Any Lovecraft fans here?

POSTED BY: ecgordon
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 2, 2006 10:47
VIEWED: 7005
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SINGATE

Sunday, March 12, 2006 10:54 PM

One of the things I truly enjoy about his writings is that he leaves so much to the imagination of the reader. This unfortunately is tied in to his use or overuse of exposition. Since many of the stories are narrated by the sole survivor of some bizarre circumstance we are given a tale told solely from that person's point of view. One of Lovecraft's main themes is that whatever the survivor witnessed was so horrible they cannot bear to recount everything that took place. Hence, we do not get a lot of action or description.

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We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

SIMONB

Sunday, March 12, 2006 11:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society has recently produced a film - The Call of Cthulhu - and it is now available on dvd. Here's a link to their website - http://www.cthulhulives.org/cocmovie/index.html - although I haven't been able to access it all morning for some reason.

Anyway, my son (who posts here occasionally as Mohr Stoutbeard) recently bought the dvd, and he liked it a lot, and this morning I uploaded his review to our website. Please don't worry that it is a Tripod site, I pay a fee to keep the site ad-free. Check it out.

http://templetongate.tripod.com/call-of-cthulhu.htm

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

Yes, I'm a huge HPL fan - hate the films (try mostly to pretend they didn't do them) though will check out the link you posted. Love the Old Gentleman's writings - love his writing style (know some people dislike it though) but to me it almost feels like something out of the pages of one of the terrible books he describes, love his imagination, the bleakness of his stories, the brooding horror and the fact that they are genuinely creepy, deep, dark and disturbing!

Have been a HPL fan most of my life. Even run the roleplays!

- Shiny. Let's be bad guys.

OPPYH

Monday, March 13, 2006 12:29 AM

Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard. My cup of tea.

2X2

Monday, March 13, 2006 1:24 AM

I'm a Lovecraft fan, mostly through a horror roleplaying game I used to play, and my husband, who is a huge fan....

At one point, we owned about every Lovecraft film there was, and yeah, they almost all sucked... but,there have been a couple of films that have at least captured some of the feel of Lovecraftian work... Dagon, while not the best, still has a very Innsmouth sort of feel to it, and if you like the nasty gore, has a 'wonderful' face skinning scene.

In the Mouth of Madness, while not a Lovecraft film per se, also has elements that give the right atmosphere, also a movie called Dead and Buried, again, not Lovecraft, but reminded me very much of Innsmouth again...

And a tidbit, which is probably widely known anyway, but the original version of the Thing (titled The Thing From Another World if I recall right) was supposedly based on At the Mountains of Madness....Oooh Giant killer Carrot!!

As for games, I've heard the original Arkham Horror is better than the new release as there have been some rule changes, but I can't say as I haven't played either, but two other great games are The Hills Rise Wild, which is a tile based game that is a ton of fun: ( http://www.tccorp.com/pagan/thehillsrisewild/index.html)
I did some playtesting for that game, and it's really fun and silly and a good time.

Also, Cults Across America is a somewhat Risk like game in which you try to dominate the world (or America at least) and become the most poerful cult, start plagues, make cosmic ray guns, and summon all your favourite Lovecraftian monsters... ( http://www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG1210.php)Also a really fun time...

Iä Iä Cthulhu Ftagn!!

ECGORDON

Monday, March 13, 2006 1:37 AM

The Thing from Another World was based on the short story "Who Goes There," written by John W. Campbell under the pen-name of Don A. Stuart. It might be possible that Campbell was influenced in some way by Lovecraft.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

2X2

Monday, March 13, 2006 1:40 AM

Yes.... as I heard it, Who Goes There was based on At The Mountains of Madness, then the fifties Thing was based on Who Goes There... whild John Carpenters The Thing drew on the original source again....

That is how my husband tells me :o)

MOHRSTOUTBEARD

Monday, March 13, 2006 2:58 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by ReaverInA1985Riviera:
Has any one played the Call of Cthulu video game on the Xbox?

I've been waiting for it to be released on PC, which it finally is at the end of this month. It's gotten some rather good reviews, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Quote:
Originally posted by V:
I just hope the special effects are up to par, I don't want to see a paper mache shoggoth.

My review discusses this. If you're in it for amazing special effects you'll probably be disappointed.

Quote:
Originally posted by 2x2:
Yes.... as I heard it, Who Goes There was based on At The Mountains of Madness, then the fifties Thing was based on Who Goes There... whild John Carpenters The Thing drew on the original source again....

"At the Mountains of Madness" is one of Lovecraft's stories that I still haven't read, but I do know John Carpenter's The Thing is much more faithful to the original "Who Goes There?" than the 50's The Thing from Another World.

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"Remember, there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over."

NUCLEARDAY

Monday, March 13, 2006 12:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by singate:
Lovecraft is easily one of the most underappreciated writers of the 20th century. A lot of it has to do with his writing style and use of some archaic terminology. Of course it wasn't archaic back in the 1920's when he did the bulk of his writing.

(Plus getting paid by the page/ word, etc sort of helps to encourage lots of exposition :) I'll agree with the others: Lovecraft wasn't necessarily the greatest writer of that group, at least so far as the technical aspects, etc. (Some of my favorite Mythos stories are from August Derleth (sp) and the others.)

He was best as the idea man, though, sort of drawing in better talents and serving as the focal point for all the Mythos writers. Can't remember where I came across it, but found an interview with him somewhere where he's talking about all these inquiries he's always getting from people looking to buy the Necronomicon from him ;p The genius of that whole group was in being able to create such a detailed pantheon of horrors with all those little details shared among them that to this day people who have never even heard of Lovecraft know about The Book, and often think it may have some basis in reality ;p

Aside: was I the only one who heard about premise of The Ring, and was reminded of The King in Yellow?

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You can take my hope when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

SINGATE

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 7:32 AM

The weird thing is that not only do people believe in the Necronomicon there are those who also believe that the Great Old One are real. Some actually think Lovecraft was given his ideas in order to spread their influence and hasten their return to power.

I know it sounds like the John Carpenter movie "In the Mouth of Madness" but it is actually true. I remember hearing about some modern writers who were creating new stories based on the Cthulhu Mythos having a press conference where people actually asked them about the return of the real Old Ones! And, no they weren't kidding!

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We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

LIGHTMEDARK

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 11:08 PM

I could see where people would get that from, really. It's still amusing though.

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http://www.xffx.net/blog <-inching towards daylight

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