Any Lovecraft fans here?

[white_wolf]

I know Lovecraft is more horror than fantasy, but this is the closest thing we have to a horror group so I thought I'd ask and see if there were any Lovecraft fans here. I recently bought his complete works from Barnes and Nobles for $20 and I'm working my way through the Cthulhu Mythos.

[getting old in mke]

1. May you have a squamous evening

filled with gibbering horrors.

If the intensity gets too much, take a comic break with Tintin..."Tintin in Innsmouth"

[flying rabbit]

2. Yes, best read in the dim lght

with a storm howling outside. A true master.

[getting old in mke]

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

Well, that was up until last year.

Then he upgraded to a smart phone and the alarm on it is working wonders for him...

[flying rabbit]

4. I don't know if giving him an alarm is such a good idea...

[Iggo]

6. He awakens?

*gulp*

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. I've read a few of his stories

At The Mountains Of Madness, The Doom that Came To Sarnath, and The Dunwich Horror. I'm a fan and would eventually like to read his complete works. I like the horror/fantasy writers of that period just before and after the turn of the 20th century. My favorite, because of his exquisite English prose and atmospheric horror is M.R. James and I also like Edward Plunkett (aka Lord Dunsany) and Algernon Blackwood. Blackwood's story The Doll (turned into an episode of Night Gallery some years ago) is truly horrific.

[Aristus]

7. I just recently purchased the same omnibus volume that white wolf bought at B&N.

I was fascinated by the short story "The Doom that Came To Sarnath". It read almost like Tolkien; like a lost chapter of The Silmarillion.

[Stryst]

8. The Whisperer in Darkness

Is probably my favorite Lovecraft story. I really like his style, even if his opinions on race were fairly toxic.

[LongTomH]

9. Even his fans have to admit: He was extremely racist and xenophobic, even more so.......

.......than most gentlemen of his class and time.

It's OK to admit that H.P. Lovecraft was racist.

[AmyStrange]

12. I never judge an artist's work by their personal beliefs...

-

unless it presents itself in their work, but I don't remember anything Lovecraft wrote that was racist in nature, except maybe his description of the naked people that danced at the Cthulhu orgies, but I might be wrong.
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[artemisia1]

13. Provided they do NOT act upon those beliefs or exhort others to do so. Marion Zimmer Bradley is

one author whose personal conduct (alleged, but credibly so, imho) has permanently erased themselves from my reading list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Zimmer_Bradley#:~:text=Noted%20for%20the%20feminist%20perspective,sexually%20abusing%20multiple%20unrelated%20children.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

14. It's there, quite a bit really

If you look at the people who worship the Old Gods throughout his work, they are always dark skinned and usually described as debased or primitive, while the "heroes" or victims are usually Northern European. "The Horror at Red Hook" is pretty blatant, and look up the name of the cat in "The Rats in the Walls."
There are some published poems and letters that are pretty bad as well.
The guy created some amazing horror, but his personal fears (and I think that was what drove his racism) are all over his work. And it's more than just "a product of his time" - but I think that by recognizing it, discussing it, and not excusing it makes his work palatable.
As an aside, the novel "Lovecraft Country" and the novella "The Ballad of Black Tom" both face Lovecraft's racism head-on from an AA perspective.

[Fyrefox]

10. Definitely a fan

I love him! It just takes a while to attune myself to his language style when I start, then I'm on board.

[AmyStrange]

11. Here's a quote from an article I wrote last year...

-

You might find it interesting. It's the last paragraph from, "What's it like to Die?":

[SNIP]

As a final word and also as a shout out to all my fellow Lovecraftian freaks out there, I was reading through an Ask Reddit Answer Page about funny last words. One of the answers, from someone named educated_guesst, told about a time when he was studying to be a pilot, and his instructor told the class that if he was going down, and there was no chance in hell of survival, "he'd say over the radios 'look at the size of those tentacles!' And the FAA and NTSB would be so confused..."


I copied the whole thing to DU here:

"Ha, ha, ha, I'm gonna die, and I don't care..."

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181389274

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