Miskatonic Arcihves

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An encyclopedia of strange fiction, its creators, places and mythos. Follow the sources; draw your own conclusions.

Tagged: Death-fly

Entities & creatures

Death-fly

The death-fly in Winged Death is an insect associated with a fictional transfer of consciousness: a person it infects may enter its body after dying. The blue-winged specimen that pursues Thomas Slauenwite appears to carry Henry Moore’s identity before the final transfer reverses their relationship. Its behavior combines the small physical scale of an insect with memory, intention and the ability to communicate.

5 min read · 1,029 words

Themes & context

Identity and possession

Lovecraft repeatedly separates the person others recognize from the intelligence occupying a recognizable body. His stories use several different mechanisms: coercive exchanges of consciousness, physical impersonation, alien custodianship and the survival of a mind under radically altered conditions. Reading these mechanisms separately reveals how letters, habits, memories and witnesses become tests of identity when appearance fails.

8 min read · 1,506 words

Literature

Winged Death

Winged Death follows a physician who uses his professional knowledge to murder a former friend, then finds himself pursued by an insect apparently carrying the victim’s consciousness. A journal records both the crime and the collapse of the killer’s confidence. The framing investigation in a South African hotel supplies evidence outside his own testimony, turning a story of calculated revenge into one of bodily and mental entrapment.

11 min read · 2,124 words