[Gandhi]

So is anybody here familiar with H. P. Lovecraft's work as an author? I've recently been reading on the Cthulhu Mythos and I fucking love it. I'm sure some people here have an idea who Cthulhu is, I've heard the name quite a lot but never really knew who this Cthulhu was until recently. Only for the past few weeks have I bothered looking up some of Lovecraft's work in reading and watching videos here and there and found out pretty much what most people know about this Cthulhu character. I know I'm pretty late to the party, but hey, better late than never eh?

You folks know Cthulhu right?

Yeah, that guy.
​

Anyway I honestly I love Lovecraft's fictional universe in which the "gods" of the universe are indifferent to humanity mostly because it just seems real. When I first left religion completely, I'd always think that if there was a god or gods they'd be evil or completely indifferent to humans. Lovecraft's made up gods to an extent actually sound believable to me. I don't necessarily believe in any of the fictional beings in Lovecraft's work, I just assume if "gods" really did exist they wouldn't really have a reason to give a rat's ass about humanity or anybody on earth really. Also I'm a firm believer that life does exist beyond earth, so I just love Lovecraft's entire "aliens" theme he's got in most of his work.

I've heard about stuff like "The mad Arab Abdul Alhazred" from Lovecraft's work and yeah, I'm really interested. Other than that I don't know much about Lovecraft's work, but I'm planning on reading more of his stuff soon. God damn I love this shit.

Also holy shit at this Cthulhu shit having actual cult followers who believe Cthulhu really is under the Pacific ocean in a lost underwater city waiting for the stars to align to take over the world. I've fucking heard people worship this guy? What the fuck? :side:

If you're familiar if Lovecraft's books, what are your favorite books? What do you think of those books? What do you think of the Cthulhu myth and the outer gods? Whaddya think of the racist man that was Howard Phillips Lovecraft? Discuss! :dance

 

[DesolationRow]

Beginning with his shorter works is probably the prudent course of action for those unacquainted with his idiosyncrasies and rather unique style of writing. Once one has done this, they can steadily branch out.

Call of Cthulhu, Shadow Over Innsmouth and Whisperer in Darkness are probably the choice conduits through which a reader may ease into the vast, tumultuous "canon," so to speak, of the entire "Cthulhu Mythos."

Once one has conquered those works, I would advise most readers to become more ambitious. The Shadow Out of Time and especially At the Mountains of Madness are more challenging, I would say, with many complex, interconnected motifs bubbling up with staggering alacrity as his obsessive essaying of fraught metaphysical paradigms and assertory depictions of phantasmagorical creatures and universes are laced throughout them.

The Colour From out of Space is an exquisitely mounted piece of writing which should excite many a horror fan, while the stellar and utterly absorbing Cats of Ulthar should win over a predominance of fantasy devotees.

 

[KingCannabis]

I have a book that has every single one of Lovecraft's works in one volume. It's been awhile since I've read any of them, but I like his works alot. The only ones I remember are Call Of The Cthulhu & What The Moon Brings.

 

[Kincaid]

The Statement of Randolph Carter, to this day, scares the daylights out of me.

 

[Aizen]

Yeah, H.P. Lovecraft is one of those masters I can read in my free time.

One of the latest novels I read of him was "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath". This novel involves a dream hero who travel through a city of cats. Also I need to mention probably one of the most criticized work "The Street", that a lot of people consider so racist :lol

Also you can read

The Dunwich Horror
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Delta Green
The Red Hook

 

[gem'no]

Interesting topic. As you, gandhi, I just occasionally heard the name "Cthulhu". Enough to know that this is a popular myth.

I agree with you on your moral classification of god, as "evil" or "indifferent". It would be a bit more optimistic if you call the divine indifference of god - or nature, or society ... we live in humanism = humantheism after all - as freedom.

I believe the acceptance of the indifference of our gods is much older, though. Christianity is soaked with the concept of a "divine plan", which means they accept gods indifference towards them, while clinging to the chains of their "protection". The Antic gods of Greece and Rome feared the gods as powerful indifferent beings, who punish or privilege, all out of low base motives.

As for the Cthulhu followers. If they try to win a favor from a god, it just means they have a "follower" personality...
There are follower, who have a compulsive need for an authority figure.
There are slavers, who have a compulsive need to be an authority figure. Those people are the ones, who define "what god defines" is GOOD.
And then there are we, who hate the compulsive need to need or be needed. ;-)

 

[IntellectualSavior]

Awesome thread, man.

I have a huge respect for Lovecraft as an author - I genuinely believe him to be one of the most influential writers of all time; easily amongst the very greatest.
Anybody who can write in his time period and still remain relevant and easily readable, even today, is worth some gold in my books.

His word has expanded far beyond text, as well - video games, board games, pen-and-paper RPGs and films (though not nearly enough of those).

I am particularly fond of 'The Thing on the Doorstep', and of course 'The Dunwich Horror'.

Lovecraft forever.

 

[Gandhi]

Glad you folks love this topic, and thanks for the book mentions because now I know what books to get! :mark:

Though I'm having a bit of a dilemma. I've heard about the Call of Cthulhu - Dark corners of the Earth game and I REALLY want to play it as I've heard you really learn more of the Cthulhu mythos, plus the game's a horror game and if I enjoyed games like Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines I'm sure as hell going to enjoy a game about the Cthulhu mythos. Should I read some of Lovecraft's books first before playing or will playing the game not ruin my fun of reading the books? This question's for those who both read the books and played the game, just asking this because I want to have as much fun as possible and I'm honestly just a thrill junkie.

 

[Captain Edd]

I own this

Only read through half of the book, its massive. I'm pretty much the average reader, my favorite stories are Call of Cthulu, Mountain of Madness and the Dunwich Horror. Thread reminded me that I should continue reading :lol

 

[Filthy Casual]

Beginning with his shorter works is probably the prudent course of action for those unacquainted with his idiosyncrasies and rather unique style of writing. Once one has done this, they can steadily branch out.

Call of Cthulhu, Shadow Over Innsmouth and Whisperer in Darkness are probably the choice conduits through which a reader may ease into the vast, tumultuous "canon," so to speak, of the entire "Cthulhu Mythos."

Once one has conquered those works, I would advise most readers to become more ambitious. The Shadow Out of Time and especially At the Mountains of Madness are more challenging, I would say, with many complex, interconnected motifs bubbling up with staggering alacrity as his obsessive essaying of fraught metaphysical paradigms and assertory depictions of phantasmagorical creatures and universes are laced throughout them.

The Colour From out of Space is an exquisitely mounted piece of writing which should excite many a horror fan, while the stellar and utterly absorbing Cats of Ulthar should win over a predominance of fantasy devotees.

I jest. In truth, I found it a fine display of rhetorical ability.

 

[Klein Helmer]

I own this

Only read through half of the book, its massive. I'm pretty much the average reader, my favorite stories are Call of Cthulu, Mountain of Madness and the Dunwich Horror. Thread reminded me that I should continue reading :lol

I have it too, the 2011 edition, I believe; it's great.

It's quite inexpensive, but the earlier printing was apparently plagued with typos. I actually found one in my version in "The Beast in the Cave ("strown" in place of "strewn"). Seeing as this was the first story I read in my copy, and I had been very wary of the errors in the previous edition, I was greatly aggravated, but felt better after remembering I had obtained the entirety of Lovecraft's prose for twenty bucks.

Anyway...

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but like others, I'll list my favorites, and strongly urge anyone interested in Lovecraft to check out the following:

Short stories:

"The Beast in the Cave" (written when Lovecraft was fifteen, I believe)
"Dagon"
"The Statement of Randolph Carter"
"Cool Air"

Medium Length Stories:

"Beyond the Wall of Sleep"
"The Nameless City"
"Pickman's Model"
"The Haunter of the Dark"
"The Lurking Fear"
"The Rats in the Walls"
"The Tomb"

Novellas:

The Call of Cthulu
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Thing on the Doorstep

I'll also point out for anyone who prefers audio media, that there are some great readings and even audio play adaptations of Lovecraft material on Youtube and elsewhere on the internet.

Here are some of my favorites:

http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/b/7/4/b74...97755186&hwt=410820ca12d688920df35dd9f2c1309a

(I couldn't find the playlist for "Pickman's Model," the other entries are on Youtube.)

 

[ByTor]

Lovecraft is my favorite author ever. I have four or five (maybe more) collections of the master's stories and I re-read them at least once a year for about five years. That complete Lovecraft collection must be new. I'd have snapped that up in a heartbeat if it was out during my serious Lovecraft binging. The best collection I have is the one put out by the Library of Congress but "The Complete Fiction" looks like the way to go. Hmm...think I'm about due for another Lovecraft binge.

"Dreams In The Witch House" has always been my favorite Lovecraft story. Maybe a weird choice but I like the witchcraft=super advanced science angle and Brown Jenkin is just creepy. Big fan of all the classics (even if Call of Cthulhu and Dunwich Horror have individual parts I'm not a huge fan of).

Anybody who has devoured all Lovecraft's tales and is still jonesing for more should pick up his 'revisions.' Can't remember the name of it but the guy who put it together was called Stephen Jones. Some of those 'revisions' were 95% HPL and I'd put a few of them up there with his known classics.

 

[stevefox1200]

The internet made me hate him

His stories are ok but he and his mythos is so overused and over referenced that I groan anytime it comes up

He has kind of become the "reference and sound smart" guy

 

[Klein Helmer]

The internet made me hate him

His stories are ok but he and his mythos is so overused and over referenced that I groan anytime it comes up

He has kind of become the "reference and sound smart" guy

That sounds dangerously close to hipster-think.

Who's your favorite author?

Are you going to start "hating" him or her if they become the fascination of people with whom you don't agree?


You have to enjoy something for what it is, not what other people think about it.

We, of all people (posters on a professional wrestling forum) should be well aware of this...

 

[stevefox1200]

That sounds dangerously close to hipster think.

Who's your favorite author?

Are you going to start "hating" him or her if they become the fascination of people with whom you don't agree?


You have to enjoy something for what it is, not what other people think about it.

We, of all people (posters on a professional wrestling forum) should know this...

fuck

I have become a hipster...

No, its just that every video game, every movie, and every well anything that is aimed at a "nerd" nitch has to have lovecraft references

He is like a tired meme

 

[Klein Helmer]

fuck

I have become a hipster...

No, its just that every video game, every movie, and every well anything that is aimed at a "nerd" nitch has to have lovecraft references

He is like a tired meme

And those video games, movies, etc should be judged on their own merits or lack thereof.

Nothing but the original texts should be informing your judgments of the source material.

 

[Silver C]

Heh, who hasn't heard of Lovecraft?
'
At the Mountains of Madness was his first book I read. Some other favorites include "The Transition of Juan Romero" (his weird take on "Hindoo ring" not withstanding) and "The Color Out of Space".

Ranks above Poe, Bradbury, Stoker in my books (no pun intended).

EDIT: Nox Arcana (dark ambient) have made an entire concept album on Lovecraft. Check out this tune. And by the way, Joseph Vargo, the brains behind Nox Arcana is a great gothic horror author and artist as well...check out his novella "The Legend of Darklore Manor and Other Tales of Terror". Eerie stories told in a sinisterly simple language, Mr Stitch was downright disturbing.

 

[Gandhi]

Heh, who hasn't heard of Lovecraft?
'
At the Mountains of Madness was his first book I read. Some other favorites include "The Transition of Juan Romero" (his weird take on "Hindoo ring" not withstanding) and "The Color Out of Space".

Ranks above Poe, Bradbury, Stoker in my books (no pun intended).

EDIT: Nox Arcana (dark ambient) have made an entire concept album on Lovecraft. Check out this tune. And by the way, Joseph Vargo, the brains behind Nox Arcana is a great gothic horror author and artist as well...check out his novella "The Legend of Darklore Manor and Other Tales of Terror". Eerie stories told in a sinisterly simple language, Mr Stitch was downright disturbing.

I honestly didn't expect much people here to know him, and I probably know no one who knows of Lovecraft. :side:

Also the "The Legend of Darklore Manor and Other Tales of Terror" sounds fascinating, will check it out sometime. And nice music, actually enjoyed it. (Y)

 

[kregnaz]

First of all, Nyarlathotep > Cthulhu
My personal favorite in the whole mythos, Nyarlathotep is basically the archetype of the trickster devil. He is the humanoid messenger of the gods, he is the one asshole that actually walks the earth and takes his pleasure out of manipulating people, twisting them, making them mad and feeding off of their emotions. He is the evil phantom that roams the lifes of others, the Mephistopheles, Loki, Walter/Randall Flagg, Senator Palpatine, the Man in Black (Lost, not alien movies ) Cthulhu is just a god with a squidhead *duckandrunaway*

The great thing about Lovecraft is that this whole cosmos he created is entangled with so many other authors through time, he set the baseline for survivalist horror. The stories aren't particulary scary if you read them now, it is mainly a "looming doom" fest with architectural descriptions running wild, but at the time he wrote them, horror stories where not laid out the way he did it. There were always clear dangers in plain sight, almost no subtlety. And the dangers were things people could directly relate with, like monstrous wolfs in the woods eating passing travellers and such. Either that, "natural" danger or simply other human beings.

But think about it, around the time Lovecraft wrote this, these dangers became increasingly "surreal" to people. More of them in bigger cities, advances like the first electric street lights and homes, automobiles, trains, industry. Nature was basicaly beaten, the big bad wolf didn't work that well anymore. The big bad stranger lost some of it's power because people met far more people in big cities than just 100 years earlier in their villages.

So Lovecraft gave them their horror back. No more calculating villains who just want to eat/rob/plunder. God like creatures from the stars (you know, the part of nature where mankind could never ever go to *g*). A threat that might not even be aware of what you are. Horror from possibilities of the unknown again. Something people's minds MADE horrific, because it replaced them in the state of "there is a world out there that is dangerous and I know nothing about it" compared to "all is well, we have tamed the world".

And that is why (I think at least ) this worked out so well, and why the (of course partially revamped older) archetypes of horror stories can still be traced back to his work, and why so many authors like August Derleth, Stephen King, Robert Anton Wilson, Wolfgang Hohlbein or Andrzej Sapkowski actually continued the myth through open association.

 

[femj88]

Though I'm having a bit of a dilemma. I've heard about the Call of Cthulhu - Dark corners of the Earth game and I REALLY want to play it as I've heard you really learn more of the Cthulhu mythos, plus the game's a horror game and if I enjoyed games like Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines I'm sure as hell going to enjoy a game about the Cthulhu mythos. Should I read some of Lovecraft's books first before playing or will playing the game not ruin my fun of reading the books? This question's for those who both read the books and played the game, just asking this because I want to have as much fun as possible and I'm honestly just a thrill junkie.

It would probably be a good idea to read "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" before playing the game.
As far as I can recall, there is no real risk of any spoilers, but that story is the background upon which the game is based. So reading that story will, likely, give you a better understanding of what is going on.

Many of Lovecrafts stories are available on Wikisource, I know that isn't the best way of reading them, but it might give you an idea of which stories you would want to buy in hardcopy.
(Unless of course, you feel like buying one of the complete works collections.)

As far as personal recommendation;

The dreams in the witch house.
The shadow over Innsmouth
At the mountains of madness
The haunter of the dark
The thing at the doorstep, and
The case of Charles Dexter Ward
are the stories which I personally have found to be the most harrowing horror stories among Lovecrafts works.

While;
The Music of Eric Zahn
The shadow out of time
The dream quest of unknown kadath, and
Nyarlathothep
are among my favourite stories.
While they aren't really very effective as horror stories, IMO, they give a great understanding of the overall universe in lovecrafts works.

Welcome to the world of Lovecraftian horror, I hope you will have lots of fun discovering what lies beyond... :ex: