Cool Air
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"Cool Air" is a short story by the American
horror fiction Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defin ...
writer
H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...
, written in March 1926 and published in the March 1928 issue of '' Tales of Magic and Mystery''.


Plot

The narrator offers a story to explain why a "draught of cool air" is the most detestable thing to him. His tale begins in the spring of 1923, when he was looking for housing in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. He finally settles in a converted brownstone on West Fourteenth Street. Investigating a chemical leak from the floor above, he discovers that the inhabitant directly overhead is a strange, old, and reclusive
physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
. One day the narrator suffers a
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
, and remembering that a doctor lives overhead, he climbs the stairs and meets Dr. Muñoz for the first time. The doctor demonstrates supreme medical skill, and saves the narrator with a combination of medications. The fascinated narrator returns regularly to sit and learn from the doctor. 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 at approximately 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius) using an
ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...
-based
refrigeration Refrigeration is any of various types of cooling of a space, substance, or system to lower and/or maintain its temperature below the ambient one (while the removed heat is ejected to a place of higher temperature).IIR International Dictionary of ...
system; the pumps are driven by a
gasoline Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...
engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...
. 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 of his rooms are sub-freezing, 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, 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 locates competent mechanics to repair the pump, it is too late. He arrives at the apartment in time to see the rapidly decomposing remains of the doctor, and a rushed, "hideously smeared" letter. The narrator reads it; to his horror, he learns that Dr. Muñoz died 18 years previously. Refusing to surrender to death, he maintained the semblance of life past the point of death using various methods, depending upon refrigeration to slow decomposition.


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 is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
, and the immigrant neighborhood of Red Hook near where he lived as an inspiration for the "unsettling juxtaposition of opposites" that characterizes the short story. Like the story's main character, Schultz suggests, Lovecraft, cut off from his native
Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
, 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 A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...
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 A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
recalls that of another New York Lovecraft friend, Frank Belknap Long, who dropped out of
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
because of his heart condition. The narrator's
phobia A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected ...
about cool air is reminiscent of Lovecraft himself, who was abnormally sensitive to cold.Joshi and Cannon, p. 158. Schultz indicates that "Cool Air"'s main literary source is
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
'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.


Characters

*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
death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...
", and one who had "sunk his fortune and lost all his friends in a lifetime of bizarre experiment devoted to its bafflement and extirpation."Lovecraft, "Cool Air", p. 202. 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 his breathing was imperceptible. :''An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopaedia'' suggests that Muñoz may have been modelled on Lovecraft's Brooklyn neighbour, described by Lovecraft as “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 L. Love, a Brooklyn physician and freemason who was a state senator from 1923 until 1932. *The unnamed narrator who has come to New York to do "some dreary and unprofitable
magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
work." He has drifted from one cheap boarding house to another before finding that the one on West Fourteenth Street "disgusted immuch less than the others he had sampled." After being treated by Muñoz, his upstairs neighbor, he becomes "a disciple and devotee of the gifted recluse".


Reception

Submitted to Lovecraft's regular outlet, the pulp magazine ''
Weird Tales ''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printe ...
'', "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 Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
." 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."


Adaptations

*Issue #62 of Warren Publishing's '' Eerie'' features a comic adaptation of "Cool Air" by Berni Wrightson. It was later reprinted several times, first by Warren, then by
Pacific Comics Pacific Comics was a comic book Distribution (marketing), distributor and Comic book publisher, publisher active from 1971 to 1984. The company began as a San Diego, California, comic book shop owned by brothers Bill Schanes, Bill and Steve Schan ...
. *The story "Baby... It's Cold Inside!" in EC Comics's Vault of Horror #17 is a loose comic adaptation of "Cool Air." *"Cool Air" has been adapted for film or television at least three times: **a 1971 episode of ''
Night Gallery ''Night Gallery'' is an American anthology television series that aired on NBC from December 16, 1970, to May 27, 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, '' The Twilight Zon ...
'' directed by
Jeannot Szwarc Jeannot Szwarc (21 November 1937 – 14 January 2025) was a French director known for his work in American film and television. His film credits included '' Jaws 2'', ''Somewhere in Time'', ''Supergirl'' and '' Santa Claus: The Movie''. Szwarc ...
with a teleplay by
Rod Serling Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his Anthology series, anthology television series ''The Twilight Zone (1 ...
(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) **"The Cold", directed by Shusuke Kaneko from a screenplay by Brent V. Friedman, a segment of the 1994 Lovecraftian omnibus film '' Necronomicon: Book of the Dead'' **a 50-minute black-and-white version directed by Bryan Moore (where the nameless narrator of the story is replaced by Randolph Carter), released in 1999 as part of the ''H.P. Lovecraft Collection''. *The 2007 horror/splatter film ''
Chill In computing, CHILL (an acronym for CCITT High Level Language) is a procedural programming language designed for use in telecommunication switches (the hardware used inside telephone exchanges). The language is still used for legacy systems ...
'' directed by Serdge Rodnunsky is loosely based on "Cool Air." *
DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
'
Elseworlds Elseworlds is the publication imprint (trade name), imprint for American comic books produced by DC Comics for stories that take place outside the DC Universe Canon (fictional), canon. Elseworlds publications are set in alternate realities that ...
three-part story, ''Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham'', adapted the character of Mr. Freeze into a role inspired by Dr. Muñoz of "Cool Air". *Blue Hours Productions has done an adaptation of "Cool Air" for its revival of the classic radio series ''
Suspense Suspense is a state of anxiety or excitement caused by mysteriousness, uncertainty, doubt, or undecidedness. In a narrative work, suspense is the audience's excited anticipation about the plot or conflict (which may be heightened by a viol ...
'', which began airing on Sirius XM Radio in Fall 2012. It features Adrienne Wilkinson and Daamen Krall, and was adapted by John C. Alsedek and Dana Perry-Hayes. *
Lions Gate Lions Gate, Lion Gate or similar terms may refer to: Gates *Lion Gate at Mycenae in Greece *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, now in Turkey *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the gardens of Hampton Court Pala ...
released (on May 21, 2013) an adaptation by Albert Pyun from a script by Cynthia Curnan. The film was entitled ''H. P. Lovecraft's Cool Air''. *The song "Cool Air" by American
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
band Glass Hammer is based on the story. It was originally released as a part of a 2012 collaborative album dedicated to Lovecraft titled ''The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft'', and then as a part of their 2017 album '' Untold Tales''. *The first issue of
Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', Swamp Thing (comic book), ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman: The Killing Joke' ...
's comic '' Providence'' draws heavily from "Cool Air".


References


Sources

*H. P. Lovecraft, "Cool Air", ''The Dunwich Horror and Others'', Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, pp. 203–207. *Lovecraft, "Cool Air", ''More Annotated Lovecraft'', S. T. Joshi and Peter Cannon, eds., New York: Dell, pp. 158–171. *David E. Schultz, "Lovecraft's New York Exile", ''Black Forbidden Things'', Mercer Island, WA: Starmount House, p. 55.


External links

* * - from reprint in Weird Tales * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cool Air 1928 short stories American short stories Fiction about suspended animation Fiction set in 1923 Horror short stories Short stories adapted into films Short stories by H. P. Lovecraft Short stories set in New York City Works originally published in American magazines Works originally published in fantasy fiction magazines Works originally published in science fiction magazines Works originally published in pulp magazines Short stories about zombies