H.P. Lovecraft - Should I or Shouldn't I?

[H3LL]

H. P. Lovecraft, the Great Old Ones and the popular culture surrounding his work has been on the periphery of my activities and interests since college.

I'm thinking of adding his work to my fiction reading, but, to be honest, my non-fiction reading tends to take up most of my available reading time and I'm unsure whether he is a writer I will enjoy.

The main reason I have not read any of his work is that I do not read horror. I have read horror stories, notably Dennis Wheatley and other odd tomes, even a couple of Stephen King. It doesn't float my boat. I find horror fiction rather dull, not in the least bit scary and all rather silly. Neither do I read detective, who-dun-it or gumshoe stories - I don't like them unless I know the criminal right from the off. Colombo is the only detective TV series I tolerate, by example.

That said, I do enjoy mythology, particularly Greek and Roman with a bit of Norse thrown in for good measure and enjoy all manner of fantastic monsters and creatures.

So, do you think I will enjoy them?

If so, where should I start and in what order?

What popular culture elements are worth a dip (sadly, I do not have time for RPG any more but used to play regularly)?

Thanks

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
.

[Fnord]

If the horror/mystery genre doesn't interest you, then HPL's works would likely not hold your interest, either.

Personally, I found his works to be interesting at first, but it all seemed to degenerate into a formulaic theme rather than a thematic format.

Kinda like the way the slasher movies of the 80's and 90' became parodies of each other, and not really 'mysterious' at all.

The choice is yours (obviously), but I can offer no encouragement.

[uruk]

I have to agree with fnord. Lovecraft's stories all follow the same formula. it starts out with a guy is mad or is going mad recollecting about the events that made him mad, which are usually about human/amphibian hybrids worshiping something, ancient gods who barely do anything in the story, or some mysterious force/mist/creatures from another dimension causing mayhem. All pretty tame by our standards today.

Edgar Rice Burroughs did it better.

[gbed]

While the fiction of HPL does have some formulas we can all count on, that doesn't take away from the general enjoyment of the content. He does have quite the library of short stories. One very nice aspect of his work is his highly descriptive narrative. I can't say that any of his stories specifically scared me, but most of them were highly entertaining.

You may want to look at 'The mountains of Madness', 'The Shadow over Innsmouth', 'The Dunwich Horror' and 'The Call of Cthulhu'. If those whet your appetite, then dig in deeper, they are just a few of my favorites. And like many here on JREF, I do share quite the appreciate for kittens, so a read of 'The cats of Ulthar' should be quite enjoyable.

Further reading may lead to 'The Statement of Randolph Carter' and the other 5 stories that feature Randolph Carter. Great Stuff :)

Most of the stories are within 10 to 20 pages, so they can go by pretty quickly. Give a few a read and let us know what you think.

~Glenn

oh, and since it's football season.... GO Miskatonic University!

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

Don't forget The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

[The Kilted Yaksman]

Just look at HPL as a gateway drug. Read some, or all, of his works, and then expand out into the field of those who came after. There is quite a bit of dreary pastiche, but there is also some astonishingly good stuff. Charles Stross and Thomas Ligotti both come to mind, but there are many really good stories in many of the Mythos anthologies available.

[Slimething]

I also don't cotton for horror as it's disappointing but Lovecraft's stuff does send shivers up my spine. There's something primitive and rudimentary that he taps into.

Like gbed* writes, do a short story or two. I read my first (Mountains of Madness) via free download to my PalmPilot so it was free and easy.

*Welcome to the Forum, gbed!

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

A forewarning; keep in mind when he lived, there are definitely overtones of racism and prejudice in the writing. Judge it by his time, not ours and it should be easy enough to overlook when reading his works.

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

Here, I'll make it easy:
http://terror.snm-hgkz.ch/lovecraft/html/
http://kovenant.org/~darkeye/bookz/library/_horror/lovecraft/
http://tania.be.linux.org/mirrors/www.gizmology.net/lovecraft/works/index.htm

[Jorghnassen]

Am I the only one who read From Quebec to the Stars?

Come on. You gotta read a little Lovecraft (as gbed suggested, pick a few of his better short stories, and see if you like it, it's not like he wrote huge novels). Though he's certainly not the best writer, his imagination and influence are immense.

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

Brian Lumley's Hero of Dreams series and Titus Crow series were both good nods to HPL.

[HarryKeogh]

I've read most of his short stories and on the whole found them to be quite entertaining though I found a lot followed this formula...man researches something (lineage, house, neighbor), something weird happens, story ends with some unimaginable horror.

Brian Lumley's Hero of Dreams series and Titus Crow series were both good nods to HPL.

Big fan of Lumley. After all, he named me.

[Kilgore Trout]

I read a lot of his stuff as a teen and loved it, though even then I got a bit tired of so much "nameless" and "indescribable" horror (I'm no writer, but seems when an author can't describe something, it doesn't exactly add to the terror any...) I'm going back and rereading some now via the collection Tales. ~800 pages, stories hand-picked by Peter Straub. I'm a few stories in and all that's keeping me going is that I know they get better (they are in more or less chronological order) but I'm not really sure how much better, since I've aged considerably since my last reading.

Anyway, the big thing I'd echo about Lovecraft is to give a couple of the (previously noted) 'best of' stories a try and if those don't grab you, considering they are often alike, you probably wouldn't like his stories. And, too, they are rather short, so it's not like diving into a 700 page King novel, and wondering if you can tough out the last few hundred since you've read so much already..

[ImaginalDisc]

I think starting with one of his one-off stories, like The Colour Out of Space (http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/literature/lovecraft/novellas/colouro.htm), or The Rats in The Walls might be a good start, because those works stand alone, and don't interweave with with the mythology of recurring gods and aliens that crops up in other places.

[hipparchia]

I recently bought some collected works by Lovecraft...did not turn out to be my kind of thing, but read some to clarify some cultural references.

Most of the stories go like, "ZOMG, this is so maddeningly horribly terrible!!! Arrrgh, and gross, inbred, perverted, and the geometry is non-euclidean!"

The purple prose though...priceless.

[H3LL]

Wow! Thanks all.

It never occurred to me that HPL would be out of copyright and Free. Thanks for the links. If I like them, I will certainly add some of his books to my groaning shelves.

Now knowing that I can sample his work in little bite-sized chunks before attempting a large meal I will certainly have a dabble.

Time is short at the moment, but I will make a space to settle in front of my PC.

I'll start with The Mountains of Madness as suggested by gbed (I'm not particularly fond of cats or football...but that shouldn't matter) and work my way through everyone's other suggestions if I like it.

I gather that The Mountains of Madness would be a favourable start.

.

[Morrigan]

At the Mountains of Madness is wonderfully epic. If you don't like it, you suck. :D

I <3 Lovecraft. Awesome yet quaint (and memorable) prose, unlimited imagination, all so terribly inspiring. It's not "scary" per se but I have never been "scared" by a work of fiction (except uh, Silent Hill maybe - the games, that is). Sure, he often repeats the "rational scientist discovers forbidden unnammable horror and goes stark raving mad" formula, but it's a cool theme that he varies on skillfully and far from all his stories revolve around that anyway.

My favourite stories:
The Shadow Out of Time (EPIC! my favourite)
The Colour Out of Space
At the Mountains of Madness
The Music of Erich Zann
The Cats of Ulthar
Pickman's Model
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Case of Charles Dexter-Ward
The Call of Cthulhu (not his best, but still a classic)
The Dunwich Horror
The Doom that Came to Sarnath

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

At the Mountains of Madness is wonderfully epic. If you don't like it, you suck. :D

I <3 Lovecraft. Awesome yet quaint (and memorable) prose, unlimited imagination, all so terribly inspiring. It's not "scary" per se but I have never been "scared" by a work of fiction (except uh, Silent Hill maybe - the games, that is). Sure, he often repeats the "rational scientist discovers forbidden unnammable horror and goes stark raving mad" formula, but it's a cool theme that he varies on skillfully and far from all his stories revolve around that anyway.

My favourite stories:

The Shadow Out of Time (EPIC! my favourite)
The Colour Out of Space
At the Mountains of Madness
The Music of Erich Zann
The Cats of Ulthar
Pickman's Model
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Case of Charles Dexter-Ward
The Call of Cthulhu (not his best, but still a classic)
The Dunwich Horror
The Doom that Came to Sarnath
What?! No Dreams in the Witch House?

[hmmm...]

A definite should - he's basically got one story, but it's a good one. Also check out the DVD of Dagon if you can, it's taken from a Lovecraft short story (not his story called Dagon though, strangely enough, IIRC) - quite good particularly if you like tentacles, and let's face it, who doesn't.

[blobru]

I'd say the easiest intro to HPL is his first published, "Dagon"; a very short story, sort of precursor to the "what horrible thing drove me mad on my summer vacation" formula he'd perfect which others have alluded to; if you like the mucid mood and can bear the pulpy prose, there's plenty to love in the longer works. :scared:

[quixotecoyote]

Quest for Glory 4 did a pretty good spin on a Lovecraftian adventure:
http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/reviews/73/

[TriangleMan]

I have a couple of collections of HPL's work and I find that I prefer his shorter stories than the longer epic ones, like The Terrible Old Man (going off memory on the titles here) or Polaris. With his shorter works there is less filler packed around the standard formula, or in some cases the shorter works 'stretch out' and are almost poetic in nature.

[Morrigan]

What?! No Dreams in the Witch House?

I knew I was forgetting some, so please note that my list is just those that struck me the most and is far from exhaustive. ;)

Love your avatar, by the way. Clint <3

[brodski]

Pick up a collection of his short stories (probably the Call of Cuthulu for starters) and see what you think, you may or may not like them- but they’re only short stories so hardly a great investment of time or money. Then pick up some of Neil Gaimins parodies/ homage’s (Shoggaths Old peculiar, a Study in emerald and only the end of the world again)

[Checkmite]

My favorite Lovecraft stories are The White Ship, Arthur Jermyn, The Doom That Came To Sarnath, Hypnos, The Lurking Fear, The Quest of Iranon, and The Music Of Erich Zann.

[Garrette]

I second the Music of Erich Zann, which I think is probably his best.

My nearly 16 year old son read most of Lovecraft's works this summer and enjoyed them, but his general attitude is that he doesn't understand why he's considered a master. When I suggested he needed to take into account both the time in which Lovecraft was writing (and the current state of the literature) and the creation of a mythos, never fully defined, he conceded he might deserve recognition as a pivotal figure but not necessarily as a great writer.

I tend to agree.

On the other hand, when we talked about the Music of Erich Zann, we both agreed that a lesser writer would have ruined that story by making it more specific, by giving Zann a background, or by letting us see the nameless dread that finally arrives when the music stops.

[Bikewer]

I second the idea of the book of short stories; Call of Cthulhu is excellent.

I have read most of HP's stuff over the years, some of the stories and a couple of the novels are excellent, and some, as one poster points out, sort of formulaic.
I particularly liked The Lurker At The Threshold, it builds suspense through the entire story, graudally refining the idea of what's actually going on.

Also, his more science-fiction flavored tale, At The Mountains Of Madness.

Lovecraft has influenced dozens of contemporary writers, who have taken his ideas and run with them. I just read The Atrocity Archive by Charles Stross, a clever young Brit author. Very heady melange of Lovecraft, cyber-hackers, Nazi horrors, and cutting edge-tech. Reccomended.

Another author who wrote some fine contemporary HP-based stories id T.E.D. Klien. He seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth, but he did some nice stuff.

[Sugriva]

I was waiting for a T.E.D. Klein reference before jumping in! He's written a meager handful of shorts and novellas, one novel, and they are all phenomenal. Klein finally released a collection back in Dec. called Reassuring Tales. Not the most prolific of authors but Ceremonies and Dark Gods are masterpieces. And Thomas Ligotti has been mentioned in this thread as well- probably my other favorite living Lovecraft inspired writer (and Ramsey Campbell is included as well). Klein, Campbell, and Ligotti are probably the greatest contemporary horror writers whose works are clearly influenced by Lovecraft yet attain a unique quality as well.

I suggest avoiding many of Lovecraft's collaboraters like Derleth or Lumley- neither contributed much to Lovecraft's vision and kind of tainted much of what people remember about his stories. He never intended to create a comprehensive mythos; he had no interest in building up a hierarchy of "Elder Gods". It was really Derleth who tried to collect Lovecraft's entities into something they were never meant to be- namely a cosmic conflict between good and evil. Lovecraft's horrors had no interest in eating humanity, they didn't care whether we existed or not. And therein lies the horror: these beings were utterly apathetic towards humanity's existence. At least vampires had a use for us; at least ghosts meant to scare us or make us aware of some past wrong. Nyarlathotep couldn't give a damn about something as trivial as Homo sapiens.

Lovecraft was probably the greatest influence on 20th century horror lit' so much of his stuff may now seem tame and familiar. It's rather odd since he was virtually ignored until the 70s when a new generation of literature buffs scrutinized his works and saw how much of an influence (until then an unnoticed influence) he'd had on dark fantasy. Phenomenal writer, purple pulpy prose and all.
:D
Lovecraft did follow a formula, Lovecraft did have little use for characters (much less character development), Lovecraft wasn't overly concerned with plot- his writings emphasized atmosphere as a character and concept as plot. Up until Lovecraft the horror greats of the past like Blackwood, Machen, Le Fanu and so on were mostly concerned with supernatural threats inspired by monotheism: vampires, ghosts, etc. were predominately a product of their Judaeo-Xian cultures. Lovecraft's horrors were explicitly secular: extraterrestrial entities worshipped as gods. Also, before H.P. horror lit' tended to focus on the threat of bodily harm and death, often mingled with moral lessons that were thinly guised metaphors for sexuality (Dracula being the most obvious example) or man's hubris in the face of God (Frankenstein being the other obvious example). Lovecraft saw little to fear in bodily harm or even death and sexuality is nowhere to even be hinted at in his tales. Lovecraft found horror in the very nature of the universe- a cold uncaring universe devoid of purpose. He was an atheist and had little use for the traditional boogeymen of Victorian terror but used the metaphor of the believer as a contrast for the apathy of existence. He literally invented a whole new strain of horror literature.

Though I like his Dunsany stuff, his poetry was pretty weak and so I personally would avoid the Randolph Carter stuff like The Silver Key.

My favorites:
At the Mountains of Madness, Dreams in the Witchhouse, From Beyond, The Shadow Out of Time, The Colour Out of Space, Pickman's Model, The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror......
There's so many more.....!

[ThatSoundAgain]

It's no surprise to see At the Mountains of Madness at the top of so many people's lists. It's great.

My personal fave (maybe tied with Pickman's Model) is The Whisperer in Darkness, although



I myself am here with you - my brain is in that cylinder and I see, hear, and speak through these electronic vibrators.


is good for a juvenile chuckle every time.

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

One I've not seen mentioned so far that is worthy of mention is Cool Air. I think it is very worthy, not so much for its quality, but rather for its futurevision. It's certainly more scifi than his other works and hints at the ideas of cryogenics.

[Bluegill]

I'll second (or fourth, or whatever) the opion that you probably won't much like his work, but many of his best are so short that it's worth trying out just to see.

I greatly enjoyed "The Whisperer in Darkness".

[Lucifuge Rofocale]

Hey!
Aren't you forgetting "The outsider" and "The thing in the doorstep" (I'm translating the spanish title of the former because I don't have the original english at hand)?

[Gregory]

The people in this thread are wrong and bad and trying to lead you astray. Read The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath instead of whatever they're suggesting.

[joobz]

There was one lovecraft story that had always stuck with me. I read it, when I was 13 years old and the tone of the story made me physically clammy. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name.

Perhaps someone could let me know what story it was

It had to do with a guy going into a cabin in the woods to write a horror story. He wanted to describe the most horrible thing a man could face. Anyways, turns out there was something in the woods that was all spindly and shadows. You couldn't look at it head on, but only from the corner of your eye. From what I remember it would enter your mind and chill your thought.. or something like that.

[Morrigan]

Do you mean The Unnamable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unnamable_%28short_story%29)?

Good analysis, Sugriva. :)

[Gregory]

Up until Lovecraft the horror greats of the past like Blackwood, Machen, Le Fanu and so on were mostly concerned with supernatural threats inspired by monotheism: vampires, ghosts, etc. were predominately a product of their Judaeo-Xian cultures.

Sort of an oversimplification, don't you think? Blackwood's "The Willows" was very much a story in the vein Lovecraft worked in (and superior to anything Lovecraft put out, IMO).

[Ysidro]

Read Lovecraft. You've been provided with links. You dont' have to like him, but at least get a taste for what inspired everyone after him.

And I say this as someone who generally doesn't like horror.

[joobz]

Do you mean The Unnamable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unnamable_%28short_story%29)?

Good analysis, Sugriva. :)
unfortunately, no.

It was definitely a wooded cabin setting. And a shadowy type thing.

[Madalch]

The people in this thread are wrong and bad and trying to lead you astray. Read The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath instead of whatever they're suggesting.

Actually, don't. The Dream-Quest was imaginative, but silly; I found the ending to be utterly unsatisfying.

[Gregory]

It's not really a horror story in the sense that, say, Color Out of Space is, but I don't think that I'd describe it as "silly." And honestly, a lot of Lovecraft's ending leave me unsatisfied.

[ZirconBlue]

IMO, Lovecraft is similar to O. Henry in that you don't want to read a lot of his work at once. My recommendation is to intersperse some of his works already recommended in this thread amongst your usual reading.

Or, you could just watch Cast a Deadly Spell and play the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying game. That's what I do.

[Wudang]

"Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" a short story by Neil Gaiman in "Smoke and mirrors" is Shadow Over Innsmouth as told by Pete and Dud.

[ZirconBlue]

"Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" a short story by Neil Gaiman in "Smoke and mirrors" is Shadow Over Innsmouth as told by Pete and Dud.

Also, Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" combines the Cthulhu mythos with Sherlock Holmes. I believe it's available on his website (http://forums.randi.org/www.neilgaiman.com).

[LordoftheLeftHand]

You might as well just read it. I'm sure you could read all of his work (fiction) in a very short amount of time. I would guess it can't be more than 1000 pages total.

BTW: My favorite Lovecraft story would be Pickman's Model I guess.

LLH

PS: Hope you like meaningless discussions about Victorian architecture!

[chocolatepossum]

First off, thanks to whoever put those links up. I had time to kill at work, and reading a few of those stories killed it dead, even they were perhaps an unwise choice for my hungover and mentally fragile state.

However...

I'll start with The Mountains of Madness as suggested by gbed (I'm not particularly fond of cats or football...but that shouldn't matter) and work my way through everyone's other suggestions if I like it.

I gather that The Mountains of Madness would be a favourable start.

If you haven't already started the mountains of madness, then I would suggest reading another one first. I very much enjoyed the story , but it does a lot of explaining of the history surrounding the "old ones" and cthulhu, which I imagine might impinge upon the "nameless horror" aspect of a lot of his other stories.

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

. . .
PS: Hope you like meaningless discussions about Victorian architecture!
Lord Cthulhu will feed you to the Shoggoths first when he returns.

[LordoftheLeftHand]

My personal fave (maybe tied with Pickman's Model) is The Whisperer in Darkness,

Those 2 are my favorite 2 also. Any theories on what they might have in common?

LLH