Lovecraft Short Stories && Serials

[ofinscriptions]

I was gifted two books of Lovecraft's shorts (and there's a couple serials in there too!) and i've FINALLY been able to crack em open

So far read The Nameless City and Herbert West -- Reanimator and MAN.

In the nameless city the narrator is just a weak bastard ?? he got all scared from wind ghosts that couldn't DO anything do him!!! tho i will say the description of the lost civilization's mummies compelled me -- loved the fine fabrics and gold (: plus also the brass door!
also less of hp lovecraft known megaracist even at the time's proclivities were in there until yk. talking about crocodilian people going into the middle of the earth but you also expect him to be an idiot when you're reading his stuff sometimes.

Also fully didn't realise that he writes his things in first POV?? idk why i thought he did third

Herbert West -- Reanimator was a fun read!!! it's a serial but it's funnier to think it was written to be read all at once because the male narrator talks about Herbert West's "slight form, yellow hair, spectacled blue eyes, and soft voice" seven whole times in a very short story.

one of my besties was getting a play by play but here are some wild lines from narrator man (who was turned into Dan Cain in the 80s movie!):

(they were all at a bar)

"but West persuaded me to aid him in "making a night of it." West's landlady saw us arrive at his room about two in the morning, with a third man between us; and told her husband that we had all evidently dined and wined rather well."

THE SENTENCE IMMEDIATELY AFTER:

"Apparently this acidulous matron was right; for about 3 a.m., the whole house was aroused by cries coming from West's room"

They also chose to live together in a cottage in a small town together after they both graduated medical school so they could do their experiments with less eyes on them. unfortunately in this section there's also an extended passage that makes you remember it's written by lovecraft in the worst way. then goes back to somewhat more normal

"That was seven years before, but West looked scarcely a day older now -- he was small, blond, clean-shaven, soft-voiced, and spectacled, with only an occasional flash of a cold blue eye"

&&

"[West] somestimes glanced with a kind of hideous and calculating appraisal at men of especially sensitive brain and especially vigorous physique. Toward the last I became acutely afraid of West, for he began to look at me that way."

THIS LINE DRIVES ME INSANE BROTHER I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE CMON NOW

"the end of Herbert West began one evening in our joint study, when he was dividing his curious glance between the newspaper and me."

wild way to put it man WILD. great tho

i think the next one in the first book i have is The Hound so y'all may get an update soon

anyone else read his stuff?? or any of the inspired by cosmic horrors? :D :D

[rolypolyphonic]

The only Lovecraft story I've ever read is The Music of Erich Zann. I can't remember what spurred me to read it; it was either because of reading about Lovecraft and learning that in particular was one of his favourite works (although it apparently goes against the mold of his other writing and isn't an effective gauge for his other stories), or it had something to do with it being recommended as a work evoking schizospectral experiences (which is the main stuff I'm interested in).

Lovecraft himself liked it for being vaguer about the source of the horror, unlike his other stories which tended to be more explicit (which is funny to learn, since 'Lovecraftian' as a modern trope is usually associated with vague, misunderstood horrors), but the story was criticised exactly for being too vague. The prose is a pleasure enough to read that any weaknesses in the plot was easy to gloss over, personally.

Lovecraft is one of those authors on the endless TBR of 'I should probably read this eventually because so many of the other stuff I am interested in was drawn from this guy.'

On the topic of Herbert West though, one of my favourite musicians did a funny little ditty about him:

I don't know if Lovecraft was the 'father' of the trope but I also found it fun to learn that his eldritch horrors were, like, literal aliens, instead of the more usual fantasy-aligned gods. I suppose that's just one of the lynchpins of cosmic horror as a genre, but it certainly wasn't the impression I would've gotten when I was younger. Strange, incomprehensible creatures that are like that because they're Aliens From Outer Space just seems to have a different vibe from those that are like that because God Works In Mysterious Ways, methinks.

[ofinscriptions]

The only Lovecraft story I've ever read is The Music of Erich Zann. I can't remember what spurred me to read it; it was either because of reading about Lovecraft and learning that in particular was one of his favourite works (although it apparently goes against the mold of his other writing and isn't an effective gauge for his other stories), or it had something to do with it being recommended as a work evoking schizospectral experiences (which is the main stuff I'm interested in).

Lovecraft himself liked it for being vaguer about the source of the horror, unlike his other stories which tended to be more explicit (which is funny to learn, since 'Lovecraftian' as a modern trope is usually associated with vague, misunderstood horrors), but the story was criticised exactly for being too vague. The prose is a pleasure enough to read that any weaknesses in the plot was easy to gloss over, personally.

Lovecraft is one of those authors on the endless TBR of 'I should probably read this eventually because so many of the other stuff I am interested in was drawn from this guy.'

On the topic of Herbert West though, one of my favourite musicians did a funny little ditty about him:

I don't know if Lovecraft was the 'father' of the trope but I also found it fun to learn that his eldritch horrors were, like, literal aliens, instead of the more usual fantasy-aligned gods. I suppose that's just one of the lynchpins of cosmic horror as a genre, but it certainly wasn't the impression I would've gotten when I was younger. Strange, incomprehensible creatures that are like that because they're Aliens From Outer Space just seems to have a different vibe from those that are like that because God Works In Mysterious Ways, methinks.

I hadn't read any of his stuff before this year, I'll be so honest! I was a fan of the 1985 adaptation of Re-Animator though (Herbert West is such a creature in it it's great.) && I did enjoy The Colour Out of Space (2019) when I watched it :D

There'd been some other pieces of media that i've interacted with that were inspired by the "lovecraftian" -- like Old Gods of Appalachia, and Still Wakes the Deep -- but still hadn't ever gone for the OG works.

It seems that a lot of his works are going to shape up to be "oooh spooky look it's creepy scary things that are hard to articulate" especially if The Nameless City is anything to go off of. I'll have to check out The Music of Erich Zann! Especially as someone who is also schizophrenic haha. I think that's more what didn't grip me w The Nameless City like bro i saw things scarier than that on the daily fucken chill out lmfao

Definitely have found a lot of his prose is bare in the way it builds well on itself within your own mind's eye a lot of the time?? which is grand imo. Lots of horror writing can get bogged down from over-explanation -- part of the way to build fear is leaving things unexplained.

Yeah!! Lovecraft had been on the TBR for. man like at least two decades, jsut never really got around to him. But now i have a few of the short stories && just wander down to the café under my apartment to read for a lil.

fuck yeah! I have a Herbert West remix song too  thank u for sharing tha video too!!! :D

YEAH I think it's a combo of his 'unknowable horrors' being mostly aliens or just. full ass just racist conspiracy theories (there's straight up lizard people that live in the centre of the earth in nameless city).

I had always thought it was more based into the deep sea creatures rather than aliens when i was younger tbh

[krzchn「c」]

i still remember reading the colour out of space as a teen and being blown away by it. it really nailed the mounting tension into insanity to me, i rly liked it. i've not read either the nameless city nor herbert west, but i want to now so we could talk about it. :>

Definitely have found a lot of his prose is bare in the way it builds well on itself within your own mind's eye a lot of the time?? which is grand imo. Lots of horror writing can get bogged down from over-explanation -- part of the way to build fear is leaving things unexplained.

yesss, exactly! there's a movie adaptation of the colour out of space with nick cage as the protagonist which is... entertaining to watch with friends, but of course completely fails to match the tone and intensity of the book. in my opinion, lovecraftian horror is impossible to depict visually in a way that would work universally - bc as you said, so much of it is based on the reader's own interpretation of 'what i saw... was the worst thing imaginable... a gruesome sight out of my worst nightmares...'

[ofinscriptions]

i still remember reading the colour out of space as a teen and being blown away by it. it really nailed the mounting tension into insanity to me, i rly liked it. i've not read either the nameless city nor herbert west, but i want to now so we could talk about it. :>

yesss, exactly! there's a movie adaptation of the colour out of space with nick cage as the protagonist which is... entertaining to watch with friends, but of course completely fails to match the tone and intensity of the book. in my opinion, lovecraftian horror is impossible to depict visually in a way that would work universally - bc as you said, so much of it is based on the reader's own interpretation of 'what i saw... was the worst thing imaginable... a gruesome sight out of my worst nightmares...'

I really want to read the colour out of space too!! so we can talk about it :D

I HAVE seen the nic cage movie LOL with one of my friends -- you're definitely right on it being a good movie to watch w others lmaooo. It got only a little balls to the wall, which now having read a little more of actual lovecraft i can see how it would struggle to capture the og tone and intensity -- and that's w that llama abomination

It really is one of those horrors that's so dependant on your individual brain meat. like!

a long while back i saw someone describe lovecraftian horror as like... imagine an ant briefly was given the understanding of human technology for only a brief moment, then it trying to both describe and make sense of what it had been shown without having any of the fundamental knowledge needed to do so