Thread: H.P. Lovecraft!

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Definitely on my list. I'm still ploughing through a couple other things, but I'm eager to check this guy out. I might pick up The Outsider, since you seem so smitten with it.

I can only handle Lovecraft in very small, infrequent doses. He is, however, great fun to parody. I've written several and Lovecraft fans seem to love 'em. I'm scribbling on one now, poking fun at the fact that Lovecraft's heroes were mainly a bunch of wimps. This dude is driven mad by an edited-for-television presentation of Hellraiser (and the commercials!)

If you can find it, read the Lovecraft bio by L. Sprauge DeCamp. He was a fascinating, strange, sometimes tragic guy. He would have been far more prolific if not for two things: his obsessive correspondance with anyone who would write to him (and some of his letters were 50-75 pages long! His biggest non-necessity expense was postage!) and his hatred of typing. On several occasions, Robert E. Howard felt sorry enough for him to actually type his handwritten manuscripts for submission. The editor of Weird Tales eventually just told him to go ahead and send the handwritten versions.

Try Arthur Machen for similar stuff. He was one of Lovecraft's influences:

"Such forces cannot be named, cannot be spoken, cannot be imagined except under a veil and a symbol, a symbol to the most of us appearing a quaint, poetic fancy, to some a foolish tale. But you and I, at all events, have known something of the terror that may dwell in the secret place of life, manifested under human flesh; that which is without form taking to itself a form. Oh, Austin, how can it be? How is it that the very sunlight does not turn to blackness before this thing, the hard earth melt and boil beneath such a burden?"

-- from The Great God Pan

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“In 1914, when the kindly hand of amateurdom was first extended to me, I was as close to the state of vegetation as any animal well can be...With the advent of the United I obtained a renewal to live; a renewed sense of existence as other than a superfluous weight; and found a sphere in which I could feel that my efforts were not wholly futile. For the first time I could imagine that my clumsy gropings after art were a little more than faint cries lost in the unlistening world.” H.P Lovecraft

A sad but interesting chap. Greatly influenced by his grandfather. He was considered a highly Autodidact of his time, which began at the tender age of...2. A very stimulating, compelling biography to read.

Please refer also to the previous thread Lovecraft, which has much information not contained in this short series of responses.

Will do, kind sir. One of these days I shall learn to use the search function.

On a random tangent, one of my favourite gamecube games was Eternal Darkness. I played that game to death and unlocked, like, the hidden ending thingy. Sometime after that I got into Lovecraft and I remember thinking "this seems familiar...", and then I looked it up and, yeah, Eternal Darkness was heavily Lovecraft inspired. That game ruled so much, it had the Necronomicon and everything.

Never played it but I'm not surprised. Lovecraft's creations have bolstered a lot of popular culture.

Originally Posted by caelum

On a random tangent, one of my favourite gamecube games was Eternal Darkness. I played that game to death and unlocked, like, the hidden ending thingy. Sometime after that I got into Lovecraft and I remember thinking "this seems familiar...", and then I looked it up and, yeah, Eternal Darkness was heavily Lovecraft inspired. That game ruled so much, it had the Necronomicon and everything.

Also having the game and taken the design apart somewhat, Lovecraft is one of the primary sources for the game. As I don't have a vast knowledge of his work I can't point to any particular stories, but the general tone and style of it is very close.

Did you ever get the ones with the flies on the screen? That one got me, mind you Australian summer tends to equal lots of flies and I did end up smacking the TV screen.

Haha, the insanity effects? Those were sweet. I remember I walked in a room and the chick's head fell off and I was like wtf is going on? There was some trippy stuff in that game, like the tower of collapsed corpses. I remember books flying around if you went too insane and portraits staring at you. I loved the spells, especially the summon ones. Ahh, the memories.

Unspeakable Vault

Classic. Also the reason I can't take those Eldritch Abominations seriously.

Then you missed the point in the first place.

Originally Posted by Ashton Lee

Unspeakable Vault

Classic. Also the reason I can't take those Eldritch Abominations seriously.

1) What's the point in mis-spelling 'Cthulhu'? It's not a trademark.

2) If you can't draw a face, don't do a comic strip.

Another one who thinks that tvtropes is reality. Eldritch Abominations! *chuckles* I wrote some of that text.