Miscellaneous Chatter > Literature
HP Lovecraft
What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Truth Shines ---Any Lovecraft fan here? I haven't read any of his stuff for a long while, but recently I accidentally discovered a really fun podcast and this rekindled my interest.
It's called HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast (you can either listen to them on their website, or better yet, search for it on iTunes and download them that way). It's done by two pretty funny and knowledgeable guys named Chad Fifer and Chris Lackey. They often have guests on their show as well -- people who are actors and directors who have done film and other adaptations of Lovecraft's stories. They would go through each story in detail and it's pretty interesting.
Also, found this really cool Lovecraft-inspired song: Arkham Sir by Humanoids
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Davias ---I'm a big Lovecraft Fan, since I discovered his books twelve years ago. It was a tiny bookstore in a back alley and I had nothing interesting to read at the time. I rummaged the shelfs and found a small booklet with a picture of a glacier and the title:"At The Mountains Of Madness". I took the book and read it. I was hooked instantly.
Since then I have read all of Lovecraft stories. I was always a fan of horror stories, but Lovecraft inspired me a lot more and the dark and sinister feeling, when I read one of his tales, is very special.
I know a few authours, who achieved a similar mood with their stories in me:
Thomas Ligotti ( whose books are very hard to come by in germany )
Brian Evensson ( not just horror stories, but he write psychological dark stories, which I loved a lot )
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Madness ---It's strange. I feel like Cthulu and that mythos has been around me always, which is not the case, so I wonder when I initially encountered Lovecraft.
I share a healthy amount of respect for his writing ability. Whether it was his ability to translate his own terror into words or simply an astute perspective, his ability to create a sense of unease, without really giving the reader any information as to why.
Lovecraft created this amazing sense of unease and I would study him endlessly, if only to learn how to better conduct a reader's emotions through writing.
Shadow Out of Time is probably one of my Lovecraft favorites.
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Truth Shines ---
--- Quote from: Davias ---I know a few authours, who achieved a similar mood with their stories in me:
Thomas Ligotti ( whose books are very hard to come by in germany )
Brian Evensson ( not just horror stories, but he write psychological dark stories, which I loved a lot )
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I read some Ligotti. He has a few interesting ideas but overall I'd say only OK. By far, far, farrrr the worthier successor to Lovecraft is Caitlin Kiernan. If you can, try to find a copy of the book "To Charles Fort, With Love." It's a collection of some of her short stories. It contains a preface titled "Looking for Innsmouth" (referring to my favorite Lovecraft story "Shadow Over Innsmouth"). In this preface Kiernan along with her girlfriend, it looked like, really had an encounter with a fishy/human monster along the coast of New England! :shock: Three of the stories, "Onion" (contains a lovely shout-out to "Mountain of Madness"), "La Peau Verte" (madness/psychological horror at its perfection), and "The Dandrige Cycle" (very mythos-Lovecraftian-esque, just look at the titles -- "A Redress for Andromeda," "Nor the Demons Down Under the Sea" which is a Edgar Allen Poe reference! ;) "Andromeda Among the Stones") are just absolutely sublime.
I normally don't buy books (I don't have much money, and most books are not worth reading multiple times so I just check them out from libraries), but I did buy this one from ebay for more than $80. Totally worth it.
--- Quote from: Madness ---Lovecraft created this amazing sense of unease and I would study him endlessly, if only to learn how to better conduct a reader's emotions through writing.
Shadow Out of Time is probably one of my Lovecraft favorites.
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It's funny you should use the word "unease." Caitlin Kiernan has been called just that: the master of the unease. Lovecraft had to write for pulpy magazines, so there's only so far he could take his unease. Kiernan is a far superior writer, and she's under no obligation to end her stories with a string of exclamation marks and italics -- so just image how much better she is!
BTW, here are the links to the four part series Fifer and Lackey did on my favorite Lovecraft story "Shadow Over Innsmouth" -- they had a lot of fun in this :D
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
And here's their discussion on your favorite, Madness, "Shadow Out of Time," containing some rather lenghthy diversions on mind-controlling microbes and the old TV show Quantum Leap :D
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
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What Came Before:
--- Quote from: Davias ---So far I haven't heard from Caitlin Kiernan. Thanks for the tip Thruth Shines, I will definitely check her books out.
Beside authors like Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, Brian Evenson, Dan Simmons and some Clive Barker, I haven't many good horror books in my own collection.
I've read some of Stephen King's stories. He has some good and creepy ideas, but I don't like his writing style and many of his stories are too boring and long drawn out in my opinion.
When I search for good horror books in nearby libraries and shops, I'm battered to death by hundreds of those silly "Vampire stories" under the horror category. Between three or four dozen books titled like: "Vampire Lover" "Vampire Dagger", "Vampire's Lover", a few Stephen King and Dean Koontz are plugged on the shelfs. And with a little luck, I can find one tattered Lovecraft book, printed in 1990 or so, which an employee have forgotten there :cry:
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