28 replies to this topic

[RL Nice]

Anyone ever read Lovecraft? Dude was ahead of his time- well, maybe not in the racism department- but he did write aliens as being truly alien while every other writer at the time depicted them as simply being humans that happened to come from another planet.

And you can't discount the impact he's had on modern fiction. Fan of Hellboy, Warhammer 40,000, Dungeons & Dragons, or WarCraft? Well, they've all been influenced by his writing.

His writing style may be a bit difficult to get past for the modern reader, and he may have had some pretty prejudiced views, but this guy had some brilliant ideas. It's a shame he never got the recognition he deserved during his lifetime.

Also, obligatory Elder Thing:

[Faenwulf]

Big Lovecraft Fan here. Read most of his works and been part of a CoC Role Playing Group for over two years now.

Great literature and an extremely interesting person behind it. And regarding the racism part: That wasn't so unusual for his time. Can't judge him much on that from a historians perspective.
From a mdoern perspective yes, but oh well. Then we'd have to judge so many other things of the past, too.

[Nexus Trimean]

I've Read a few of his works, but am mostly aquainted to the universe by the Chaosium RPG, Which was quite good, at least the version i played. (One of the older ones) Really about the Survival, and Horror. Less about the combat.

There is a Xbox game based on his work as well, that is not too shabby, but gets a little too much into the gunplay at the end.

Overall Its a great Mythos, that more people really should read and enjoy.

[Deathz Jester]

I like Lovecraft's stuff, however I'm saddened that no one's been able to properly do a videogame/movie with his books.

[RecklessFable]

I bought the complete works and am making my way through now. I'm glad for the commentary that give a background to properly appreciate the stories for the time in which they were written.

[RL Nice]

Iron Harlequin, on 30 May 2012 - 12:54 PM, said:

I like Lovecraft's stuff, however I'm saddened that no one's been able to properly do a videogame/movie with his books.

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has done 1930's style adaptations of Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness that are supposedly pretty good.

[Arkojotuun]

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Ftagn!

Been a huge Lovedraft fan ever since I read the Outsider about 3 years ago. If your looking for a game to play while we wait for MWO try out Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. The combat is a little lackluster but the story and atmosphere of the game are very well done IMO.

Also, if your looking for an awesome Lovecraftian movie to see, go watch Cabin in the Woods, one of the better horror movies of the past couple years.

[Kenyon Burguess]

one of my favorite authors. I have read his works repeatedly over the years and now have my son reading them.

[TheSprinkle]

Big fan here as well. Played the CoCDSOTE game, and read the Fall of Cthulhu comics.

[Kifferson von doober]

Hell yeah, A favorite of mine. i can wholeheartedly recommend HPLHS's whisperer in darkness and their series of radio plays. I'm reading clark ashton smith at the moment.

[Lightdragon]

Heaven knows where I'll end up - but it's a safe bet that I'll never be at the top of anything! Nor do I particularly care to be.
H.P. Lovecraft

[Solis Obscuri]

RL Nice, on 30 May 2012 - 12:57 PM, said:

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has done 1930's style adaptations of Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness that are supposedly pretty good.

I can vouch for The Whisperer in Darkness, having watched it at the film fest in Portland a few weeks back.

I'd strongly recommend Die Farbe, too.

[Rommel8er]

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah'nagl fhtagn. Ia!

This forum needs more elder sign, just to be safe.


Lol, just kidding! Abundant madness for Everyone!

[Baldwin Chang]

The Mound, The Dunwich Horror and The Hound are amongst my favorite of Lovecraft's works. It was also Lovecraft (and Arnie) that got me into Robert E. Howard and his Hyperborea themed works.

[RL Nice]

Jeremiah Mint, on 30 May 2012 - 02:36 PM, said:

The Mound, The Dunwich Horror and The Hound are amongst my favorite of Lovecraft's works. It was also Lovecraft (and Arnie) that got me into Robert E. Howard and his Hyperborea themed works.

For me? The Dunwich Horror, The Colour Out of Space and The Whisperer in Darkness. I noticed that unlike most of the works inspired by Lovecraft, the original stories usually don't feature narrators who actually encounter the stories' eldritch horrors with their own eyes, instead learning about them through second-hand means (the Mi-Go from The Whisperer in Darkness are described via letters, Cthulhu in The Call of Cthulhu is recounted through a journal, IIRC and in The Shadow Out of Time, the narrator only remembers the Great Race of Yith from dreams, the protagonist reads about the Deep Ones in The Shadow Over Innsmouth). In fact, the only two Lovecraft stories I have read where the protagonists come face to face with monsters are The Dunwich Horror and At the Mountains of Madness. It's really a testiment to how effective he is as a horror writer when he can present such creepiness without even featuring any monsters that physically appear in the story.

Edited by RL Nice, 30 May 2012 - 07:21 PM.

[HIemfire]

RL Nice, on 30 May 2012 - 07:19 PM, said:

For me? The Dunwich Horror, The Colour Out of Space and The Whisperer in Darkness. I noticed that unlike most of the works inspired by Lovecraft, the original stories usually don't feature narrators who actually encounter the stories' eldritch horrors with their own eyes, instead learning about them through second-hand means (the Mi-Go from The Whisperer in Darkness are described via letters, Cthulhu in The Call of Cthulhu is recounted through a journal, IIRC and in The Shadow Out of Time, the narrator only remembers the Great Race of Yith from dreams, the protagonist reads about the Deep Ones in The Shadow Over Innsmouth). In fact, the only two Lovecraft stories I have read where the protagonists come face to face with monsters are The Dunwich Horror and At the Mountains of Madness. It's really a testiment to how effective he is as a horror writer when he can present such creepiness without even featuring any monsters that physically appear in the story.

At the Mountians of Madness is my favorite. It strongly goes into the costs of societal decadence and a bit of the dangers of unrestrained genetic manipulation (the Shoggaths that were outlined in the wall art), though with the participants being creatures that look upon us an equivalent to cattle.

[Stormeris]

[starmindfr]

I remember when i discovered "lovecraft" it was in scifi mag called "metal hurlant", they have lots of nice pictures and story with mixed human body / animals / mechanicals parts

[Faenwulf]

Yeah, right. Show us more pictures of maddening alien overlords and other monstrosities.


As if all of us aren't mad enough anyways (see Artemis threads).

[Anixantheas]

Not sure why, but one of favorite stories was Pickman's Model.
As for movies, not many Lovecraft books have translated well. However a move "In the Mouth of Madness" I feel really captured a Cthulhu feel. Just ignore all the Stephen King jokes