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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
My favorite story was "The Shunned House." I generally think Lovecraft is better at shorter tales. The shorter works were tighter than the title novella.
I've now read two collections of Lovecraft, and I feel very accomplished. Overall I enjoyed most of the stories. Lovecraft definitely had a vivid imagination which has influenced some of my favorite pop culture items. Without Lovecraft, would Alien exist? Would John Carpenter's The Thing have been possible? Event Horizon? Hellboy? I'm sure that's just the surface.
HOWEVER!
HPL's prose left quite a bit to be desired. Some stories were a total chore to get through-- some things were just way too long, and the constant use of the same phrases over and over and over and over got very annoying. Also, if something can't be described, and you're a writer, maybe try harder? Yeesh. And of course, HPL's icky and bizarre racism crops up and removed me from the flow frequently (primarily the first collection, "The Call of Cthulhu" than this one, not that this didn't have it's own problems).
I'm glad I finally read Lovecraft, it gives me a greater appreciation for sci-if horror, even if it is heavily flawed.
HOWEVER!
HPL's prose left quite a bit to be desired. Some stories were a total chore to get through-- some things were just way too long, and the constant use of the same phrases over and over and over and over got very annoying. Also, if something can't be described, and you're a writer, maybe try harder? Yeesh. And of course, HPL's icky and bizarre racism crops up and removed me from the flow frequently (primarily the first collection, "The Call of Cthulhu" than this one, not that this didn't have it's own problems).
I'm glad I finally read Lovecraft, it gives me a greater appreciation for sci-if horror, even if it is heavily flawed.
The horror in At the Mountains of Madness is not in sadistic descriptions of slashings, torturings, mutilations and bloodletting, but rather in the slow build-up of the feeling that humanity is not alone in the universe and that the other inhabitants, if they consider us at all, don't really think much of us. The only times the history of the Elder Things mentions us it is as either an amusing animal kept for entertainment or as a foodstuff.
The horror is that there are unfathomable depths of pre-history, that humankind are very much late-comers and that, if we are not careful, we might come to the notice of things that could wipe us away with little thought.
Nonetheless, the Elder Things are portrayed as one of the few, if not the only, of Lovecraft's non-human races with which we can feel any sympathy. He remarks that, despite the terrible toll they take upon the expedition, they were not evil things of their kind and that they had not acted any differently than would we in the same circumstances. The fate of the Elder Things is one that evokes a feeling of pity.
I've read that this story de-mythologises the Cthulhu Mythos and recasts the stories as science fiction rather than as tales of the supernatural and cosmic horror, but I don't think that is necessarily correct. Although the Elder Things are described as being composed of normal matter and having originated somewhere within our own mundane dimension, Lovecraft specifically states that the Star Spawn of Cthulhu and the Mi-Go are composed, at least partly, of some exotic material and that their origins lie outside the realm we know. Also, credit must be given to Lovecraft's characterisation, something that he is not often accorded: the story is written from the perspective of a scientist who has interpretted the history of the Elder Things through pictorial representations. Naturally the narrator's own world-view, that of scientific materialism, infuses his interpretation.
One of Lovecraft's best.
The horror is that there are unfathomable depths of pre-history, that humankind are very much late-comers and that, if we are not careful, we might come to the notice of things that could wipe us away with little thought.
Nonetheless, the Elder Things are portrayed as one of the few, if not the only, of Lovecraft's non-human races with which we can feel any sympathy. He remarks that, despite the terrible toll they take upon the expedition, they were not evil things of their kind and that they had not acted any differently than would we in the same circumstances. The fate of the Elder Things is one that evokes a feeling of pity.
I've read that this story de-mythologises the Cthulhu Mythos and recasts the stories as science fiction rather than as tales of the supernatural and cosmic horror, but I don't think that is necessarily correct. Although the Elder Things are described as being composed of normal matter and having originated somewhere within our own mundane dimension, Lovecraft specifically states that the Star Spawn of Cthulhu and the Mi-Go are composed, at least partly, of some exotic material and that their origins lie outside the realm we know. Also, credit must be given to Lovecraft's characterisation, something that he is not often accorded: the story is written from the perspective of a scientist who has interpretted the history of the Elder Things through pictorial representations. Naturally the narrator's own world-view, that of scientific materialism, infuses his interpretation.
One of Lovecraft's best.
dark
mysterious
tense
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
adventurous
dark
tense
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
(This review only pertains to At The Mountains of Madness) I was steeled for a lot with this one. I knew this reading experience could go very wrong, since I know what a huge racist Lovecraft was, I know he was a homophobe, yadda. I was semi-prepared for that, and there’s a little racism in this for sure, though it doesn’t hang over everything. I was also prepared to have to filter my enjoyment through Lovecraft being Problematic, as I think overall I did expect to like this despite its flaws. What I was definitely NOT prepared for… was for this story to be unforgivably boring. It is so, so dull, and I can’t even explain how unfathomable I find this. Lovecraft seems to be working hard against the story’s own potential, in places. For one, he seems to LOVE hyping up a particularly scary (or so he says) moment, a lot of the narrator apologizing and hemming and hawwing over the incoming horrors he is about to describe… and then it’s something pretty mundane. He keeps going THE NEXT PART IS HORRIFYING HOLD ONTO YOUR BUTTS and then the next part is like, “and there were some very old statues and ooooh they were old as balls”. The story peaks very early when the campsite with all the slaughtered people and dogs is discovered, and I was so hoping that was a tease for even freakier stuff to come. Nope, that’s as freaky as it gets. I think the only part that had the potential, even, to grab me was the whole thing surrounding the missing human and the missing dog. That resolves in the most passive, boring way I could have predicted. This was very frustrating. I was promised iconic horror and I got an archeological dig.
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Such a really fascinating read. This collection, though short on stories, really dives into the cannon of mythos of Lovecraft and it's also the first time I've gotten a chance to delve into the Dreamlands of Lovecraft. The Dreamlands, it turns out is the most spectacular and thought provoking aspect of Lovecraft in general. Highly recommend this one, though I would say, start with Shunned House, and The Dreams in the Witch House, and move onto the other two.
Genial. Me encanta como un libro con casi 80 años pueda transmitir tanto en una historia tan corta.
Such a good book !!!! I was so excited I went out and bought more Lovecraft