/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.13543342]

First time on /lit/ and I don't know what is overall opinion about Lovecraft here. I just want to talk about your favorite stories by him.
For me, it would be for sure The Curse of Yig, simply because of the great night scene. I really love the tension and build-up presented there, and the morning reveal is a nice conclusion to it. I also liked the final twist of the story.

[Anonymous No.13543349]

>>13543342
Lovecraft is kind of "problematic"....

[Anonymous No.13543353]

>>13543349
Niger

[Anonymous No.13543354]

>>13543349
Fuck off, I don't give a damn.

[Anonymous No.13543364]

>>13543342
My favorite Lovecraft story is the one where that guy is playing his violin or some shit and the narrator has a fuckin breakdown about it

[Anonymous No.13543370]

>>13543353
Great country, that.

[Anonymous No.13543377]

>>13543370

[Anonymous No.13543386]

>>13543342
How was his cat called?

[Anonymous No.13543393]

>>13543386

[Anonymous No.13543594]

>>13543342
My absolute favorite is The Haunter of the dark.
I am scared as hell of animals/insects crawling in in the darkness of my house.

[Anonymous No.13543637]

>>13543342
/lit/ hated him until his racism was brought up for the hundredth time by a bunch of articles and now it loves him
my favourite is dunwich horror

[Anonymous No.13543647]

>>13543342
My favourite is The Outsider next to that is Herbert West--Reanimator

[Anonymous No.13544111]

>>13543349
Dumb frogposter

[Anonymous No.13544332]

>>13543342
Hello le ddit

Rats in the walls is his best work
Lovecraft is a fun author but his shit isn't "good" by any means. People that like lovecraft generally have never read anything outside of what their highschool teachers assigned.

[Anonymous No.13544335]

>>13543342
racist ass nigga

[Anonymous No.13544347]

>>13543637
Nobody ever hated lovecraft until he was a racist

[Anonymous No.13544355]

>>13543342

>First time on /lit/

start with the greeks

[Anonymous No.13544360]

>>13544347
back here people used to call him reddit and a söy favorite

[Anonymous No.13544380]

>>13543364
Music of enrich zann

based af

[Anonymous No.13544475]

>>13544360
Sounds like a lie from a reddit basedboy tbqh

[JN !!vXXhA/qzhjm No.13544484]

>>13544332
>Rats in the walls is his best work
>Lovecraft is a fun author but his shit isn't "good" by any means. People that like lovecraft generally have never read anything outside of what their highschool teachers assigned.

This. Also liked the Dunwich Horror and Pickman's Model

Notice how all these "people" calling him racist never actually quote the passages that they're kvetching about? LOL

[Anonymous No.13544548]

>>13544332
Name one author who did what he did better

[Anonymous No.13544556]

>>13544548
Nick Land

[Anonymous No.13545014]

>>13544332
>>13544484

Lovecraft is based. Even writers who complain about his prose and particulars fail to live up to his standard when they write their own stories within the Lovecraft universe.

I seen everyone from Stephen King to Neil Gaiman try and fail to write anything of note whereas even Lovecrafts hack work is more evocative and memorable.

[Anonymous No.13545086]

>>13543342
>Lovecraft

[Anonymous No.13545262]

>It is good to be a cynic--it is better to be a contented cat--and it is best not to exist at all. Universal suicide is the most logical thing in the world--we reject it only because of our primitive cowardice and childish fear of the dark. If we were sensible we would seek death--the same blissful blank which we enjoyed before we existed.

>About my own attitude toward ethics—I thought I made it plain that I object only to (a) grotesquely disproportionate indignations and enthusiasms, (b) illogical extremes involving a reductio ad absurdum, and (c) the nonsensical notion that "right" and "wrong" involve any principles more mystical and universal than those of immediate expedience (with the individual's own comfort as a criterion) on the other hand. I believe I was careful to specify that I do not advocate vice and crime, but that on the other hand I have a marked distaste for immoral and unlawful acts which contravene the harmonious traditions and standards of beautiful living developed by a culture during its long history. This, however, is not ethics but aesthetics—a distinction which you are almost alone in considering negligible. … So far as I am concerned—I am an aesthete devoted to harmony, and to the extraction of the maximum possible pleasure from life. I find by experience that my chief pleasure is in symbolic identification with the landscape and tradition-stream to which I belong—hence I follow the ancient, simple New England ways of living, and observe the principles of honour expected of a descendant of English gentlemen. It is pride and beauty-sense, plus the automatic instincts of generations trained in certain conduct-patterns, which determine my conduct from day to day. But this is not ethics, because the same compulsions and preferences apply, with me, to things wholly outside the ethical zone. For example, I never cheat or steal. Also, I never wear a top-hat with a sack coat or munch bananas in public on the streets, because a gentleman does not do those things either. I would as soon do the one as the other sort of thing—it is all a matter of harmony and good taste—whereas the ethical or "righteous" man would be horrified by dishonesty yet tolerant of course personal ways. If I were farming in your district I certainly would assist my neighbours—both as a means of promoting my standing in the community, and because it is good taste to be generous and accommodating. Likewise with the matter of treating the pupils in a school class. But this would not be through any sense of inner compulsion based on principles dissociated from my personal welfare and from the principle of beauty. It would be for the same reason that I would not dress eccentrically or use vulgar language. Pure aesthetics, aside from the personal-benefit element; and concerned with emotions of pleasure versus disgust rather than of approval versus indignation.

[Anonymous No.13545395]

>>13545262
>I thought I made it plain that I object only to
>(b) illogical extremes involving a reductio ad absurdum
Good thing he never lived to see modern discourse.

[Anonymous No.13545696]

>>13543342
Forget the racism shit for one second /lit/. Was he right about pets?

[Anonymous No.13545711]

>>13543342
>>13545703

[Anonymous No.13545714]

>>13545696
Absolutely.

[Anonymous No.13545717]

>>13543342
>First time on /lit/
oh my sweet child, I've been here for 4 years and now look at me.

[Anonymous No.13547138]

>>13543637
I tried drawing Whatleys brother once. I forgot he was albino.

[Anonymous No.13547149]

I really don't get the whole obsession with mythology that isn't even historical personally

The fetish with most mythology is people were dumb enough to believe it and die over it for a long time, who gives a shit about stuff that's made up for fun?

[Anonymous No.13547194]

>>13545696
No, he's wrong: owning an animal is in any case a pure waste of money and time, for the dependent. Owning a dog: you're easily distracted and disgusting. Owning a cat: you're into pure vanity and just feel superior with your little lazy shit-machine.

Humans are the only animals I know of and respect, and hell, I have a hard time doing that.

[Anonymous No.13547261]

>>13543342
He's hit or miss for me, mostly hit.
Favorite story: The Music of Erich Zann.

[Anonymous No.13547323]

>>13545696
I disagree not with cats being superior but with superior people preferring cats. Dog people are superior because of the immense value of the teachings of a dog. They’re simplicity is so alien to being human, they aren’t lovable like a person is lovable, that to befriend dogs is empathy of the highest order. I would never trust a cat preferring woman to raise a baby well.

[Anonymous No.13547583]

>>13547138
nice drawing, have you made others of lovecrafts work

[Anonymous No.13547593]

>>13543349
Lovecraft's racism improved his storytelling abilities.

[Anonymous No.13547623]

>>13545714
Yup -- and the cats tend to save the day in his stories....


One of my favorites was one I read in high school math class. Dagon. It was short so it was easy but by golly, that blew my child-mind. The scope of his stuff was always truly amazing compared to the other crap I had to read for school. That, and it improved my vocabulary.

The White Ship was weird and out there but I enjoyed that one, too. I think some music group did a song based on that story who were actually called H.P. Lovecraft. I don't know it, though.

[Anonymous No.13547712]

>>13547623
Just looked up that song and it's not that great. But people from that era seem to love it. They opened for the Doors so that should give a clue to what they sound like.

[Anonymous No.13547728]

>>13545014
This. He is unique, charming, evocative, original. Old-fashioned yet the most original fantasy/horror writer I've ever read.

[Anonymous No.13547741]

>>13547583
No, I've got a hard time understanding what he's describing half the time, and the other half is kinda derpy, Cthulhu is basically described as a big floppy squid baby. There was a vampire that I almost drew, but who's going to find an elbow interesting.

[Anonymous No.13547774]

>>13543342
The Dunwich Horror
Witches Hollow
The Rats in the Walls
The Lurking Fear

[Anonymous No.13547780]

>>13543594
I think maybe you're thinking of The Dreams in the Witch House

[Anonymous No.13547789]

>>13545014
I think King's "Jerusalem's Lot" is a really good Lovecraft homage, and better than Lovcraft's worst stuff. But of course King had the example of Lovecraft's good stuff to learn from, and plenty of time.

[Anonymous No.13547807]

>>13543342
Dagon
Nyarlathotep
The Music of Erich Zann
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow out of Time
...
Lovecraft is awesome. He's not just a horror/sci-fi writer, he's also a sort of scientific mystic.
>What has haunted my dreams for nearly forty years is a strange sense of adventurous expectancy connected with landscape and architecture and sky-effects.... I wish I could get the idea on paper -- the sense of marvel and liberation hiding in obscure dimensions and problematically reachable at rare instants through vistas of ancient streets, across leagues of strange hill country, or up endless flights of marble steps culminating in tiers of balustraded terraces. Odd stuff -- and needing a greater poet than I for effective aesthetic utilisation
His non-fiction (mainly his letters) is very much worth reading.

[Anonymous No.13547808]

Trying to decide which of his collections I'd like to buy. I don't like hardcovers (especially large ones) so the one-volume complete editions are ruled out. The Penguin Classics set looks nice, but it's missing a few things I'd like to have and I don't care about annotations. Thinking about just getting the older Del Rey volumes. Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.13547811]

>>13547808
Also I'm aware of the new Variorum editions, but all four would cost over $100.

[Anonymous No.13547814]

>My most vivid experiences are efforts to recapture fleeting & tantalising mnemonic fragments expressed in unknown or half-known architectural or landscape vistas, especially in connexion with a sunset. Some instantaneous fragment of a picture will well up suddenly through some chain of subconscious association—the immediate excitant being usually half-irrelevant on the surface—& fill me with a sense of wistful memory & bafflement; with the impression that the scene in question represents something I have seen & visited before under circumstances of superhuman liberation & adventurous expectancy, yet which I have almost completely forgotten, & which is so bewilderingly uncorrelated & unoriented as to be forever inaccessible in the future

[Anonymous No.13547816]

>>13547807
He was also the first to see the importance of architecture in literature to determine the mood of the reader.

[Anonymous No.13547820]

>Certain collocations of scenic or architectural details have the most powerful imaginable effect on my emotions—evoking curious combinations of poignant images derived from reading, pictures, and experience. Old farmhouses and orchards move me about as profoundly as any one kind of thing I know—though general rural landscapes are also supremely potent. They give me a vague, elusive sense of half-remembering something of great and favourable significance—just as city spires and domes against a sunset, or the twinkling lights of a violet city twilight seen from neighboring heights, always inspires a vaguely stimulating sense of adventurous expectancy.
This: http://www.teemingbrain.com/2006/10/30/autumn-longing-hp-lovecraft/ is a good essay about Lovecraft's "adventurous expectancy".

[Anonymous No.13547832]

>>13547194
I sincerely hope Cthulhu is real desu

[Anonymous No.13547844]

>>13547808
I think the ST Joshi-edited collections are usually considered definitive (he corrected a lot of old editing errors that pop up in other collections), but I myself fell in love with Lovecraft's stuff through the Del Rey collections. The first one I ever read was the "Bloodcurdling Tales..." in your image.

[Anonymous No.13547858]

>>13545696
>the puerile stick-throwings of alien bipeds
Could this man be any more based?

[Anonymous No.13547861]

>>13547844
You're correct about Joshi's editions. The only problem is that they're only available in his annotated volumes (Penguin Classics, etc.) which are incomplete, or in the Variorum and Arkham House volumes, which are not exactly cheap.

[Anonymous No.13547909]

>>13547820
I know what he's talking about. Lovecraft was a gentle sensitive soul and a dreamer.

[Anonymous No.13547918]

>>13547808
The Del Rey ones are the ones I collected in the 1990s and they probably would suit your needs for less of a physical book (in terms of bulkiness). I would cover them with brown paper bags because the artwork never matched what was in the actual books...

There were some I remember from the 1960s (I think) from the local library that had matching artwork. Like The Color Out of Space and stories like that. They were kind of psychedelic in tone. Those were pretty cool.

[Anonymous No.13547922]

>>13547832
You can find R'lyeh on Google maps.

[Anonymous No.13548189]

>>13543647
>Herbert West--Reanimator
Oh no, oh nononono no. What a noodle

[Anonymous No.13548203]

>>13543342
Lovecraft is treated basically the same as any of the other genre authors that are recommended on the wiki.

Good, much better than the average writer, just not /lit/ worthy. Mountains of Madness is great.

[Anonymous No.13548268]

>>13548203
Why isn't he /lit/ worthy?

[Anonymous No.13548340]

Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make. May I have your attention for a moment?

[Anonymous No.13548345]

>>13548268
He said the bad N-word. The forbidden word.

[Anonymous No.13548360]

>>13543342
>>13547593

isn't The Shadow Over Innsmouth literally about interracial children or something?

[Anonymous No.13548369]

>>13547808
Fuck it, I think I'm just going to get the B&N edition. It has Joshi's texts as far as I can tell and has everything I want it to have. Anyone else have one? The cover looks kind of gaudy to me but I can get over it I think.

[Anonymous No.13548375]

Negronomicon

[Anonymous No.13548671]

>>13548360
Yes, the other race being undersea abominations that worship cosmic demons. Not much different from spics and niggers if you think about it, just as slimy and stinky

[Anonymous No.13548688]

>>13548671
they're better than niggers because at least mating with them gives you immortality and housing in shining undersea palaces of pearl and coral and such

[Anonymous No.13548852]

>>13543342
I really love HPL, and I read him for a long time. My favourites are The rats in the walls, and even better the dreams in the witch house (my favourite of all) and at the mountain of madness
I haven't read him for a looong time though, and I can't remember for shit the name of aother favourite of mine

Fuck that he's "problematic" and "racist". I'm italian, he fucking hated us with all his guts and I couldn't care less

[Anonymous No.13548913]

If I could but save two writers from the entire history of literature, I would choose J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P Lovecraft.

[Anonymous No.13549166]

>>13548913
Woah there buddy, wait a minute. What about J.R.R. Tolkien and J.R.R. Tolkien?

[Anonymous No.13549178]

He’s good, but it is hard to admit it since he is high school boy’s first author.

[Anonymous No.13549221]

>>13547808
If you don't mind spending a lot of money, grab the Variorum editions:

https://www.hippocampuspress.com/h.p-lovecraft/fiction/variorum-lovecraft?zenid=qu0h7uqnpf6ejahmg5h02lvg16

https://www.hippocampuspress.com/h.p-lovecraft/fiction/collected-fiction-volume-4-revisions-and-collaborations-a-variorum-edition?zenid=qu0h7uqnpf6ejahmg5h02lvg16

They're the definitive release.

[Anonymous No.13549248]

>>13547808
>>13549221
Oops, I didn't see >>13547811. Anyway, I'm not sure what to recommend. The Variorum editions are definitive, but expensive. The Penguin Editions are cheap, accurate to Lovecraft's manuscripts, and Joshi's annotations are good, but they're missing a bunch of Lovecraft's stories. The Barnes and Noble Complete Fiction book is really cheap, contains all of Lovecraft's fiction (except for his revisions), and the text is the same as the Penguin Editions, but you don't like large hardcovers. Go for whatever seems like the best option.

[Anonymous No.13549255]

>>13549178
>>13549178
>he is high school boy’s first author.
Really? Men are so superior holy shit.

[Anonymous No.13549256]

>>13549221
The revisions volume is actually incomplete since it doesn't include his collaborations with C.M. Eddy Jr. due to some kind of copyright issue.

[Anonymous No.13549467]

>>13549256
That's bizarre; C. M. Eddy Jr. has been dead for over 50 years and the only work of his that is remembered is the stuff that Lovecraft revised. I'm surprised that whoever owns the copyright to his stuff wouldn't work out a deal with Hippocampus Press. Anyway, it sucks that we have yet to get all of Lovecraft's revisions collected in one book, but losing Eddy's stories isn't a massive loss. "The Loved Dead" is the only Eddy revision that's worthwhile; "The Ghost-Eater" isn't bad but it isn't particularly memorable either, and "Ashes" is pure hackery that doesn't have any Lovecraftian touches.

[Anonymous No.13549794]

>>13548852
I am Italian too.I think his writings are saving me from killing myself.He is my role model .
I will be a gentleman until i die.
He hated uncultured and unmannered people the most.
He even hated certain white people wich he referred to as "White trash" in Beyond the Wall of Sleep.