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/lit/ - Literature

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9547656 No.9547656 [Reply] [Original]

I'm interested in the mythos of his stories, but I haven't read any of his works. Which book should I start with? Do I read them in the order he wrote them, thus starting with "The Tomb"?

Thanks /lit/.

>> No.9547686

>>9547656

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/sources/ccmt.aspx

>> No.9547699

>>9547656

Ever since reading the Sherlock Holmes series, I'm organzing all series by in universe chronology.

Started with sherlock holmes, then conan the barbarian.
Now I'm working on lovecrafts works.

I'm not done, so you're stuck with reading them as they were writen.

>> No.9547705

>>9547699

I think I'll do a song of ice and fire next.

>> No.9547707

>>9547686
Ah, so start with Dagon. Thanks anon!

>> No.9547714

>>9547705
On a related note, Martin posted on his blog (about a fortnight ago) that he's still working on The Winds of Winter.

>> No.9547739

Lovecraft doesn't have an internal chronology, just a net of references. And the references are deliberately vague to evoke a mood anyway. They're split up usually between the "Mythos" stuff and the "Dream Cycle" stuff, and then the early Mythos stuff is much different from the later.

>> No.9547956
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9547956

>>9547707

The Cthulhu Mythos is the most popular stuff and most people's first introduction to Lovecraft.

Two cheezy but good movies from the 80s adapted from Lovecrafts work I'd recommend after you read his stories are "From Beyond" and "ReAnimator".

Not really related but the movie "From Beyond" and reading the Gor series when I was in middle school during the 80s(my formative years) were significant to my interests in Kink/BDSM. I wore out a VHS cassette of the movie fapping to Barbara Crampton in that fetish gear.

>> No.9547959

>>9547956

do you not read sutter cane?

>> No.9547986

>>9547959
>do you not read sutter cane?

What?

>> No.9548022

>>9547986

referencing best lovecraft film, mouth of madness. chck it out, it has sam neill.

>> No.9548029

>>9548022
>do you not read sutter cane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ZHNRKZlfc

>> No.9548282

>>9547656
There really isn't anything special about Lovecraft's writing or prose. You'd be better of just watching a synopsis of the Lovecraft mythos on YouTube or something.

>> No.9548304

>>9547656
Start with
"They Call Him, Niggerman" and work your way backward.

>> No.9548314

You can pick up some of the anthologies of his work!

>> No.9548354

>>9547656
QUICK SOMEBODY POST THE NIGGER POEM

>> No.9548393

>>9548354

That poem is the reason I read Lovecraft

>> No.9549064
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9549064

>>9547656
there is no chronology ever, only references and reuse of certain things

just read these in no specific order

>> No.9549086

The mythos is the least interesting part of Lovecraft's stories. He made it up as he went along; it was just a tool to back up his descriptions of "ancient forbidden eldritch knowledge"

>> No.9549119

>>9547956
how old are you bro

>> No.9549124

is the doctor story the only lovecraft story set in providence?

>> No.9549208

Read them in the order they present themselves to you. Since you brought up "The Tomb" you must start here.

>> No.9549239

>>9549086

I fucking knew it. Prose that shitty has nothing hiding behind it. Someone I spoke to the other day about Lovecraft said something about how his 'ideas' were so great. What a crock. "Herbert West–Reanimator" was terrible. I can't imagine what vast internal mythological network prompted Lovecraft to make a severed head talk or to have the estranged body carry its own head in a suitcase.

>> No.9549282

>>9549239
There was none for that story. The mythos doesn't emerge until after his New York period.

>> No.9549398

>>9549239
Reanimator was a serial - and Lovecraft was required by the editor to recap the story. As a result it does sound repetitive outside of its original context. Even further, it was deliberate and unapologetic hack-work, written in a quasi-parody of those sorts of tales.

As for my general opinion on Lovecraft, he has a lot of early/mid period non-mythos stories that are good, especially all his ten page or so macabre stories: Pickman's Model, The Hound, The Outsider. The more restrained and concise of 'dream cycle' have some wonderful prose and imagined scenes: The Doom That Came Sarnath, Cats Of Ulthar. The Mythos is only part of three distinct literary mode

Also, to anybody reading Lovecraft for the first time, don't overdo it and don't get hung up on chronology. His stories were written to be read occasionally alongside other short stories, not cover-to-cover. Throw in some of his peers and correspondents like Robert Howard and Clark Ashton Smith.

>> No.9549408

>>9549239

theyre just spooky pulp stories, anon, not philosophical allegory

>> No.9549466

Go in written Order, Id suggest The Statement of Randolph Carter, Followed by the Dream Cycle. Just skip Iranon, that is irritating.

>> No.9549472
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9549472

>tfw Lovecraft's best work is secretly The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

>> No.9551100

>>9547656
Give Hypnos a read.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hy.aspx