Any Miskatonic U. Alumni?

awful_gollum · 11-08-2008, 09:24 PM

Nice to see some fellow Lovecraft fans on this Transformers message board.

I was first introduce to Lovecraft when I was about six years old through playing the hit 3DO video game, Alone in the Dark (which is an excellent adaptation of the Lovecraft Mythos). I didn't totally understand the game's story, nor did I know how to read. However, I was re-introduced to Lovecraft during my teen years. I then found out about Cthulhu during the speculative hype for Cloverfield.

Anyway, Lovecraft is my all-time favorite author, with his legendary monster being my all-time favorite kaiju.

(surpassing even Kong and Godzilla!

)

The stories I reccommend by him most are The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror, Pickman's Model, The Music of Erich Zann, and The Re-Animator.

Aernaroth · 11-08-2008, 11:16 PM

Dreams in the Witch House, Haunter in Darkness, and Shadow over Innsmouth are some of his finest works, in my opinion.

Like many people said, Lovecraft's expression that mankind might be impotent and insignificant in terms of the universe at large, that for all our advancement and technology, we are as insects to beings we cannot even properly comprehend. And I think that feeling of helplessness and insignificance is a pretty unique form of terror, at least for that time.

Also, Lovecraft was a master at creating a mythos, rather than single stories. His works intertwine with eachother, all occupying the same world and in some cases interacting with eachother. Its something not a lot of authors can pull off, but he does it somehow.

jorod74 · 11-10-2008, 06:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PavingMantis

You mentioned Howard as well... definitely try to read as much Conan as you can. I hate it when I bring up some awesome Conan story and people say "Yeah, I've seen those movies." These stories are so much better than the movie, and the character is so much deeper than the dumb barbarian "Ahnold" played. Some of those later stories where he loses his crown, or fights the Picts are tremendous.

I have a Anthology of "Weird Tales" stories, with a pre- Conan story in it. it was a Kull story and it was nothing more than brutal, monosyllabic, man/monster grunting fun. it was awesome.
and I can see how Lovecraft abd Howard were friends.

Did anybody see the Night Gallery episode "Pickman's Model"? I loved it, but never knew till now that it was a lovecraft story.

Quote:

read " Supernatural Horror in literature " by HP lovecraft.. in fact.. now is a good time for this.. go to Barnes and Noble.. you can get a volume of his stuff with the corrected texts for like 13$..

thanks ginrai for the heads up on that!

One last thing about the "Weird Tales" stories. i like that you can see as the years go by- except for lovecraft's work- that the prose matures from that rough victorian stuff (dracula, for one) to the modern easy to digest style. Having said that, this move doesn't take away from his work one iota.
in fact, i am appreciating it more and more now.
it is like a trippy version of literary film noir. if that makes sense.
I use a batman comic to describe the atmosphere i get from it- Gotham By Gaslight. Modern creeping in, but never conquering the old and dark, the shadows...