The kind of thinks I think late at night

[essentialsaltes]

Lemuria is named after lemurs, which are named after lemures.

So an imaginary continent is ultimately named for imaginary entities. I find this tidy and proper.

Comments

[incarnate.livejournal.com]

I imagine that geological theory in the late 1800's must have led to some terrifying thoughts on the stability of the planet. Without continental drift, a map that was constantly dropping some continents into the ocean and raising others up, seemingly without warning must have been more than a little disturbing. It certainly helps explain certain aspects of "Call of Cthulhu" and "Dagon" that with modern plate tectonics seem more far fetched.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

In At the Mountains of Madness (a much later story), HPL drops in a positive reference to continental drift, though it was still highly controversial even at that time (though the controversy and 'craziness' of the idea probably made it that much more attractive to drop into a weird tale):

"Later maps, which display the land mass as cracking and drifting, and sending certain detached parts northward, uphold in a striking way the theories of continental drift lately advanced by Taylor, Wegener, and Joly."
"As I have said, the hypothesis of Taylor, Wegener, and Joly that all the continents are fragments of an original antarctic land mass which cracked from centrifugal force and drifted apart over a technically viscous lower surface - an hypothesis suggested by such things as the complementary outlines of Africa and South America, and the way the great mountain chains are rolled and shoved up - receives striking support from this uncanny source."