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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Keep picking it up and putting it down since it's short stories
There are too many incredible books by incredible authors out there to read for me to waste my time finishing this mediocre book by a literal white supremacist. Also it was really boring.
Of course, I’ve heard of H P Lovecraft for years, but I’d never bothered to read anything by him. Just not my genre of choice. But I happened to have this in the house, courtesy of Penguin Random House (the publisher gifted me a set of their new “orange” Penguin Classics a few years ago), and it carries the “science fiction” tag so it fit a challenge.
First, these stories are mostly NOT science fiction, although one, dealing with aliens removing the brains of humans but keeping the bodies and brains both alive separately probably would qualify. Mostly this collection is one of horror stories originally published in magazines.
Second, as horror stories, I didn’t find them all that horrifying. Although, I can imagine that an audience in the early part of the 20th century would find them disturbing. The fact that Lovecraft writes all these stories in the first person serves to remove much of the suspense. Clearly the person survives any ordeal because he is telling the story. Reading them one after another in this collection made them seem formulaic and dull.
Lovecraft relied on the reader’s imagination in that he virtually never describes the “horror I witnessed,” instead relying on stating that said horror was just “too terrible for words.” There’s frequent use of the typical, dark, deserted location – either a room at the top of a tall tower, or a pit underground – into which the hero ascends (or descends), without any good light or backup, and despite the feeling of dread. In many of these cases, the hero awakens some time later with no memory of how he escaped.
Finally, although I recognize that this is a sign of the times in which they were written, Lovecraft relies on some disturbingly racist / prejudicial stereotypes.
On the plus side, one of his friends/colleagues was the inspiration for the hero of the final story in this collection: The Haunter Of the Dark. That person was Robert Bloch, who wrote Psycho. Lovecraft gave his character, Robert Blake, an address that was once Bloch’s home in Milwaukee. Sadly, one can no longer visit that edifice. It’s at a location that was cleared of houses in the ‘60s to make way for a freeway extension. But it was fun to see that address pop up in the book.
First, these stories are mostly NOT science fiction, although one, dealing with aliens removing the brains of humans but keeping the bodies and brains both alive separately probably would qualify. Mostly this collection is one of horror stories originally published in magazines.
Second, as horror stories, I didn’t find them all that horrifying. Although, I can imagine that an audience in the early part of the 20th century would find them disturbing. The fact that Lovecraft writes all these stories in the first person serves to remove much of the suspense. Clearly the person survives any ordeal because he is telling the story. Reading them one after another in this collection made them seem formulaic and dull.
Lovecraft relied on the reader’s imagination in that he virtually never describes the “horror I witnessed,” instead relying on stating that said horror was just “too terrible for words.” There’s frequent use of the typical, dark, deserted location – either a room at the top of a tall tower, or a pit underground – into which the hero ascends (or descends), without any good light or backup, and despite the feeling of dread. In many of these cases, the hero awakens some time later with no memory of how he escaped.
Finally, although I recognize that this is a sign of the times in which they were written, Lovecraft relies on some disturbingly racist / prejudicial stereotypes.
On the plus side, one of his friends/colleagues was the inspiration for the hero of the final story in this collection: The Haunter Of the Dark. That person was Robert Bloch, who wrote Psycho. Lovecraft gave his character, Robert Blake, an address that was once Bloch’s home in Milwaukee. Sadly, one can no longer visit that edifice. It’s at a location that was cleared of houses in the ‘60s to make way for a freeway extension. But it was fun to see that address pop up in the book.
Read The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and At the Mountains of Madness. Calling it quits here. Went into this a huge fan of Lovecraftian work and excited to delve into its origins. Ho boy did this disappoint.
I understood that Lovecraft himself was a horrible person but I wasn’t prepared for just how deeply his racism would permeate the stories themselves. Combined with the mind numbingly boring prose (seriously we do not need an exact map of all the streets in Innsmouth during the escape) and dull protagonists, I despised these stories.
Only positive is that talented people made good stuff out of his ideas. And that he died penniless.
I understood that Lovecraft himself was a horrible person but I wasn’t prepared for just how deeply his racism would permeate the stories themselves. Combined with the mind numbingly boring prose (seriously we do not need an exact map of all the streets in Innsmouth during the escape) and dull protagonists, I despised these stories.
Only positive is that talented people made good stuff out of his ideas. And that he died penniless.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Highlights:
Celephaïs, The Picture in the House, The Festival, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Shadow over Innsmouth.
Celephaïs, The Picture in the House, The Festival, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Shadow over Innsmouth.
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It's a solid outing, and I do enjoy cosmic horror, but anything higher would ignore the many awful views of the author that I in no way support.