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/lit/ - Literature

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16121348 No.16121348 [Reply] [Original]

I want to give Lovecraft a try, what's his best book?
>nb4 niggerman/AGGGH IM INSANE POSTING
I want to have a serious thread.

>> No.16121476

>>16121348
Serious lovecraft thread? I'm in.
To answer your question: I have no fucking idea where to start. But you could do what I did: buy a collection of his stories and just have at it

>> No.16121496

>>16121348
The Music of Erich Zann is one of my favorites. It's classic lovecraft horror without any of the complex mythos, and it's pretty short.

>> No.16121513

>>16121348
Story collections are cheap as shit, but almost all of his stories can be found online. I'd recommend At the Mountains of Madness / The Call of Cthulhu for the SQUAMOUS SQUID SPECTACLE vibes you likely are pursuing, or The Music of Erich Zann / The Lurking Fear / The Dunwich Horror / The Shadow Over Innsmouth for slower, more creeping stuff.

>> No.16121551

The Colour Out of Space
At the Mountains of Madness
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Haunter of the Dark
Rats in the Walls
Shadow Out of Time

>> No.16121567

At the Mountains of Madness is my favorite, it's about novella-length and can be enjoyed by the casual reader, i recommend starting there. Shadow over Innsmouth and the Dunwhich Horror have a similar feel of unease in rural new england, where the impenetrability of the local culture rivals the creeping terror of the abominations the narrator comes across. The Shadow out of Time is less horror-focused imo, more fantastical as the narrator takes dream-trips to a far-off planet of an ancient alien civilization and experiences it through their numerous eyes.

As for short stories, I recommend Dagon as a foundation for the cosmic horror he's known for. The Picture in the House seeds tension as an academic caught in a storm shelters in the home of a withered old man. My favorite short tale is the Rats in the Walls, where an anglo-american inherits an ancient family property in England, only to find out the reason people stay away.

https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/fiction/
You can find most of what he wrote here. I like audiobooks because i can listen at work, and i download the audio off this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncTdn6Aakxo&list=PLG8klsjxFY-P3ITpqoMqvTyRDd7qg7RVK

>> No.16121597

>>16121348
I like The Nameless City.

>> No.16121647

>>16121348
His magnum opis is At the Mountains of Madness. There are a number of things mentioned in this work that you will need a prior knowledge of to enjoy it fully. For that reason, I think you should start as follows:

>The Colour out of Space
>The Whisperer in the Darkness
>The Shadow out of Time
>The Call of Cthulhu
>At the Mountains of Madness

Then anything else you think sounds interesting.

>> No.16121916

>>16121496
I'll check it out.

>> No.16122795

>>16121551
this plus Charles Dexter Ward

>> No.16122956

>>16121348
I'd start with "The Shunned House." It is an underrated short story and my favorite of his. It demonstrates what makes Lovecraft, Lovecraft, so it is a great leaping point.

>> No.16123498
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16123498

Oh good, a serious thread. I was going to post in the joke one before it 404'd.

Question for you all: would someone be able to explain why they don't like Lovecraft's writing? I've always enjoyed his stories, but every time he's brought up on /lit/ he gets shit on. Granted, I've listened to much of his work in audiobook form, and I'm also a massive racist, but it seems like a lot of posters don't care for him.

>> No.16123508

>>16123498
>I was going to post in the joke one before it 404'd.
I've never seen a janny hit the ban button faster than with that thread kek

>> No.16123510

Book? Annotated H.P. is nice. Story? What the Moon Brings.

>> No.16123540

>>16123508
It was all wojaks and dumb memes—I didn't even have time to fiish typing out my question, lmao.

>> No.16123852

>>16123498
The largest legitimate complaint with Lovecraft is his repetitiveness.

>> No.16123862

>>16121348
There’s no such thing as a serious Lovecraft thread, his writing is a total joke

>> No.16123898
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16123898

>>16121348
>I want to have a serious thread about a shut-in who write about big spooky monsters.
Lovecraft isn't a serious author. The only people who treated him as such were opportunists like Derleth and that streetshitting fedora S.T. Joshi and even that was just so they could make a living off of his legacy.

>> No.16123909

Call of Cthulhu gets shit on a lot, but I love the way it was written and the story is pretty good. I think it would have been better if the Swede never had the run in with the creature, or had lost the manuscript. But it’s still a great read

MoM is great, as are the majority of his short stories.

>> No.16124015

>>16123852
I guess if one expects each story to be about something completely different, that's a fair complaint.

>> No.16124744
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16124744

>>16123898
wow, a real life elite has come to our thread!

>> No.16125642

HorrorBabble on Youtube as some great readings of Lovecraft works that I like to listen to before bed

You have to dig on their channel but they have everything. Look for Wayne June audiobooks first though, he has Mountains of Madness and a few others that are no longer on Youtube due to copyright but he is a great reader of Lovecraft if you are the audiobook type

>> No.16125872

MoM is dog and super boring

>> No.16125898

i say this in every thread bcuz ppll usually post color/dunwhich/rats/insmouth, but his best are
>whisperer in the darkness
>shadow out of time

theyre less underratd in this thread :) but less talked about stuff thats great
>beyond the wall of sleep
>the statement of randolph carter
and he has beautiful poetry too
>azatoth (2 page prose poem)
>fungi from yuggoth (spooky poem)

>> No.16125900

>>16121348
Just get a collection book, then you can see for yourself what you like and don't like.

>> No.16125906
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16125906

>>16121348

>> No.16126158

>>16121348
Mention for Through The Gates Of The Silver Key (not the other story The Silver Key.), underated and features heavily in 1000 Platues, in the becomings chapter and the geology of morals. People calling Lovecraft crap, well he has seemed to work his way into the one of the standout works of postmodernism, and my favourite. They called it a master piece, mabye a bit far but Lovecraft's originality will see him live long.

Also Borges was a fan and wrote a short story based of Lovecraft's style, Borges said it was a let down.

>> No.16126274

>>16126158

>Through The Gates Of The Silver Key

Its great. Its an actual spiritual work.

>>16121348

Dreams in the witch house
Thing on the doorstep
Shadow over innsmouth

>> No.16126708

>>16121348
Cats of Ulthar

>> No.16126741

The Strange High House is very magical in a way that's not quite dark
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath also. I really enjoy Lovecraft's writings that don't try to be excessively spooky, he is very good at creating an atmosphere that's unnerving but strangely magical

>> No.16126816

>>16121348
The Colour out of Space is one of my favorites. It doesn't have this edgy feeling with the countless descriptions of a slimy monster, it's way more subtler and feels very modern. It's one of Lovecraft's work that scared me the most with The curse of Yig