H.P. Lovecraft

[Madiac]

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!

[headtheball]

Odd thing is, I've never really liked reading Lovecraft at the time, but loved thinking the stories over afterwards, if you get me.

[99_not_out]

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 :-)

[gwEm]

a friend of mine, who live in brooklyn actually, is a bit obsessed by hp lovecraft, and even named his cat after him ;)

[lulusg]

Use to read him back in the 80's. It was great to read him while tripping!!!

[Andrew W]

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.

[Madiac]

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.

[Philosoful]

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).

[nfe]

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? :?

[Madiac]

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:)

[Denim n Leather]

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

[Madiac]

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.

[Denim n Leather]

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

[gwEm]

very nice ben...

[Madiac]

Haha, sweet one;) Id sure like to be in a school like that   :aww: