And speaking of Lovecraft I finally saw Cast a Deadly Spell, a Lovecraft-inspired fantasy noir set in Los Angeles in a version of 1948 where magic and strange creatures have become the norm. Also the main character, a detective, is literally named after H.P. Lovecraft.
I'm glad that lovecraft-inspired media exists. Lovecraft himself is kinda terrible, and a slog to read, but I'm glad that he gave us a groundwork for cosmic ethereal horror.
samsonlonghair wrote:I'm glad that lovecraft-inspired media exists. Lovecraft himself is kinda terrible, and a slog to read, but I'm glad that he gave us a groundwork for cosmic ethereal horror.
I found his prose to be all over the place. The really short stories tended to be the most readable, as those focused on the first person narrator's sense of unease and terror. But whenever he had a longer wordcount he tended to meander, culminating in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", which was just a stream of consciousness of a mushroom trip he went on or something. And then once you're past those issues you run into the racism.
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samsonlonghair wrote:I'm glad that lovecraft-inspired media exists. Lovecraft himself is kinda terrible, and a slog to read, but I'm glad that he gave us a groundwork for cosmic ethereal horror.
I found his prose to be all over the place. The really short stories tended to be the most readable, as those focused on the first person narrator's sense of unease and terror. But whenever he had a longer wordcount he tended to meander, culminating in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", which was just a stream of consciousness of a mushroom trip he went on or something. And then once you're past those issues you run into the racism.
Yeah, a lot of his horror seemed to me to be rooted in xenophobia. Lovecraft's descriptions of the Deep Ones seemed like they were tapping into some kind of subconscious horror at the thought that "other" people were going to come into our world and start spreading their own filthy lineage. Yeesh.
When I was reading all this stuff, I thought that the idea of a whole race of underwater people sounded cool and interesting. I'd kinda like to meet these guys and find out what they know about the ocean, but Lovecraft wants me to be afraid of them
I'll give him credit for bringing subconscious horror into our literary repertoire, but darn he is hard to read nowadays.
I'd say "The Temple" is his best work in terms of holding up well to the modern era. It's sub drama mixed with cosmic horror that avoids all the othering.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
At The Mountains of Madness, Call of Cthulhu, and The Shadow over Innsmouth are all really good, IMO. He also has a few memorable short stories, but a lot of his work is just OK (and some of it is just bad). Also, his work, despite its subject matter, reflects the common racism of his day, and some of it is very hard to read now. As much as I love James Bond and Phillip Marlowe, some of Raymond Chandler’s and Ian Fleming’s work is the same way. I would be distressed if anyone tried to excise those passages from the books, but at the same time, I kind of wish the authors hadn’t written them in the first place. Oh well...it is what it is, I guess.
Lovecraft's particular racism was a bit stronger and more obvious. He was a bit more xenophobic than some of his peers. Look at Howard, for example. Howard's writing also reflected the casual racism of the day, but it wasn't quite as fearful of others.
How bad is "The Dark Tower" ? note I do not like movies that keep things ambiguous and up for interpretation by the viewer.
MrPopo wrote: But whenever he had a longer wordcount he tended to meander, culminating in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", which was just a stream of consciousness of a mushroom trip he went on or something .
I think back then they used to pay the author by per word, more words more money.
RCBH928 wrote:How bad is "The Dark Tower" ? note I do not like movies that keep things ambiguous and up for interpretation by the viewer.
It's not all that bad of a movie on its own merits. Not great, mind you - kind of forgettable really - but most of the real negativity around it is due to how poor of an adaptation it is. They did state it was supposed to be a "sequel" of sorts (cyclical events), but even then, it'd be following up 8 books (and whatever other spinoff material) targeted at adults with a 95 minute PG-13 film.
