COVE

Sidney Sime’s “Moonijim” encapsulates the weird, which HP Lovecraft describes as “a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes and entities on the known universe’s utmost rim” (Lovecraft qtd. in Luckhurst 1052). Through its haunting and surreal depiction of a gaunt figure skulking through a shadowy field of flowers, there seems to be some otherworldly quality of this image an observer cannot simply pinpoint. The figure’s  staggering posture suggests an uneasy movement, almost as though it exists in a liminal state between life and death. Its wide, bulging eyes convey a disconcerting intensity, making the viewer feel as though the figure is equally observing them, just, or perhaps more deeply, as they are observing the figure.

The blurred, faint hill-like shapes in the background deepen the sense of mystery, situating the scene in an ambiguous, dreamlike space. The illuminated field of flowers contrasts sharply with the figure's spectral presence, amplifying the sense of unease. Sime’s ability to evoke the weird through subtle, surreal elements transforms this illustration into a visual exploration of the weird, where the familiar becomes distorted and frightening. This illustration was first featured in the "Zoology of Fantastical Beasts that Might Have Been," and later in "Bogey Beasts" with a musical accompaniment for each figure. Sime evidently intended for this collection, Moonijim included, to portray some sort of creature that could have had the potential to exist either in our world, or a work of fiction. I believe the music written by Josef Holbrooke adds to the 'weirdness' of this collection by evoking different feelings and reactions to each creature; the musical, and unspoken explination for each gives a fealing of "a profound sense of dread" and apprehension that directly correlates with Lovecraft's deinition of weird.

Works Cited

Luckhurst, Roger. “The Weird: A Dis/Orientation.” Textual Practice, vol. 31, no. 6, 2017, pp. 1041–61. Taylor & Francis Online, https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2017.1358690.

Sime, Sidney. “Moonijim.” The Sime Zoology, designs by S.H. Sime, The Sketch, 8 Mar. 1905.