Poll: Do you actually find Lovecraftian horror scary?

[happyninja42]

Ok so, I just don't get it. Granted, I've never actually read any of Lovecraft's work, but I've sure as hell become intimately familiar in it by pop culture osmosis. I know who Cthulhu is, and Haster, and Nyarlothotep, though I'm probably spelling that wrong. I know their general concept "Evil personified from beyond reality that is just so terrifyingly alien it drives you made to gaze upon them"....but they just don't. I don't find them at all scary. Maybe it's just over saturation, since everyone that tries to be a legit horror tries to go for something Lovecraftian. But I just find them to be tentacle monsters, and sorry but I've seen plenty of those. They don't trigger anything at all scary, and telling me that they are so scary as to drive me mad, doesn't actually make them scary.

So, do you actually find them freaky? Or the concept of them at least? If so, why?

**EDIT** Since this has been brought up multiple times, let me clarify something here, instead of quoting the posts over and over. I'm aware it's more than just tentacle monsters. I'm aware that the mood/theme of his work is the insignificance of humanity in a vast universe. People have replicated this concept a bajillion times, so while I might not have read a specific HP Lovecraft story (though I might have, I honestly can't recall), I've read enough work inspired by his flavor of horror to understand the mood of it. I just don't find it scary. I mean, if that's the main thrust of his work, the "omgurd, we're sooooo tiny in this universe, doesn't that freak you the fuck out?!" Well, my answer is "No, no it doesn't." I dunno, maybe it's the amateur astronomer in me, I don't find the vastness of the cosmos scary, I find it fascinating. And considering the results of the poll so far, I'm apparently not alone in this thought. Which is what I wanted to find out. xD

 

[CeeBod]

Ok so, I just don't get it. Granted, I've never actually read any of Lovecraft's work

And that's why you don't get it - simples really.

Lovecraft was called "the 20th century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale" and was massively influential to many authors that followed. He wrote mysteries that were infused with visions from nightmares and unnamed horrors ready to ensnare the minds of those foolish enough to pursue forbidden knowledge. The trappings of his horror, in isolation from the plots that spawned them are not in themselves scary at all though -

Spoiler: Nyarlathotep

 

[Frission]

You need to read it. Vampires and Frankenstein aren't scary by cultural osmosis but they are some of the greatest "classical monsters". Then, I suppose you can't still say it's not scary, which is fair.

In the case of Lovecraft, he wrote in a age where humanity's knowledge was advancing in leaps and bounds, but instead of the general optimism that pervaded that time, he wrote of another viewpoint, where Humanity is a very small thing in a large unknown universe.

 

[the December King]

I found key moments in several of his stories, like The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Color Out of Space and At the Mountains Of Madness, were brilliant in their ability to capture genuine fear. Glimpses of horror from beyond in all it's cosmic glory... but to each his own. I mean, the style of writing and often the trappings that come with it can be hard to enjoy given today's styles of tale-telling.

One of my biggest problems with general appropriation of Lovecraftian horrors is that seeing them removes the fear. They were never meant to be properly described, let alone seen, never meant to have names spoken by human tongues. Most of them aren't even made of material found in this universe. But our modern sensibilities lack in subtlety most of the time.

And although giant tentacly things may have lost some of their horrific aspect due to oversaturation or simplification or what not, I do like that lots of game bosses that make you go 'woah!' are just that- gigantic tentacly things from beyond the moon.

 

[Queen Michael]

The problem with Lovecraftian horror nowadays is that it's represented visually. By definition, Lovecraftian horrors can never be represented visually, since the entire point is that the human mind cannot fully understand their horrific shapes. Too often, pics of Cthulhu just make him a squid-headed bat thing. He's not supposed to be. He's meant to be a literally unimaginable horror. And "Cthulhu" isn't his name. It's an approximation of something unspeakable.

 

[DoPo]

I know their general concept "Evil personified [...]

They aren't evil, though... I don't know how this crops up.

 

[Ogoid]

Can't say I do, honestly, but then, I've found very few horror books actually scary.

I absolutely love the genre, though.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I know their general concept "Evil personified [...]

They aren't evil, though... I don't know how this crops up.

This is a pretty good point, and indicates something that should be understood about Lovecraft's work. He writes about great old ones (e.g. Cthulhu and Co.) that not only don't operate within our moral dimensions of "good" and "evil", but don't care about human beings, and therefore their suffering, at all. Life could be extinguished at any moment, and there isn't a thing humanity can do about it, because we are so unimportant compared to the powerful beings that exist in the universe. The horror of Lovecraft stems not merely from the grotesque appearances of some of the creatures that can occasionally be encountered in our world, or the violence that may ensue, but from the realization that humanity is well and truly fucked if a cosmic being beyond our comprehension decides it will be so, and that we can do nothing to stop it. It evokes emptiness and hopelessness, which finally leads to madness for the characters of the stories.

All that being said: I've read a decent bit of Lovecraft, and I've never found it scary. Interesting, sure, eerie, sometimes, but I've never been very affected by his work emotionally. His writing feels much too cerebral and oftentimes heavy-handed to speak to those kinds of feelings. There's nothing scary about grabbing a dictionary to look up the word "cyclopean".

 

[BloatedGuppy]

It's about as scary as horror gets. Which is to say, not particularly scary, but maybe a little scary? I guess? In the right circumstances/mood?

 

[God'sFist]

I highly recommend you read some of his stuff. Allot of his work has nothing to do with Cthulhu and such, they actually go with sheer madness, realization of horrors ect. A story that became a favorite of mine is the story "Rats in The Walls" it's very good in my opinion.

 

[Silvanus]

I've read a few Lovecraft tales, but not his most famous ones. I didn't feel any fear actually reading them, but it's fair to say the ideas and implications are pretty disturbing sometimes, if you dwell on them.

 

[DoPo]

I highly recommend you read some of his stuff. Allot of his work has nothing to do with Cthulhu and such, they actually go with sheer madness, realization of horrors ect. A story that became a favorite of mine is the story "Rats in The Walls" it's very good in my opinion.

Also - The Thing at the Door. The Colour Out of Space is another good one.

And yeah - Cthulhu does not really crop up in every work of Lovecraft. Not even in most of them. The universe he writes of is known as the Cthulhu mythos but that's not because all of it is about that one being. Heck, not all of his works is about cosmic horrors, either. There are plenty that involve humans who happen to have knowledge, powers, or something else that makes them strange or bizarre. Yet popculture would make you believe all he ever writes is about Cthulhu, tentacles, and other grand monstrosities.

 

[DefunctTheory]

I've read a few Lovecraft tales, but not his most famous ones. I didn't feel any fear actually reading them, but it's fair to say the ideas and implications are pretty disturbing sometimes, if you dwell on them.

I think that's the strength in Lovecraftian horror. The terror isn't necessarily on the pages, but in your mind when you start to dwell on them and contemplate the existence of such concepts and creatures.

It's almost impossible to actually 'scare' people in fiction, which is why the jump scare and the anxiety thriller are popular. Disturbing ideas that you can't help but mull over are what I find gets my horror grove on.

 

[happyninja42]

I know their general concept "Evil personified [...]

They aren't evil, though... I don't know how this crops up.

Eh, that's probably just poor word choice on my part for a generalization. Considering they are always used as the antagonist in movies/games/books, that usually lumps them into the "evil" category. When there is an evil cult of crazy people trying to summon you to end the world, and your simple presence will destroy our world, it's easy to assume some malevolence on that entities part. Though granted, now that you mention it, I remember them being described as just alien, and having no real concept of our reality.

But honestly, that makes them less scary to me. That they fuck our reality by accident just, well makes it all accidental. Like a human stepping on an ant hill. Sure, the act of them stepping on my hill is scary, but not them. They're just as uninvolved in the destruction as a rock smashing into my hill.

I'm one of those few people who actually READ some Lovecraft's.

They seem to be stories about madness. You shouldn't be scared about some giant octopus man, but rather about the notion of losing your mind.
It's interesting because our mind can only think about what it already knows (you could NEVER invent a creature unless you were making it up with bits of creatures you already know about); Lovecraftian horrors are about what our mind can't conjure. Therefore, a symbol of insanity.

Sadly, the point is exactly that our mind can't think about what it doesn't know, so Lovecraftian horrors became octupuses and such.

But it's still a big bowl of "meh" for me. You can say that these stories are about insanity, and the concept of madness, but I don't see the stories as being terrifying. You (the plural you, not you specifically), saying that I should be freaked out by the idea of reading something and going insane, doesn't actually make me freak out at it. I dunno, I guess having actually lived with people who are clinically insane, and hanging out with them in an actual insane asylum, has sort of inoculated me to the fear of the unknown insanity that's tried to be portrayed in the books? *shrugs* And it's not like I'm totally unfamiliar with his work. While I don't think I've read an official story of his, I've read enough inspired by his work that I get the tone of them. The claustrophobic paranoia, the suspicion of everyone around you. It's not a unique concept to his work. And...it just doesn't really do it for me. *shrugs*

 

[Silvanus]

I think that's the strength in Lovecraftian horror. The terror isn't necessarily on the pages, but in your mind when you start to dwell on them and contemplate the existence of such concepts and creatures.

It's almost impossible to actually 'scare' people in fiction, which is why the jump scare and the anxiety thriller are popular. Disturbing ideas that you can't help but mull over are what I find gets my horror grove on.

A few books have succeeded in scaring me at the time of reading them, but you're right that it's far from the best medium for it.

In fact, I'd say that honour goes to video games, which have succeeded in horror more than film or television even.

But honestly, that makes them less scary to me. That they fuck our reality by accident just, well makes it all accidental. Like a human stepping on an ant hill. Sure, the act of them stepping on my hill is scary, but not them. They're just as uninvolved in the destruction as a rock smashing into my hill.

That's a pretty scary concept in itself, wouldn't you say? Makes humanity seem insignificant and helpless by comparison, as we regard... well, ants, to steal your analogy. It's scary to think we're as vulnerable as ants. I think that's a big part of the success of Lovecraftian horror.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I never found Lovecraft particularly scary, his horror derives from madness, or in this case having a mental break down. Having borne witness to people suffering from actual psychotic breaks, his descriptions aren't particularly accurate, they're more playing to stereotypes. The unknowable horrors, they're not particularly scary, except in the fact that they represent things that could potentially happen to us, how the universe could potentially swat humanity, and nothing would ever notice our extinction. That's really not scary to me though, it's just depressing. Really that sums Lovecraftian horror to me, just depressing.

Effective horror to me, not things we slap the horror label on for lack of a better term, but things that actually churn a feeling of horror in me... That's the realm of psychological horror. Delving into the depths of depravity and calculating callousness that drive people, even good people, into being ruthless and murderous monsters, either through a twisted mind, ideological fervor, or necessity, that's scary, that's horror. Being trapped some place, with a horrific and powerful foe you're not equipped to fight, not knowing where it is, where it will strike from, or when it will strike, that's horror. Being transformed against your will into a terrifying bloodthirsty murderous monster, that's horror. Being isolated, alone, while nearly blind and deaf in a hostile environment full of predators who's favorite food is you, that's horror. Trudging through a near impossible quest while burdened with a curse that destroys who you are, leaving a mindless consuming shell in your place, that's horror.

Lovecraft simply isn't effective in my mind, he never really was, mostly because his horror relied on fearing other people just because they look different, or fearing the unknown without reason, or fearing the inevitable. So no I don't find Lovecraftian horror scary, nor do I find it horrifying. I find it close minded, short sighted, and disgusting in it's prejudices.

 

[Zhukov]

No.

Granted, I've only read a few of his stories.

They were interesting enough I guess. If you like old-timey stuff. But they didn't strike me as particularly horrific.

Never saw what the big deal was with Lovecraft though. Maybe it's because I've already encountered so much stuff influenced by him that the original ends up feeling stale.