What Would H P Lovecraft Think Of Modern Horror Writers and Who Would he Like ?

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And what would he think of the current story incarnations of Cosmic Horror ?


Thoughts ? :)
 
Thomas Liggotti and his collection of stories The Shadow at the Bottom of the World. He would fascinated by his take on Cosmic horror .
 
King is sentimental and focused on character relations--I don't know that Lovecraft liked to mix sentiment with horror.
There's a short story called "Things" I believe--which was an interpretation of The Thing 1982, where the alien is seen as a misunderstood crusader for universal love. I wonder how he would regard that one.
 
KGeo777 said:
King is sentimental and focused on character relations--I don't know that Lovecraft liked to mix sentiment with horror.
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Lovecrat never struck me as being the sentimental type , he might take issue with that . He would have been intrigued by characters such Pennywise the Clown because in some ways this particular villain is reminiscent of Nyarlathotep , the Crawling Chaos shapeshifter . he might like the story Grandma because that one very much Lovercraftain . :) I wonder what Lovecraft would have made of the Hotel Overlook in The Shinning or Randal Flagg in The Stan and The Gunslinger saga ?.:unsure:



KGeo777 said:
There's a short story called "Things" I believe--which was an interpretation of The Thing 1982, where the alien is seen as a misunderstood crusader for universal love. I wonder how he would regard that one.
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Who Goes There by John W Campbell published in 1938 the year after Lovecraft died . Campbell had written a novel length version of that story called Frozen Hell of which had been found and published a few years ago. The Alien in both short story and the novel version was a shapeshifter and could mimic anyone. The 1982 film was far more more in line with Campbell's story than was the Howard Hawks 1951 film with its blood drinking plant man . I think Lovecraft would have very much liked the story and the 1982 film ans possible the 2011 Thing prequel film as well.
 
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I think that Lovecraft would generally enjoy modern horror. He wasn't interested in writing sentimental stories. But he read widely including many sentimental stories. He would be flattered with the vast number of stories that refer to his tales or are derivative of his tales. Though, among his friends, he'd gleefully rip to shreds poor writing and obvious plot problems.

S.T. Joshi has a list of the books found in Lovecraft's study. Again, very broad range of books. And the periodicals HPL read -- scandalous.

And for films, somewhere there is a list of the movies that Lovecraft described seeing in his letters. He seemed to like the blockbusters of the day. (Sadly, I can't find the list at this moment)
 
I think Lovecraft would find much of it vulgar. He was a prude, so sex would be a distasteful intrusion. Any focus on human relationships, which pretty much has to happen at novel length to keep reader interest, he would probably see as a dilution of effect. The efforts by recent writers to counteract his racism and xenophobia would probably disturb him, too.

On the whole, I think there are things he'd like, but I'm not sure he'd have found the breadth and depth of horror fiction today to his liking.

KGeo777 said:
There's a short story called "Things" I believe--which was an interpretation of The Thing 1982, where the alien is seen as a misunderstood crusader for universal love. I wonder how he would regard that one.
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Now that, given how he portrays the Old Ones in "At the Mountains of Madness," might have appealed to him.
 
Randy M. said:
I think Lovecraft would find much of it vulgar. He was a prude, so sex would be a distasteful intrusion. Any focus on human relationships, which pretty much has to happen at novel length to keep reader interest, he would probably see as a dilution of effect. The efforts by recent writers to counteract his racism and xenophobia would probably disturb him, too.

On the whole, I think there are things he'd like, but I'm not sure he'd have found the breadth and depth of horror fiction today to his liking.


Now that, given how he portrays the Old Ones in "At the Mountains of Madness," might have appealed to him.
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He would liked films like X From The Unknown and the and the Mud like radio active creature. He have seen it alike to Crawling Chaos .
The Forbidden Planet and its Id Monster , Quatermass and the Pit , he would seen a mirroring of his stories Shadow Out of Time and At the Mountains of Madness. He would loved Alien and The Thing 1982 . And he would very much like the recent Nichlaosas Cage film The Color out of Time.

Under books , I think he would like The Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell . I suspect he would also liked Phillip K Dicks novels and stories and papally Karl Edward Wagner's Kane saga.
 
I think he would be very surprised to see how much of the modern genre is directly inspired by his work to the point that many authors are just a few steps away from directly copying him. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing.
 
Logan Selmes said:
I think he would be very surprised to see how much of the modern genre is directly inspired by his work to the point that many authors are just a few steps away from directly copying him. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing.
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The Great White Space by Bis Copper He'd recognize which of his stories influenced that one.
 
I think he's find Clive Barker's Books of Blood intriguing.
 
The Manitou by Graham Masterton That book is very lovecratian . He might like it and he might also scoff at it.
 
KGeo777 said:
If I could watch a movie with Lovecraft, it would be the Killer Shrews.
I would be curious to know what he would think of it.
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I would also watch The Endless and Annhiliation with him. Two films I thought had a Lovecraftian feel but in a modern way. it would also be amusing to see what he made of the Series Lovecraft County
 
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