I think this man is the greatest horror writer of our time, although I have personally never been terrified by one of his stories. Love the madness, horror, and overall theme that there are primordial creatures out preying on us in forms and ways we cannot comprehend.
Favorite stories:
Call of Cthulhu The Doom that Came to Sarnath The Lurking Fear
I heartily agree, I recently picked up the Necronomicon, a veritable bible of his stories, I recommend it to anyone, fans old and new and even people who've never heard of him, without Lovecraft we'd have no King.
yeah I think he's a great author. I bought "The Call of Cthulhu, and Other Weird Stories" earlier on in the year.
Alot of them seem to link together imo. The Call of Cthulhu was good but I also liked The Statement of Randolph Carter. Still need to read the other half of the stories still.
I like his work it's really unique. But sometimes the racism distracts so badly it pulls me out of the story, I'd say "it was just the time period" but I get the feeling that his racism wasn't average.
Also anyone ever played the Arkham Horror Board game? it's complex but crazy fun.
ace_of_something: I like his work it's really unique. But sometimes the racism distracts so badly it pulls me out of the story, I'd say "it was just the time period" but I get the feeling that his racism wasn't average.
Also anyone ever played the Arkham Horror Board game? it's complex but crazy fun.
Oh come on, his racism was hilarious in that "damn...he was racist" way. In "The Rats in the Walls" the cat was actually named "Ni**er Man". I mean damn..I threw my head back laughing at the fact that he actually named his cat that.
But you have to admit...some tribes out there do partake in insane rituals, so in comparison to British expansion and American dominance...yeah, it is wierd.
goater24: Has anybody found the H.P Lovecraft mission within Fallout 3 in Dunwich? An awesome nod in the direction of cthulhu
They had one in Oblivion, a Shadow over Hackdirt.
ace_of_something: I like his work it's really unique. But sometimes the racism distracts so badly it pulls me out of the story, I'd say "it was just the time period" but I get the feeling that his racism wasn't average.
Also anyone ever played the Arkham Horror Board game? it's complex but crazy fun.
It wasn't average at first, specifically his one story about the 'white nigger', but his later stories don't really have the horrific elements of racism like it, probably since he actually got married to a Jewish woman. Though there are still always going to be elements of his personal fear of other people present in his description of abominations of flesh, but perhaps he was partly aware of the silliness of it.
Just try not to read his poetry.
As for Arkham Horror, yeah. Played it. Have the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion. Freaking awesome, we actually went up against and beat Azathoth. Well, before he woke up obviously. Just barely though. Also, good news! King in Yellow expansion came back into print! Probably in response to the Black Goat of the Woods expansion.
ace_of_something: I like his work it's really unique. But sometimes the racism distracts so badly it pulls me out of the story, I'd say "it was just the time period" but I get the feeling that his racism wasn't average.
Yeah... Lovecraft was a crazy racist. Thankfully it doesn't show through in all of his works.
ace_of_something: I like his work it's really unique. But sometimes the racism distracts so badly it pulls me out of the story, I'd say "it was just the time period" but I get the feeling that his racism wasn't average.
Yeah... Lovecraft was a crazy racist. Thankfully it doesn't show through in all of his works.
With the exception of "The Rats in the Walls" it isn't even obvious. It's a fair representation of tribes worshipping darker entities.
In high school, I read pretty much every single story of his that I could get my hands on. He's a terrific writer and one of the very few that can still to this day make my skin crawl with just the written word.
ace_of_something: I like his work it's really unique. But sometimes the racism distracts so badly it pulls me out of the story, I'd say "it was just the time period" but I get the feeling that his racism wasn't average.
Yeah... Lovecraft was a crazy racist. Thankfully it doesn't show through in all of his works.
With the exception of "The Rats in the Walls" it isn't even obvious. It's a fair representation of tribes worshipping darker entities.
I seem to recall a lot of Social Darwinist Bullshit in At The Mountains of Madness and Call of Ctulhu but I haven't read those in a while.
A lot of it is vague racism in an imperialist, culture superiority sense.
Umm, on the racism front I really can't find it funny Arsen. "Herbert West: Reanimator" is a little bit sickening for that reason alone and I can't remember the title but there's one story of his where he goes on at some length about the evils of the "squat yellow race" of eskimos. And there's a whole lot of nasty insinuations about Egyptians and Arabs throughout his work, especially when referring to Nyarlahotep. Racism was more common in his time but not to the level that he expressed it, he was a little extreme even then.
Lovecraft was an amazing writer but a white supremacist prick. If I had a time machine I would travel back, grab him by the lapels and bring him back to our time and show him how wrong he was, point out that his oh-so-saintly father's madness and death was most likely due to syphillis and then dump him back in his own shitty time period where his sort of racism was quietly tolerated.
Cockney Weasel: Umm, on the racism front I really can't find it funny Arsen. "Herbert West: Reanimator" is a little bit sickening for that reason alone and I can't remember the title but there's one story of his where he goes on at some length about the evils of the "squat yellow race" of eskimos. And there's a whole lot of nasty insinuations about Egyptians and Arabs throughout his work, especially when referring to Nyarlahotep. Racism was more common in his time but not to the level that he expressed it, he was a little extreme even then.
Lovecraft was an amazing writer but a white supremacist prick. If I had a time machine I would travel back, grab him by the lapels and bring him back to our time and show him how wrong he was, point out that his oh-so-saintly father's madness and death was most likely due to syphillis and then dump him back in his own shitty time period where his sort of racism was quietly tolerated.
It can be forgiven.
His writing was simply above his human flaws.
Edit - And sorry, but I find this rather unjustified within the same regards. If a black man were to call a white man "cracker' back then it would be considered fine "due to the time period", but because Lovecraft made a few generalizations here or there, which do not undermine his work on any level, than it becomes this huge catastrophe. Not saying it was right just saying that the modern generation has no basis to lay blame and scapegoat a previous generation.
Just simply choose to overlook a few key areas here or there and enjoy the story as a whole.
Cockney Weasel: Umm, on the racism front I really can't find it funny Arsen. "Herbert West: Reanimator" is a little bit sickening for that reason alone and I can't remember the title but there's one story of his where he goes on at some length about the evils of the "squat yellow race" of eskimos. And there's a whole lot of nasty insinuations about Egyptians and Arabs throughout his work, especially when referring to Nyarlahotep. Racism was more common in his time but not to the level that he expressed it, he was a little extreme even then.
Lovecraft was an amazing writer but a white supremacist prick. If I had a time machine I would travel back, grab him by the lapels and bring him back to our time and show him how wrong he was, point out that his oh-so-saintly father's madness and death was most likely due to syphillis and then dump him back in his own shitty time period where his sort of racism was quietly tolerated.
And yet you make no mention of Mark Twain? A man regarded as one of the greatest American authors of all time, and he was outwardly, flagrantly racist.
If you like Lovecraft check out the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company - they do audio plays-for-radio-type versions of his novels which are fantastic. They released "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as a podcast. Check it out http://artcpodcast.org/index.php?post_year=2007&post_month=10 - its brilliant.
Unfortunately I find that a 3rd-level education combined with 21st century comforts has robbed Lovecraft of his ability to scare me, however the podcast linked above did put shivers down my spine 'cos of the sound effects. Nothing like some opressive music and a load of freaks chanting "Cthulhu fhtagn" in the background as the main actor gibbers insanely in the foreground to creep you out. =)
They are on iTunes and audible.com too I think. I presume the details are on http://www.artc.org (I got the CDs instead of downloading).
Arsen: I think this man is the greatest horror writer of our time, although I have personally never been terrified by one of his stories. Love the madness, horror, and overall theme that there are primordial creatures out preying on us in forms and ways we cannot comprehend.
Favorite stories:
Call of Cthulhu The Doom that Came to Sarnath The Lurking Fear
Arsen: The problem is, the modern definition of racism. We think our modern society takes precedence over the former on the basis of our beliefs alone.
Even for his time period he was horribly horribly racist.
He's a great writer and he understood horror, probably because he lived his life a lot in depression and fear, but don't defend his racism. It's indefensible, even by the standards of his own time.
Arsen: In "The Rats in the Walls" the cat was actually named "Ni**er Man". I mean damn..I threw my head back laughing at the fact that he actually named his cat that.
I'm Irish and believe it or not it was quite common in Ireland up till about 50 years ago for black dogs to be called Nigger. Go figure. I guess they didn't realise it was an offensive term...........or maybe they just didn't think about it.
Lovecraft was brilliant, and his racism sometimes bordered on paranoid delushions. These two are not mutually exclusive.
Any fan of Lovecraft should read Houellebecqs excellent essay "Against the World, Against Life". I used to be available online for free, but apparently no longer... If anyone can find a link they'll be my hero.
Arsen: The problem is, the modern definition of racism. We think our modern society takes precedence over the former on the basis of our beliefs alone.
Even for his time period he was horribly horribly racist.
He's a great writer and he understood horror, probably because he lived his life a lot in depression and fear, but don't defend his racism. It's indefensible, even by the standards of his own time.
Racism wasn't even a word for his time period. It's defensible. The only way one can become so unjustifiably angry is if they believe a modern, liberal definition of the word overtakes the past's defintion and not what the word fully entails.
Arsen: The problem is, the modern definition of racism. We think our modern society takes precedence over the former on the basis of our beliefs alone.
Even for his time period he was horribly horribly racist.
He's a great writer and he understood horror, probably because he lived his life a lot in depression and fear, but don't defend his racism. It's indefensible, even by the standards of his own time.
Racism wasn't even a word for his time period. It's defensible. The only way one can become so unjustifiably angry is if they believe a modern, liberal definition of the word overtakes the past's defintion and not what the word fully entails.
He equated black people with the devil. Even people of his time period didn't think that minorities were of the devil, just savage and lessers. He equated minorities with the horrible spawns of an uncaring universe come to take your sanity, your life, and your hope.
Our best writers can still be some of our best writers yet be flawed people. Poe, for example, was a complete asshole to everyone but he still knew how to write.
Arsen: The problem is, the modern definition of racism. We think our modern society takes precedence over the former on the basis of our beliefs alone.
Even for his time period he was horribly horribly racist.
He's a great writer and he understood horror, probably because he lived his life a lot in depression and fear, but don't defend his racism. It's indefensible, even by the standards of his own time.
Racism wasn't even a word for his time period. It's defensible. The only way one can become so unjustifiably angry is if they believe a modern, liberal definition of the word overtakes the past's defintion and not what the word fully entails.
He equated black people with the devil. Even people of his time period didn't think that minorities were of the devil, just savage and lessers. He equated minorities with the horrible spawns of an uncaring universe come to take your sanity, your life, and your hope.
Our best writers can still be some of our best writers yet be flawed people. Poe, for example, was a complete asshole to everyone but he still knew how to write.
Well keep in mind that the majority of these tribes when standing next to a Christian belief were very, very Satanic by nature. What monotheistic god in the face of this isn't murderous, evil, and above all abhorrent?
It fits do the ancient cultures beliefs in their practices. There is no cultural boundary, there is no level of human advancement, it was the non-acceptance of a good God over fallen creations.
Arsen: Well keep in mind that the majority of these tribes when standing next to a Christian belief were very, very Satanic by nature. What monotheistic god in the face of this isn't murderous, evil, and above all abhorrent?
It fits do the ancient cultures beliefs in their practices. There is no cultural boundary, there is no level of human advancement, it was the non-acceptance of a good God over fallen creations.
It was more than the tribes though. Even the people in his own towns who were Christians were still in line with Satan or similar forces. He abhored minorities with an incredible extremity that few people in his time period shared. Yes, he got better, but even while married to a Jewish woman he would still rant and rave about the jews. Much to the amusement of his wife, obviously.
Our best cultural contributors, again, do not need to be perfect people. You don't have to make excuses for their behavior. Again, much like Poe, Lovecraft was a real dick even by his time's standards.
Arsen: Well keep in mind that the majority of these tribes when standing next to a Christian belief were very, very Satanic by nature. What monotheistic god in the face of this isn't murderous, evil, and above all abhorrent?
It fits do the ancient cultures beliefs in their practices. There is no cultural boundary, there is no level of human advancement, it was the non-acceptance of a good God over fallen creations.
It was more than the tribes though. Even the people in his own towns who were Christians were still in line with Satan or similar forces. He abhored minorities with an incredible extremity that few people in his time period shared. Yes, he got better, but even while married to a Jewish woman he would still rant and rave about the jews. Much to the amusement of his wife, obviously.
Our best cultural contributors, again, do not need to be perfect people. You don't have to make excuses for their behavior. Again, much like Poe, Lovecraft was a real dick even by his time's standards.
He died in the worst way fathomable.
Malnourished, lack of emotion, broken spirit, poor... What a way to go.
If I had a time machine I would travel back, grab him by the lapels and bring him back to our time and show him how wrong he was, point out that his oh-so-saintly father's madness and death was most likely due to syphillis and then dump him back in his own shitty time period where his sort of racism was quietly tolerated.
You know that wouldn't work, you wouldn't be able to change his perception and if anything, it would just confirm his beliefs, he'd only see what he wanted to see.
He would write a story about a man who has a strange dream, in which he was visited by a deluded being from the future who takes him on a journey in an attempt to show him the errors of this thinking, but instead shows him the horrors of modern society, which despite all it's enlightenment & technological advancement, the being himself is blind to, but the protagonist can see only too real.
He'd write about how the sub-human tribes have run amok in society, how they trample each other to death in a derranged mob, fuelled by an evil desire for material poessions(sic), on a day which is so named after those tribes.
Of how these tribes corrupt the youth with their seductive music, with it's tribal, hypnotic beats, taught to them by Cthulhu, which permeates every facet of society & entertainment. Chief among these agents of Cthulhu would be the sub-human so named after the evil of money & material possession, '50 Cent'. How those who have been persuaded by Cthulhu show their allegiance by the wearing of outlandish jewellery, called 'Bling', which he suspects was given to them by Dagon himself.
He'd write about how Cthulhu not only influences man through dreams, but also in a new incorporeal guise, named 'Internetothep' (a demonic Arachnid in its own dimension). How it corrupts man, makes him slothenly & spreads it's perversions in a World Wide Web.
He'd talk of the servant of 'Internetothep', the trickster deity 'Wikipedias', how it seduced those seeking knowledge but tricks them with false information & lies, which may appear to be the truth, but are in fact perpetrated by other agents of Cthulhu.
The story would end with the protagonist waking up for his dream of the future, drenched in a cold sweat, plagued with madness and gibbering about the "Horror of the future, how mankind must act now to change it's destiny, oh the horror, the horror..."
Arsen: Well keep in mind that the majority of these tribes when standing next to a Christian belief were very, very Satanic by nature. What monotheistic god in the face of this isn't murderous, evil, and above all abhorrent?
It fits do the ancient cultures beliefs in their practices. There is no cultural boundary, there is no level of human advancement, it was the non-acceptance of a good God over fallen creations.
It was more than the tribes though. Even the people in his own towns who were Christians were still in line with Satan or similar forces. He abhored minorities with an incredible extremity that few people in his time period shared. Yes, he got better, but even while married to a Jewish woman he would still rant and rave about the jews. Much to the amusement of his wife, obviously.
Our best cultural contributors, again, do not need to be perfect people. You don't have to make excuses for their behavior. Again, much like Poe, Lovecraft was a real dick even by his time's standards.
He died in the worst way fathomable.
Malnourished, lack of emotion, broken spirit, poor... What a way to go.
Poe deserved his fate, the shit he continued to pull, but Lovecraft much less so. Poe, I mean Poe was a horrible example of a person. Lovecraft never actually hurt anyone, he was just a dick in terms of his attitude.
Depressing since, at least in my opinion, Lovecraft was a much better writer than Poe. It is always sad when some one so influential doesn't at least get the recognition they deserve.
If I had a time machine I would travel back, grab him by the lapels and bring him back to our time and show him how wrong he was, point out that his oh-so-saintly father's madness and death was most likely due to syphillis and then dump him back in his own shitty time period where his sort of racism was quietly tolerated.
You know that wouldn't work, you wouldn't be able to change his perception and if anything, it would just confirm his beliefs, he'd only see what he wanted to see.
He would write a story about a man who has a strange dream, in which he was visited by a deluded being from the future who takes him on a journey in an attempt to show him the errors of this thinking, but instead shows him the horrors of modern society, which despite all it's enlightenment & technological advancement, the being himself is blind to, but the protagonist can see only too real.
He'd write about how the sub-human tribes have run amok in society, how they trample each other to death in a derranged mob, fuelled by an evil desire for material poessions(sic), on a day which is so named after those tribes.
Of how these tribes corrupt the youth with their seductive music, with it's tribal, hypnotic beats, taught to them by Cthulhu, which permeates every facet of society & entertainment. Chief among these agents of Cthulhu would be the sub-human so named after the evil of money & material possession, '50 Cent'. How those who have been persuaded by Cthulhu show their allegiance by the wearing of outlandish jewellery, called 'Bling', which he suspects was given to them by Dagon himself.
He'd write about how Cthulhu not only influences man through dreams, but also in a new incorporeal guise, named 'Internetothep' (a demonic Arachnid in its own dimension). How it corrupts man, makes him slothenly & spreads it's perversions in a World Wide Web.
He'd talk of the servant of 'Internetothep', the trickster deity 'Wikipedias', how it seduced those seeking knowledge but tricks them with false information & lies, which may appear to be the truth, but are in fact perpetrated by other agents of Cthulhu.
The story would end with the protagonist waking up for his dream of the future, drenched in a cold sweat, plagued with madness and gibbering about the "Horror of the future, how mankind must act now to change it's destiny, oh the horror, the horror..."
If you are talking about the Los Angelos riots then you are correct...
If I had a time machine I would travel back, grab him by the lapels and bring him back to our time and show him how wrong he was, point out that his oh-so-saintly father's madness and death was most likely due to syphillis and then dump him back in his own shitty time period where his sort of racism was quietly tolerated.
You know that wouldn't work, you wouldn't be able to change his perception and if anything, it would just confirm his beliefs, he'd only see what he wanted to see.
He would write a story about a man who has a strange dream, in which he was visited by a deluded being from the future who takes him on a journey in an attempt to show him the errors of this thinking, but instead shows him the horrors of modern society, which despite all it's enlightenment & technological advancement, the being himself is blind to, but the protagonist can see only too real.
He'd write about how the sub-human tribes have run amok in society, how they trample each other to death in a derranged mob, fuelled by an evil desire for material poessions(sic), on a day which is so named after those tribes.
Of how these tribes corrupt the youth with their seductive music, with it's tribal, hypnotic beats, taught to them by Cthulhu, which permeates every facet of society & entertainment. Chief among these agents of Cthulhu would be the sub-human so named after the evil of money & material possession, '50 Cent'. How those who have been persuaded by Cthulhu show their allegiance by the wearing of outlandish jewellery, called 'Bling', which he suspects was given to them by Dagon himself.
He'd write about how Cthulhu not only influences man through dreams, but also in a new incorporeal guise, named 'Internetothep' (a demonic Arachnid in its own dimension). How it corrupts man, makes him slothenly & spreads it's perversions in a World Wide Web.
He'd talk of the servant of 'Internetothep', the trickster deity 'Wikipedias', how it seduced those seeking knowledge but tricks them with false information & lies, which may appear to be the truth, but are in fact perpetrated by other agents of Cthulhu.
The story would end with the protagonist waking up for his dream of the future, drenched in a cold sweat, plagued with madness and gibbering about the "Horror of the future, how mankind must act now to change it's destiny, oh the horror, the horror..."
If you are talking about the Los Angelos riots then you are correct...
Because that is EXACTLY what happened.
Given that he made the internet a cosmic horror when it came about some time after Lovecraft met a horrible end, I'm imagining he was just joking.
However, the LA riots were a lot more than a bunch of black people being angry because they're black people or for material reasons. It was a reaction to rampant racism and corruption present in the system at the time. You could argue they went out of control, and they did given that the riots did cause a few innocent fatalities, but it wasn't just a bunch of black people going AHHHHG WE'RE BLACK!
I think this man is the greatest horror writer of our time, although I have personally never been terrified by one of his stories. Love the madness, horror, and overall theme that there are primordial creatures out preying on us in forms and ways we cannot comprehend.
Favorite stories:
Call of Cthulhu
The Doom that Came to Sarnath
The Lurking Fear
(Short Stories/Poems)
Nathicana
Azathoth