Lovecraft Lite

[Anonymous No.15717262]

We've all heard of Lovecraft and the various eldritch abominations from his Cthulhu Mythos, especially the titular Cthulhu, but the bleakness of his works really gets to you pretty quickly, right? What are some good ways to have Lovecraft’s creatures and/or entities, or similar ones, in a setting without it being too bleak or dark, any thoughts on writing that kind of story, /lit/?

[Anonymous No.15717271]

It's impossible. That would defeat the whole purpose of Lovecraft's specific brand of horror.

[Anonymous No.15717468]

>>15717271
Didn’t at least a few of the stories end with humanity victorious?

[Anonymous No.15717485]

>>15717468
Call of Cthuhlu they drive a boat through the supposedly unfathomable monster

[Anonymous No.15717572]

His dreamcycle is a lot more upbeat about the whole thing and shows that people can actually navigate things that happen in the universe.
Sure 99% of humanity still get shafted but it is theoretically possible to not get the shitty end of the stick immediately.

[Anonymous No.15717607]

>>15717262
You might enjoy Jeff Vandermeer's southern reach trilogy. Lovecraft's creatures are implicitly malevolent; less downbeat weird fiction makes these beings beyond comprehension but also beyond good and evil.

[Anonymous No.15717618]

>>15717262
August Derleth

[Anonymous No.15717644]

>>15717262
Exploring Egregores

[Anonymous No.15718694]

>>15717644
>Exploring Egregores
Please elaborate on this.

[Anonymous No.15718879]

>>15717485
That boat was that time period's equivalent of a jet plane and it did nothing.

[Anonymous No.15718944]

>>15717262
I feel like Lovecraft didn't intend for "le ol' gods" to be malevolent by nature but only towards humans and particularly western society because I guess he didn't like society and people.
It all follows this "vengeance of nature" motif like the one where the cat-killing couple gets eaten by cats and others which are all about mankind disturbing nature and getting shit on as a result.
I guess that kinda means they are malevolent towards human though.

[Anonymous No.15719950]

>>15718944
>I feel like Lovecraft didn't intend for "le ol' gods" to be malevolent by nature but only towards humans and particularly western society because I guess he didn't like society and people.
I thought that most of the gods thought of us like we thought of ants?

[Anonymous No.15720467]

>>15719950
Would you like it if ants astrally projected onto your mountaintop while you were trying to have a conversation?

[Anonymous No.15721291]

>>15717262
Commando Cthulhu fights nazi old ones.

[Anonymous No.15721370]

>>15717262
Check out Arthur Machen, subtler with more of a natural twist. Borges was a big fan of him.

King in yellow is good aswell, less total ego annihilation.

[Anonymous No.15721402]

>>15718694
It's a series of mini-essays, unfortunately published online, about the OP's topic that are fun to read.

[Anonymous No.15721620]

>>15721291
So, "evil vs evil"?

[Anonymous No.15722842]

>>15721402
>unfortunately published online
Why is that unfortunate?

[Anonymous No.15722884]

>>15717271
fpbp

[Anonymous No.15722912]

August Derleth basically reframed Lovecraft's ideas in an implicitly Roman Catholic worldview.

[Anonymous No.15724177]

>>15722884
What if you want a subversion?

[Anonymous No.15724717]

>>15717607
Are there any benevolent beings in it?

[Anonymous No.15724720]

>>15717262
Three words, my friend: Clark Ashton Smith.

[Anonymous No.15724777]

>>15717485
The "unfathomable monster" was not Godzilla, his whole threat was psychic in nature. Just by existing while sleeping he is the source of anxiety on the back of people's minds, by threatening to wake up he made psychics go mad. But there is nothing saying his body is super resistant and can't be stopped by a boat. Also remember he is not an "unfathomable monster", he is just a priest, pretty low on the grand scheme of things.

[Anonymous No.15724797]

>>15717262
From what little I remember of Conan his stories are kinda like
>I might live in a lovecraftian world but as long as I can have my booze, women and violence I don't care
so there is that

[Anonymous No.15725757]

>>15722912
>August Derleth basically reframed Lovecraft's ideas in an implicitly Roman Catholic worldview.
Please elaborate on how he did that.

[Anonymous No.15726561]

>>15717468
>Didn’t at least a few of the stories end with humanity victorious?
I don't think so, they might have lived, but they weren't 'victorious' by any real sense. I think a large part of his work is supposed to give you the realization / feeling that you cannot do anything about the cosmic horrors because you are so insignificant compared to them so you just have to live your life and hope they don't intrude.

[Anonymous No.15726723]

>>15724717
No, Just people wandering into an area infected by an inhuman presence. It is neither good nor evil.

[Anonymous No.15727830]

>>15717262
Since you've perfectly described Brian Lumley, I strongly recommend him to you. Hope, humour, competent heroes, even sex, but all the Lovecraftian elements and star-spawn intact (along with his own rewrites of some traditional critters like vampires).

[Anonymous No.15727988]

>>15717572
Seconding this. The ending of the Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is super comfy.

[Anonymous No.15728207]

>>15727988
Alright, what happens in there?

[Anonymous No.15728256]

>>15722912
Derleth is fucking shit.

[Anonymous No.15728661]

>>15728256
I think he's an inferior writer but I enjoyed his work as pulp. It goes against Lovecraft's original ethos but it's fun as something else.

[Anonymous No.15729395]

>>15721370
>Ancient wood
>Some secret hiding place
Now write around these and you have a Machen story.

[Anonymous No.15729401]

>>15721620
Neither are evil

[Anonymous No.15729410]

>>15727830
So much money. Gone. In name of genre fiction. I hurt.

[Anonymous No.15729635]

>>15729401
But neither is good, either?

[Anonymous No.15731008]

>>15729410
I feel your pain.

[Anonymous No.15732161]

>>15717262
>lite
Kys

[Anonymous No.15732796]

>>15729410
>>15731008
This thread is about genre pulp, anons. If you want fine literature, look elsewhere.

[Anonymous No.15732863]

>>15717262
Didn't you post this exact thread on /tg/ a few months ago? Just admit you don't like Lovecraft and stop trying to ruin his work to make it more palatable to yourself.

[Anonymous No.15732981]

>>15717468

Shadow over innsmouth ends with deathcamps for the genetically poluted fishfuckers and the us navy torpedoing the demonic watertemple at the reef

[Anonymous No.15733044]

>>15717262

There would be no point in this.

[Anonymous No.15733927]

>>15732796
Why is Conan on that shelf?

[Anonymous No.15733978]

>>15733927
Because Conan was genre pulp, exactly like Lovecraft, and published in the same magazines (Weird Tales, etc.). Howard and HPL wrote great letters back and forth, though they both died so young.

[Anonymous No.15735304]

>>15733978
So sad that great talent dies young.

[Anonymous No.15735408]

>>15717262
Lovecraft's Dreamlands stories

[Anonymous No.15735556]

>>15717468
None of the Cthulhu mythos do, since simply existing in his universe as a human usually means a bad end, but he does have some stories that have a happier ending like Beyond the wall of sleep.

[Anonymous No.15735577]

>>15717262

Clark Ashton Smith's your answer.

Sick of these young cunts taking over the site thinking Lovecraft's the shit. He's not. And I'm not a nigger about it.

[Anonymous No.15735586]

>>15732796

Wish I could get a leather bound version for myself.

[Anonymous No.15735815]

>>15735577
Smith is awesome (and the other Weird Tales letter-writing member of the trinity), but his cosmicism doesn't quite feel like Lovecraft in the way OP suggested, as he sets his tales often on other planets, dying earths, in Hyperborea, Poseidonis, Averoigne, Zothique...In any case, there are a lot of great stories out there by the weird pulp circle and related authors.

[Anonymous No.15736727]

>>15735577
What's the problem with Lovecraft?