H.P. Lovecraft roll call

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Sun May 16, 2004 1:25 pm

I've seen a few folks with Lovecraftian usernames. Identify yourselves lest you fear Pickman's ghouls find you and feast on your flesh.

Cheers,
Aaron

missy · Post by **missy** » Sun May 16, 2004 1:42 pm

I've read a few collections of his stories.
Some are really good. Others are weird. Others are just plain TOO out there. But all creative.
My 13 year old is a big Poe fan. He's read a few Lovecraft, but then had dreams about rats in the wall! Maybe in a few years he can try again.

Missy

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Sun May 16, 2004 2:47 pm

Poe and King were/are OK, but Lovecraft was the MASTER!

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Sun May 16, 2004 3:41 pm

Lovecraft was a genius.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sun May 16, 2004 3:46 pm

Who that be?

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Sun May 16, 2004 5:17 pm

Cranberry wrote:Who that be?

We'll forgive you because you're young yet.

HP Lovecraft was the greatest master of the Fantasy/Horror genre that has made Stephen King a multi-zillionaire, but he wrote in a period where a writer was likely to be happy he got fifteen bucks from a pulp magazine like Amazing or F&SF. But where King is entertaining in a ham-handed and predictable way, Lovecraft was subtle in a way that left you sleeping with the light on and unwilling to enter dark basements.

If you have access to a public library and aren't the kind who frightens easily, do yourself a major favor and look into his work. You can also pick up paperbacks for a song in used book stores sometimes.

And much as I love HP's work, if you want something that will make your blood run cold and make sure you never enjoy a night in the woods again, read Algernon Blackwood's "The Wendigo".

tommyk · Post by **tommyk** » Sun May 16, 2004 6:01 pm

Lovecraft was definitely The Master. I began reading at puberty. It has seriously affected many of my tastes.

I'd go into detail, but those details are the vast, dark, unnamable horrors . . .

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Sun May 16, 2004 8:58 pm

After reading Lovecraft, I have to sleep with a stuffed toy at night...

Kuranes · Post by **Kuranes** » Sun May 16, 2004 10:19 pm

*raises hand* (as is obvious from my username).

http://terror.snm-hgkz.ch/lovecraft/html/ (or here for palm os versions).

If anyone wants to do any reading.

One of the things that kept bouncing around in my head as I've been learning the whistle was to find appropriate music for the low whistle to record and use as a score during a CoC session. (If I had the *time* to roleplay anymore, that is...)

Does anyone know if there is any music theory to what we find "creepy" and what we find "happy"? Either a different mode, or a different scale? Or perhaps alien and otherworldly would be better served by going outside the normal western scales? Interesting stuff to think about, anyway.

Also, if anyone else likes Lovecraft's works, you should definately check the Hellboy movie out. The comic doesn't really feel terribly Lovecraftian, but the movie is spot on, especially the climax.

kevin m. · Post by **kevin m.** » Sun May 16, 2004 11:27 pm

Thanks for the link to the stories,Kuranes.I may not need to visit a bookshop or the library for a while now!

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Mon May 17, 2004 2:48 am

I second the recommendation of Blackwood for Lovecraft fans. Two of the best UK horror writers, Ramsey Campbell and D F Lewis were seriously influenced by old HPL.

For anyone who is tired of conventional, horror and dark fiction I'd definitely suggest tracking down some of D F Lewis's writing. The man has a gift for committing disorientation to paper.

There are some great horror and dark fantasy stories in the fiction library on one of my websites. www.dusksite.com including some Des Lewis stuff.

pthouron · Post by **pthouron** » Mon May 17, 2004 9:25 am

Wanderer wrote:After reading Lovecraft, I have to sleep with a stuffed toy at night...

Is that a Cthulhu doll???? Too much!
I discovered Lovecraft when I was 14 or so. I got into it so much that it felt like it was "history" rather than fiction... I still re-read the stuff once in a while. Those names... Nyarlatothep. Oooops! Did I just summon it?

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Mon May 17, 2004 10:20 am

OK, ok, I admit it: I had a Lovecraft phase, too, as a teenager. But I got over it. I mean, the stories are fun and mindboggling, but ultimately, the writing isn't very good. I've tried re-reading it, and didn't have the patience.

H.P. Lovecraft wrote:The older matters which had made the sculptor's dream and bas-relief so significant to my uncle formed the subject of the second half of his long manuscript. Once before, it appears, Professor Angell had seen the hellish outlines of the nameless monstrosity, puzzled over the unknown hieroglyphics, and heard the ominous syllables which can be rendered only as "Cthulhu"; and all this in so stirring and horrible a connexion that it is small wonder he pursued young Wilcox with queries and demands for data.

This earlier experience had come in 1908, seventeen years before, when the American Archaeological Society held its annual meeting in St. Louis. Professor Angell, as befitted one of his authority and attainments, had had a prominent part in all the deliberations; and was one of the first to be approached by the several outsiders who took advantage of the convocation to offer questions for correct answering and problems for expert solution.

From: Call of Cthulhu

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Mon May 17, 2004 11:17 am

I discovered Lovecraft when I was 14 or so. I got into it so much that it felt like it was "history" rather than fiction... I still re-read the stuff once in a while. Those names... Nyarlatothep. Oooops! Did I just summon it?

That worries me. Check out the novel, "Headhunter" by Michael Slade for a story about Lovcraftophilia gone amok.

Thanks Buddu for the tip on Lewis. I'll look it up.

Kuranes · Post by **Kuranes** » Mon May 17, 2004 11:54 am

Bloomfield wrote:OK, ok, I admit it: I had a Lovecraft phase, too, as a teenager. But I got over it. I mean, the stories are fun and mindboggling, but ultimately, the writing isn't very good. I've tried re-reading it, and didn't have the patience.

Quite true.... I'm getting the same feeling going back and trying to read some of Robert E. Howard's works. Some literary styles just don't age well (I have a feeling this is more to do with changing expecations of literary style rather than any inherient flaws in the style or writing itself).

Some of the other Mythos-inspired works can be good, but it's often a crapshoot. If you see the collection Cthulu 2000 at a library, there's a great story in there called The Barrens, though.

My primary interest in Lovecraft's works came about via the intention to play Call of Cthulhu. Unfortunately, I don't play it much anymore...