H.P. Lovecraft
- Thread starter cp.06
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Oh boy. Another one of these.
"He was a racist, worse than Hitler and his entire works should be burned from human consciousness. Probably best to kill all his relatives just in case."
On topic: The Rats in the Walls, The Shadow over Insmouth, Dunwhich Horror.
"He was a racist, worse than Hitler and his entire works should be burned from human consciousness. Probably best to kill all his relatives just in case."
On topic: The Rats in the Walls, The Shadow over Insmouth, Dunwhich Horror.
Dagon, Call of Cthulhu, Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Statement of Randolph Carter (one of my favs), The Haunter of the Dark, The Colour out of Space... take your pick, man. It's all pretty engaging.
The Outsider. You can analyze the hell out of that one. Cool Air and The Music of Erich Zann are great examples of tense creepiness. Have fun.
Wait... what?4173 said:
Are you referring to Lovecraft because... well there are racist themes in his stories (just look at the story "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyne and His Family") but that's taking things a bit too far. >.>
Anyway, I don't know what A2 means (I'm going to assume it's some sort of story analysis class) but I'll just post what I think were his best that have analytical value, if that helps at all:
Dagon, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Call of Cthulhu, The Picture in the House, The Outsider and Rats in the Walls.
Note that I haven't read all of his stories so my opinion is based solely on the ones with titles that caught my interest in one of the big collected works of his that I have.
At the Mountains of Madness was arguably his best work and also his longest, originally published as a minor novella. Extremely good and without doubt one of his most memorable stories.
haunter of the dark, whisperer in the darkness, the music of Erich Zann, The shadow out of time.
Mountains of madness is good too. It has starfish aliens and jello monsters that whistle!
Mountains of madness is good too. It has starfish aliens and jello monsters that whistle!
Im reading that right now. IT takes awhile to get into for me but once you get in very deep into the book it is very good.The Madman said:
He's a much more subtle author than most horror authors today and even then, relying more on the imagination of the reader to try and make things frightening than gruesome imagery or shock twists. I like that!this isnt my name said:
Takes a bit of getting used to and it certainly isn't for everyone, but Lovecraft is fully deserving of his more recent popularity. It's only a pity he never received any of that while he was alive, eventually dying alone and penniless. Shame.
Read everything. Pick your four favourites.cp.06 said:
Sorry that the above sounds patronizing, but I said it for two reasons.
1 - Reading all of it will give you better context for wahtever exam/essay/etc you have to do, so you can also refer to the works as a whole. Plus you bought it all anyhow - might as well get moneys worth
2 - You're going to be referring to and re-reading the above a lot. So its better that you enjoy it. because...
(soory I lied 3 reasons)
3 - If you're writing about somehting because you genuinely like it it generally tend to produce better work than essays on the stories people told me I 'HAD' to read. The enthusiasm tends to carry through in writing
I've only read The Call of Cthulhu and The Music of Erich Zann but I enjoyed them both. Highly recommend them both.
On the other hand, alot of what he wrote was much the same. Only so many times you can read the recovered journal of missing person X, who denies all monsters or strange goings on until the very end, then sits around writing about how he's about to be killed.The Madman said:
Also, his mythos got a bit annoying. Not just the continuity, which are usually complicated and contradictory, but the way every story set in it must have someone consult the same forbidden texts and refer to the same places, even if they have nothing to do with the story. Almost worthwhile to cross-reference them:
"Notwithstanding either his rational skepticism of such things, or the incessant warnings of the superstition ridden rustics, he delved further into these matters, consulting the [See Appendix A: Forbidden Texts]. He read with a strange fascination the lurid depictions of the [See Appendix B: Creatures] from the [See Appendix C: Ancient Places]. Around this time..."
On the other hand, despite this, much of the mythos was still worth reading, and when he refrained from all this, he could write excellent stories like The Colour of Space.
If you want a good short one, read Pickman's Model. Books have never scared me, but that one got close. Call of Cthulhu is important so you have a better understanding of the mythos. Dunwich Horror is also very good.
