H.P. Lovecraft: Difference between revisions

The dizzying speed of progress of his time was compounded by an expansion of the unknown. Each new development, instead of reducing the number of questions as had been expected by pre-modern philosophers, instead compounded them exponentially. Leibniz had hoped that the entire world could be described by reason, and that this is the best of all possible worlds—a possibility utterly abolished during Lovecraft's writing period. Each new discovery only increased humanity's knowledge of its own ignorance and [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet|insignificance]], encouraging a nihilistic atmosphere, and this is perhaps the central theme of Lovecraft's incisive fiction. For fiction done by others in his literary mythos (and the Lovecraftian setting as a whole) see the [[Cthulhu Mythos]].

 

 

The stories for which he is remembered include:

**** John Carpenter's ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'' is even closer. Indeed, a genealogical connection is plausible: the film is an adaptation of [[John W. Campbell]]'s short story "[[Who Goes There?]]", published in ''[[Astounding Stories]]'' in 1938. Campbell—who became editor of ''Astounding'' that year—would surely have been reading it in 1936, when it published ''At the Mountains of Madness''.

* ''[[The Call of Cthulhu]]'' -- [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Cthulhu]] briefly wakes, and fills the dreams of men with madness. The first and best-known Lovecraftian [[Tabletop Games|Tabletop RPG]] is [[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)|named after it]] and reprints the story in full.

* ''The Case of Charles Dexter Ward''—Long dead [[Necromancer]] {{spoiler|steals the identity of his [[Identical Grandson|identical great-great-great-grandson]]. After his descendent brings him back to life, the necromancer kills him}}. The source of perhaps one of the most solid pieces of advice for anyone messing with sorcery: "[[Evil Is Not a Toy|Do not call up that which you cannot put down.]]"

** Also used in the Roger Corman film, 'The Haunted Palace'.

* ''The Rats in the Walls''—The narrator, a man from New England, buys an old keep in England that belonged to his ancestors (and which was erected at the site of much older Roman and iron-age temples) and discovers a [[I'm a Humanitarian|horrifying]] [[Madwoman in the Attic|family]] [[People Farms|secret]] that drives him insane.

* ''The Whisperer in Darkness''—A science fiction First Contact story with strong [[Grand Theft Me|horror elements]]. A scholar and his pen pal friend discover a colony of sinister fungoid space-faring aliens in the mountainous rural backwaters of New England in 1930.

* His ''Dreamland'' stories, among them "[[The Cats of Ulthar]]", ''The Silver Key'', ''Through the Gates of the Silver Key'' and ''The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath''.

** Kadath, it should be noted, encompassed a number of characters from Lovecraft's other stories, ''Pickman's Model'' in particular.

* ''The Music of Erich Zann''—A student, seeking cheap accommodation, takes a room underneath a strange, mute cellist who plays unnatural music late into the night. He considered this one of his best stories, as he managed to avoid his usual tactic of explaining everything (read: [[Nothing Is Scarier|the tiniest explanation of anything is not even alluded to]]).

** Fans often assume he's trying to appease Azathoth, though, since The Demon Sultan is known to enjoy spooky music.

** Well, aren't they? "''You'' threw the stick, you can get it yourself!"

* Apart from these, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society and other fan groups have produced ''[[Shoggoth on the Roof|A Shoggoth on the Roof]]'', a musical based on the Cthulhu mythos (the initial score was that of ''Fiddler on the Roof'', but it was modified after lawsuits). Considering Lovecraft's aforementioned anti-Semitic leanings, this is actually rather hilarious.

 

 

Subjective Tropes can be found [[H.P. Lovecraft/YMMV|here]].