The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
Ratings7
Average rating3.7
Kij Johnson's haunting novella The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe is both a commentary on a classic H.P. Lovecraft tale and a profound reflection on a woman's life. Vellitt's quest to find a former student who may be the only person who can save her community takes her through a world governed by a seemingly arbitrary dream logic in which she occasionally glimpses an underlying but mysterious order, a world ruled by capricious gods and populated by the creatures of dreams and nightmares. Those familiar with Lovecraft's work will travel through a fantasy landscape infused with Lovecraftian images viewed from another perspective, but even readers unfamiliar with his work will be enthralled by Vellitt's quest. A remarkable accomplishment that repays rereading.
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Delightful story set in Lovecraft's Dreamland's. When a young student at Ulthar Women's College runs off with a boy from the waking world, Professor Vellitt Boe sets out to bring her back, unaware of the complications she'll soon run into. Johnson's tale works both as a critique of Lovecraft's male-centered views and a loving tribute to the worlds he created.
I've watched 5-6 action movies in a row that wouldn't pass the Bechdel test and then I read something like this and my heart is all “please this and only this.” A woman, a far traveller in the dream-lands (yes the Lovecraft was strong), had settled in a college town for 20 yrs teaching math to women before being tasked with one last ultimate adventure and I loved it. so much.
I went into this expecting a cosmic horror story, since I saw this advertised as a Lovecraftian story, but what I got instead was a gorgeous quest story that's really a hell of a lot more like fantasy than anything else. This reimagines the horrorscape of Lovecraft's imagination as...well, something not entirely unlike our own world, actually. Apart from the Elder Gods, mind-bendy physics, and the things that live underground. As I said, it's not what I expected, but I absolutely adore it all the same - especially since Johnson does a fairly good job of calling out Lovecraft's racism and misogyny.
