>DUDE IT'S THE MOST TERRIFYING THING U'VE VER SEEN

>t. can't appreciate atmosphere

>>10024231
>DUDE IT'S FUCKING RAINY AN CLOUDY AN SHIET LMAO I VISITED ENGLAND ONCE
Wow, bravo Howard

OP is a contrarian.

>>10024221

kek, in my creative writing classes professors actually tell you not to do that because it's basically an admission to the audience that you're not a skilled enough author to actually show them something terrifying

>>10024240
>not liking sloppy lazy """"horror"""" writing makes you a NEET
rmyt

>>10024246
That's a very contrarian thing to say.

>>10024253
>dude why don't u like harry potter are u a contratrian or sumthing
Literally the same argument. Memecraft only had the mental capacity to write short stories for meme magazines in which he was unable to make any sort of horror story actually feel scary and simply relied on the unknown which is by definition the most unimaginative type of horror story-telling. No wonder only Tumblr and Reddit like his "work"

>t. can't appreciate horror

The unmasking/revealing of the monster is generally supposed to coincide with the climax of the story. Lovecraft doesnt show you the monster in an effort to always keep you on the edge.
If, in our modern age of desensitivity, Lovecraft can still creep us out, then he did one hell of a job.

>>10024271
Which horror author(s) do you like?

>>10024273
>lol dude there's this one real scary tentacle monster but since I can't make him creepier I'll just finish my novel by making the main character kill himself becuz of fear idk kek
Do you actually believe this is a good horror trope?

>>10024280
Poe and Stoker are pretty much the only non-meme horror authors

>>10024286
>he won't show the monster
>the monster he showed isn't creepy enough

>>10024271
Keep digging, contrarian.

>>10024293
>Poe
>not a meme
Had me going for a minute there, friendo

You have to be highly neurotic to get Lovecraft.

Lovecraft has about 4 or 5 masterpiece stories, and 70 terrible ones.

You're the type of chode who thinks giving horror movie monsters a detailed backstory makes them better, right?

Giant, incoherent monstrosities are his calling card, but before any tentacles get wriggling he sets up a great mood. Sure sometimes there are a few too many "incomprehensibles" in his works, but he's trying to describe fourth-dimensional horrors. The atmosphere he sets up carries most of the dread, then the final bang is the monster itself.

There are some where the monsters and everything else is described. In "The Call of Cthulhu" he describes the eponymous monster pretty well (as well as anyone could describe a living mountain made of space) and his sunken city is pretty well illustrated, too. "At the Mountains of Madness" is full of vivid imagery. He describes the mountains, the strange rock formations, the ancient rock city, the strange engravings on the wall. The Elder Things are described to the point where you could easily draw them.

But hey, maybe the Xenomorph WOULD be scarier under bright lights, right? I wonder what color Freddy Kruger's underpants are.

>>10024221

This isn't even my main beef with this hack. But it was the most obvious crudity of his writing. "Something so terrible that I fail to even attempt description." Wow nice.

>>10024371
This. The correct way to read Lovecraft is just reading his most well known stories. If you read more of him, you'll end up figuring out his shtick and nothing else by him will be enjoyable.

You're misunderstanding the point of the stories. The existence of the monster is not what's supposed to scare you; rather it's the implication of the monster's existence upon the place of humanity in the cosmos that is supposed to be scary. The indescribableness of the monster reflects humanity's limitations and inability to fully grasp the reality of their cosmic situation while retaining their sanity. You may not find this scary, since the view of human meaninglessness and existence in a hostile, uncaring universe is more common today, but in such a case it would be helpful to remember Lovecraft was writing close to a century ago. Regardless, complaining about the monster not being described or scary is simply admitting that you didn't understand what you were reading at all.

>>10024371

I've read most of them, and re-read a lot. Call Of Cthulhu and Dunwich horror are far away his best.

>>10024388
Because he is trying to write about elusive ideas of things that don't belong to our reality, or dimension. For us to comprehend the things like Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, and non-Eucludian, geometry, would be like explaining 3D to beings in a 2D world.

>>10024408
Yep.
All you need to read by him is
>The Call of Cthulhu
>The Color Out of Space
>The Shadow Out of Time
>The Shadow Over Innsmouth
and maybe some of his early Dream Cycle stories like Polaris and Ex Oblivione.
There, you just read everything by Lovecraft worth reading.

File: MRJames1900.jpg (9KB, 220x255px) Image search: [Google]

9KB, 220x255px

Who /M.R James/ here?

>>10024470
Oh and Beyond the Wall of Sleep. The monologue at the end is almost Shakespeare tier.
Lovecraft is called too sentimental sometimes, but I enjoy that style.

>>10024470
>>10024478
Reducing him this way doesn't make sense. If you just want to read his "best of" then I guess? There's no reason to ignore stories like The Outsider or The Rates in the Walls.

>>10024493
I forced myself to read his complete short stories, and I can promise you that the ones that are considered his best are considered his best for a reason. You aren't missing anything if you just get a "greatest hits" collection of his stories.

Read some of his obscure shit like The Horror at Red Hook, Pickman's Model or The Dreams in the Witch House and tell me if you think that's on the same level as one of his famous stories.

>>10024221
Lovecraft shows plenty.

>>10024514
I'm quite fond of The Dreams in the Witch House. It's not The Call of Cthulhu but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. Honestly, I found him to be an easy author to relate to. I don't think I'm the only one either, but I can understand someone not liking his other work.

>>10024452
This guy knows. Lovecraft pulls the same bit as A Roadside Picnic. Humans are less than bacteria to the monster, and how would a single celled organism describe a person?

>>10024477
planning on rereading some of his stuff soon. My favorites are probably An Episode of Cathedral History, A Warning to the Curious, and Canon Alberic's Scrapbook.

>>10024514
Pickman's Model and The Dreams in the Witch House are great and typically included among his better works. Nobody gives a shit about what you think is "worth" reading.

>>10024569

>Pickman's Model and The Dreams in the Witch House are great and typically included among his better works
This is just straight up revisionist history now.

Not horror but underrated.

"There are not many persons who know what wonders are opened to them in the stories and visions of their youth; for when as children we listen and dream, we think but half-formed thoughts, and when as men we try to remember, we are dulled and prosaic with the poison of life. But some of us awake in the night with strange phantasms of enchanted hills and gardens, of fountains that sing in the sun, of golden cliffs overhanging murmuring seas, of plains that stretch down to sleeping cities of bronze and stone, and of shadowy companies of heroes that ride caparisoned white horses along the edges of thick forests; and then we know that we have looked back through the ivory gates into that world of wonder which was ours before we were wise and unhappy."

-Celephaïs
By H. P. Lovecraft

>>10024706
Wow. Thanks for sharing.

>>10024221
>DUDE, IF I WRITE AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF AN AUTHOR'S WORK IN CAPS, PRECEEDED BY THE WORD "DUDE", I CAN SHOW MYSELF TO BE SUPERIOR TO HIM AND HIS WRITINGS WHILE NOT GIVING ANY HONEST CRITIQUE AND THEREFORE, REMAIN SAFE FROM BEING RIDICULED BY MY IDEAS IN THE SAME WAY I'M DOING WITH THIS AUTHOR

>>10024706
so fruity, coehlo-like. what is it with genrefags and 'hills and plains'? i swear to god there isnt a fantasy book without obsessive and pointless description of topography

>>10024388
This is the same criticism as OP, though.

>>10025055
Well, it certainly proves that he can't read.

>>10025020
As obsessive and pointless as your posts in this thread?

>>10024293
>Stoker
The only horror book you've read is Dracula, isn't it?

>>10024470
>no Dunwich Horror or Whisperer in Darkness
Hmm...

>>10024578
True for Pickman, less so for Witch House

>>10025020
You have no idea how plebby this post is

>>10025020
Consider suicide.

>>10025389
I love Witch House. Tying together old witchery with new (at the time) math theory was pretty cool, and it had plenty of good imagery. Like most of his stuff, it could use a little trim in the middle but I think it's a pretty underrated one.

>>10024293
t. i've only read dracula and a collection of stories by poe

>>10024567
>A person is just a collection of billions of cells working together in a single entity
There I did it

>>10025834
Single-celled organisms can't speak English and probably don't have the capacity for awareness to come to that realization.

>>10025840
Then why even ask at all lmao

>>10025846
This is precisely anon's point. Single-celled bacteria could not possibly comprehend or describe a human, it's just totally alien and so many magnitudes above their level that even being aware of one would be a feat.

This is how humans are to Outer-Gods. Actually not even that level, more like humans are this to lesser abominations like Yithians and Elder Things and they're like bacteria to Outer-Gods. This is why Lovecraft describes them as being mind-bending unfathomable horrors, human brains simply do not have the power to compute such a being. The very act of glimpsing one is enough to go mad from the total psychosensory overload.

>>10024242
Pretty cool. Now let me ask you, who is more widely read: your creative writing 'professors' or Harold?

>>10024221
>I've never read Lovecraft, but I've read descriptions of what other people who've also never read Lovecraft assume his works to be like so that's the same!

>>10024452
I have yet to read Lovecraft but this is how I perceive him. His works are suppose to tackle on existentialism and how human existence is so insignificant.

>>10024452
This
OP is fucking retarded

>>10024293
> I'm New To Reading, I Only Read Snapchats Lmao xD: The Post

Try Arthur Machen and MR James, anon.

>>10024221
How about actually reading Lovecraft, instead of forming opinions from memes. Majority of creatures created by Lovecraft are described in way more sharper details than creatures by most of other fantasy, scifi or horror authors.

>>10024514
Stories you listed are far from obscure and they are great. The Horror at Red Hook could be listed as one his essential works.

>>10024293
You forgot to include Stephen King.

>>10024706
>enchanted hills and gardens, of fountains that sing in the sun, of golden cliffs overhanging murmuring seas, of plains that stretch down to sleeping cities of bronze and stone

This >>10025020 anon is right, you people are very easily impressed with very basic and very self conscious poeticisms.

>>10025020
>>10025972
what are some poeticisms supreme gentlemans like yourselves enjoy?

>>10025875
Not that anon and not saying that I agree with him or not, but is this really an argument? Come on, anon.

>>10024237
He actually never left America

>>10026119
Of course its a fucking argument. If your advice in a craft doesn't correspond to the beloved and time tested works in it then your advice is bullshit

>>10024242
This explains all the retarded action filled chase scenes in horror movies.

>>10024221
Dude... It's not about monsters or locations, it's about insanity. If you've never played at the edge of your mind, and I DON'T mean with philosophy and I DON'T mean some weekend warrior summer mshcic festival shit, you won't get the feels. Now fuck off.

>>10024242
When you grow up more, you'll notice that some things that you were taught, were not facts but professor's own opinions. Always self-study and form your opinions in addition of courses, instead of blindly relying to stuff what was taught at them as an absolute truth.

>>10026129
>beloved and time tested works
These are cult classics, this doesn't mean that the average new writer taking classes can pull this writing style off. He said it's a creative writing class, not a critique. Also, just because that advice doesn't correspond to Lovecraft's works, it doesn't mean that it's not corresponding to other horror authors. Anyway, saying that some teachers or whatever are not as read as a pulp author is retarded. Of course he's more widely read, that doesn't mean that he's a god; Justin Bieber's a superstar but I can't learn how to sing by watching his clips or whatever. That anon's professors might or might not be shit, but saying that one (1) author's style isn't suitable for a noob doesn't tell me anything about them; and saying that they're not as read as x author is not an argument, sorry.
>>10026173
This is good advice.

>>10024470

>He doesn't like Thing on the Doorstep

>It's a "Lovecraft never shows or describes his monsters" episode

This is literally a complete meme, when a monster is actually relevant and appears in a story rather than just being referenced it is usually described in detail.

Like the Shoggoth from At the Mountains of Madness
>It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train — a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.

>>10026224
>the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.
Lol'd.

>>10024221
>>10024237
>>10024246
>>10024271

You realise you're having an autism fit and everyone can see it?

>>10026211
Its almost as if you're saying writing is too complex and nuanced to be thought and that Creative Writing is a waste of time

>>10026251
Yeah, almost. That doesn't mean that you made an argument earlier, but you keep sperging out about it.

>>10024246

>NEET

No one called you a NEET, nice projecting dumb ass.

>>10026266
>Make dumb proposition
>pointed to example contradicting proposition
>S-stop whatever, a-aspergers

Its time to walk away from the keyboard friend

>>10026322

>stutter posting

Dead giveaway, aspie.

Except he shows them every time

>>10026330
Walk away friend, just walk away

His use of the Spenglerian "Decline of the West" theories in "At the Mountains of Madness" are truly great. The feeling you get that even beings greater than us go through a similar decline is terrifying, like our fall is doubly inevitable as a result.

Graham Harman does an excellent job of debunking op's accusation.

>>10024242
Hmmm, who should I trust more on this subject?
A master of the horror genre who lived and died for his writing, was the centre of a circle of writers who loved him and whose influence exists years after his death, or some post-modernist leftist professor of liberal arts? Tough choice my man.

>>10026350
>being this triggered
heh.. sperg-tastic posts, truly.. wrote them from the bottom of a well? i hope you're not in the water..

>>10026119
Yes it is. This guy influenced and inspired generations. His writing might be samey and predictive but still managed to do what he set out to do.


>>10024221
Wow Op, you're so, like, original and stuff. Tell me other things I havent heard before. Holy shit you little edgy prick.

>>10026632
>he le influenced others! He a good writer!
Sup reddit

>>10026632
Stephen King's books are best sellers. Are you getting writing tips from him, too? What about Dan Brown or some other hack? Again, not saying that Lovecraft is on their level or not. All I'm saying is that this >>10025875 is not an argument. If you're getting triggered like the other sperg, you should return to plebddit.

>>10024221
Lack of detail is always scarier than lots of detail. Everything loses mystique when you spell it out. Horror is a primal genre that should stimulate the imagination.

>>10024221
original thread
worthless parrot
you're like a repetition of a repetition of

>>10024221
Things are alot more scary when you imagine them. Seeing a long, empty hallway is no big deal; however seeing that same hallway in the dark is scary as fuck, it's because your mind projects your worst fears into the shadows.

>>10024242
>creative writing classes
Yeah, so many great writers have come out of those. They're certainly the golden standard on what's good writing.

The thing about Lovecraft is that it's still being read after almost a century since he did so, without any sort of commercial or academic apparatus to push him. The cultural impact he has had throughout the second half of the 20th century, and this first half of the 21st is quite remarkable and a merit on its own.

everyone attributes this to h.p. but it was really the jews that first came up with the concept of don't tell, don't show.

>>10027680
heh..

>>10024452
fucking this, OP is a faggot

It's an allegory to niggers and kikes.

>>10024221
>shows it
>it's a goofy monster
Story ruined

>>10028098
When, long ago, the gods created Earth
In Jove's fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a Nigger.

>>10025020
Hey, nature is pretty what can ya do? People draw that shit.

>>10024221
One of the key components of horror is the fear of the unknown dipshit. Showing it removes a large portion of that, especially in a book where you have to describe everything ffs.

That said, I've never read Lovecraft, and don't intend to.

>>10024221
because some people actually have imagination aand dont need to be spoonfed the detailed description

>>10025446
Sorry i was trying to say that Pickman isn't very well regarded but that Witch House is so we agree

>>10026164
This is the answer

>>10025972
>You enjoyed something I didn't and that makes me better than you
Fuck off psued

the scooby doo monster is the scariest when the costume comes off

He dose describe them sometimes read at the mountains of madness. Leaving things vague is a deliberate artistic chose what can be described on a page is nothing compared to what you can imagine. Ops problem is that he lacks imagination.

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>>10028729

>>10026224
>shapeless

>>10029432
scariest shit I've ever seen

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1MB, 1560x1890px

>>10024221
>>10024237

The moment fear becomes tangible is the moment it becomes finite. The best aspects of horror are the formless, and those with form must have an intangible aspect for them to be the greater, i.e. the super-natural, preter-natural, undead/unkillable.

Which is the more realistic, the mugger or the serial killer? The mugger. Which inspires more fear? The serial killer, because of the intangible unknown difference between himself and humanity. What is the element that moves him past the pale?

>More so with the likes of Jason or the Predator before they were memed into oblivion. That which could kill but not be touched. That which hunted.

It is likely you do not fear your neighbor. It is likely that in the darkest hour of night when you walk alone, that you will look over shoulder.

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>>10024221
>tfw not considered legitimate horror

>>10026224
Did he just describe a vagina with herpes?

Perfect time to shill for my main man Robert M Price. The glorious bible geek and the LoVEcrAft GeEk (<---that is spooky lettering, all I know is it came from someplace too spooky to describe) :

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=130406&cmd=tc

>>10030777
brb killing myself because that lettering is just so damn spooky, did I mention it comes from someplace unimaginably horrible?

>>10029937
>Implying "shapeless" is not a descriptive adjective.

>>10024221
Hodgsin and Lovecraft were both geniuses and the reason why their horror worked was that they dealt primarily in abstractions of horror rather than clinical detail. The Night Land worked primarily because WHH was sparse on detail, but generous with implication.

You cannot have possibly read House on the Borderland and thought "you know what this needed was more autistic detail regarding the monsters," that shit never works. It's like looking at the enemies in a video game in a character viewer with their arms sticking out to the sides, the context for why they're scary vanishes.

>>10031945
if anything the details of the monsters made it worse, fucken pig-men running around, fucken cosmic pig-face ghost
would have been better if it was more abstract/alien

>>10031945
>>10031958
the monsters at the end of the Boats of the Glen-Carrig were bretty spooky and alien though, and just about everything in the Night Land (especially the watchers and the house of silence / silent ones)