H.P Lovecraft

bjackman · Post by **bjackman** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 3:17 pm

Has anyone read any of his stuff? I just finished my book and I'm looking for the next, are his books still enjoyable, interesting reads in 2011, or are people who laud him just hipsters?

In my experience it can be a big mistake to try and read literary classics. I read some Victorian erotica once that was supposed to be very influential, but it was just incestuous, urine-related and, above all, pretty shit through my 21st century eyes.

Phigure · Post by **Phigure** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 3:25 pm

Nah, HP Povecraft really is a genuinely good author

manillathrilla · Post by **manillathrilla** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 3:51 pm

hah i just got really into him, picked up bloodcurling tales of horror and the macabre last week, its sweet. I would put him up there with king or poe.
if i were you, id watch a few films, "into the mouth of madness" "Dagon" and the entire evil dead series which was inspired by lovecrafts stories.

manillathrilla · Post by **manillathrilla** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 3:52 pm

also "dreams in the witch house"

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:08 pm

barnes and noble have a couple collection books of his stories that are def worth picking up
slso http://www.cthulhulives.org/

gwa · Post by **gwa** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:09 pm

i'm reading one of his atm

mVI · Post by **mVI** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:10 pm

bjackman wrote:I read some Victorian erotica once that was supposed to be very influential, but it was just incestuous, urine-related...

This is relevant to my interests.

manillathrilla · Post by **manillathrilla** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:27 pm

i concur

kingldub · Post by **kingldub** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:53 pm

I enjoy his work, picked up this collection not so long ago actually

http://www.amazon.co.uk/H-P-Lovecraft-O ... 837&sr=8-3

Also, how can you list film adaptations without mentioning The Re-Animator?

alphacat · Post by **alphacat** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:17 pm

Ah, Lovecraft...

First of all: don't let all that flowery language get in the way of his bizarre, sometimes amazing imagination.

He claimed he had an advanced college degree, and yet the school in question has no record of him. He was a racist, a fascist sympathizer, a pathological failure with women other than his mother, and he named the family cat "N¡gger Man."

And yet despite all this - he taps into a current of deep dread in his horror that nobody'd ever really done before him... the horror of proportions, of man's insignificance and transience in a universe that not only doesn't care about you, it might not even know you exist as it snuffs out your mind or your life without thinking twice, or even thinking at all. It's the horror of the idea that we barely know one thousandth of one percent of what there is to know, and the more we know the worse it gets - that science could just as easily awaken something best left sleeping as anything else. It taps into the fears of modern people in a post-materialist world (sort of like how Bram Stoker tapped into Victorian male sexual phobias with Dracula) in a way that was very original and not based on existing mythologies as much as previous fantasy authors had. His odd personality became a reflecting & focusing lens for the world he perceived around him.

Not all of his stories work 100%. Some of them are downright laughable, in fact. But in other pieces he manages to create a whole other aesthetic than most other authors of fantastic fiction that's been shared (other authors wound up writing stuff in the Cthulhu mythos, like Robert E. Howard, author of the original Conan novels) and has influenced much modern horror and fantasy... and even religious movements, ironically (he was an avowed atheist.)

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

RubiconMan · Post by **RubiconMan** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:58 pm

i just watch the movies!

re-animator being a fave! - check From Beyond if u liked that!

springheeljack · Post by **springheeljack** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 5:09 pm

read 'call of the cthulhu' recently- seriously good, better than a lot of modern horror i've read thats for sure

plus it might just be me but a fuck of a lot scarier than most horror films i've seen

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 5:34 pm

the game is sick too

coming soon

and realllly waiting for
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1118070/

i have most of the lovecraft/and influenced movies, most aren't worth a damn save a few, and they all tend to star jeffery combs

kay · Post by **kay** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 7:22 pm

manillathrilla wrote:picked up bloodcurling tales of horror and the macabre

Finally finished reading that a few weeks ago. Quite enjoyed it. My favourite was The Outsider.

His stuff isn't scary or anything like that. Leans more towards creepy, spooky and making you feel uneasy. I can also see its appeal as it suggests that there's something else out there. The superb writing doesn't hurt either.

nr · Post by nr » Fri Jan 21, 2011 9:12 pm

read 'at the mountains of madness' tough read but good. del toro is making the film with cameron producing

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