The Second Apocalypse
Miscellaneous Chatter => Literature => Topic started by: What Came Before on May 14, 2013, 09:47:47 pm
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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 (http://humanoids.bandcamp.com/track/arkham-sir)
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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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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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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 )
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.
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.
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 (http://hppodcraft.com/2011/07/20/episode-84-the-shadow-over-innsmouth-part-1/)
Part 2 (http://hppodcraft.com/2011/07/27/episode-85-the-shadow-over-innsmouth-part-2/)
Part 3 (http://hppodcraft.com/2011/08/03/episode-86-the-shadow-over-innsmouth-part-3/)
Part 4 (http://hppodcraft.com/2011/08/10/episode-87-the-shadow-over-innsmouth-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 (http://hppodcraft.com/2012/02/22/episode-104-the-shadow-out-of-time-part-1/)
Part 2 (http://hppodcraft.com/2012/02/29/episode-105-the-shadow-out-of-time-part-2/)
Part 3 (http://hppodcraft.com/2012/03/07/episode-106-the-shadow-out-of-time-part-3/)
Part 4 (http://hppodcraft.com/2012/03/14/episode-107-the-shadow-out-of-time-part-4/)
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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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I'm not big on horror fiction but to be fair, I've never really given it a chance.
Cheers, TS. Thanks for the hookups. Going to enjoy the listening. And for you...
The Revelator (http://revelatormagazine.com/issue/special-we-heart-lovecraft-issue/): We Heart Lovecraft Issue
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Rereading WLW, here's a moment of reflection from Sorweel:
"When he thought about the world beyond what his eyes could see, he saw souls in their innumerable thousands with only frayed threads to hold them, dangling over the gaping black of the Outside, and the shadows moving beneath, the Gods, ancient and capricious, reptilian with indifference, with designs so old and vast that there could only be madness in the small eyes of Men." [emphasis mine]
If that's not Lovecraftian, I don't know what is! ;)
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+1.
H.P. Lovecraft's Advice to Writers[/u] (http://io9.com/5975432/hp-lovecrafts-advice-to-writers-read-the-king-james-bible-and-develop-a-love-for-unusual-words?tag=writing-advice)
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You cannot read fantasy for 20 years yet not hear of this guy. HP lurks benath the stories and referals to him are many. Yet only now I have gotten his book, with a 25% discount additionaly :-). I am mid through 15 stories right now and they are impresive, really. I had a bad dreams after them. And mostly I have no dreams at all. Except occasional bimbo :-)
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Haha. +1 coobek. He's a master of the craft, for sure.
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I'm a huge Lovecraft fan. I was only fourteen when I encountered his short stories, and they kept me up many a night. The Rats in the Walls is probably my favorite.
Ironically, I believe that if Lovecraft knew the kind of following his work has generated since his death (i.e. horror concepts, Cthulhu Mythos, games, etc.) he would think we were all nuts.
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If I recall correctly he was phobic of the ocean. We've definitely mythologized his ideas... probably would scare him.
I can imagine him being terrified during Cloverfield, screaming about Dogon. Poor man. People would laugh at him.
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We've definitely mythologized his ideas... probably would scare him.
I remember reading that part of the reason for this was that Lovecraft allowed his creations to be used without fear of copyright or intellectual property rights.
Pioneer of open source fiction. I was first exposed to the mythos through a D&D rulebook. :D
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Too cool. I really appreciate SFF's start in serial fiction.
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Clark Ashton Smith (http://www.eldritchdark.com/)
Anyone read anything by him?
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Yes i have read two short stories by him in a collection of Mythos-related stories from other authors than H.P. Lovecraft. One was Ubbo-Sathla and the other The Return of the Sorcerer or something like that. He captured the writing style of Lovecraft quite good, but in my opinion the stories lack the final... tension and creeps I got from Lovecraft's best works.
But I cannot say much of the quality of his other stories.
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I'm going to read some original stuff (rather than within-Mythos) before I pass my absolute and final judgment ;).