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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed it. It's weird, because there's virtually no characterization in his work, his narrative structure nearly always hews very closely to the junior high school essay "tell me what you're going to tell me, tell me, tell me what you just told me" paradigm, and the horrifying twists are easy to see coming from miles away, but his writing is atmospheric enough to make up for all that.
"At this horror I sank nearly to the lichened earth, transfixed with a dread not of this nor any world, but only of the mad spaces between the stars."
The above quote is from Howard Philips Lovecraft's short story "The Festival", and it describes the narrator's reaction upon witnessing some terrible ancient rites practiced in the old Massachusetts town from which his family hails. But with the exception of the reference to "the lichened earth", the sentence could just as well have appeared in the climax any number of Lovecraft's stories. The details aren't especially important; it's the cosmic horror which is the most resonant feature of Lovecraft's fiction. If you, like Lovecraft, do not believe that humans are the center of a universe designed for us by some benign or at least comprehensible higher power, and if you, like Lovecraft, recognize the limits of human perception and understanding, then there is nothing to stop you, like Lovecraft, from concluding that perhaps the true nature of the universe is so alien to our understanding of it and so far beyond our comprehension that a glimpse of this true nature can be a terrible thing to behold. In probing the boundaries of human knowledge, we can learn things about the nature of things that can be truly horrifying, as Darwin noted when discussing his difficulty in reconciling the life cycle of the Ichneumonidae (a family of parasitoid wasps who lay their eggs inside the living bodies of other insects which are subsequently eaten alive) with the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent Creator of the universe; likewise in Lovecraft's fiction, those who expand the boundaries of human knowledge frequently unearth unspeakable horrors, albeit of a supernatural nature.
And its that masterful evocation of cosmic, existential dread that is by far the most compelling element of Lovecraft's fiction to me. There's other stuff that I think is cool: the interconnectedness of Lovecraft's stories with each other and with the works of other writers of weird fiction, for instance. But the earlier works on display in this collection frequently suffer from badly telegraphed twists and even in better, later works, minor characters are prone to unsubtly relating plot-relevant information to the narrator via long, unrealistic monologues about strange goings on in the area. There's a lot of purple prose and Lovecraft has a lot of pretentious stylistic quirks; it's not bad writing, and I'd certainly rather read Lovecraft's prose than that of a lesser writer attempting to write in a similar style, but it's not really a highlight of his work.
He's also extremely racist, which mars otherwise great stories like "The Rats in the Walls" or "The Shadow over Innsmouth". Although I also find Lovecraft's stories fascinating in what they say about his own insecurities on that front. I'm kind of surprised that in his copious footnotes to the stories this collection (which include tedious amounts of details about New England architecture, geography, press, and surnames), editor and preeminent Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi doesn't make a single mention to scientific racism or the eugenics movement that was going strong throughout Lovecraft's career. Lovecraft's insecurities which present themselves in his stories through his characterizations of the numerous psychologically fragile narrators who are clearly stand-ins for the author himself, and his many protagonists cursed by an ancestral connection to awful rites which uncover unendurable cosmic horrors, are easier to understand in the light of a scientific movement which frequently crudely interpreted perceived physical deficiencies or ailments as more or less being inherently connected to perceived pyschological inferiority, and as more or less inherently connected to perceived mental inferiority. It's hard to imagine that Lovecraft, as a man with a deep love of science, would have been unfamiliar with eugenic ideas, and it's easy to see how he would have been deeply uncomfortable with what the "insanity" of both of his parents in later life said about him eugenically speaking. Especially given that many eugenicists saw even people several generations removed from family members with undesirable traits as being themselves inferior. But Joshi more or less glosses over Lovecraft's racism and his preoccupation with and revulsion of miscegenation, which is disappointing, not because I feel like "Lovecraft as a contemptible racist" is the only lens through which we should view Lovecraft, but because that his bigotry, and the bigotry of the society in which he lived in the scientific racism of that period, provide us with a better understanding of his fiction. But also, he was a contemptible racist, and while I like his fiction, that's something that Joshi either seems to think is fairly irrelevant, or wants to gloss over.
The above quote is from Howard Philips Lovecraft's short story "The Festival", and it describes the narrator's reaction upon witnessing some terrible ancient rites practiced in the old Massachusetts town from which his family hails. But with the exception of the reference to "the lichened earth", the sentence could just as well have appeared in the climax any number of Lovecraft's stories. The details aren't especially important; it's the cosmic horror which is the most resonant feature of Lovecraft's fiction. If you, like Lovecraft, do not believe that humans are the center of a universe designed for us by some benign or at least comprehensible higher power, and if you, like Lovecraft, recognize the limits of human perception and understanding, then there is nothing to stop you, like Lovecraft, from concluding that perhaps the true nature of the universe is so alien to our understanding of it and so far beyond our comprehension that a glimpse of this true nature can be a terrible thing to behold. In probing the boundaries of human knowledge, we can learn things about the nature of things that can be truly horrifying, as Darwin noted when discussing his difficulty in reconciling the life cycle of the Ichneumonidae (a family of parasitoid wasps who lay their eggs inside the living bodies of other insects which are subsequently eaten alive) with the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent Creator of the universe; likewise in Lovecraft's fiction, those who expand the boundaries of human knowledge frequently unearth unspeakable horrors, albeit of a supernatural nature.
And its that masterful evocation of cosmic, existential dread that is by far the most compelling element of Lovecraft's fiction to me. There's other stuff that I think is cool: the interconnectedness of Lovecraft's stories with each other and with the works of other writers of weird fiction, for instance. But the earlier works on display in this collection frequently suffer from badly telegraphed twists and even in better, later works, minor characters are prone to unsubtly relating plot-relevant information to the narrator via long, unrealistic monologues about strange goings on in the area. There's a lot of purple prose and Lovecraft has a lot of pretentious stylistic quirks; it's not bad writing, and I'd certainly rather read Lovecraft's prose than that of a lesser writer attempting to write in a similar style, but it's not really a highlight of his work.
He's also extremely racist, which mars otherwise great stories like "The Rats in the Walls" or "The Shadow over Innsmouth". Although I also find Lovecraft's stories fascinating in what they say about his own insecurities on that front. I'm kind of surprised that in his copious footnotes to the stories this collection (which include tedious amounts of details about New England architecture, geography, press, and surnames), editor and preeminent Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi doesn't make a single mention to scientific racism or the eugenics movement that was going strong throughout Lovecraft's career. Lovecraft's insecurities which present themselves in his stories through his characterizations of the numerous psychologically fragile narrators who are clearly stand-ins for the author himself, and his many protagonists cursed by an ancestral connection to awful rites which uncover unendurable cosmic horrors, are easier to understand in the light of a scientific movement which frequently crudely interpreted perceived physical deficiencies or ailments as more or less being inherently connected to perceived pyschological inferiority, and as more or less inherently connected to perceived mental inferiority. It's hard to imagine that Lovecraft, as a man with a deep love of science, would have been unfamiliar with eugenic ideas, and it's easy to see how he would have been deeply uncomfortable with what the "insanity" of both of his parents in later life said about him eugenically speaking. Especially given that many eugenicists saw even people several generations removed from family members with undesirable traits as being themselves inferior. But Joshi more or less glosses over Lovecraft's racism and his preoccupation with and revulsion of miscegenation, which is disappointing, not because I feel like "Lovecraft as a contemptible racist" is the only lens through which we should view Lovecraft, but because that his bigotry, and the bigotry of the society in which he lived in the scientific racism of that period, provide us with a better understanding of his fiction. But also, he was a contemptible racist, and while I like his fiction, that's something that Joshi either seems to think is fairly irrelevant, or wants to gloss over.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
slow-paced
I have been aware of H. P. Lovecraft for nearly 40 years having been interested in role-playing games during my childhood; I was aware of the 'Call of Cthulu' role-playing game (and was intrigued by it), however being of limited means I plumped for the Dungeons & Dragons (Basic Set) instead. Around the same time Metallica released their 'Ride The Lightning' album upon which was the intstrumental track 'Call of Ktulu', and the following year saw the release of the very gory horror film 'Re-Animator' which I also knew to be based upon Lovecraft's writing. Yet it has taken me till 2020 (arguably the most horrific year I've known!) when I have found myself with additional time to fill, and finding these new and cheap Arcturus Publishing editions, that I have finally got around to reading him.
So what do I think? Well the various claims of Lovecraft's enduring influence upon the more fantastical genres of horror and science fiction are valid and well founded. It is clear from this collection of 10 stories (the last entry, 'The History of The Necronomicon', is just a brief presentation of background information and cannot be considered as a story) that Lovecraft was, in his turn, influenced by other writers, most notably Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, and Mary Shelley. In terms of his technique it is clear that Lovecraft liked to take time to build an atmosphere of foreboding, and there is a tendency for the stories to be centred around a 'modern' (for the time of writing) rational/cynical individual to find themselves gradually drawn into confrontation with the occult and arcane; confronations that are usually 'too horrific to describe' thereby allowing the reader's own imagination to do its worst, and usually resulting in the ruination of mental health/reputation of the unfortunate victim.
Of this collection of stories I felt the highlights are 'Herbert West - Reanimator' and the eponymous tale that the collection takes its name from (as an aside I think a film version of Reanimator which retained the First World War setting would be an exciting prospect!). The rest were entertaining enough but didn't engage me as much as the afore named.
Which brings me to the more negative aspects of these stories. My academic background is in History and so I expect all writers to be 'witnesses in spite of themselves' and I approach the writing of a century ago with an understanding that the assumptions and attitudes it will contain is very likely to be at odds with contemporary views and sensibilities. Even so, I was quite astonished at the extent of the racism inherent in these stories: all heroes (male, of course) are white Anglo-Saxons; any character of any other extraction is, whether intentional or not, untrustworthy or even outright evil, and Lovecraft appeared to have a particular mistrust of anyone of mixed heritage (on the strength of these stories he also appeared to have something of grudge against the Dutch, for some reason). The most shocking examples of Lovecraft's outright racism are in the narrative concerning an African American boxer who is described in bestial terms in 'Herbert West - Reanimator', and the name of a cat in 'The Rats In The Walls' story; the name of the cat has been censored in this edition and this has the effect of illustrating just how unacceptable the name is (I have since read that Lovecraft himself had a cat of the same name as a boy). Even allowing for the social mores of the 1920s I found I could not easily dismiss such instances, and the prospective reader is so forewarned.
So what do I think? Well the various claims of Lovecraft's enduring influence upon the more fantastical genres of horror and science fiction are valid and well founded. It is clear from this collection of 10 stories (the last entry, 'The History of The Necronomicon', is just a brief presentation of background information and cannot be considered as a story) that Lovecraft was, in his turn, influenced by other writers, most notably Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, and Mary Shelley. In terms of his technique it is clear that Lovecraft liked to take time to build an atmosphere of foreboding, and there is a tendency for the stories to be centred around a 'modern' (for the time of writing) rational/cynical individual to find themselves gradually drawn into confrontation with the occult and arcane; confronations that are usually 'too horrific to describe' thereby allowing the reader's own imagination to do its worst, and usually resulting in the ruination of mental health/reputation of the unfortunate victim.
Of this collection of stories I felt the highlights are 'Herbert West - Reanimator' and the eponymous tale that the collection takes its name from (as an aside I think a film version of Reanimator which retained the First World War setting would be an exciting prospect!). The rest were entertaining enough but didn't engage me as much as the afore named.
Which brings me to the more negative aspects of these stories. My academic background is in History and so I expect all writers to be 'witnesses in spite of themselves' and I approach the writing of a century ago with an understanding that the assumptions and attitudes it will contain is very likely to be at odds with contemporary views and sensibilities. Even so, I was quite astonished at the extent of the racism inherent in these stories: all heroes (male, of course) are white Anglo-Saxons; any character of any other extraction is, whether intentional or not, untrustworthy or even outright evil, and Lovecraft appeared to have a particular mistrust of anyone of mixed heritage (on the strength of these stories he also appeared to have something of grudge against the Dutch, for some reason). The most shocking examples of Lovecraft's outright racism are in the narrative concerning an African American boxer who is described in bestial terms in 'Herbert West - Reanimator', and the name of a cat in 'The Rats In The Walls' story; the name of the cat has been censored in this edition and this has the effect of illustrating just how unacceptable the name is (I have since read that Lovecraft himself had a cat of the same name as a boy). Even allowing for the social mores of the 1920s I found I could not easily dismiss such instances, and the prospective reader is so forewarned.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Racist, and the stories aren’t even scary or good.
I racconti e i romanzi principali del Ciclo di Chtulhu non potevano essere presentati in una veste migliore.Copertina nera raffigurante il volto di Cthulhu con due occhi fiammeggianti che ti trafiggono,pagine bordate di nero e magnifiche illustrazioni.
Che dire di Lovecraft e del Ciclo nel suo insieme? Il senso di disagio e insignificanza che riesce a trasmettere non ha eguali, l'idea di fondo è quella che la paura sia il sentimento primigenio, quello più profondo e la paura più primordiale sia quella dell'ignoto. C'è tanto, troppo di imperscrutabile nell'universo, un posto spaventoso, dove l'uomo non conta nulla, quello che è, quello che fa, tutto verrà cancellato da ciò che non può conoscere.
"Impazzire, a volte è una reazione appropriata alla realtà": la citazione è di Philip K. Dick ma calza a pennello per descrivere l'opera di Lovecraft
Che dire di Lovecraft e del Ciclo nel suo insieme? Il senso di disagio e insignificanza che riesce a trasmettere non ha eguali, l'idea di fondo è quella che la paura sia il sentimento primigenio, quello più profondo e la paura più primordiale sia quella dell'ignoto. C'è tanto, troppo di imperscrutabile nell'universo, un posto spaventoso, dove l'uomo non conta nulla, quello che è, quello che fa, tutto verrà cancellato da ciò che non può conoscere.
"Impazzire, a volte è una reazione appropriata alla realtà": la citazione è di Philip K. Dick ma calza a pennello per descrivere l'opera di Lovecraft
I enjoyed this collection of Lovecraft's stories. Cosmic horror remains one of my favorite genres. However, there are some elements of the books I really did not enjoy. While some of Lovecraft's virulent racism is intrinsic to his stories to some degree, choosing to continue printing the n-word simply because its the name of a character's cat seems deeply unnecessary. It's not important to the plot, setting, character, whatever -- you could easily get rid of it and have it not matter. I guess its a nice reminder what a total bastard Lovecraft was, but it made me uncomfortable.
On a more literary note: I really enjoyed The Whisperer in Darkness, the point at which the protagonist ignores a million blatantly obvious signs of danger and proceeds to put himself in a precarious situation really pulled me out of the story. It was so patently obviously that something bad was going to happen and this allegedly very educated and intelligent person seemed almost entirely oblivious to the real possibility of the danger it posed it just killed the character for me.
On a more literary note: I really enjoyed The Whisperer in Darkness, the point at which the protagonist ignores a million blatantly obvious signs of danger and proceeds to put himself in a precarious situation really pulled me out of the story. It was so patently obviously that something bad was going to happen and this allegedly very educated and intelligent person seemed almost entirely oblivious to the real possibility of the danger it posed it just killed the character for me.