The Works of H. P. Lovecraft

I think suspension of disbelief is required in most old horror to some extent, although we should bear in mind that Antarctica is a coninent bigger than Europe and we know very little about what's under all the ice or even what's on it.
At The Mountains of Madness is perhaps my favourite horror story of all time, but maybe reading while quite young (about 18) makes a difference, when you still accept things which you can't with age.

But what kind of gods though? Certainly not anythng like God, nor very much like ancient gods (Greeks etc). Let's also not forget they are primarily monsters.

 

Nope, never read any. Heard HP L is a tad bit wordy, and that is kinda a turn off.
Though it seems people really seem to like his work. IDK is he really that scary?

 

I don't think HPL is scary at all, but that's not what's so good about him. His horror is literally 'awesome' - that is it creates a sense of awe and also dread and mystery and darkness.

 

Interesting.

 

It's odd, I'm a fan of the old god archetype and 'cosmic horror' as a general theme, but I've never read any Lovecraft save Dagon. I know a lot about him since I've seen plenty of biographical documentaries, but I've just never gotten into him. I've heard a lot about his use of overly purple prose and that puts me off, if I'm honest.

 

One of his worst.

 

Interesting. Care to elaborate? Of course, I'm not judging Lovecraft based on that one short story. It just happens to be the only one I've read. I believe it was one of the first ones provided by Amazon's "Look Inside" feature, so I just landed on that.

 

But did you like Dagon? I quite like it, although it was an early one (1917), and he got a lot better. The best are from around 1930. All his stuff is available for free, lots of it even as audiobooks on youtube and librivox. The best way to read someone new is to forget how you think writing should be and just open your mind.

 

From what I can recall of it, I certainly enjoyed parts. I admit, I have a tendency to attach other's peoples opinions of an author to my own even when I haven't read more of his or her work. It's not unfounded criticism, however. In the documentary Fear of the Unknown even authors such as Neil Gaiman slate Lovecraft's 'purple prose' and overuse of the same tropes and imagery. Still, I may pick up a collection of Lovecraft one day.

 

Really? I've yet to read much of his work (and almost all of his longer stories), but his prose doesn't seem all that bad. And focusing on the prose is to miss the appeal of Lovecraft, anyway: he's a fantastic storyteller.

 

His prose is only a little purple by today's standards, but works today are incredibly barren much of the time IMO. I don't think he's quite as bad as he is said to be. Plus it's what makes him so good at describing his various horrors isn't it?

 

Don't get me wrong, I like archaic texts, however there's such a thing as too purple. One can be purple and not advance the plot, the worst combination. According to many of the people I've spoken to about Lovecraft, he fits the bill for that sort of writing. Still, I appreciate how unique his vision was and, as I said previously, I'll probably read more of his stories.

 

I guess I'll chock it up to matter of opinion. I like the atmosphere and imagery he builds, but it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

 

I think his stories are much more than just plot, but perhaps modern popular writing relies TOO much on plot. I haven't read very much King, but get the impression it's ALL plot, which is why I find it boring. Lovecraft uses atmosphere and build-up and structure like no-one else I've ever read. That's what makes him great. I don’t think any purple hues damage the writing at all.

 

Another thing to remember about Lovecraft is that most of his stories and material are from his early career as a writer. The repetition of tropes and imagery isn't always because of a lack of imagination on Lovecraft's part, but because the stories are early attempts. A lot of his work was collected and delivered after his death, and it repeats itself because he was still at the point in his writing when he was developing his style and subject.

If he had lived another decade all the stories we know him for now, the early formative work of a budding creator, would be seen as the building blocks for some grand project he had in his head. What we essentially have of Lovecraft are a bunch of bricks that were never used to build a house, so we're left guessing what that house might have looked like.

And he still redefined modern horror.

 

I am not going into great detail -as it would require its own thread- but there is a literary device reason for this (The actual name is called Imagery Repetition.) I've not read H.P.L extensively (though I do plan on doing a Blog series on him one day), but I imagine that H.P.L created an Imagery Palate and used it extensively. This gets obnoxious when you reuse the same Imagery story to story, but I understand the theory behind it.

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That wouldn't surprise me. I've read from critics (perhaps S T Joshi or Ramsey Campbell) that his structure was often meticulous - to create cumulative power. He wasn't just messing around, he knew what he was doing. So he probably understood the subconscious effect of his words very well.

 

Yes, I got my anthology of stories from Project Gutenberg.

Lovecraft's writing is dated and we have to read it in this light. But I like old fashioned. Far from considering it a problem, it's like submerging myself in the atmosphere of a long ago era.

 

Read more King.

I get the impression he's actually trying to create an archaic atmosphere himself. So we're reading an early twentieth century writer trying to sound like one from the nineteenth.

 

Well, I haven't ruled him out yet, but wouldn't just read more without knowing why or what to read. Are there any short stories you think demonstrate he is good, and what makes them good? I don't read novels.

 

I'm not talking about the quality of his work. It's just that King is famous for being intensely verbose and detail-driven. In fact, The Long Walk and The Running Man are the only books of his that seem fairly plot-centered (I haven't read the rest of the Richard Bachman stuff, though).

That's good, because he has quite a few dud novels. My picks (in no order) would be:

Quitter's Inc.
The Jaunt
The Moving Finger
The Road Virus Heads North
The Ten O'Clock People
You Know They Got a Hell of a Band
1408
Battleground
The Ledge

 

I've always said that Lovecraft was a horrible writer, but one hell of an idea man. I read a blog post somewhere talking about something mentioned upthread, that Lovecraft lived in a time when the scale of the universe was just beginning to be understood, and that scared a lot of people. Kids these days (not beginning a criticism) have some idea of how far away the sun is, and that there are other suns that make up the galaxy, but the idea that there were other galaxies didn't come about until 1929. Lovecraft died in 1934-

Okay, y'know what? I've been trying to explain and paraphrase what a much better writer than I put into my consciousness, but I just found the right search terms, so let's let Charles Stross say it, since he said it first:

What Scared H.P. Lovecraft

 

I love his work. Some pieces better than others, of course, but on the whole Lovecraft's style and "universe" really appealed to me.

As for being too purply, I never really got that vibe. Everything he does either advances the plot, reveals something about a character, or adds to the tone and mood. I don't think it does much good to compare it to today, where the market seems to have delved into the opposite, barren extremes that look something like Hiroshima and Nagasaki right after the bombs dropped. Flat and grey, and now you can just directly go from point A to point B because there's nothing in between anymore. All cut and dry.

Shadow over Innsmouth is a very good one (was the inspiration for a quest in the video game TESIV: Oblivion, Shadow over Hackdirt)

Dagon is another. (Mehrunes Dagon is a Daedric prince in the TES universe)

There was another that took place on a German WW1 submarine I think. You'd think I'd remember it more exactly, as I do recall liking it. Excellent characters. The paranoia. The claustrophobia.

Herbert West - Reanimator. Lovecraft is amazing at suspending my disbelief.

The Lurking Fear

I agree with previous comments that there's a lot more to Lovecraft than just his horror, cosmic or otherwise. A lot of his fiction is weird and surreal, like a drug trip where you can't tell if it's good or bad. And he only got better as he continued writing. He's a great storyteller. I often find myself re-reading his stories and appreciating them more the second time around, which is something I can't say very often when it comes to other authors.

I have all of his fictional works. It's a book called "The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft". Hardcover.

 

I also love these three. The submarine one is called The Temple and is early, with an unusual setting, but very atmospheric and as you say claustrophobic. But Innsmouth is one of the very best and was also made into a cheap but effective movie - called strangely enough Dagon.