Do people actually, unironically think Lovecraft's "mythos"

>>10030638

you're missing the point of Lovecraft
no one thinks he's a good writer
he has good and unique ideas and that campy "so-bad-it's-good" execution is certainly part of the appeal
mind you, a lot of what he wrote came from terrible dreams of these figures, so imagine being faced with that in a dream, i'm sure you'd wake up talking about "the indescribable horrible monstrous thing!"

>>10030638
Honestly I agree I'm a huge fan of his stories but the more self contained they are the better. When there were references in stories like The Mountains of Madness to other stories I found it more destructive to my suspension of disbelief than anything.

Maybe it was the translation but the writing didn't do it for me
But the philosophy behind it still highly interests me

>>10030646
Have you ever even read Lovecraft?
I unironically think he's a great writer, most of what you said is true but it serves only as his backdrop before he has these incredibly explosive moments of possession like expositing. Everything else is just a set up for these shining lines

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>>10030657
>Maybe it was the translation

i also can't stand his writing style. he even got flamed for it by his contemporaries.
he basically copies Poe's style, but manages to make the prose even more purple than Poe's.
and his personality stinks. he's basically a 20th century version of today's edgy redditors.

>>10030664

I've read plenty. I personally don't think he's a "good" writer if we're trying to be somewhat objective about. Though, he's good at his style the same way Daniel Johnston is good as his. Lovecraft is like Lo-Fi horror-lit.

>>10030683
He's not Melville but I struggle to find genre writers who could write in such an original and powerful voice as he could. Its very unique and very fit to his purpose. I mean if he was not a good writer can you suggest any way his work could be improved? Because I think if any of the things he is criticized for were subtracted it would damage the works rather than improve them. Just sandpaper out what makes them special into a generic and dull standard genre affair

>>10030702
Lovecraft should have put down the thesaurus and be less verbose.

>>10030718
Thats the extact trite horseshit I was talking about, his use of obnoxiously verbose language is why he's successful and still read

>>10030718
>>10030722
t. illiterates

>>10030638
I think his mythos is unironically good. When I read his works I get what he was getting at. Maybe you don't. I don't mean that in a smug way. HPL was an odd character and I can understand why people just can't relate to such a person.

When he uses indescribable it doesn't mean he is a bad writer who simply was taking a cheap way out. His creativity and vocabulary was more than adequate to describe things. This can be seen in a couple examples (The Mound, the history of the elder race in Mountains) where he does go a bit overboard with descriptions.

The thing is, he wrote for himself. He was his own target audience. He once stated he would continue to write even if nobody would read it. Certainly he was a "shit writer" in that he never really cared for making material to be widely accepted, demanded no changes to what he wrote, never pursued debtors when he was owed, etc.

>>10030657
>philosophy behind it still highly interests me
Absolutely. I would say all his stories were merely vehicles for this philosophy.

>>10030677
>his personality stinks
What's wrong with it?

>>10030702
>Its very unique and very fit to his purpose
Exactly.

>>10030638
The cool thing about Lovecraft is not what he did as much as what he actually suggested and hinted at. His execution is decent and his stories good but not more, but what makes him worth reading is the doors that will be opened in your mind after you are exposed to his writings.
I could say he is a very average writer and storyteller but his claim to fame is to have actually stared down the abyss, and so can you, through absorbing the unsaid in his writing.
This is why his influence goes far beyond his readership.

>>10030664
This. Just like amateur listeners criticize parts of a masterpiece symphony for being imperfect, without understanding the concept of buildup or creating structure out of chaos

>>10030638
Most of his 'mythos' was extrapolated and strung together by Derleth and his cronies quite a bit after Lovecraft's death desu. I've read pretty much most of the stories and read a lot of his personal letters, and even I couldn't tell you much about Lovecraft's cosmic pantheon and 'timeline' presented in any of his stories (assuming many of them actually /do/ connect anyway).

>>10030815
Lovecraft had the genius to not explain everything. 99% of horror movie endings suck because they try to explain everything and have closure.
When I was 12 i was more aroused by a lingerie model in a flyer than I am now by HD hardcore porn

>>10030974
The idea of a pantheon and timeline of lovecrafts universe is the most anti Lovecraftian idea there is