What's the fuss about Lovecraft?

[banjobama]

Oh, I love H.P. Lovecraft, racist SOB that he was. I do think his writing is an acquired taste. All the cosmic horror and inherited guilt stuff is not for everyone.

No one yet has mentioned "Herbert West: Reanimator." It's not his best, but I liked it a lot and found it to be very creepy.

[ATDrake]

For some weird reason, I've always been fonder of the derivative works and the parodies.

Like The Misadventures of Hello Cthulhu! And Tales of the Plush Cthulhu!

And, of course, the whole lot of Mythos plushies, of which this guy seems to have the entire set and a website entirely devoted to showcasing his collection. I admire his dedication, especially since it can't be cheap to ship those things to Japan*.

Plus, there's some excellent mash-up pro and fan fic, like the abovementioned Charles Stross' A Colder War, or Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald.

And some very dedicated person has spent at least 10 years of his life collating all the available original and derivative Mythos material onto a website: The Cthulhu Mythos on the Internet, which is apparently part of an even bigger site that has guides to everything you could ever want to know about Lovecraft overall.

I recommend the excellent fanfiction story listed there, Shadow over Westchester by Kerrie Smith, which is a very good X-Men/Mythos mash-up. There are, apparently, also Star Trek, X-Files, and Daria crossovers which morbid curiosity may compel me to read when I have some free time.

* I once looked up shipping to Canada for the ones I wanted most. It came to significantly more than the actual cost of the plushies themselves.

[BenG]

You may want to try Shadows Over Baker Street and Move Underground ( a mashup of Lovecraft and Jack Kerouac). Last I looked Move Underground was in the MobileRead library.

There's also The Eldritch Horror of Oz by L. Frank Lovecraft. It's a short story that's been anthologized only once and so is almost impossible to find except in some dark corners of the Internet.

[taosaur]

Lovecraft was to 'otherworldly' horror what Tolkien was to sword-and-sorcery fantasy. Subtract Lovecraft's influence from any of Stephen King's works, and you'd only have every third page remaining.

It is odd that Cthulhu has become the poster-child for Lovecraft's 'hidden world' antagonists when he/it is one of the more prosaic examples--basically a big rubber monster with sanity-jamming effects.

Originally Posted by ATDrake

For some weird reason, I've always been fonder of the derivative works and the parodies.

I can't believe no one has mentioned A Shoggoth on the Roof: http://www.cthulhulives.org/shoggoth/



Awesome Lovecraftian Legos, despite the poor camera work

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by BenG

You may want to try Shadows Over Baker Street and Move Underground ( a mashup of Lovecraft and Jack Kerouac). Last I looked Move Underground was in the MobileRead library.

Thanks for the recs. Shadows Over Baker Street has been in the downtown library for ages*, but I'd never heard of the Kerouac mashup before, which sounds fun.

Originally Posted by taosaur

It is odd that Cthulhu has become the poster-child for Lovecraft's 'hidden world' antagonists when he/it is one of the more prosaic examples--basically a big rubber monster with sanity-jamming effects.

I think it's because Cthulhu is more easily depictable, and therefore more easily relatable. Slap some bat wings on an octopus† and spray-paint it all green, and voilà! InstaCthulhu!

* Not to be confused with strange aeons.

† Make a lovely Great Old One, he would‡.

‡ That is not dead which can eternal lie. It's just pining for the Dreamlands.

[taosaur]

I'm a purple Cthulhu man myself.

[BenG]

Where can I get the MP3 of Cthlulu singing "To Sir With Lovecraft".

[RolandD]

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society made a silent movie version of 'Call of Cthulhu'

I highly recommend it.

Reading Lovecraft is often a trial, but I consider it worth the effort.

[jrlewis]

I agree with a lot of the comments here. I really enjoy the imagination and concepts of Lovecraft's stories, but somehow don't actually enjoy reading them.

[Thasaidon]

Originally Posted by jrlewis

I agree with a lot of the comments here. I really enjoy the imagination and concepts of Lovecraft's stories, but somehow don't actually enjoy reading them.

I am in a similar situation with many of Lovecraft's stories. I find some of his writing overly florrid and hyterical in tone.

I do however enjoy the whole Cthulhu Mythos he created and the writers who played in the "Mythos Garden", so I read his work from time to time.

I also, especially like "Clarke Ashton Smith", "Robert E Howard", "Frank Belknap Long", "August Derleth" and "Ramsay Campbell", all of whom have written 'Mythos' stories.

[BenG]

Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October owes a lot to Lovecraft, especially the Dream Sequence, but with better writing and a humorous twist(The POV is Jack the Ripper's dog, Snuff).

There is even a scene where we get a glimpse of another world which seems to be that of Lovecraft's Cats of Ulthar.

[Scott Nicholson]

I love his ideas but he's terribly classist, often making his working-class characters sound like mush-mouthed buffoons wile the professors are erudite and elegant (and of course usually consumed by madness/creatures)

[ATDrake]

This is a thing of beauty and a joy forever: The Call of Cthulhu, done Dr. Seuss-style.

I would actually buy this if it were assembled into a print book.

[fiver]

My dad introduced me to Lovecraft, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, E.F. Benson, and others when I was a child - he used to read the stories to me and he always pointed out a passage or turn of phrase he particularly liked. Ever since then, I've been enamored of that type of story-telling. Lovecraft for me was always the best although I can see how more modern readers would not be as enamored of his work.

For those who want to get into his work to find out why he is often praised, I would highly recommend the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast. There are 105 episodes out and each episode goes over a different story - for the longer stories/novels there are multiple episodes - and they provide a pretty good insight into parts of the story that you might miss out on due to the archaic language or how Lovecraft's life, upbringing, and beliefs influenced a story. These guys were also involved in the Call of Cthulhu silent movie adaptation with the HP Lovecraft historical society from a few years ago.

Michael

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by fiver

My dad introduced me to Lovecraft, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, E.F. Benson, and others when I was a child - he used to read the stories to me and he always pointed out a passage or turn of phrase he particularly liked. Ever since then, I've been enamored of that type of story-telling. Lovecraft for me was always the best although I can see how more modern readers would not be as enamored of his work.

For those who want to get into his work to find out why he is often praised, I would highly recommend the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast. There are 105 episodes out and each episode goes over a different story - for the longer stories/novels there are multiple episodes - and they provide a pretty good insight into parts of the story that you might miss out on due to the archaic language or how Lovecraft's life, upbringing, and beliefs influenced a story. These guys were also involved in the Call of Cthulhu silent movie adaptation with the HP Lovecraft historical society from a few years ago.

Michael

the producers of the Call of Cthulhu movie have a new Lovecraft film out. this one is a talkie -

http://www.amazon.com/The-Whisperer-...0843288&sr=8-1




i really wish i could get into the early horror authors. they just don't suck me in the way lovecraft did. i should love robert e. howards stuff too but i just can't get into it.