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Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890 - 1937)

Started by Mark Steels Stockbroker, July 02, 2018, 10:13:54 PM

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QuoteAs I watched—choked by a sudden rise in the fishy odour after a short abatement—I saw a band of uncouth, crouching shapes loping and shambling in the same direction; and knew that this must be the party guarding the Ipswich road, since that highway forms an extension of Eliot Street. Two of the figures I glimpsed were in voluminous robes, and one wore a peaked diadem which glistened whitely in the moonlight. The gait of this figure was so odd that it sent a chill through me—for it seemed to me the creature was almost hopping.

lmao

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Edgar Allen PoeHis fool, or professional jester, was not only a fool, however. His value was trebled in the eyes of the king, by the fact of his being also a dwarf and a cripple. Dwarfs were as common at court, in those days, as fools; and many monarchs would have found it difficult to get through their days (days are rather longer at court than elsewhere) without both a jester to laugh with, and a dwarf to laugh at. But, as I have already observed, your jesters, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are fat, round, and unwieldy -- so that it was no small source of self-gratulation with our king that, in Hop-Frog (this was the fool's name), he possessed a triplicate treasure in one person.

New Jack

Think he's boss (racism aside). I can't help but identify strongly with some of his protagonists:

QuoteI am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer; and shall cast myself from this garret window into the squalid street below. Do not think from my slavery to morphine that I am a weakling or a degenerate. When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess, though never fully realise, why it is that I must have forgetfulness or death.

Want that as a forum signature!

Glebe

He was apparently very forward-thinking in a lot of ways, his xenophobia was pretty unpalatable. It kind of annoys he when people have a pop at Tolkien for apparent racially-insensitive language but give the likes of Lovecraft a pass.

I read Penguin's The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories some years ago, I've had The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories for yonks but have never managed to read the lot, getting to around 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward' and then ending up leaving it aside.

New Jack

I recommend The Music of Eric Zann for a nice shortie with minimal racism. I think....

BlodwynPig

Quote from: New Jack on August 17, 2018, 10:24:42 PM
I recommend The Music of Eric Zann for a nice shortie with minimal racism. I think....

Fiddler on the cosmos, anti-semitic.

Mister Six

Quote from: Glebe on August 17, 2018, 08:39:39 PM
He was apparently very forward-thinking in a lot of ways, his xenophobia was pretty unpalatable.

What was he forward-thinking about? Genuine question. He was okay with The Gays?

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Mister Six on August 20, 2018, 11:43:01 PM
What was he forward-thinking about? Genuine question. He was okay with The Gays?

Science, religion, the cult of personality, the end of mankind, YOUR DESTRUCTION.

H-O-W-L

QuoteWhen, long ago, the gods created Earth
In Jove's fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a n**ger.
Eastenders drums here.

Whenever I meet people who say they love Lovecraftian shit and say Lovecraft was an unbridled and unappreciated genius I bring this up to them, and they instantly tug on their collar awkwardly. It's kind of cute.


Mister Six

You can be both an issue bridled genius and a racist cunt.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: H-O-W-L on August 21, 2018, 03:57:04 AM
Eastenders drums here.

Whenever I meet people who say they love Lovecraftian shit and say Lovecraft was an unbridled and unappreciated genius I bring this up to them, and they instantly tug on their collar awkwardly. It's kind of cute.

I prefer his other work

BlodwynPig

Oh, and "it's kind of cute" is horrible shitting down. "Look at those plebs floundering in the mud for some sense of morality. It's kind of cute, isn't it darling?"

H-O-W-L

Quote from: Mister Six on August 21, 2018, 01:32:12 PM
You can be both an issue bridled genius and a racist cunt.
Quote from: BlodwynPig on August 21, 2018, 01:55:32 PM
Oh, and "it's kind of cute" is horrible shitting down. "Look at those plebs floundering in the mud for some sense of morality. It's kind of cute, isn't it darling?"

I didn't mean to come across as a sneering cunt. I misphrased it because I am a general cunt. What I meant to say in non-moron speak was that a lot of people I know tend to learn about Lovecraft via video games or tabletop games based on him, or from some of the writers who "added" to his mythos in the mid-nineties, so when I show them his insane racist rhetoric they usually have some kind of spit-take moment of "That's what it's REALLY like?". I don't do it to shit on anyone or scare anyone-- in actuality I feel like Lovecraft's racism should be well-known, and thusly mocked.

With stuff like that I feel like it's important to acknowledge it and rip the piss out of it. I won't ever ignore Lovecraft's racist writings nor will I celebrate them, but I will damned sure laugh at the mad wanker for having such wacked-out beliefs (even for the time). Ignoring it, in my eyes, is as bad as saying that racism never happened-- because it did, and there WERE crazy, creepy modern-alt-right style politiracists even back then.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: H-O-W-L on August 24, 2018, 07:04:53 PM
I didn't mean to come across as a sneering cunt. I misphrased it because I am a general cunt. What I meant to say in non-moron speak was that a lot of people I know tend to learn about Lovecraft via video games or tabletop games based on him, or from some of the writers who "added" to his mythos in the mid-nineties, so when I show them his insane racist rhetoric they usually have some kind of spit-take moment of "That's what it's REALLY like?". I don't do it to shit on anyone or scare anyone-- in actuality I feel like Lovecraft's racism should be well-known, and thusly mocked.

With stuff like that I feel like it's important to acknowledge it and rip the piss out of it. I won't ever ignore Lovecraft's racist writings nor will I celebrate them, but I will damned sure laugh at the mad wanker for having such wacked-out beliefs (even for the time). Ignoring it, in my eyes, is as bad as saying that racism never happened-- because it did, and there WERE crazy, creepy modern-alt-right style politiracists even back then.

Thanks for the clarification. And apologies for the heavy-handed rebuttal. I don't think many want to celebrate his racist works or any racist works by any communicator.

H-O-W-L

Quote from: BlodwynPig on August 24, 2018, 07:16:33 PM
Thanks for the clarification. And apologies for the heavy-handed rebuttal. I don't think many want to celebrate his racist works or any racist works by any communicator.

Unfortunately I've met plenty of cunts who do. Though even they balk at Lovecraft's genuinely hilarious notions of what determines "race". The man wrote Shadow over Innsmouth partly because of his terror at being... welsh by bloodline!

I like Lovecraft's work a lot, but I do kind of um and err about recommending his actual texts and not the spin-off works. While only a few of his actual sci-fi writings have really racist stuff in them, when they come in it's pretty jarring. "n**ger Man" the cat is collar-tugging, sure, but some of the stuff in Reanimator is fucking jaw-dropping.

Howj Begg


daf

Quote from: H-O-W-L on August 24, 2018, 10:28:26 PM
The man wrote Shadow over Innsmouth partly because of his terror at being... welsh by bloodline!

Thought he'd be pleased with that - being an Arthur Machen fan and all.

BlodwynPig

In Providence now. Will post my interview with the great man later.

BlodwynPig

#108
Didn't get to his grave as it was a bit of a trek and I needed to get back, but here are some photos

The man himself in the Atheneum - the library he frequented with Poe



The Shunned House - also where his aunt lived for a short time



A warning for visitors to The Shunned House. A hound of Tindalos, perhaps?



The "little white farmhouse" that Charles Dexter Ward was wheeled past in the eponymous case of.



Not Lovecraft related, but just up the road from one of his residences - apparently "rumoured to be haunted" during Lovecraft's time. It was quite eerie, even in the bright sunlight (atonal wind chimes helped)



The house inspiring the case of Charles Dexter Ward, 100 Prospect Street



HPL's last house - moved from its original site further down the road to accommodate what is now Brown University buildings



One of the steeples admired by Lovecraft - reminds me of Haunter in the Dark. The oldest Baptist church in America. Old Joseph Curwen got married here.



The Fleur de Lys Studio, where the narrator of Call of Cthulhu lived



The Lovecraft Sciences and Arts bookstore. A treasure trove of Weird stuff for both nerds/geeks and more earnest heads.


Glebe


Small Man Big Horse

Fantastic stuff Blodders, I'm enormously jealous too.

BlodwynPig

Shit! Whats that in the Charles Dexter Ward window!!! ??