"The Tentacle Event"

From doktorsleepless

"The Tentacle Event"

Posted by eschatonic.water on June 21, 2008 at 7:40am

For consideration:

We have seen several flashbacks, from the perspectives of both Doktor Sleepless and Dr. Cannon, of a young, naked John Reinhart being confronted by many tentacles which seem to be descending upon him from above. (There's been a hint that Sing may also have some knowledge of the Event, having perhaps learned of it from John.) Given the importance of Henrik Boemer's The Darkening Sky to the narrative, and Boemer's stated obsession with Lovecraft's Elder Gods, it seems reasonable to draw a connection between these glimses and the Lovecraft mythos. Another implication has been that the Tentacle Event is connected with/precipitated/included the death/suicides of John Reinhart's parents.

The thing is, there's been nothing, yet, which specifically indicates that this Event was related in any way to John's parents' death. Nor has it been explicitly stated that the Event was, in fact, a single event. In the flashbacks we've seen thus far, it is unclear whether Johnny is even always represented as being the same age; some of the silhouettes seem to suggest an older John.

Just as important and significant: Though in one flashback we see him being grasped (caressed?) by one of the tentacles, there is no indication that the tentacles actually did John any harm. In the Lovecraft mythos, such an encounter with an otherworldly being (Elder God?) should have resulted in death, maiming and/or debilitating insanity. Granted, Johnny's gone 'round-the-bend, but he's still a high-functioning genius, not a drooling catatonic - and his "imbalance" (if such it is) seems to have come later; from what we've learned so far, John Reinhart remained a socially functional human being into young adulthood, until shortly before his departure from Heavenside. So what really happened that time/those times John confronted the tentacled... whatever(s)? And did that confrontation have anything to do with his parents' deaths?

An important question that begs answering: Who were John Reinhart's parents?

Reply by Jared on June 21, 2008 at 7:53am

The problem with speculating on this is, like you mentioned, the only thing they have in common is some past John being in contact with some sort of tentacles. Hell, the tentacles is the only thing thus far connecting this to The Darkening Sky.

The only thing I can think of is this: If the Doktor is just as likely to destroy the world as he is to save it, there probably isn't a better way to do it then to rise one of the Elder Gods...

Reply by 444 on June 21, 2008 at 8:04am

An important question that begs answering: Who were John Reinhart's parents?

Most certainly!

What I wonder about the tentacle event(s) is what relation do they have to Dr. Cannon? In issue three, as Cannon is leading the psychic into the alley, the silhouette in the tentacle panel might be that of the psychic, and the tentacles are somehow an extension of and/or connected to Cannon. I mean, the guy seems pretty creepy n' perhaps he's either possessed by, or somehow an expression of (or something along these lines), this otherworldly evil. Like that particular panel shows a different world-view/reality tunnel/what-have-ya' of the event transpiring right then.

I mean, it's been speculated elsewhere that Dr, Cannon might have been involved in their deaths, and that he himself seems to say he was on the scene early, well shit, maybe he was there for the whole thing right? And maybe them eldritch tentacles are of him/his doing/sumsuch-like-that, ah-yup.

Another important question is what was the relationship between Albert Cannon and John's parents?

Reply by Mark Crabtree on June 21, 2008 at 4:42pm

I'm still not convinced those tentacles should be taken literally. The sprawling guts of Cannon's stabby seems far to similar for my money.

Reply by eschatonic.water on June 22, 2008 at 6:31pm

Yeah, disembowelment seems to be a popular method of murder in this series.

I also noticed the similarity between the guts and tentacles. Your suggestion is certainly valid. Perhaps all of Dok's current psychological state, everything that drives him, "...came from [his] family" - that is, originates from the trauma of discovering his dead parents - or seeing them killed, and he has sublimated that memory behind an image of supernatural evil.

If we accept the premise, and view the tentacles as a psychological metaphor for disembowelment, then it does seem possible that Dr. Cannon might have been directly involved in John's parents' deaths. At the least, it would suggest that they were murdered; the Japanese tradition of seppuku notwithstanding, suicide by disembowelment isn't an easy thing to pull off.

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on June 23, 2008 at 4:06pm

"it does seem possible that Dr. Cannon might have been directly involved in John's parents' deaths. At the least, it would suggest that they were murdered; the Japanese tradition of seppuku notwithstanding, suicide by disembowelment isn't an easy thing to pull off"

Good point. Of course if John's parents had severely failed their SAN rolls vs. Cthulhu, self-disembowelling might seem the easy option...

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on June 23, 2008 at 4:19pm

Another interesting guy to consider in this regard is Kenneth Grant. Ex-student of Crowley, associate of Gerald Gardiner and Austin Osman Spare (responsible for making Spare's name known, pretty much).

He was pretty much the first to suggest treating the Lovecraftian Elder Gods as worthwhile subjects for ceremonial magic (inadvertently leading in part to the 'chaos' magic style) and would certainly be classed as one of the group of writers who led to the "usurpation of the occult traditions by middle-class European intellectuals" Boemer rails against in Darkening Sky according to the backmatter/wiki.

Reply by 444 on June 24, 2008 at 12:09pm

OK, so this thread has got me to thinkin', so I went back to the books to get the evidence. We got four panels with the tentacles. Now I don't think we can say that they are all flashbacks--the panel associated with Dr. Cannon seems, like I state above, an alternate view of what is happening in that moment. The silhouette of the figure is in the exact same pose as the psychic in the panel previous, only the figure is seen from a different perspective--maybe Cannon looking back at him?

Nor has it been explicitly stated that the Event was, in fact, a single event.

True, and in fact the context of two of the tentacle panels seems to imply that these images are of at least two separate events. In the tentacle panel in issue two, when the Doktor is having the freakout in the washroom of the club, the image's placement seems to imply a relation to something that happened in John's parent's bedroom. As the Dok is talking to himself about alternate versions of himself, he says that he's the one who walked into his parents' bedroom and saw something, then we get the panel with tentacles coming at a young naked boy from several directions, one of which is wrapped around him.

But in the third tentacle panel, the one associated with Sing, the context seems to imply that this recollection of tentacles is connected to the death of John's parents, which, as far a Sing knows, happened in the house's library. Now sure, we don't know for certain that this tentacle panel is connected to the death of John's parents, but the context suggests that somehow John's (assumed) relating of this event to Sing includes some eldritch weirdness.

So yeah, I vote that these panels relate to more than one instance of strangeness, and especially in light of the fourth tentacle panel, which I don't think relates to John at all, at all!

The fourth panel is by far the most interesting and revealing. Its context seems to show (yeah, like I wrote above) a relationship between Cannon and the tentacles. I mean, there's nothing there to suggest it's connected to John or Sleepless. Sure, Cannon, mentions he puts an image in his mind of the grisly scene he claims to have discovered--for the psychic to see--but the tentacle panel occurs three panels previous, and seems to have nothing to do with an image of John's parents.

Now, it's possible that, from the first three tentacle panels that we might think this is John's way of psychologically coping with some terrible events, but the fourth occurrence, I feel, shatters this theory: why would John's imagery of psychological trauma be shared by Cannon?

Reply by Mark Crabtree on June 24, 2008 at 12:30pm

Different panels referring to different events does make a certain amount of sense. I would say though, that the panels don't necessarily represent someone thinking about tentacles, but may just be in there for our benefit (in the same way that we get lots of other panels that don't necessarily relate to the immediate plot but create atmosphere and suggest links between different ideas)

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on June 25, 2008 at 12:49pm

Or maybe Cannon is the source of the tentacles?

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on July 2, 2008 at 6:24pm

Maybe the tentacles were John's parents?

Something like the set-up of the film Society, where the parents are semi-shoggoths having hot tentacle sex. Seeing that would fuck up any kid - and perhaps that was the reason for their deaths, at the hands of either John or Cannon.

Yeah, a long shot - but mentioned for completeness... and the hentai fans!

Reply by stoto on July 2, 2008 at 12:11am

With regard to the idea of the tentacles being a coping strategy for some other terrible event, is there any relevance that the human figures in the panels are naked? Have any of you seen the film Mysterious Skin?

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