I was wondering if anyone else on the boards was a fan of the great works of H.P Lovecraft. I myself have just recently been introduced to his books.
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What I should have said was something slightly less sarcastic...
Paizo is overflowing with Cthulhuphiles. Other than Fergie and Crew over at Chaosium, or Paul of Cthulhu over at yog-sothoth.com, you'll be hard pressed to find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy...I mean...ummm...sorry, my wires were cross-genre'd for a second there...what I mean to say is these Boards are overflowing with Lovecraftian Goodness...
In fact, there are several threads discussing the finer points of Cthuliana and D&D: specifically, how much Lovecraft will we see in Pathfinder, inclusion of the Far Realm in future GameMastery modules, and so on...
I was wondering if anyone else on the boards was a fan of the great works of H.P Lovecraft. I myself have just recently been introduced to his books.
I just started reading his stuff this past year as well. He has quickly become one of my favourite authors... I just love his evocative descriptions and the brooding atmosphere he creates... You'll find alot of Lovecraft fans on these boards, Arctaris...
I totally dig Lovecraft, like a lot of folks on the boards. I wouldn't even consider him a good writer. His ideas and innovation in weirdness are what made him amazing and why everyone rips him off to this very day.
I was wondering if anyone else on the boards was a fan of the great works of H.P Lovecraft. I myself have just recently been introduced to his books.
I live in utter fear of Dagon.....
I totally dig Lovecraft, like a lot of folks on the boards. I wouldn't even consider him a good writer. His ideas and innovation in weirdness are what made him amazing and why everyone rips him off to this very day.
Definitely...his prose style can be a bit ponderous and is often joked about, but his macabre and chilling ideas and how the stories are told are wonderful...because it is rather funny to think how little actually happens in typical Lovecraft story (which is a reason he doesn't film well).
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I was wondering if anyone else on the boards was a fan of the great works of H.P Lovecraft......are you serious...?
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Dude, I've been planning to get a giant tattoo of Cthulhu done on my back. However, cash flow is muy limited, so I have to wait. *whine*
I *heart* the works of Lovecraft. They make my brain happy.
I was wondering if anyone else on the boards was a fan of the great works of H.P Lovecraft...Lovecraft is seminal to the modern RPG.
I'd also recommend Lovecraft's friend, Clark Aston Smith.
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"RATS IN THE WALL" YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
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Or "betwixt" or "gibbous"... Lovecraft can be fun - "The colour out of space" and the one about the inbred subterranean Dutchmen ("The lurking fear"?) are my favourites - but he can also be dull and laboured. Avoid "At the mountains of madness", unless, of course, you have an inexplicable penguin fetish.
Avoid "At the mountains of madness", unless, of course, you have an inexplicable penguin fetish.
I'm starting to read it now. I'm looking forward to some hot penguin action now.
Dude, I've been planning to get a giant tattoo of Cthulhu done on my back. However, cash flow is muy limited, so I have to wait. *whine*I *heart* the works of Lovecraft. They make my brain happy.
Yah I've been thinking of getting some tentacles added by a plastic surgeon...
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Yah I've been thinking of getting some tentacles added by a plastic surgeon...
Dude, I've been planning to get a giant tattoo of Cthulhu done on my back. However, cash flow is muy limited, so I have to wait. *whine*I *heart* the works of Lovecraft. They make my brain happy.
Ahhh...a little Mievillian Goodness...
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Anybody see Happy Feet?Avoid "At the mountains of madness", unless, of course, you have an inexplicable penguin fetish.I'm starting to read it now. I'm looking forward to some hot penguin action now.
Heath, you're tumbling down a very disturbing well: Lovecraft->penguin fetishes->hot penguin action->Happy Feet *shudder*
How in the name of all that is Beyond Space and Time can we get from At the Mountains of Madness to Happy Feet? Now if the penguins were instead body-melded rugose cones from beyond our galaxy, I could I understand it...
Lovecraft is seminal to the modern RPG.
I'd also recommend Lovecraft's friend, Clark Aston Smith.
There's also Brian Lumley. If what I've heard is correct (please remember notorious accuracy of "rumors") Lumley was born 9 months to the day after Lovecraft died, he writes not only in Lovecraft's genre, but in Lovecraft's style, he's one of the very few Lovecraftian authors who have actually created new creatures for the mythos that get used by other authors (Hounds of Tindalos for one). Start with Clock of Dreams and work outwards from there.
How in the name of all that is Beyond Space and Time can we get from At the Mountains of Madness to Happy Feet? Now if the penguins were instead body-melded rugose cones from beyond our galaxy, I could I understand it...
Penguins are immature Yoggoth spawn. They eventually grow large enough to eat polar bears....
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Speaking of Lovecraft, since there is no 'Video Games' section, have any of you played the game "Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem" for the Nintendo Gamecube? It's VERY heavily based on mythos elements and CoC in general. Your character even has a SANITY meter! You can learn to cast spells by invoking the names of some of the Great Old Ones (which drains some of your sanity when used), fight horrific creatures (which drain sanity when you even SEE them), and all sorts of other crazy stuff. When your sanity gets low, the walls will start to bleed, you can hear laughter coming from nowhere, and occassional shadows will flicker around the screen. When your sanity gets REALLY low, your character can fall through the solid floor of a room (only to snap back to his senses immediately afterwards), or, if you stand around idle long enough, your character will actually KILL HIMSELF!!!
It's so badass. Highly recommended for mythos fans.
I was wondering if anyone else on the boards was a fan of the great works of H.P Lovecraft. I myself have just recently been introduced to his books.
YES!!! Lovecraft's books are the best!
I was wondering if anyone else on the boards was a fan of the great works of H.P Lovecraft. I myself have just recently been introduced to his books.I live in utter fear of Dagon.....
Welcome to the Esoteric Order of Dagon
Big fan of the Mythos. Just about ever horror writer out there cuts their teeth on their own spin at the beginning. Heck I've even seen Manga based on some of his works (In fact I have a two volume adaptation of the Mountains of Madness)
There's also Brian Lumley. If what I've heard is correct (please remember notorious accuracy of "rumors") Lumley was born 9 months to the day after Lovecraft died, he writes not only in Lovecraft's genre, but in Lovecraft's style, he's one of the very few Lovecraftian authors who have actually created new creatures for the mythos that get used by other authors (Hounds of Tindalos for one). Start with Clock of Dreams and work outwards from there.
and of course if you get into Lumley's stuff that will bring you to the Necroscope...lots of fun stuff there.
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I've been a Lovecraft fan for my entire adult life, and own a full shelf (or more) of his work, and works about him and his work (like S.T. Joshi's weighty biography--which is fascinating reading, but only for dedicated fans). I also have an enduring interest in RPGs with Lovecraftian elements: I own half a shelf of Call of Cthulhu books (even though I've never played the system), I've run Cthulhu Mythos games using GURPS and run multiple D&D campaigns in Green Ronin's Freeport setting, and I've even co-authored a short LARP featuring Mythos monsters. I have two organized play PCs with names derived from the Mythos, and I own several Cthulhu-themed boardgames, card games, toys, etc.
Lovecraft's not without his flaws, of course--his prose is horribly stilted at times, and he was shockingly racist even by the standards of his times. That latter is why I'm looking forward to Green Ronin's Cthulhu Awakens game (for their AGE system) that is coming out sometime later this year, because it aims to reinvent some elements of the Mythos to avoid perpetuating its creators' uglier sides.
I never heard of Lovecraft until 1985 when I first began playing D&D. My DM had a copy of the original printing of "Deities and Demigods" and the Lovecraft mythos was included in. I was utterly fascinated by the meager information in the book and set out to find Lovecraft's works. Today he's one of the rare writers whose work I still enjoy reading over and over.
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I never heard of Lovecraft until 1985 when I first began playing D&D. My DM had a copy of the original printing of "Deities and Demigods" and the Lovecraft mythos was included in. I was utterly fascinated by the meager information in the book and set out to find Lovecraft's works. Today he's one of the rare writers whose work I still enjoy reading over and over.
I hear you.
I was wondering if anyone else on the boards was a fan of the great works of H.P Lovecraft. I myself have just recently been introduced to his books.
I've been diligently busy transcribing the Necronomicon for quite awhile now.
A sixteen year necro in this thread. Impressive.
Have y'all listened to the excellent Voluminous podcast?
So, my nephews are Mythos n00bs. In your opinions, what are the first three stories I suggest to them to read??
My list is:
1. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"
2. "The Dunwich Horror"
3. "Call of Cthulhu"
... and after these three stories, it will be of course be "Mountain of Madness" (for the final exam.)
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I'd vote for The Shadow over Innsmouth to be in the top three.
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So, my nephews are Mythos n00bs. In your opinions, what are the first three stories I suggest to them to read??
My list is:
1. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"
2. "The Dunwich Horror"
3. "Call of Cthulhu"... and after these three stories, it will be of course be "Mountain of Madness" (for the final exam.)
I wrote a very brief introduction to Lovecraft many aeons ago, and posted a copy on my blog here. For the purposes of that essay, I split his stories into Mythos stories, Dreamlands stories, other stories, and miscellaneous other writings, with a few suggestions for where to start exploring each group.
I wrote a very brief introduction to Lovecraft many aeons ago, and posted a copy on my blog here. For the purposes of that essay, I split his stories into Mythos stories, Dreamlands stories, other stories, and miscellaneous other writings, with a few suggestions for where to start exploring each group.So, my nephews are Mythos n00bs. In your opinions, what are the first three stories I suggest to them to read??
My list is:
1. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"
2. "The Dunwich Horror"
3. "Call of Cthulhu"... and after these three stories, it will be of course be "Mountain of Madness" (for the final exam.)
Great blog, by the way! :D
Carry on,
--C.
There is a rumor the count of the number of words in the last paragraph of each of HPL's stories in chrono order create a secret code. Apparently someone said HPL was an amateur crypto-type.
I'm sure that can't be true. And people certainly shouldn't try to figure it out, especially not by chanting their decryption aloud near some Essential Saltes...
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Quote from the RPG Fate of Cthulhu from Evil Hat Productions, page 6...
Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a racist and an anti-Semite.
There. We said it.
We could give a litany of examples, but they are easy to find with a simple Internet search. Look up the name of his cat, for instance (HPL was over-the-top, even for his time). Go ahead, we’ll wait.
Lovecraft was considered a particularly virulent racist even by the standards of his contemporaries in the 1920s.
So... keep that in mind when you read his work. I think it's still worth reading, despite the purple prose and blatant racism.
Yep, if folks weren't White New Englanders with long lineages and old money, he basically felt they were trash.
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Yep, if folks weren't White New Englanders with long lineages and old money, he basically felt they were trash.
From a distance, it's interesting to me how much his books addressed a feeling of despair, irrelevance, etc., a railing of an individual man's insignificance and impermanence in the face of the vastness of the world, time, space, etc.
His protagonists all seem deeply shocked, almost offended, by how much *they don't matter* to the universe.
The universe is bigger and more important than any person, and no, no matter how educated or rich or well-blooded, nobody gets out alive in the end, which is deeply distressing to a generation that's grown up thinking that their breeding, their money, their erudition, somehow makes them special or sacred or of lasting significance.
Almost all of the mythos stories seem to touch upon this feeling of smallness, and how shattering it is to his gentle protagonists. His generation was kicking and screaming at the notion that they weren't the center around which the entire universe revolved, and owed a certain amount of respect from the rest of the universe...
Yep, if folks weren't White New Englanders with long lineages and old money, he basically felt they were trash.And even the rural white New Englanders were likely degenerating into weird cults or something. "the decayed side of the Whateley family"
Or in some cases the old English nobility - see The Rats in the Walls.
Absolutely right!
Yep, if folks weren't White New Englanders with long lineages and old money, he basically felt they were trash.From a distance, it's interesting to me how much his books addressed a feeling of despair, irrelevance, etc., a railing of an individual man's insignificance and impermanence in the face of the vastness of the world, time, space, etc.
His protagonists all seem deeply shocked, almost offended, by how much *they don't matter* to the universe.
The universe is bigger and more important than any person, and no, no matter how educated or rich or well-blooded, nobody gets out alive in the end, which is deeply distressing to a generation that's grown up thinking that their breeding, their money, their erudition, somehow makes them special or sacred or of lasting significance.
Almost all of the mythos stories seem to touch upon this feeling of smallness, and how shattering it is to his gentle protagonists. His generation was kicking and screaming at the notion that they weren't the center around which the entire universe revolved, and owed a certain amount of respect from the rest of the universe...
I couldn't agree more. I don't know if it was an intentional juxtaposition to place humankind's pettiness and ultimate insignificance against that backdrop of the universe's utter indifference, but when you put the two side by side it's so obvious that contrast is right there in front of us.
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I couldn't agree more. I don't know if it was an intentional juxtaposition to place humankind's pettiness and ultimate insignificance against that backdrop of the universe's utter indifference, but when you put the two side by side it's so obvious that contrast is right there in front of us.Yep, if folks weren't White New Englanders with long lineages and old money, he basically felt they were trash.[SNIP]
Almost all of the mythos stories seem to touch upon this feeling of smallness, and how shattering it is to his gentle protagonists. His generation was kicking and screaming at the notion that they weren't the center around which the entire universe revolved, and owed a certain amount of respect from the rest of the universe...
And this, IMO, could tie into his racist overtones. He grew up in a generation that was *desperate* to be special, above, important, in some way, and the universe was kind of laughing at them, grinding in their faces that all their education and breeding and old money was worth exactly bupkiss. The rain was gonna fall on them all. The plague came to them all. The grave waited for them all. The whole 'you are special, the ones who shape the world' thing they'd grown up so desperately believing was increasingly revealed as a cruel lie, and they responded by punching down furiously, desperate to prove that they were 'better' by at least being 'better than *those people.*'
Sometimes, he almost seemed to flirt with the idea that the 'degenerate savages' were somehow better adjusted to living in the uncaring universe that his gentle hapless educated upper-class protagonists couldn't handle. (Not that he presented this as a positive, but it felt like he was this close to getting it, at a few points. He was certainly not unwilling to point out the flaws in his own class, at times, with how often they went screamingly mad and / or died, in the face of adversity.)