Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => The Dressing Room => Topic started by: Madiac on February 20, 2009, 05:18:22 PM
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Im curious to see if there are any others here that enjoy reading his stories? Now, i dont read to often, but when i do start reading a book i might read daily, but Lovecraft certainly is my favorite writer, just love the combination of Sci-fi, Fantasy and Horror, perfect for my tastes, and the imagination in the stories, its hard to explain the feeling they give to me. Some of my favourite stories: "The Whisperer in Darkness", "The shadow over innsmouth", "At the mountains of madness", "The haunter of the dark", "The statement of Randolph Carter" and "Dream-Quest to unknown Kadath". Really makes me think of all the "unknowns" of the universe, and earth!:)
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Yeah, I first read them all about 30 years ago when I was a kiddie and I re-visit them every now and then.
He wasn't the greatest writer in the world but his stories do have an atmosphere that very few writers can match. And I love the repeated references that keeping cropping up, like "gambrel roofs" and rooms with "non-Euclidean angles". Not forgetting, of course, the dreaded Pnakotic Manuscripts and the cursed Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred!! :twisted:
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Yeah, I first read them all about 30 years ago when I was a kiddie and I re-visit them every now and then.
He wasn't the greatest writer in the world but his stories do have an atmosphere that very few writers can match. And I love the repeated references that keeping cropping up, like "gambrel roofs" and rooms with "non-Euclidean angles". Not forgetting, of course, the dreaded Pnakotic Manuscripts and the cursed Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred!! :twisted:
Haha yes, he was really good at creating an atmosphere. Now, ill admit that i dont understand some of the really old english words, and sometimes i have to read a sentance several times to make SURE that i got the right picture in my mind (a bit obsessive haha), but i just look them up and thus i learn. Sometimes though, the descriptions of a place can really go on for pages which can be a bit of a drag, but its always worth it in my opnion. Its probably the only author ive keept reading from, although i havent read that many books to be fair, so im sure theres others id like:)
Also, i wouldnt mind if someone recommended some other writers 8)
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philly's description is just what i was thinking! he's not technically the greatest writer, but so what? the stories are very readable and he had a fabulous way of conjuring a sense of dread. and weirdness! a writer called August Derleth wrote more stories based on the Cthulu mythos, i seem to remember them being quite good, although it's years since i read them.
another writer that wasn't technically great but i very much enjoy is Robert E Howard, and not just Conan. there are various anthologies of his other stories, King Kull etc., and i have a collection of stories about an irish warrior who has joined with a group of vikings, but i can't remember what he's called :oops: they are basically Conan with a different name, but they're good.
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If you like Lovecraft and want to read some similar stuff, try Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E Howard, Arthur Machen, August Derleth and The King In Yellow by Robert W Chambers.
For more "modern" atmospheric horror stories, the late Robert Aickman was brilliant. And there's also Ramsey Campbell - his novels are always disappointing but his short stories are amazingly creepy.
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another writer that wasn't technically great but i very much enjoy is Robert E Howard, and not just Conan. there are various anthologies of his other stories, King Kull etc., and i have a collection of stories about an irish warrior who has joined with a group of vikings, but i can't remember what he's called :oops: they are basically Conan with a different name, but they're good.
Cormac Mac Art, I think? The Solomon Kane and Bran Mak Morn stories are good too. He wrote all sorts of adventure stories in different historical settings, some of them were even reworked into Conan stories by other authors.
Howard had a really big cult following when I was a kid in the late '70s/early '80s, then he went out of fashion. I'm not sure how much of his stuff is in print now.
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Ah yes, Derleth, didnt think of him, ive known about him and his relation to lovecraft for quite a while, but never actually gave his writings a chance, will check some of his stories out whenever i start reading again, same goes for Howard, thanks!
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Huge Lovecraft/Poe/Clark Ashton Smith/Robert E Howard fan here!
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I remember really enjoying his story 'The Shuttered Room' as a teenager ; - but as often happens , the film version was dire compared to the intense atmosphere / build up and 'flesh creeping' revelation of his original story.
In the same vein, I have often enjoyed the stories of M.R. James ; at least with those the BBC usually made a good job of translating them to screen.
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I've never actually read Lovecraft. But he's probably responsible for as many of my favourite songs as Satan.
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I remember really enjoying his story 'The Shuttered Room' as a teenager ; - but as often happens , the film version was dire compared to the intense atmosphere / build up and 'flesh creeping' revelation of his original story.
In the same vein, I have often enjoyed the stories of M.R. James ; at least with those the BBC usually made a good job of translating them to screen.
Yeah, that's a good point - there's never really been a successful film adaptation of Lovecraft. Although I have a DVD of a cheaply-made little B&W film called The Call Of Cthulhu which comes pretty close. Re-Animator and From Beyond are fun, but they're nothing like the original stories, they don't capture the atmosphere at all.
But the BBC M R James adapations were great. :)
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I liked him as a teen, great mythos, good atmosphere in his stories, but to be honest, I think he's a pretty cr@p writer - he takes too long to get anywhere, even in a short stories. I find his plots often don't always resolve very well, or end in a predictable sort of way.
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I remember really enjoying his story 'The Shuttered Room' as a teenager ; - but as often happens , the film version was dire compared to the intense atmosphere / build up and 'flesh creeping' revelation of his original story.
In the same vein, I have often enjoyed the stories of M.R. James ; at least with those the BBC usually made a good job of translating them to screen.
Yeah, that's a good point - there's never really been a successful film adaptation of Lovecraft. Although I have a DVD of a cheaply-made little B&W film called The Call Of Cthulhu which comes pretty close. Re-Animator and From Beyond are fun, but they're nothing like the original stories, they don't capture the atmosphere at all.
But the BBC M R James adapations were great. :)
This ones looking good! Hope it gets released soon, seems promising, really gave me the Lovecraftian vibe:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQkos7WTHjg
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Yeah, those are the guys who made The Call Of Cthulhu. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHuY2wXTd0o&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHuY2wXTd0o&feature=related)
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Talking of him as someone who creater great stories but wasn't a great writer...
I LOVE Lord Of The Rings. Love it to bits. Best stories ever created. But Tolkien couldn't write for toffee.
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Also, i strongly want to recommend (although maybe not to a first time lovecraft reader) "Dream-quest to unknown Kadath", one of his longer dream-cycle stories. When i read the story it feelt like i had read a 1000 pages long book.
The best word to describe the story would be -epic-. The story even has some "heroism" which is unlike lovecraft, and combines Horror and Fantasy in great ways, the time span of the story feels so large, and as i said, it feels like you have read a 10 times longer story than it really was, atleast to me, and i was really satisfied. Has some great twists, and really unlike any other of his stories i read (although i havent read that much from the dream-cycle stories).
Highly recommended!
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Odd thing is, I've never really liked reading Lovecraft at the time, but loved thinking the stories over afterwards, if you get me.
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Lovecraft's writing takes a bit of getting used too, but the same is true of a lot works from the early 20th century - the style and use of language is just different. Conrad for example is often held up as a prime example of Literature, but it takes a while to get used to his 1/2 page long sentences ...
Not all of Lovecraft's stories are good, but that's probably because so many of them are published. He was mainly what would now be regarded as a short story writer, and most books of his work are compilations of many stories. When he is good, he is very good though - some of his writing really drags you down into the cold inescapable insanity of the universe he portrays. The Haunter in the Dark and The Rats in the Walls are two very good examples. The use of truly cosmic supernatural horror pretty much starts with Lovecraft - ideas of uncaring of malevolence which are not associated with the religious moral systems underpinning human society. Not evil like Satan/Devil worship (which is just a branch of Christianity, albeit at odds to all the other branches) but beings so un-understandable that just trying to work out is they are evil or not drives people insane ...
If you like Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood is another author to check out - very very good.
And the just-too-good-to-be-true Neil Gaiman has written a few Cthulhu Mythos stories too - one particulary good one that mixes Sherlock Holmes and The Great Old Ones.
And finally, for those who like their dice, The RPG Call Of Cthulhu is very good. 1D100 SAN loss all round :-)
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a friend of mine, who live in brooklyn actually, is a bit obsessed by hp lovecraft, and even named his cat after him ;)
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Use to read him back in the 80's. It was great to read him while tripping!!!
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There's a new edition of "The Dunwich Horror" just come out and I enjoyed that a lot. I also read "At The Mountains of Madness" last year which I also thought good. On the adaptations front, Guillermo del Toro is interested in doing a film version of "At the Mountains..." but he won't be done with "The Hobbit" for a while. GDT is a huge Lovecraft fan: there's an Elder One creature in the troll market sequence in Hellboy 2 and another in the BPRD HQ.
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There's a new edition of "The Dunwich Horror" just come out and I enjoyed that a lot. I also read "At The Mountains of Madness" last year which I also thought good. On the adaptations front, Guillermo del Toro is interested in doing a film version of "At the Mountains..." but he won't be done with "The Hobbit" for a while. GDT is a huge Lovecraft fan: there's an Elder One creature in the troll market sequence in Hellboy 2 and another in the BPRD HQ.
Yeah, heard about it. Wish theyd do a trailer so that one could get an idea of how it captures the atmosphere of the story. Hope it doesnt end up like a typical hollywood action/horror movie, sigh. Although, i think Guillermo knows better, i though Pan's Labyrinth was pretty good.
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Lovecraft utterly utterly rules. I discovered him through Karl Sanders of Nile's huge influence of him - most of their songs can be linked to him, most obviously - The Essential Salts / The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward. I love his stuff and have the 3 weird stories books, only finished one but I've also finished Dagon recently (in which, the huge ending of the text is portrayed in Nile's equally huge Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten in the form of one of the heaviest Death Metal song endings ever as far as I'm concerned).
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Lovecraft utterly utterly rules. I discovered him through Karl Sanders of Nile's huge influence of him - most of their songs can be linked to him
There's a few, certainly, but most? :?
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Hehe, there are quite a bunch of metal bands that have Lovecraft references, everything from power metal to extreme death metal. I even think (but i dont remember for sure) that i found out about Lovecraft through Metallicas songs, but i really cant remember if thats how it went, sigh :lol:
For example, i was listening to the songs on Crystal Eyes myspace (Swedish Power metal)
http://www.myspace.com/crystaleyesfromsweden
And i came across the song Dead City Dreaming (if you scroll down on the player), and i was pretty surprised (although the name should have given the signals) when i listened to the lyrics and then checked the lyrics to confirm haha, never expected Lovecraft lyrics for such a song, so i was s bit surprised.
Also, theres a PC/Xbox game called "The Call of Cthulhu: Dark corners of the earth" which while really annoying and a bit boring at times really was pretty damn good and had a great story and was great at capturing the feel of Lovecraft, really cool game even though the gameplay itself could be a drag from time to time, try it out if you are into video game and Lovecraft:)
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Hehe, there are quite a bunch of metal bands that have Lovecraft references, everything from power metal to extreme death metal. I even think (but i dont remember for sure) that i found out about Lovecraft through Metallicas songs, but i really cant remember if thats how it went, sigh :lol:
Call of Cthulu and The Thing That Should Not Be
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Hehe, there are quite a bunch of metal bands that have Lovecraft references, everything from power metal to extreme death metal. I even think (but i dont remember for sure) that i found out about Lovecraft through Metallicas songs, but i really cant remember if thats how it went, sigh :lol:
Call of Cthulu and The Thing That Should Not Be
Yep, exept i think Metallica used "Ktulu" instead. Heard Cliff Burton was a Lovecraft fan.
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This was the headline of today's Onion. I found it appropriate:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/lovecraftian_school_board_member?utm_source=a-section
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very nice ben...
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Haha, sweet one;) Id sure like to be in a school like that :aww:
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i recently read a Lovecraft collection. Loved it. Id recommend reading some Clive Barker (Imajica, Great and Secret Show, Everville and Weaveworld) or Neil Gaiman (smoke and mirrors).
Imajica by Clive Barker is prolly my fave book ever.
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Imajica by Clive Barker is prolly my fave book ever.
I kept my copy of Imajica for over 15 years before I read it, because I hated The Great and Secret Show so much! :lol:
I did quite enjoy it in the end, but I much prefer his earlier, nastier stuff - the Books of Blood and The Damnation Game.