Poll: Do YOU know who H.P.Lovecraft is?

[LogieBear]

Read it, Loved it, Scared the living fuck out of me =P

 

[joshuaayt]

Lovecraft... Oh, that one really, really racist author?
Yeah, I borrowed a full set once, even read some of it. Is there an option less polar than "Loved it" or "Hated it?"

 

[GrinningManiac]

Huh, 6 pages. I guess people really DO know him!

Also, I checked it out: it's clear that he was very racist in his youth, but his views mellowed in later years after he actually learnt a thing or two and met people from 'inferior races' and learnt they aren't all that bad.

Also, he apparantly liked to adopt a view that deliberately conficted with people he wanted to annoy, which is familiar with the internet community, I believe.

Also, check out Calls for Cthulhu on youtube, it's pretty adorable

 

[the monopoly guy]

I have read maybe 2 thirds of his works and I absolutely love him. I did a big research project on him this year for Language Arts (English). I titled the paper "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Lovecraft Providence wgah'nagl fhtagn". My teacher didn't get it or appreciate it all that much. It's hard to choose my absolute favorite, but "Dagon" is definitely up there.

EDIT: And "The Rats in the Walls"

And yeah, he was a big racist.

Funny story about that, his one and only wife was a Russian Jew. Lovecraft was actually a pretty interesting person. He never did any drugs or even drink (despite what some people first thing when they read his stories). He was also an amateur astronomer and was very interested in the sciences.

Oh he definitely was interesting, he was unfortunately a very damaged individual. It's what people miss with the whole racism thing, calling someone a racist these days carries the stigma of pure evil, it implies that Lovecraft was a most terrible person who discriminated for the sheer joy of it. In reality he was a profoundly strange person, haunted by his parentage and by a fear of insanity. He wasn't racist in the same way that people are these days, his actions were awful b today's standards but less so by the standards of ninety years ago (though still unusual, as I say he was profoundly damaged).

Once you know about his father "The Rats in the Walls" takes on a rather more unpleasant meaning. It concerns a normal person discovering that their forebears have left them with a horrific secret that lies undiscovered until it starts scratching at you, by then it's too late to escape the terror of what you've uncovered.

In the same way that "The Thing on the Doorstep can be about his relationship with his mother. When Edward Derby's mom, who coddled him and was over protective just like Lovecraft's, died Derby felt free for the first time. Lovecraft had the same reaction when his own mother dying, stating that he felt as though the chains had been lifted. Both Lovecraft and Derby were momma's boys.

 

[voetballeeuw]

I recently picked up a large book containing multiple stories of his work and it is amazing. It's brilliant stuff and it scares the shit out of me. He doesn't describe much sometimes which only increases the horror.

 

[OrenjiJusu]

I got bored one day and decided to read Call of Cthulhu, Mr.Lovecraft is a strange one, but a very good writer.

 

[BlackMetalBeauty]

H.P. Lovecraft is the best short story writer ever. I've read almost all of his short stories and own almost all of them.

 

[Jonluw]

Have never read any Lovecraft, but hanging around the internet as I do it would be nigh impossible for me not to have heard of him. Or at least of Cthulu.

I also once saw the necronomicon in a store.

 

[Miffmoff]

I got the Necronomicon for Christmas last year 'cause I was a fan of the Cthulhu Mythos but had never read any of his work, at the moment I've read:
Night-Gaunts
Dagon
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The Doom That Came to Sanarth
The Cats of Ulthar
The Nameless City
Herbert West - Reanimator
The Music of Erich Zann
Pickman's Model
and...
The Call of Cthulhu

I absolutely love his work, its great. I have to say Herbert West is my favourite, it was a good reimagining of Mary Shelley's greatest work that took it to a far darker place. It may be safe to say I'm obsessed with H.P Lovecraft's work

 

[Blindswordmaster]

I posses the Lovecraft Mythos, yes I know none of those stories are actually by Lovecraft, but they're fantastic. I really enjoy both his subjects and the universe he's created.

 

[gl1koz3]

I usually misread this name as "?.?.War-/Starcraft". Rub my eyes and then a more weird name comes up. Did catch a phrase about books somewhere, so not much of an idea beyond "a writer, perhaps".

 

[NoriYuki Sato]

My background

...my avatar =D

anyways, i love HP Lovecraft...i'm collecting his movies and his works, a lot of which are VERY hard to find.

also, Cradle of Filth and Metallica base some songs off his works. as do some games =D

...sorry..i'm a Lovecraftian Nerd

i'm even trying to learn Sumerian because that's what The Osoteric Order of Dagon bases their language off of....and it's awesome

 

[jthm]

THE ANGLES! THE ANGLES! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I shall weep now.