H P Lovecraft

[alpha_guru]

Who reads this master?

 

[ray gower]

Don't think I've ever heard of it.

Tell us more?

 

[ZaN the Witch]

I have always fancied reading some Lovecraft.
I played a couple of PC games in the 1990's with a Lovecraftian theme but never did get round to it. Maybe I should try now.
Any recommendations for a first one to read?

 

[ivancat]

I'm quite fond of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos and I regularly play the Call of Cthulhu RPG, which is based on his work. The thing about Lovecraft that you have to keep in mind is that he was madly inspired, wrote thousands of stories, finished few, and was (to some debatable degree) mad/deranged. I think he lived with his two spinster aunts and died of rectal cancer.

If you want to wet your feet with Lovecraft, I suggest reading the short story Shadow over Innsmouth, or the Mountains of Madness, or the Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

Lovecraft's writing style is old school--19th century old school. It can be difficult at times. Also, he can have trouble wrapping up a story in a "satisfying" manner. That said, his writing can have a delicious eerie quality, that I quite like. Scary stuff kiddies ... .

One of my friends told me that the best way to read Lovecraft is on a sick day when you're passing in and out of fever dreams. I haven't tried it yet, but he may be right.



Ivan Cat

 

[ZaN the Witch]

Cheers ivancat,
I will look for some of those. I have played the Call of Cthulhu RPG too & really enjoyed it (I'm a game nut!)
ZaN

 

[ZachWZ]

I read his short story a Color out of place. Which was the basis for the movie Die, monster, Die. It was good and weird. i am a little fuzy on what happened with the end at the end. but, I do understand what howed to the farm and farming family.

ZachWZ

 

[BAYLOR]

Ive read a good number of his stories and the is nobody quite like him The first story that I read by him was The Tomb which was a bit more conventional type Horror story and though a decent story , It didn't really excite me much . Then, I read his story The Festival and, that one really hooked me . The Town , the underground subterranean places where monstrous things dwell and , that end of the story quote from the Necronomicon . The funny thing is that story had shades of Hawthorne's story Young Goodman Brown.

 

[paeng]

The main theme of his work is cosmicism:

Lovecraftian horror - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

which works against the excitement that's supposed to be generated by regular horror.

The link also refers to other authors who are like Lovecraft. For even more authors, try

Thomas Ligotti - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Lovecraft's works are wordy because he was paid by the word.

To find out what Lovecraft thought about supernatural horror and other writers, consider his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature":

"Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H. P. Lovecraft

'Supernatural Horror in Literature' by H. P. Lovecraft

www.hplovecraft.com

 

[BAYLOR]

The main theme of his work is cosmicism:

Lovecraftian horror - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

which works against the excitement that's supposed to be generated by regular horror.

The link also refers to other authors who are like Lovecraft. For even more authors, try

Thomas Ligotti - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Lovecraft's works are wordy because he was paid by the word.

To find out what Lovecraft thought about supernatural horror and other writers, consider his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature":

"Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H. P. Lovecraft

'Supernatural Horror in Literature' by H. P. Lovecraft

www.hplovecraft.com

ive read Ligotti .. Very much in the lovecratain mold. Superb writer.

 

[Ningauble]

Lovecraft's works are wordy because he was paid by the word.

Lovecraft did not write to maximise his word count. In fact, the increasing length of his later fiction made it harder to sell. He wrote the number of words he felt was necessary to thell the story.

 

[BAYLOR]

Lovecraft did not write to maximise his word count. In fact, the increasing length of his later fiction made it harder to sell. He wrote the number of words he felt was necessary to thell the story.

He produced at least three novel length Tales .

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Ive read a good number of his stories and the is nobody quite like him The first story that I read by him was The Tomb which was a bit more conventional type Horror story and though a decent story , It didn't really excite me much . Then, I read his story The Festival and, that one really hooked me . The Town , the underground subterranean places where monstrous things dwell and , that end of the story quote from the Necronomicon . The funny thing is that story had shades of Hawthorne's story Young Goodman Brown.

"Young Goodman Brown", is it about a firm of solicitors?

 

[Ningauble]

He produced at least three novel length Tales .

Yes, and? OF COURSE I know this. I repeat: Lovecraft did not write to maximise his word count. He wrote the number of words he felt was necessary to tell the story.

Of those three novel-length tales, how many did he sell? How many of them did he ATTEMPT to sell?

 

[BAYLOR]

Yes, and? OF COURSE I know this. I repeat: Lovecraft did not write to maximise his word count. He wrote the number of words he felt was necessary to tell the story.

Of those three novel-length tales, how many did he sell? How many of them did he ATTEMPT to sell?

That, I don't know the answer to. If published would have been serialize?

 

[paeng]

Lovecraft did not write to maximise his word count. In fact, the increasing length of his later fiction made it harder to sell. He wrote the number of words he felt was necessary to thell the story.

He wrote for pulp magazines, and was paid around a cent per word. That's why his stories are wordy and some cases repetitious.

He also worked as a ghost writer and did rewrites.

 

[BAYLOR]

He wrote for pulp magazines, and was paid around a cent per word. That's why his stories are wordy and some cases repetitious.

He also worked as a ghost writer and did rewrites.

And occasion , writers like Lovecraft didn't paid for their work.

 

[paeng]

He helped out friends, and then later became more critical of what he wrote in the past and believed in as he became more sympathetic to socialists. There are some more details here:

H.P. Lovecraft’s Radical Political Evolution

The politics of H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) have always been considered a liability by those who appreciate his body of work. So, upon reading a few of his letters from the final seven years of his …

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