Lovecraftian Thing A Day No.115: The Tyson Necronomicon

Of the commercially available Necronomicons, Donald Tysons volume of that name is another of my favourites. What is notable about this iteration of the dread tome is that it doesn't lay claim to being s 'genuine' Necronomicon, but is rather a fictionalised autobiographical account of Alhazred's writing of the volume, the narrative of which makes also up the content of the Necronomicon itself. In this respect, Tyson's Necronomicon also distinguishes itself from many of the others in being extremely well written! However, things become somewhat more convoluted in that Tyson has written this (and its accompanying volume Alhazred) from a genuinely occult perspective, as well as producing two other books (which I may detail in a later post) that develop these fictional works in a more practical, occult direction. (Indeed, this interweaving of the occult into fiction - and back again - is something which Phil Hine and myself sought to address in our recent talk on Lovecraftian occultures).