Tex
Wanderer
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Post by Tex on Aug 20, 2017 15:40:41 GMT -5
>Stepping out of the Shadows for something important...< On this date in 1890, H. P. Lovecraft was born, and the world of Horror would NEVER be the same. 127 years later, his influence, not just on his contemporaries (REH, CAS, etc.), but also on the culture as a whole (music, comics, film, etc.), is IMMENSE, and deserving of several volumes covering the subject. So settle down in your favorite reading chair (the one near that crack in the Reality will do just fine,) and crack open a tome of Grandpa Theobald's works! Further reading, from another Old School Gamer... grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/08/father-of-us-all.htmlAnd about the Gent from Providence... infogalactic.com/info/H._P._LovecraftTex (returning to the Shadows from whence he came) |
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Post by kullagain on Aug 20, 2017 16:21:21 GMT -5
Lovecraft's influence is so over credited it literally hurts me physically inside.
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Tex
Wanderer
Posts: 9
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Post by Tex on Aug 20, 2017 22:52:30 GMT -5
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Post by Char-Vell on Aug 21, 2017 7:08:41 GMT -5
Lovecraft's influence is so over credited it literally hurts me physically inside. Indeed?
Please elaborate!
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Post by paulmc on Aug 22, 2017 7:57:33 GMT -5
Well, I don't have any grand NecronomiCon Providence 2017 report. I attended Friday and by midday, I'd already felt con crud crawling around the back of my throat. I commuted instead of having a hotel room and in hindsight, that wasn't the best plan. I returned Saturday but only lasted until mid-afternoon.
By all accounts, it was a smashing success, though. I did hear interesting panels and good readings. I hung out with Jeff Shanks at the REHF & Skelos Press tables, helping where I could (Jeff had to run both solo.) I spent too much money in the dealers' room, as always.
The thing is that there are so many panels, and so busy on the dealers' floor, that the real socializing takes place after hours - which I missed by commuting and needing to head out early to get home.
Next time I'll book a room and flood my body with vitamin C before I go.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Aug 22, 2017 10:22:25 GMT -5
Lovecraft's influence is so over credited it literally hurts me physically inside. Kull - not sure what your examples are, or if I totally agree, but I'll admit - if it moves and has tentacles it's called Lovecraftian. I guess that makes Jules Verne Lovecraftian because of 20,000 Leagues? Or is the inclusion of tentacles actually Vernian? HPL's range of writings varied from his dream-cycle material to the Chtulhu mythos to out-and-out straight forward horror but you won't see a straight-up horror story/film called Lovecraftian unless there is also a tentacle thrown in - then its suddenly Lovecraftian. Hmm. Bears pondering. By that token I might call What Dreams May Come Lovecraftian considering its dreamy landscapes - fits right in w/ the Sunset City and Kadath in the cold wastes.... |
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Post by paulmc on Aug 22, 2017 10:56:24 GMT -5
Lovecraft's influence is so over credited it literally hurts me physically inside. Kull - not sure what your examples are, or if I totally agree, but I'll admit - if it moves and has tentacles it's called Lovecraftian. I guess that makes Jules Verne Lovecraftian because of 20,000 Leagues? Or is the inclusion of tentacles actually Vernian? The "tentacles" thing is just ridiculous now. Lovecraft never even mentioned them, or if he did, it was infrequent. Also, everyone puts out octopus arms as tentacles. Arms and tentacles are two different things. Octopi have arms, not tentacles. Giant squid have both. |
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Aug 22, 2017 12:52:37 GMT -5
Kull - not sure what your examples are, or if I totally agree, but I'll admit - if it moves and has tentacles it's called Lovecraftian. I guess that makes Jules Verne Lovecraftian because of 20,000 Leagues? Or is the inclusion of tentacles actually Vernian? The "tentacles" thing is just ridiculous now. Lovecraft never even mentioned them, or if he did, it was infrequent. Also, everyone puts out octopus arms as tentacles. Arms and tentacles are two different things. Octopi have arms, not tentacles. Giant squid have both. Since the creature in 20,000 is a giant squid I guess that makes the comparison apropos. I never mentioned an octopus so don't know where that came from.  |
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Post by paulmc on Aug 22, 2017 13:02:56 GMT -5
The "tentacles" thing is just ridiculous now. Lovecraft never even mentioned them, or if he did, it was infrequent. Also, everyone puts out octopus arms as tentacles. Arms and tentacles are two different things. Octopi have arms, not tentacles. Giant squid have both. Since the creature in 20,000 is a giant squid I guess that makes the comparison apropos. I never mentioned an octopus so don't know where that came from. I was just stating it as a general thing, not anything specific to you. I wonder how much of this phenom might also be attributed to people aligning Lovecraft's Deep Ones to the Japanese folk stories of the fisherman's wife and other "tentacle porn." too. |
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Post by Voorqual on Aug 22, 2017 14:21:08 GMT -5
Kull - not sure what your examples are, or if I totally agree, but I'll admit - if it moves and has tentacles it's called Lovecraftian. I guess that makes Jules Verne Lovecraftian because of 20,000 Leagues? Or is the inclusion of tentacles actually Vernian? The "tentacles" thing is just ridiculous now. Lovecraft never even mentioned them, or if he did, it was infrequent. Also, everyone puts out octopus arms as tentacles. Arms and tentacles are two different things. Octopi have arms, not tentacles. Giant squid have both. I always wondered where this mindset came from. I mean, obviously it's because plenty of people who read Lovecraft don't really "get" him, assuming that a story which is Lovecraftian is simply anything with squishy monsters and long dramatic monologues about doom on top of doom, but what's damning about this is that Lovecraft is so much more varied and rich than just that, and any person who reads his stuff should be able to see those other aspects just fine if they have even an ounce of intelligence. Could it be that this common false idea of Lovecraft is derived more from people who haven't even read his stuff? There are art websites in which people regularly submit drawings of Cthulhu and the Old Ones even though they admit to having never read the stories! |
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Post by deuce on Aug 25, 2017 10:25:30 GMT -5
"It's regrettable that the recent condemnations of Lovecraft began only after all his friends who could have responded were dead. For what it's worth, I knew several - Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, J. Vernon Shea, Fritz Leiber and of course August Derleth. None of them ever said a bad word about him to me."
-- Ramsey CampbellFor those who don't know who Mr. Campbell is: infogalactic.com/info/Ramsey_Campbell
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2017 10:47:04 GMT -5
I just picked up my first Lovecraft book - the 8th edition of 'At the Mountains of Madness' published by Arkham House.  I've been listening to the audiobooks on youtube for months, and keep falling of my Hunnic stallion once I fall asleep. I think it'll be safer to read Lovecraft the old-fashioned way  |
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Sept 1, 2017 11:08:29 GMT -5
I just picked up my first Lovecraft book - the 8th edition of 'At the Mountains of Madness' published by Arkham House. An Arkham - most excellent! I only have one Arkham HPL - Dagon, can't recall what printing.  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2017 14:32:30 GMT -5
I just picked up my first Lovecraft book - the 8th edition of 'At the Mountains of Madness' published by Arkham House. An Arkham - most excellent! I only have one Arkham HPL - Dagon, can't recall what printing. I think that's also a later printing. I'm gonna have to hunt these down one of these days. There's so much I wanna read... |
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Post by deuce on Sept 7, 2017 13:59:19 GMT -5
A letter from CL Moore to HPL. Moore, like basically every one of the authors in sword and sorcery's "first wave", was a big fan of Lovecraft. Torbett collaborated with REH on the short story, A Thunder of Trumpets.
A correspondent of mine, Thurston Torbett of Texas, friend of REH’s, has been regaling me with passages from books on the occult which state that all the dreadful things we imagine must have had origin in fact or we would be unable to picture them. If one reverses that, then by the very act of writing of Cthulhu (spelling right?) and Shambleau we must conjure them into vague life, and you will doubtless eventually wind up victim of your own ingenuity. I hope your aunt does not some morning find your a mass of black putrescence on the floor, still clutching in your melting stumps of fingers the "peculiar objects" which the elder gods, via Boland, have sent for your destruction.
-- Catherine L. Moore to H. P. Lovecraft, 11 Dec 1936
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