Lovecraft and other Horror

[Lord Orys]

I decided to start my annual October Horror reading lit st a bit early this year with Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft. I just have to say that with failed attempts to read Lovecraft in the past (I found it really tedious) I'm actually really starting to like his style and his work. I want to read Call of Cthulhu and The Colour Out of Space by him as well.

Any thoughts on Lovecraft? What will you be reading this October instead?

[Night's_King]

I think by now I've read pretty much everything that Lovecraft ever wrote. An he is definitily one of my favourite authors ever. Although I have to admit, that I like his shorter stories a lot more than the long ones. My favourites of them are probably: Dagon, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The Rats in the Walls and The Mound.

But if (and that's a big if) I get to read some horror in October, I'm gonna go with some Henry S. Whitehead or Robert Bloch.

[Jo498]

You might find it also tedious (it is somewhat slow going), but I think it is more subtle (if not as iconic) than most of Lovecraft: Blackwood's "The Willows". The other Blackwood stories I have read are also worthwhile, but more traditional, often like slightly supernatural Sherlock Holmes (I forgot the name of his main "ghost doctor").

[Lord Orys]

I think by now I've read pretty much everything that Lovecraft ever wrote. An he is definitily one of my favourite authors ever. Although I have to admit, that I like his shorter stories a lot more than the long ones. My favourites of them are probably: Dagon, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The Rats in the Walls and The Mound.

But if (and that's a big if) I get to read some horror in October, I'm gonna go with some Henry S. Whitehead or Robert Bloch.

I just finished Dagon before work this morning and it was pretty good. Any authors similar you would recommend?

[Recovering forum addict]

I like Lovecraft, even though many of his short stories are very predictable. But I suppose that that has much to do with the fact that so many later authors have tried to imitate him. I mostly prefer his longer stories where the story has more time to develop so it's not just introduction - setup - SHOCK! HORROR, but some of the short ones are nice as well. Rats in the walls is one of my favourites, as well as The case of Charles Dexter Ward, The thing on the doorstep and of course The call of Cthulhu. His Dunsanyesque fantasy stories are just tedious though.

Other similar authors that I like are Blackwood, who someone mentioned earlier, and Machen. And if you want something that's more in the way of classical ghost stories, M R James.

[Jo498]

I had almost mentioned M.R. James, these are among the best ghost stories, but usually rather subtle and implying things rather than showing them explicitly, so I was not sure they count as "horror".

Another one that scared the shit out of me when I encountered it at a somewhat early age in an anthology is Benson's "The room in the tower". (When re-reading it as an adult it seems rather conventional, but when I remember my impression when I read it with 11 or so I am still shivering...)

[Ahimsa]

I lurve Lovecraft, and re-read him every Halloween but it's true that there are a finite amount of stories of his to read. My favorite modern Lovecraftian author is Laird Barron, who consistently writes scary and evocative stories and his novel--The Croning--gave me actual nightmares.

[PetrusOctavianus]

Lovecraft was heavily influenced by Lord Dunsany (the Dream Cycle stuff like The Doom that Came to Sarnath and The Cats of Ulthar), and later he was influence by Arthur Machen. The Dunwich Horror is in many ways a "remake" of Machen's The Great God Pan.

So if you are serious about reading Lovecraft it may be a good idea to be familiar with these two writers. Knowing your Edgar Allan Poe doesn't hurt either.

Personally I think his Dream Cycle stuff has stood the test of time better than his horror stories. His horror stories has good ideas, but are let down by poor prose. He couldn't write dialogue, for example. How much better At the Mountain of Madness would have been if there had been dialogue between the protagonist and his younger sidekick, for example!

[Richie4422]

Hi guys, I'd like to ask you something. I started to read Lovecraft's Necronomicon and "leftovers" of some of his work are in the book called Eldritch Tales and there's also book Complete fiction. How combination Necronomicon+Eldritch Tales is complete compared to Complete fiction? Is Necronomicon+Eldritch tales missing something what's in the Complete fiction? Thanks in advance.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Hi guys, I'd like to ask you something. I started to read Lovecraft's Necronomicon and "leftovers" of some of his work are in the book called Eldritch Tales and there's also book Complete fiction. How combination Necronomicon+Eldritch Tales is complete compared to Complete fiction? Is Necronomicon+Eldritch tales missing something what's in the Complete fiction? Thanks in advance.

Most Lovecraft collections have a core of the most famous stories, with a few extras thrown in. His stuff is public domain these days, so you can find it online in an emergency.

Anyway, Lovecraft himself was extremely well read, and indeed wrote a lengthy essay on the horror genre: http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx

[The Marquis de Leech]

I just finished Dagon before work this morning and it was pretty good. Any authors similar you would recommend?

I'd recommend Lovecraft's friend and contemporary, Clark Ashton Smith. Smith was a poet, so his prose style is far superior to Lovecraft's.

[Night's_King]

I second Smith. Bloch and Whitehead are great as well.

[Lord Orys]

I'd recommend Lovecraft's friend and contemporary, Clark Ashton Smith. Smith was a poet, so his prose style is far superior to Lovecraft's.

I second Smith. Bloch and Whitehead are great as well.

You guys are Saints. Thank you I checked out some Smith at B&N today and I bought a collection of his short stories. So far I've only read The Empire of The Necromancers, but I agree the prose is far superior to Lovecraft's.

[PetrusOctavianus]

Smith had better prose, but Lovecraft had better ideas.

Some of Smith's stories are just silly, while other are more like "paintings with words".

[The Marquis de Leech]

Smith had better prose, but Lovecraft had better ideas.

Some of Smith's stories are just silly, while other are more like "paintings with words".

Alternatively, Smith had a wider range. Endings could be happy or unhappy; there's humour and even sexuality. He delights in decadent atmosphere, whereas Lovecraft finds everything foreboding. Yes, he wasn't so much into exploring the amoral cosmos, but it was only because he much preferred finding morbid beauty therein.

He was also easily the least racist of the Weird Tales Big Three (though that's not saying much).

[Sci-2]

H.P. Lovecraft & The Occult

In contrast to the implicit supernaturalism of ghost stories or the gothic tale, the metaphysical background of Lovecraft’s stories is a ‘cosmic indifferentism’ rooted in the nihilistic and atheist materialism that Lovecraft professed at great length in his fascinating letters. This lifelong philosophical stance led Lovecraft to embrace the disillusioning powers of science, but also to pessimistically anticipate science’s ultimate evisceration of human cultural norms and comforts. His weird tales were imaginative diversions from this nihilism, but their horror reflected it as well. Lovecraft’s literary vision was also amplified by the vivid, often nightmarish, and intensely detailed dreams he experienced throughout his life. A crucial influence on his fiction, Lovecraft’s dreaming can be seen as a phantasmic supplement to the reductive naturalism of his intellectual outlook, lending his work an uncanny dynamism that helps explain its continued power to stimulate thought, imagination, and cultural creation.

To illuminate Lovecraft’s fictional transformation of the occult, it is helpful to conceptually distinguish two streams of lore and practice of the Western magical arts. On the one hand, there is an elite stream of learned magic associated with literacy, arcane knowledge, and to some degree fraternal orders—an ‘esoteric’ cultural orientation that includes medieval monks as well as, for example, Victorian Freemasons enthralled with Egyptian mysteries. On the other hand, there is the vast, amorphous, and often highly localized body of folklore, seasonal ritual, herbcraft, hexing, and healing techniques associated with rural life or communities with low degrees of social status and formal education. This ‘popular’ magical culture has in many ways left scant traces in the historical record, which in turn has allowed scholars and occultists alike to invent sometimes highly speculative accounts of its characteristics—accounts that themselves sometimes become part of the occultist milieu.

[Lightysnake88]

Try MR James as well. He was enormously influential and wrote some really fantastic horror stories. I'm quite partial to Count Magnus, and Casting the Runes.

Arthur Machen is quite underrated. As mentioned, The Great God Pan is a real classic of the genre. Ramsey Campbell also distinguished himself nicely, as well as Seabury Quinn (who is sadly overlooked these days).

[Fylimar]

I'm a huge Lovecraft fan and read his works on regular basis. There are some modern authors, who wrote some pretty good lovecraftian stories as well. I was quite impressed with Thomas Ligotti for example.

[Magnar of Skagos]

I purchased the Necronomicon paperback collection of his work a few weeks back after hearing about his work so often online. I've never really got into horror novels til late last year when I picked up Dracula, but my god these can get pretty creepy. I really enjoyed The Nameless City. So vivid and ancient and just general creepyness. What are the best ones, do you guys think?

[sologdin]

'nameless city' is cool, though its ending is plain ripoff of dunsany's 'probable adventures of three literary men.'

best HPLs are 'call,' 'dreams,' 'shadow,' 'model,' 'tomb,' 'music,' and 'whisperer.' mountains of madness is by contrast a waste of space, as are the oneirics.