the motives behind Lovecraft’s unique selection of Rûb-al-Khâlie (excluding its exotic desert-ness and the rumor of being inhabited by Jinn and Jnun) as the region where Al Azif has been revealed to Abdul Al-Hazred, its related hyperstitions, etc. He recommended this fascinating page.

This article is teeming with ‘wrong’ Arabic / Aramaic information, but they are all hyperstitionally interesting in the following ways:

Background II: The Post-911 THING has imported an entire Arabic or more precisely Middle Eastern vocabulary to western countries; one can protest and claim it is just like what happened during Vietnam War. No, Vietnam War merely unloaded its vocabulary into the battlefield; it was exposed to American soldiers or those who were in contact with the War. Only soldiers or perhaps their families knew the meaning of phrases such as caca dau, choi oi, mama-san or Gung Ho. Besides, the Post-911 Thing (as an entity in a Deleuzian term) did not expose western countries to a culture of a country but an Islamic continent with multiple, convoluting, still-emerging cultures, lines of communication; and since civilians were the first people who witnessed the emergence of the post-911 Thing, the tide of Islamic (Arabic/Farsi) vocabularies hit ordinary (non-military) people first. Interested people enthusiastically started to learn Arabic language and people in general tried to learn several Arabic words at least to be on the front line. Moreover, since Islamic culture has already contaminated the West as its viral adversary, enthusiasm for diving into the Islamic Orientalism of the 18th and 19th centuries revived in a more convoluted, viral and multiplying form -- exclusive to the 21st century -- in the presence of the post-911 Thing. However, the fundamentally rebellious / alien Arabic alphabet for western readers soon started to dissipate its traumatizing tendrils via the Post-911 Thing within western (Latin/Greek/Anglo/German-based languages) phonetic, vocal, linguistic, writing systems; slightly cankered each throat speaking a Western Indo-European language (a process which is progressing and shows no sign of termination); but among English speakers who were in a direct contact with the Post-911 Entity, its sabotage was more complex, more contagious; it produced amazing hyperstitions based on the fusion of the diseased Arabic alphabet with the user-friendly English language, a fusion still giving birth to mutants, and rootless hybrids. Westernized or fanatic Farsi / Arabic intellectuals take the panorama as a menacing installation of a new and totally sophisticated cultural invasion or as here called: cultural ambush. None of them realized that it is the western civilization exposing itself to the virus. Beside the fact that Eastern cultures have developed an artificial nervous system capable of participating with viral agencies whose infection is lethal for the west, one should keep in mind that the germ-cell of these plagues have developed in the Middle East. From Jan Potocki to William Beckford to Burroughs, all adventurers of hardcore Orientalism (as discussed in the coming essay on sorcery / necromancy) know that Orientalism is not about the East, it is the interzone of the East and the West, emerging from an eastern-infested but genetically obscured germ-cell. As Burroughs shows, Westerners are more prone to the anthropophagic diseases of the Interzone rather than local Arabs.

The post-911 Thing has triggered interesting hyperstitions by importing Arabic vocabulary to Western languages especially English language which can never afford the alphabetic (phonetic/writing) systems of Arabic language; its nervous system engineers extraordinary anomalies which are symptoms of this radical inability to digest (or interlock with) an entirely different language and culture. We discussed a few of these examples in the past.

Some examples from old posts to elucidate the discussion, and prerequisite for following the discussion:

Mark paraphrasing Burroughs: “But when it comes to Oriental languages you are using a whole different set of muscles and neural patterns... so you're bound to have a sore throat, just like your legs are sore after riding a horse for the first time... And Arabic is frankly the worst.. It literally cuts an English-speaking throat... Spitting blood is one of the first symptoms, though not necessarily the worst.. It is the stutter of neural response - remember when you first tried to row a gondola? The way you couldn't possibly get it, and you r muscles knotted up and you were making spastic gestures with the oar and the feeling in your stomach and groin, that sort of packing dream tension almost sexual...? And then suddenly you could do it? Well it's like that, only worse... And there is the gap between languages that can be terrifying... the great silences... And erotic frenzies when the patient feels himself sexually attacked by Arab demons...

"About ten days in the hospital... You realize that you don't talk with your mouth and throat and lungs and vocal cords, you talk with your whole body... And the body keeps reaching back for the old language - it's rather like junk withdrawal in a way.. The erotic manifestations always occur... It's like the subject is being raped by the language, shouting out obscenities in the injected idiom.”
---
Me: Jay frequently reminds Col. West that Delta Force simply failed in its anti-Al-Qaeda operations because it never grasped what Al-Qaeda really is: It is not Al-Qaeda. It is Al-Ghaedeh, included a letter unknown to all Indo-European languages (Latin/German/Greek, etc) and is almost impossible to be pronounced correctly (let aside fluency) by Latin speakers; it is the pharyngeal letter ‘Qaf’ (i.e. Ghaaf) oversimplified as ‘Q’ in English.

Nick: [...] Also, Ghaaf issue reminds me of a bizarre episode when Condi Rice and Powell began talking about "Gutter" rather than "Cararrh" when referring to Qatar - just triggered media snickers at the time, but guess it was exactly the same translational nexus you're pointing to here.

Me: Excellent! (Once again, you probed right into the core) ... yes, it is. Qatar also is another symptom of the Ghaaf (or Qaaf?)-Complex.

Me: It has strange letters whose vocalization processes are not linear at all. The letter Ghaaf, letters Ha and Haa, letters Ayn and Ghain, etc. As I’ve previously discussed it with Nick, these letters are the curses of Arabic pronunciation system for speakers of other languages. Even Farsi speakers usually have difficulties.

One should be a crazed wolf and at the same time breathe as a lycanthrope to discharge the sound of the letter Ha. To vocalize 'Ghaaf', one should be a partly blocked tube attached to nothing.

To initiate as a Jay’s disciple, Col. West must be able to pronounce the letters Ha and Ghaaf; this ensures Jay that he has finally kicked the Delta-Force Qaaf-Complex out of his mind and mouth.

***

Lovecraft like Potocki and Beckford but in a far more rigorous and profound approach realized the way that Arabic or Semitic-based languages generate hyperstitional anomalies when they are implanted within English language. He used this hyperstition technique to engineer names, absolutely alien to English readers but in a way vaguely very familiar to all Hebrew/Arabic/Farsi speakers (the most famous of which is Cthulhu).

What is interesting here (including the page that Robin Undercurrent suggested) are the attempts to decipher these names in recent years through methods which are also based on the hyperstitional panorama which we already discussed i.e. the inability of English language to digest Semitic-based languages (not only languages but also their cultures, viro-occultism and hyperstitions) and thus pathologically giving rise to symptoms and anomalies which soon are sucked into other hyperstition vortices.

Now, the article that Robin Undercurrent suggested (a few examples):

1. Cthulhu not in fiction: Possibly similar to the Arabic Khadhulu. The word occurs in the Koran, meaning "forsaker" or "abandoner."

This is truly worth pursuing:

I wondered what really this word is since I had never heard this Arabic word before; especially a word that occurs in Koran should not be a completely obsolete word. I searched the web and found many references to this word in texts about Lovecraft and Necronomicon. The word is from Sura Furghan (or Furqân, The Criterion, The Standard):

The Letter Zal

(25:29): Laghad azallanee AAani althzikri baAAda ith jaanee wakana alshshaytanu lil-insani khazoolan

Translation: "He did lead me astray from the Message (of Allah) after it had come to me! Ah! the Evil One (Shaytân, Satan) is but a traitor to man!"

The word that has been referred as Khadhulu or sometimes Khad-hulu (in other texts about Necronomicon) corresponding to Cthulhu is in fact, Khazoola or as it has taken ‘Tanvin’ in the Quran, it is pronounced Khazoolan. The letter that has lead English writers to imagine this word is similar to Cthulhu is the letter Zal (ABJAD = 700); like letter Ghaaf (the western Qaaf-complex) it cannot be pronounced by an English speaker. For Farsi-speakers who read the Quran, it is also relatively hard to pronounce this letter correctly despite the fact that the letter Zal IS in Farsi alphabet. The phonetic construction of this letter is the result of an anomalous alliance of three sounds: d, h and z (dhz); however, the emphatic sound is Z; therefore, in Farsi it is pronounced just like the letters Za and Zoin. When the letter Zal is imported to English language; it can only be pronounced and oversimplified as a sound oscillating between d and h, and loses its central sound that is ‘Z’. This oversimplification which of course is hyperstitionally intriguing is extended to English writing system in the same way. Letter Zal is written as dh instead of Z which is the most correct and acceptable sound of the letter Zal. Khazoola, Khazula or as in the Quran Khazulan (from Khazala meaning to discontinue assisting one in reaching a goal, abandoning and sometimes betraying, becoming traitor) is the correct spelling and pronunciation of this word. The information presented in the article is based on the following oversimplification (superficially reductionist but hyperstitionally complex):

There is nothing in Arabic as Khadhulu: the English appropriation transforms the original word in this way: the letter Zal in ‘Khazulan’ is disintegrated to only two marginal sounds of the letter Zal i.e. d&h; therefore, dh is actually the mangled form of the letter Zal as a symptom of the vocal incapacity of English speakers to pronounce Zal. The tanvin at the end of original word is also simply replaced by ‘u’ (‘oo’) sound.

Kazoolan ---> Kha[dh][i.e. zal]oolu ---> Now, the writer(s) has imagined that ‘d’ is separated from ‘h’ in the word Khadhulu and has directly connected it to Cthulhu like this: Khad-hulu.

The fascinating point is that most of critiques and texts on Necronomicon and Lovecraft's name-anomalies are based on this ridiculously wrong but hyperstitionally absorbing mis-understanding. Just type Khadhulu or Khad-hulu in the Google search box and see how many texts have been propagated based on this technical mis-understanding and virally mutating oversimplifications (not oversimplification as a negative reduction) and follow all hyperstitions and thrilling extravagant conclusions based on this fusion-anomaly and its associated interpretations (Khad-hulu or Khadhulu for Cthulhu); to this extent, I don’t see it as the dissemination of a wrong piece of information but an artificialized viral hyperstition ovum which has been mobilized by numerous transmitting vectors, sucked into hyperstition vortices which engineer new hyperstitions, new radically artificial beliefs, all autonomously generating new Cthulhuoid hyperstitions.

2. “Also note that in Aramiac Ketul-hu means, "he who is imprisoned.”

I contacted my friend who is one of the most erudite researchers in ancient Semitic-based languages and assisted me to learn Pahlavi (of ancient Persia) language. He answered there is no such a word or phrase in the Aramaic language, in none of its three periods of development. So this must be another anomaly artificialized by the phonetic virulence of Aramaic imported to English language.

3. “Also R'lyeh is an acceptable transcription of the Arabic Galiyah or r'allyah since the "g" is a glottal "r" sometimes rendered by an "r" or "r'" and galiyah means boiling.)”

There is no such a word as Galiyah in Arabic language; the original word is from Ghalayan (boiling) beginning with the letter Ghaaf. Sometimes Letter Ghaaf is appropriated as ‘G’ instead of ‘Q’ (it is another symptom of the famous Qaf-Complex as we discussed in conversations). Consequently, the hint about the vocal connection between ‘g’ and ‘r’ is symptomatically narrating another anomaly triggered by the familiar hyperstition of ‘Qaaf-complex’, a rootless connection which has given rise to many hyperstitions about R’lyeh. Again, use Google to see the results.

4. “ Chennghiz Khan [Chinngis Khan was a title, his actual name was Temujin], and was considered a "Mongol Hercules," half bestial, half divine, endowed with superhuman strength. ”

These fictional characteristics (based on orientalistic fascination of the West by Chengiz khan as a paranormal fictional figure and western legends around him) render Chengiz khan as an exceptionally hyperstitional character much like a hyperfictional / hyperstitional character in Comic Books capable of coming out of / entering to a book simultaneously with no trace, an inter-dimensional entity.

5. “Carter would not change something Smith wrote; ergo Xoth is another place. Since Carter, in the story "Curse of the Black Pharaoh" chose to write the Arabic word "Djinn" or "Jinn" like this: "Xin," I assume then that Xoth is pronounced similarly as Djoth (the "dj" said as in the word jar) or Joth, using a soft "J" sound in the word or using Joth, such as the soft "J" sound in the word "de jure" or as the "z" is pronounced in the word "azure." ”

The widely known word ‘Djinn’ -- which has also used by CCRU, diagramming the Outside (Zones 6:3 or Djynxx) in the Numogran or Decimal Labyrinth -- is another phonetic anomaly emerged within English language. The Arabic word Jin (or Jinn) refers to a race created by God before human, made out of fire thus capable of shape-shifting (unlike human which was created from Dust and Water: the bacterial mess of Dust-Soap). In the Quran and Islamic stories, unlike in Christianity, Shaytan (Satan) is not a fallen angel but the first Jinn (the Man’s nemesis) created by Allah. According to the Quran, Angels have no Will; as a result, they have no ability to disobey or choose. But Jinns as experimental anti-humans with unfathomable intelligence can choose their paths, they have the Will to disobey or obey, be loyal or traitor (Khazoola). Jinn or Djinn is male, the female side of this race is called Jnun (in plural form), a rich word which also means delirium, maddening love and terminal madness. In Persian mythology, Jnun are descended from Jeh or Jay or Jahi (also Jehika), the first anti-creationist agent engineered by Ahriman’s own body, the daughter of Ahriman who awakened his father from ten thousand years of sleep to spawn a pest-legion, Jahi is the first woman whose mission was to undo the entire pro-creationist / survivalist project of Ahura Mazda. In Arabic folklore, Jnun are daughters of Lilith. Rûb-al-Khâlie, in which Al-Hazred settled for ten years, was inhabited by Jnun (a female legion) not Jinn (Male ones); so following CCRU’s suggestion that Djynxx diagrams the Outside (zones 6:3 or the warp region of the numogram), Abdul Al-Hazred has communicated with the female side of the Outside (Jnun) for writing his nocturnally enciphered Necronomicon. The other side of the Outside, is ‘It’, the epidemic, the ungrounded becoming, the cosmodrome. Jnun possess not to take over but to make open -- lay, crack, butcher open (As in the case of the Moroccan jinniya, Aisha Qandisha, or Aiesheh Ghediseh who is also called the Opener). 'Being possessed by Jnun' (things that never rest), this was the only solution Abdul Al-Hazred found to communicate with the Cosmodrome of the outside. Becoming woman via Jnun is a direct link to ‘It’, the cosmodromic current of the Outside. There is another fascinating hyperstition here: Why does Lovecraft frequently call Al-Hazred, the ‘mad’ poet or the ‘mad’ Arab? Because while communicating with Jnun (who in Arabic / Farsi folklore narrate untold stories to the one who becomes open to them, as in the case of Lilith who tells forbidden stories to travelers before devouring them) as the female current / agencies of the Outside, radical madness is inevitable; for Jnun, once again, means delirium, maddening love, terminal madness as the result of being laid open by the Outside. Jnun is not compatible with the western definition of Madness. It cannot be translated properly, but suffice to say that it is mainly constituted by three elements and is developed through their compositions: Possession, Love and utter Openness. Abdul Al-Hazrad is a majnun, a man laid open by Jnun and at the same time, a majnun man, a madman (majnun) who immediately reminds us of Leili and Majnun, their love story which is converged upon madness, openness, and a delirious love -- the Forbidden.

ATTN CCRU: maybe you should rename Djynxx (male jinns) and engineer a Jnun(female side)-derived name which is highly connected to the Outside (6:3, also Jay=63); or compose them with each other.

7. Irem is very important to Arab magick. 'Irem Zhat al Imad' (Irem of the Pillars) is the city's name in Arabic. [...] The 'Pillars' in 'Irem of the Pillars' has a hidden meaning. Among Arab mystics, 'pillar' is a code name for 'elder' or 'old one'. Thus 'Irem of the Pillars' is really 'Irem of the Old Ones'."

Imâd or Emâd, this time, is an Arabic word; meaning pillar, any tall building or verticals; but there is no such a mystic aura around the word pillar (Imâd). There is a famous reference to pillars in the Quran as mentioned in the text (Erama Zate al-Imâd) [89:7] (Sura Al-Fajr, Dawn)

“Eram on (erected or positioned on) pillars: Eram or Iram has been frequently mentioned in Arabic / Farsi stories and Hadith. It can be translated as Heaven. Eram means both the skies (heavens) and Paradise (Heaven). Islamic scholars consider pillars sometimes as hidden forces of the universe in the absence of which the Earth and cosmos will collapse (according to the Quran, in Qyiamah or Ghiamat, the skies collapse as a result of falling pillars [1]), and sometimes as the force of gravity, similar to Deleuze and Guattari’s usage of this word for “the verticals of gravity” (“The Space of Pillars”) [A Thousand Plateaus, p. 370]

The reference to ‘elder’ or ‘old one’ is also incorrect: Imâd simply means an old wise man, a pious man, or a man with dignity (not necessarily old).

These are just a few examples of many twisted pieces of information (esp. on the Arabic front) presented in the text. All symptoms of the viral Arabic culture(s) / language oozing into the nervous system of English language / culture(s) and producing cryptogenic diseases, anomalies and mutants which are instantly pinpointed by hyperstition probe-heads. They should not be regarded as baseless, invalid or valueless information but anomalies generated by certain fusions between viral agencies of one language and its associated space and the immune or nervous system of another language -- involuntary fugues which violently traverse both languages; off-channel communications cross-contaminating two different spaces, facilitating and triggering the emergence of new entities, poly-hybrids, uncontrollable minorities and hyperstitions; enmeshing worlds with their own spaces of the virtual, the actual and the real.

In trade with Islamic countries, the axial role does not belong to imported Arabic warmachines but the ways, they fuse with Western systems and how they breed cryptogenic unnamable hybrids, entities which are always anonymous until Now.

NOTE

[1] See Sura Al-Takwir [The Overthrowing] (Sura 81) which begins with the most poetical, mysteriously rhythmic and passionately musical verses of the Quran, scenes of collapsing universe, or according to the text on Lovecraft, the Return of the Old Ones.

Posted by hyperstition at October 31, 2004 08:29 PM