Cool Air
Encyclopedia
"Cool Air" is a short story by the American
horror fiction
writer H. P. Lovecraft
, written in March 1926
and published in the March 1928
issue of Tales of Magic and Mystery.
Lovecraft wrote "Cool Air" during his unhappy stay in New York City, during which he wrote three horror stories with a New York setting. In "Lovecraft's New York Exile", David E. Schultz cites the contrast Lovecraft felt between his apartment, crammed with relics of his beloved New England
, and the immigrant neighbourhood of Red Hook in which he lived as an inspiration for the "unsettling juxtaposition of opposites" that characterizes the short story. Like the story's main character, Shultz suggests, Lovecraft, cut off from his native Providence, Rhode Island
, felt himself to be just going through the motions of life.
The building that is the story's main setting is based on a townhouse
at 317 West 14th Street where George Kirk, one of Lovecraft's few New York friends, lived briefly in 1925. The narrator's heart attack
recalls that of another New York Lovecraft friend, Frank Belknap Long
, who dropped out of New York University
because of his heart condition. The narrator's phobia
about cool air is reminiscent of Lovecraft himself, who was abnormally sensitive to cold.
Schultz indicates that "Cool Air"'s main literary source is Edgar Allan Poe
's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
", described as Lovecraft's favourite Poe story after "The Fall of the House of Usher
". Lovecraft had just finished the Poe chapter of his survey "Supernatural Horror in Literature
" at the time that he wrote the short story. Lovecraft, however, stated years later that the story that inspired "Cool Air" was Arthur Machen
's "The Novel of the White Powder", another tale of bodily disintegration.
, "Cool Air" was rejected by editor Farnsworth Wright
, a decision that has been called "inexplicable...since it would appear to be just the sort of safe, macabre tale that he liked." It's possible that Wright feared that "its gruesome conclusion would invite censorship
". Peter Cannon calls "Cool Air" Lovecraft's "best story with a New York setting", proving him "capable of using an understated, naturalistic
style to powerful effect."
The tale opens up in the spring of 1923 with the narrator looking for housing in New York City
, finally settling in a converted brownstone
on West Fourteenth Street
. Eventually, a chemical leak from the floor above reveals that the inhabitant directly overhead is a strange, old, and reclusive doctor
. One day the narrator suffers a heart attack
, and remembering that a doctor lives directly above, heads there, culminating in his first meeting with Dr. Muñoz.
The doctor shows supreme medical
skill and saves the narrator with a concoction of drugs
, resulting in the fascinated narrator returning regularly to sit and learn from the doctor, his new friend. As their talks continue, it becomes increasingly evident that the doctor has an obsession with defying death
through all available means.
The doctor's room is kept cold at approximately 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius) using an ammonia
-based refrigeration
system, the pumps driven by a gasoline
engine
. As time goes on, the doctor's health declines and his behaviour becomes increasingly eccentric. The cooling system is continuously upgraded, to the point where some areas are at sub-freezing
temperature
s--until one night when the pump
breaks down.
Without explanation, the panic-stricken doctor frantically implores his friend to help him keep his body cool. Unable to repair the machine until morning and without a replacement piston
, they resort to having the doctor stay in a tub full of ice. The narrator spends his time replenishing the ice, but soon is forced to employ someone else to do it. When he finally manages to locate competent mechanics and the replacement part however, it is too late.
He arrives at the apartment only to see the rapidly-decomposed
remains of the doctor, and a rushed, "hideously smeared" letter. The narrator reads it, and to his horror, finally understands the doctor's peculiarities: Dr. Muñoz was undead
, and has been for the past 18 years. Refusing to give in, he has kept his body going past the point of death using various methods, including perpetual coldness.
", and one who had "sunk his fortune and lost all his friends in a lifetime of bizarre experiment devoted to its bafflement and extirpation." Saying he feels a "repugnance" on first meeting Muñoz that "nothing in his aspect could justify", the narrator remarks on "the ice-coldness and shakiness of his bloodless looking hands" and that fact that his breathing was imperceptible.
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopaedia suggests that Muñoz may have been modelled on Lovecraft's Brooklyn neighbour, "the fairly celebrated Dr. Love, State Senator and sponsor of the famous 'Clean Books bill' at Albany
...evidently immune or unconscious of the decay." This is presumably William Lathrop Love, a Brooklyn physician and freemason who was a state senator from 1923 until 1932.
work". He has drifted from one cheap boarding house to another before finding that the one on West Fourteenth Street "disgusted [him] much less than the others he had sampled." After being treated by Muñoz, his upstairs neighbour, he becomes "a disciple and devotee of the gifted recluse".
The story "Baby... It's Cold Inside!" in EC Comics' Vault of Horror #17 is an unofficial adaptation of "Cool Air."
"Cool Air" has been adapted for film or television at least three times: as a 1971 episode of Night Gallery
directed by Jeannot Szwarc
with a teleplay by Rod Serling
(where the narrator was changed to the daughter of a MIT colleague of Muñoz's, in order to accommodate a romantic plot for the story), ; as "The Cold", directed by Shusuke Kaneko from a screenplay by Brent V. Friedman, it was part of the 1994 Lovecraftian omnibus film Necronomicon: Book of the Dead
; and as a 50-minute black-and-white version.
Cool Air
, directed by Bryan Moore was released in 1999 as part of the H.P. Lovecraft Collection. In the film, the nameless narrator of the story is replaced by Randolph Carter
.
The 2007 horror/splatter film Chill
directed by Serdge Rodnunsky is also loosely based on "Cool Air."
American literature
American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British...
horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
writer H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
, written in March 1926
1926 in literature
The year 1926 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is founded in Middlebury, Vermont....
and published in the March 1928
1928 in literature
The year 1928 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Ford Madox Ford publishes Last Post. It is the final book of a four-volume work titled Parade's End published between 1924 and 1928....
issue of Tales of Magic and Mystery.
Inspiration
Lovecraft wrote "Cool Air" during his unhappy stay in New York City, during which he wrote three horror stories with a New York setting. In "Lovecraft's New York Exile", David E. Schultz cites the contrast Lovecraft felt between his apartment, crammed with relics of his beloved New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, and the immigrant neighbourhood of Red Hook in which he lived as an inspiration for the "unsettling juxtaposition of opposites" that characterizes the short story. Like the story's main character, Shultz suggests, Lovecraft, cut off from his native Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, felt himself to be just going through the motions of life.
The building that is the story's main setting is based on a townhouse
Townhouse
A townhouse is the term historically used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries to describe a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city. Most such figures owned one or more country houses in which they lived for much of the year...
at 317 West 14th Street where George Kirk, one of Lovecraft's few New York friends, lived briefly in 1925. The narrator's heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
recalls that of another New York Lovecraft friend, Frank Belknap Long
Frank Belknap Long
Frank Belknap Long was a prolific American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including early contributions to...
, who dropped out of New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
because of his heart condition. The narrator's phobia
Phobia
A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational...
about cool air is reminiscent of Lovecraft himself, who was abnormally sensitive to cold.
Schultz indicates that "Cool Air"'s main literary source is Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" is a short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe about a mesmerist who puts a man in a suspended hypnotic state at the moment of death. An example of a tale of suspense and horror, it is also, to a certain degree, a hoax as it was published without claiming...
", described as Lovecraft's favourite Poe story after "The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in September 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. It was slightly revised in 1840 for the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque...
". Lovecraft had just finished the Poe chapter of his survey "Supernatural Horror in Literature
Supernatural Horror in Literature
"Supernatural Horror in Literature" is a long essay by the celebrated horror writer H. P. Lovecraft surveying the field of horror fiction. It was written between November 1925 and May 1927 and revised in 1933-1934. It was first published in 1927 in the one-shot magazine The Recluse...
" at the time that he wrote the short story. Lovecraft, however, stated years later that the story that inspired "Cool Air" was Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...
's "The Novel of the White Powder", another tale of bodily disintegration.
Reaction
Submitted to Lovecraft's regular outlet, the pulp magazine Weird TalesWeird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
, "Cool Air" was rejected by editor Farnsworth Wright
Farnsworth Wright
Farnsworth Wright was the editor of the pulp magazine Weird Tales during the magazine's heyday.He was born in California, and educated in the University of Nevada and the University of Washington....
, a decision that has been called "inexplicable...since it would appear to be just the sort of safe, macabre tale that he liked." It's possible that Wright feared that "its gruesome conclusion would invite censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
". Peter Cannon calls "Cool Air" Lovecraft's "best story with a New York setting", proving him "capable of using an understated, naturalistic
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
style to powerful effect."
Plot summary
The story is set up as the narrator's explanation for why a "draught of cool air" is the most detestable thing to him.The tale opens up in the spring of 1923 with the narrator looking for housing in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, finally settling in a converted brownstone
Brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
on West Fourteenth Street
14th Street (Manhattan)
14th Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street rivals the size of some of the well-known avenues of the city and is an important business location....
. Eventually, a chemical leak from the floor above reveals that the inhabitant directly overhead is a strange, old, and reclusive doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
. One day the narrator suffers a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
, and remembering that a doctor lives directly above, heads there, culminating in his first meeting with Dr. Muñoz.
The doctor shows supreme medical
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
skill and saves the narrator with a concoction of drugs
Medication
A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
, resulting in the fascinated narrator returning regularly to sit and learn from the doctor, his new friend. As their talks continue, it becomes increasingly evident that the doctor has an obsession with defying death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
through all available means.
The doctor's room is kept cold at approximately 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius) using an ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
-based refrigeration
Refrigeration
Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...
system, the pumps driven by a gasoline
Gasoline
Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
engine
Internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
. As time goes on, the doctor's health declines and his behaviour becomes increasingly eccentric. The cooling system is continuously upgraded, to the point where some areas are at sub-freezing
Freezing
Freezing or solidification is a phase change in which a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered below its freezing point. The reverse process is melting....
temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
s--until one night when the pump
Pump
A pump is a device used to move fluids, such as liquids, gases or slurries.A pump displaces a volume by physical or mechanical action. Pumps fall into three major groups: direct lift, displacement, and gravity pumps...
breaks down.
Without explanation, the panic-stricken doctor frantically implores his friend to help him keep his body cool. Unable to repair the machine until morning and without a replacement piston
Piston
A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from...
, they resort to having the doctor stay in a tub full of ice. The narrator spends his time replenishing the ice, but soon is forced to employ someone else to do it. When he finally manages to locate competent mechanics and the replacement part however, it is too late.
He arrives at the apartment only to see the rapidly-decomposed
Decomposition
Decomposition is the process by which organic material is broken down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death...
remains of the doctor, and a rushed, "hideously smeared" letter. The narrator reads it, and to his horror, finally understands the doctor's peculiarities: Dr. Muñoz was undead
Undead
Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...
, and has been for the past 18 years. Refusing to give in, he has kept his body going past the point of death using various methods, including perpetual coldness.
Doctor Muñoz
A Spanish physician of "striking intelligence and superior blood and breeding", he is described as "short but exquisitely proportioned", with a "high-bred face of masterful though not arrogant expression", "a short iron-grey full beard", "full, dark eyes" and "an aquiline nose". He calls himself "the bitterest of sworn enemies to deathDeath
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
", and one who had "sunk his fortune and lost all his friends in a lifetime of bizarre experiment devoted to its bafflement and extirpation." Saying he feels a "repugnance" on first meeting Muñoz that "nothing in his aspect could justify", the narrator remarks on "the ice-coldness and shakiness of his bloodless looking hands" and that fact that his breathing was imperceptible.
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopaedia suggests that Muñoz may have been modelled on Lovecraft's Brooklyn neighbour, "the fairly celebrated Dr. Love, State Senator and sponsor of the famous 'Clean Books bill' at Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
...evidently immune or unconscious of the decay." This is presumably William Lathrop Love, a Brooklyn physician and freemason who was a state senator from 1923 until 1932.
The narrator
The unnamed narrator has come to New York to do "some dreary and unprofitable magazineMagazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
work". He has drifted from one cheap boarding house to another before finding that the one on West Fourteenth Street "disgusted [him] much less than the others he had sampled." After being treated by Muñoz, his upstairs neighbour, he becomes "a disciple and devotee of the gifted recluse".
Adaptations
Issue #2 of Pacific Comics "Berni Wrightson's Master of the Macabre" features an illustrated version of "Cool Air" drawn by Berni Wrightson.The story "Baby... It's Cold Inside!" in EC Comics' Vault of Horror #17 is an unofficial adaptation of "Cool Air."
"Cool Air" has been adapted for film or television at least three times: as a 1971 episode of Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Jeannot Szwarc
Jeannot Szwarc is a French Film/TV Director.Szwarc was born in Paris. He began working as a director in American television during the 1960s, in particular on Ironside...
with a teleplay by Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
(where the narrator was changed to the daughter of a MIT colleague of Muñoz's, in order to accommodate a romantic plot for the story), ; as "The Cold", directed by Shusuke Kaneko from a screenplay by Brent V. Friedman, it was part of the 1994 Lovecraftian omnibus film Necronomicon: Book of the Dead
Necronomicon (film)
H.P. Lovecraft's: Necronomicon, original title Necronomicon, also called Necronomicon: Book of the Dead or Necronomicon: To Hell and Back is an American anthology horror film released in 1993. It was directed by Brian Yuzna, Christophe Gans and Shusuke Kaneko and was written by Brent V...
; and as a 50-minute black-and-white version.
Cool Air
Cool Air (film)
Cool Air is a 1999 black-and-white horror film directed by and starring Bryan Moore, and co-starring Jack Donner, with cinematography by Michael Bratkowski. It is based on the short story "Cool Air" by H. P. Lovecraft.-Plot:...
, directed by Bryan Moore was released in 1999 as part of the H.P. Lovecraft Collection. In the film, the nameless narrator of the story is replaced by Randolph Carter
Randolph Carter
Randolph Carter is a recurring protagonist in H. P. Lovecraft'sfiction and a thinly disguised alter ego of Lovecraft himself. The first tale in which Carter appears--"The Statement of Randolph Carter" --is based on one of Lovecraft's dreams....
.
The 2007 horror/splatter film Chill
Chill (film)
Chill is an award-winning 2007 horror film written and directed by Serge Rudnunsky that stars Thomas Calabro, Ashley Laurence, and James Russo.-Plot:...
directed by Serdge Rodnunsky is also loosely based on "Cool Air."
External links
- H.P. Lovecraft Collection Volume 1: Cool Air DVD
- Chelsea Pines Inn, on 317 West 14th Street