H.P Lovecraft

In my opinion, and it is of course a matter of opinion, his stories are very good. The main reason he's so well regarded is that he took horror in a completely new direction. He and his friends used to get together and have an intellectual dick measuring contest by seeing who could write the most far out creatures. Lovecraft signalled a departure from witches, werewolves, and Wendigo and the arrival of the Old Gods. A writhing mass of tentacles as the creator of the universe floating through space, Cthulu, etc. In my mind Lovecraft is on his own separate scale for horror, and I believe this is a shared opinion as I've heard certain types of horror called "Lovecraftian". I actually met an old god one time. Ask me anything. Just kidding, I'm not a total faggot.

>>18897211
Why don't you read some and find out?

>>18897211
>Was his stories

Don't talk shit about him mate.

>>18897246
This.

>>18897245
Also this. Appreciate those last lines, anon. Though I think you've got the word 'faggot' confused with 'idiot'.

As the other anon said, he redefined what it meant to write horror. In doing so, he also adapted a lot of old story telling mechanics into his atmospheric-dread heavy style. The dude over explains a lto of stuff, but it's almost always to a point. Either to draw the reader toward attachment with the protagonist or to give the audience time to imagine what could possibly come next without missing a detail of the what it can be like in the presence of creatures and people that inspire that true and primal fear. The dude was a genius in his own right. That's just my opinion though. Anyone here play mtg? Ashiok and Lovecraft share some study material. Looking deep into what makes people fear in order to apply it to his own purposes. He made a legacy out of making people uncomfortable and still inspires people almost 100 years after giving up the pen to question both what they fear and why it is they fear it.

If you haven't already, give the guys work a chance.

Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Te Music of Erich Zann and The Colour Out of Space are all good places to start. Of course, you can't go wrong with the Call of Cthulhu. The Call is also a pretty deep philosophical read if you've got the right kind of head on your shoulders. But even if that's not the case, it's still a great read.

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>>18897296
His atmosphere driven stories are amazing at combining the existencial dread with a more personal one, it's obvious how people like Kafka learned from him.

And his Poe inspired horror, it's also very effective.

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>>18897211

>lovecraft liked cats so much that he wrote a fucking 6000-word essay on why cats and cat-lovers are better than dogs and dog-lovers
was it autism?

>The dog would appear to me to be the favourite of superficial, sentimental, emotional, and democratic people—people who feel rather than think, who attach importance to mankind and the popular conventional emotions of the simple, and who find their greatest consolation in the fawning and dependent attachments of a gregarious society. Such people live in a limited world of imagination; accepting uncritically the values of common folklore, and always preferring to have their naive beliefs, feelings, and prejudices tickled, rather than to enjoy a purely aesthetic and philosophic pleasure arising from discrimination, contemplation, and the recognition of austere absolute beauty.
>This is not to say that the cheaper emotions do not also reside in the average cat-lover’s love of cats, but merely to point out that in ailurophily there exists a basis of true aestheticism which kynophily does not possess. The real lover of cats is one who demands a clearer adjustment to the universe than ordinary household platitudes provide; one who refuses to swallow the sentimental notion that all good people love dogs, children, and horses while all bad people dislike and are disliked by such. He is unwilling to set up himself and his cruder feelings as a measure of universal values, or to allow shallow ethical notions to warp his judgment. In a word, he had rather admire and respect than effuse and dote; and does not fall into the fallacy that pointless sociability and friendliness, or slavering devotion and obedience, constitute anything intrinsically admirable or exalted. Dog-lovers base their whole case on these commonplace, servile, and plebeian qualities, and amusingly judge the intelligence of a pet by its degree of conformity to their own wishes.
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/cd.aspx

>>18897211
Some of them are quite fantastic, I like the temple and the music of erich zann as starting points.
The thing Lovecraft did very well was subtly create a singular story among all his smaller once, everything connects together in some small way and after you've read most of his shorter and a few longer stories and then read at the mountains of madness you'll realize just how much he's really been connecting this world of his.

Also, The Color Out of Space is one of his best stories.

>>18897211
Edgy English.

He's like the Beatles or Shakespeare. Even if you don't like him, you can appreciate his contribution to the literature, films, and culture of our time.

>>18897518
He's not wrong. It's pretty much exactly how I've always felt about cats/dogs and their owners, but he managed to express it much more eloquently than "dog owners are retards that like to have power over an inferior creature".

>>18897211
It's a matter of personal preference.
I see many young autists who can't grasp or appreciate subtle horror because the extent of their horror experience is five nights at freddys and Hollywood slashers

>>18897296
Color out of space is my favorite desu. Happy to see it on your list

>>18897211
Lovecraft's stories really express how meaningless our actions are and why we're so irrelevant in the universe. The wording of his stories was really fucking tight as well.

>>18897211
No.
It becomes unbearable to read those long descriptions.
Each chapter ends in a cliffhanger but the next ones does not deliver.
tfw you are past half the book and terror is nowhere to be seen.

People in the old days without TV really did have free time. Reading one of these books today is like getting robbed of your precious time.

>>18898247
>implying (you) havery better things to spend time on
Sure you could raided that dungeon or jerked off a few more times or played that sandbox game where you replicate things you have seen because you have no imagination

>>18897211
The mythos that came from him are pure gold.
As far as pure storytelling, I don't really like how he writes. I get that what his characters encounter are beyond human comprehension, but the "there are no words to describe the horror i've seen" gets annoying fast.
Still cool to read though.
Tumblr mode: reading is fun.

>>18898978
Me again:
I think most of the people don't get how to represent most of his creations.
They all represent cthulhu as a giant muscular guy with wings and an octopus face, that's it.
Actually, R'lyeh, Cthulhu and Eldritch abominations in general should look more like 3D glitches (for me), in this specific case: reality glitches.
kinda like that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDvlO9q6qWk
Humans are not meant to understand >3-dimensional things, that's why our mind go crazy

>>18897211
He invented something totally new. In his stories, there is no happy ending, and the reader knows it. At best, the main character end up in an asylum, or not able to sleep due to horrible nightmares. He very often start the story with the end, there is no suspens as in traditional stories, since the beginning, the reader knows that it ends badly, and from there, the purpose of the story is to discover how things had turned so wrongly. But his main contribution to horror story was to omit precise description of the horrors encountered. Lovecraft wrote a general description, with a lot of words to put the emphasis on how horrible this is, but without a clear description. So he gave fuel for your imagination to create monsters and horrors far beyond what words can describe. Each reader makes his own horrible idea of what comes out of the dark, that's why Lovecraft stories are so powerful for most of us (and that's why each attempt to make a film out of one story gave so poor results). He was the first to break the code in such ways, that why he is still view as a great writer. The fact is, I like very much his stories, and almost each time I read one before sleeping, I dream of ruins older than humanity, strange cults and non-euclidian architectures ;)

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>>18897211
some of his stories are pretty good.
also play this if you've got a shitbox.
best cthulhu game so far.

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>>18897211
>Was his stories really that good?


for fuck sake, just read some

>>18897323

>it's obvious how people like Kafka learned from him.

Are you fucking retarded?

>>18897518

6000-word essay is about 6 pages on Word.

Everyone is fucking retarded on this board.

The ideas are better than the writing.

>>18897296
>Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Te Music of Erich Zann and The Colour Out of Space are all good places to start

Is there meant to be an order to these?

I'm considering starting some reading.. should I start with the first of his books?

Because he held himself in high regard and plebs have to follow the memestream listed it by askenazi Jews

>>18898247
>But reading is, like, hard
>Why can't they be more like my 5 minute long youtube jumpcut feasts!
and people wonder why IQ is severely dropping with every new generation.

>>18899297

Nah

They're a bunch of short stories with references between them, some pretty clear and direct with others more indirect

I like The Shadow over Innsmouth

>>18899343
>and people wonder why IQ is severely dropping with every new generation.
If anything this just shows how dumb the previous generation was. IQ has been rising. Steadily. Across the board.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Whether that means we're smarter or not is debatable, but your statement is flat wrong.

>>18897245
>Cthulu
Have you actually read anything he wrote?

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>>18897211
He is like the tarantinio of cosmic horror. He is by far not the first one who is doing it, he takes clear "inspiration" from other people, his writing is very sloppy and borderline amateurish and there isnt much variety going on. BUT something about his style and the premisses he came up makes it just so much of a good read anyway. There is just something in his rough approach that makes the stories feel down to earth and grand in scale at the same time.

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>>18899563
That niggers always gets me

>>18898991
This is actually a good point I never thought about. It makes sense that seeing something like that IRL can make someone go crazy. It would look all "wrong"

>>18899367
Imboca

They read like a fever dreams and are so full of hopelessness that it feels like drowning reading them.

Sometimes they feel like an racist autist wrote them, but generally they are actually really creepy.

I still like other more modern authors more

>>18899479
Not really btw im a girl

>>18897211
I like his work more for his ideas and concepts, than for his actual writing.

>>18897211

Yeah, read them and see.

>>18899914
tits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits titstits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits tits

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I was recently given this book as a gift and am reading his stuff for the first time. I've only read Dagon, Nyarlathotep, and The Nameless City but it's been really good so far.

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>>18897211

Masonic/Satanic innuendo. That and the cosmic ethereal horror direction of his writings.

>>18899914
So what you took a picture of your fat face shoved into the frame with the book to post on ace book and let all your friends know how deep and mysterious you are and then your story falls to shit when people discuss the book and you say
>lol I just like tho Chthubu or w/e ones.
>buy me a drink and I'll show you my forbidden city of nyan waffle

>>18899907
Niggerman best cat

>>18899343
Why can't it be five nights at freddys?
>>18898199
Fuck you FNAF is top tier horror. It's your problem that you like shitty old people "horror"

>>18897211
Literally a meme author.

He died young and penniless and a fanbody got he rights to his estate and all his stories, pimped it out for cheap.

No, he was a pretty bad author, actually. If you look at his contemporaries writing the same kind of thing, he was one of the worst writers of the bunch.

>>18897211
With your level of grammar skills, I really don't think you could respect his writings. Sorry .

>tfw finished all of lovecraft but still want more cosmic metaphysical horror

>>18899149
>Reanimator instead of Pickman's Model

Shitty chart.

>>18902255
Lots of people recommend Ligotti, he's certainly a writer of cosmic horror but it's a bit too far from Lovecraft's vein to really interest me.
House of Leaves takes some of the best concepts of Lovecraft's horror (inhuman geometry and scary ways to tell a story) and makes it in one novel/art piece. I recommend reading it in print, it gets horrifying.
Most of the "Black Wings of Cthulhu" short story compilations edited by Joshi are decent, and far superior to other collections of "Lovecraftian" fiction.

I've always thought that Lovecraft knew a thing or two, pretty much like Julio Verne did. Pyramids in Antartica, occultism, the interesting coincidence between R'lyeh and The Bloop.

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>>18902200

>>18902424
People seem to forget he was a rationalist, atheist and a skeptic.

I´ve read all sorts weird theories (Kenneth Grant, Peter Levanda to name a few), where people go great lengths into these crazy theories about Lovecraft
>HE WAS UNCONSCIOUSLY CHANNELING SOMETHING REAL
>IT WAS JUST A FACADE! REAL OCCULTIST OF COURSE WOULD NOT REVEAL HIS SECRETS
>IT WAS REAL, BUT LOVECRAFT TRIED TO HIDE IT
>LOVECRAFT JUST KNEW

When in reality, this man did not believe in the mildest form of psychic phenomena or anything "occult" as apparent in his letter exchange with various individuals. He outright ridicules spiritists, theosophists, like they should be ridiculed. Lovecraft knew that the supernatural does not exist.

>>18902200
What the fuck is a "meme" author?

Also, actually, most of his contemporaries in the field sucked. What you mean to say is, "most of his contemporaries that remained famous to this day." Even then, I don't think you could really say that, say, Howard, Chambers, Metcalfe or Derleth were especially superior.

>>18903900
An author who's not famous because he's good, but because people keep name dropping him.

Derleth was the fanboy I mentioned, and was the only one of his contemporaries who was actually worse than he was.

>>18903912
Given the lack of substance in your statements I suspect your position is more emotional than informed.

For my money, if a person's works retain global popularity for around a century, have a genre named after him and being a relentless influence in the modern genre, you need to have a slightly stronger argument than, "he sucks people just like him because they say his name over and over," if you want to promote a credible idea or opinion.

>>18902027
Underage please leave

he was extremely influential and changed the way we think about horror. that said, a lot of contemporary Lovecraft-inspired stuff is trash.

>I saw a scary thing and it was too scary to describe and there were tentacles and stuff ooooooooooooooooooooooo

>>18897245
This is your answer.

It's in the feelings he evokes. The detail he chooses, and the way he expresses it. It has a way of grabbing you. Making you feel your privy to something secret, or ancient.

*Were

>>18902200
/THREAD

I know this hurts your feelings /x/, but fucking deal with it. No one with the slightest smattering of knowledge about writing considers this guy a good writer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejcELn1MeSM&list=PLSdZUSAfdmGbq2lMlGzo9_jwfjdQ4DbsT

Here OP, that could be a nice introduction

>>18904278
You never read anything from him tho, given your meme criticism

>>18904331
Please enlighten us with your knowledge about writing then

>>18904388
I can't I just stumbled upon these videos and I think they are interesting.
About Lovecraft writtings, I did thes posts here:
>>18898978
>>18898991
That's it.

>>18904331

His concepts of horror were pretty revolutionary, which is why he's held to quite a high (not even that high, but certainly above average) regard. It's just that many people fail to understand the underlying themes of his stories and just go; "dude Cthulhu, lmao".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOQhnQerRfo

>>18897211
>Why is he held with such a high regard?

He's not. He's popular and people like him, but there's a surprising amount of people who think he was a mediocre writer.

>>18904331
Lulz, "knowledge about writing." See :
>>18903930

>>18903930
Shall we play the game where we list extremely popular things and see how good they are or do you already know that popularity doesnt neccesarily mean quality?

>>18904536
he kinda was,
not a top tier writer but his imagination wass absolutely in par with Verne or Poe and such.
but you could say the same about Tolkien, Rowling, Martin, etc
most popular fantasy stories are not the most poetic, flowing, well structured reads
is the world they create that makes them what they are

>>18899143
you sir clearly never played Call of Cthulhu DCotE

>>18904871
I have. DCotE is the best Mythos game out there, no doubt about it, but Bloodborne is currently the best Lovecraftian game

He basically created cosmic horror, which at his time was something new and thrilling. Sadly with time and the evolution of technology it lost a wholelot of its power, but in my opinion most of his work is still relevant, and except for a few stories it is brilliant.

Unpopular opinion: his very best story is ironically not horror, because it's In the walls of Eryx

>>18904903
>created
*popularized

>>18902255

i like some of the other golden oldies, a few of whom inspired Lovecraft.

Chambers' King in Yellow is mostly great.
Machen's White People is occasionally great.

House on the Borderlands was interesting but ultimately hard to get through.

most people will direct you away from Derleth, and for good reason, because he's shit.

one of the modern (very different) takes on Lovecraft (and Lewis Carrol) is the Boojumverse short stories by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. basically humanity is exploring the solar system but space is full of horrible eldritch abominations and we're mostly screwed.

>>18904915
>Cosmicism is the literary philosophy developed and used by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft in his weird fiction.[1] Lovecraft was a writer of philosophically intense horror stories that involve occult phenomena like astral possession and alien miscegenation, and the themes of his fiction over time contributed to the development of this philosophy.

>>18902255
I feel like someone's gonna try to crucify me for saying this, but give Stephen King's IT a go.

>>18904922
Sure, he deserves more credit for cosmicism, I'll give you that

>>18901617

Do Through the Gates of the Silver Key next. My favorite Lovecraft story.

>>18904903
>Sadly with time and the evolution of technology it lost a wholelot of its power

Indeed. It's almost heretical in a way, given that the new dominant religion is that of computers, nanobots, space-traveling and nuclear weaponry. Man is fully invested in the pursuit of technological advancement, even now when people ask "what is humanity's endgame?" some will reply "immortality through mind-uploading"

>>18902255
Read Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, they used and expanded on his ideas better than anyone else. I'm practically as big of a Smith fan as Lovecraft, he wrote really great stuff.

Also like the other guy said, Machen is good, and check out The Willows by Algernon Blackwood; was Lovecraft's favorite story, and if you like that check out more of Blackwood because their styles are really similar and you can definitely tell how he inspired lovecraft.

>>18898206
I am surprised how little credit the Dreamquest for Unknown Kadath gets. Another favorite of mine is when he is sick with a high fever, and the doctor overdoses him on opium, and a opium fever dream ensues. I think it is Azathoth, but no one mentions them that I see.

>>18897211
I can't get this idea of his stories out of my head. His whole cult and mythos of ancient creatures, I see them as Nordic gods. The mountains of madness a place like Asgard. The giant squid thing looks (in my minds eye) like a giant Odin.
HOW DO I FIX THESE PREVAILING CONCEPTIONS?!

>>18897211
I think most people who don't like him lack imagination. I love how he describes something, but lets your mind really add the details. To me he created an entire universe that I can almost inhabit at will. Few other authors have done that.

>>18905372
Nordic gods are very human, but the whole point of the mythos is that they're extraterrestrial, unknown and beyond what a human would imagine. Are you sure you've actually read the stories?

You might see Nyarlathotep as Loki, but I don't think there's a Nordic equivalent of Azathoth, and the city in Mountains of Madness is the opposite of a divine/heavenly city-realm like Asgard or Olympus

>>18904903
>created cosmic horror

Nah he ripped it off from Blackwood and other authors. Same with giant undersea monsters and fishmen. Ancient cults. Ancient books that drive men mad. All that shit.

HPL never had an original idea in his life.

>>18905430
>HPL never had an original idea in his life.

If you want to get technical about it, no one has. Everything you've ever known or thought is from outside influence.

It's the way he implemented those ideas into his writings that made him famous, just like Tolkien.

>>18905460
You're just shilling.

Some authors are creative and come up with new ideas. HPL ripped all his off. He was a cunt.

>>18905517
>Some authors are creative and come up with new ideas.

debatable

>HPL ripped all his off.

Then why is he among the most popular writers of weird fiction, and considered the "father" of cosmicism? Is it because he did it better than the authors before him, or did he manage to create a more compelling universe?

>>18905534

see

>>18902200
It's fanboys overrating him.

He didn't do it better than anybody else. He didn't create anything new.

This is like saying Justin Bieber is a fantastic musician because he's so popular.

You're literally making the classic mistake of confusing popularity with quality.

>>18905544
>look at this post, I'm not the only one to have a negative opinion of HPL

Also Justin Bieber had connections and shit. Lovecraft had nothing, he was reclusive and poor his entire life. How else does an author gain a following besides the quality of his writings?

>You're literally making the classic mistake of confusing popularity with quality.

The opposite is another popular mistake; having a negative bias on something based on its popularity. It's called being a hipster, or an elitist, it depends

>>18905517
>You're just shilling
well that word has officially lost all meaning I suppose. Thats just comically misusing it now. Like, what do you even think it means? Did you just use it as "you are wrong"?
shit man

>>18905572
>Lovecraft had nothing,

Right. He died penniless and alone and in a great deal of pain and unloved, even by his own peers.

It's like was said in that post, August Derleth got the rights to all his shit for cheap, and mass produced it everywhere he could. Literal equivalent of spam.

>The opposite is another popular mistake; having a negative bias on something based on its popularity. It's called being a hipster, or an elitist, it depends

Right. But nobody dislikes HPL because he was popular. They dislike him because his writing was shit and all his ideas stolen.

His being vastly overrated by the illiterati is just an annoyance at most.

>>18905544
>He didn't do it better than anybody else. He didn't create anything new.
Yeah, thats debatable. It is like saying that the Blair Withc Project wasnt a game changer for the found footage genre. Sure, it wasnt the first one and it sure as shit isnt the best one, but you can be a hipster about it all you want, it made the genre. Same exact shit with lovecraft. He popularized that shit no matter how much you disagree with his merits

>>18897475

Truly "our-guy"

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thank me later
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqkMm7CqnQg

I think he's overrated because he's extremely popular now. LC's problem was that he was ahead of his time. This pulpy sci-fi horror shit was much, much more popular after the 50's.

Whether he's "good" is pretty subjective. I love "The Shadow out of Time" and "A Shadow over Innsmouth", but really don't care for "The Call of Cthulhu" that much, which is arguable why he's so popular.

>>18905589
>Right. But nobody dislikes HPL because he was popular. They dislike him because his writing was shit and all his ideas stolen.

That's crazy. HPL had a plethora of original lore. The dude practically coined the term "Mythos" because of his vast array of interconnected works.

Even if it wasn't original, just because something has been done before doesn't alone make it wrong. The Simpsons and Shakespeare have probably explored a good 30% of literary tropes on their own, but when something is done well the it matters a lot less even if it is blatantly unoriginal.

Never read Lovecraft?
Try my favorites:
>In the walls of Eryx
>Haunter in the dark
>The case of charles dexter ward

These three stick out the most aside from the more well known ones.
Go ahead call my taste shit but please tell me why it is.

Great ideas thst occasionally begat great writing, but even when he's not at his best he's pretty even. Excellent horror critic - Supernatural Horror In Literature is a superb read - with excellent taste. I seemed out The Venus of Ille as a teen after he mentioned it in aforementioned essay. I personally prefer Clark Ashton Smith and Arthur Machen, although Machen at his worst is worse than Lovecraft at his worst. Stay far the fuck away from Lin Carter, Derleth and Brian Lumley. I think Howard was a terrible stylist and shallow in content.

>>18905573
nah dude obviously the massive estate of HP Lovecraft is paying him the big bucks to promote him on a japanese shitposting image board

>>18906088
>I personally prefer Clark Ashton Smith

my nigga

>>18897211
Yes I believe Lovecraft is very good, and I have read a lot of his works. The thing about it is his horror really isn't scary in the sense of graphic or blood and guts. It's scary in the "we are helpless" sort of way, that the beings that control everything are unfeeling and care not for us. Lovecraft and his mythos have inspired so many works in popular culture, some you might not even know about. Gravity falls, or mass effect, two examples of them taking Lovecraftian themes.

>>18897211

Regardless whether someone consideres his works as either good or bad, no one can argue that he did not leave an irreplaceable mark on literacy and the according genres of horror, sci-fi, weid fantasy and pulp culture.

Today ''cosmic horror'' and ''lovecraftian'' are virtually synonymous, even though Lovecraft wasn't the only writer in his day and age to use themes of cosmicism in his works.

Personally I like his dream cycle stories over his more well known Call of Cthulhu and At the Mountains of Madness.

>>18897518
>was it autism?

Probably yes.

>>18905517
>ripped off
Hey dumbass the word your looking for is inspired by. Which in the creative world means stolen from

HPL sucks as an author. Sure his idea of Cosmic Horror is original contribution and he created a whole world around it, but that's it. His purple prose is notoriously bad. /x/ gets so emotional when someone insults their jack off fodder because it's their babys first horror author, and they haven't moved on to the real deal.

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>>18907026

it's cute that you're completely unaware of the possibility that other people just happen to like things you don't like, and vice-versa.

the only possible reason anyone could disagree with you about anything is because they're infants? makes you sound like a real grown-up for sure

This isn't /lit/. We're not all just here to brag about how our taste in everything is objectively better than everyone else's taste in everything and scream "No U!" at each other.

Suggest other authors for people. Talk about your favorite stories or your favorite story elements. Write some OP cosmic horror creepypasta.

Don't just come in here to shout "Lovecraft is good! No, he's bad! No, he's good! No, he's bad" while throwing your feces at each other. I know you think that makes you look like a genius intellectual, but you're wrong. Quit it.

... and i forgot to take off my trip, like a fag. my bad.

>>18907148
Well said
>>18907157
Even if you forgot and tripfagged

>>18897475
He is not wrong. Seeing how "well behaved and civilized" negroes are nowadays...

>>18897211
Lovecraft was an initiate. The Necronomicon is more than a work of fiction.

>>18907026
RLS*

>>18902408
House of Leaves is horrifying, yes, but in a "descent into madness" way rather than a lovecraftian way. It drives the reader mad rather than showing the protags slow spiral into madness. Or rather it is both of the above rather than the latter alone.

>>18903786
All of my "this

>>18899182
What fucking size font you use?

>>18897518
Lovecraft thinking is why I need a dog.

Worst idea ever,

Books on tape: the necronomicon

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>>18899143

Cthulhu games are the best. Here's my favorite.

>>18897518
>>18898141
Autism

Hey, not op, but where would you recommend i Steuart reading the lovecraftian stuff? I've watch a couple explaining vids on various great old ones and outer gods, and I'm not particularly drawn to Cthulhu specifically.

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>>18912444
All I've read is "Nyarlathotep" (short story). Hastur is intriguing.

>>18912444
If you're only interested in the Mythos stuff, I'd say go like:
The Call of Cthulhu
The Dunwich Horror
The Shadow out of time
At the mountains of Madness
Dagon
The shadow over innsmouth
Nyarlathotep
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath

But that's just my opinion. Personally I've just read throught his entire bibliography in the order they were in the collection books.

>>18912694
Is this all just available online, or by hard copy?

>>18912773
I don't know how much of it is available online, I have this 3 volume collection in hard cover with all his work, but you can find a lot of it here:
http://hplovecraft.hu/index.php?page=library_etexts&authorid=202

>>18912831
Out of curiosity, whats the collection called? Theres a couple I found

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>>18897211

He's /ourguy/ if you understand, just look at that face, 100% balkanigger

>>18897211
I enjoy the fact that he makes you peer into insanity. There are these monsters out in the universe yet overcoming your own psyche is what ends up impeding progress. They are quite clever as the people are driven into madness, they have seen what can't be imagined and can't handle it.

I started with The case of charles dexter ward.
Yog sothoth at his finest.

lovecraft had some cool ideas but his writing honestly fuckin sucked, dude had a thesaurus stuck up his ass.

plus he was a huge weenie. he was afraid of lobsters. his wife left him for being racist and he didnt know how to cook (and was a picky eater) so he died of malnutrition after eating nothing but canned beans and candy for like a month

>>18899149
Any specific editions I should look out for? A lot of pre-80's literature always end up having their text altered in some way, such as trying to "modernize" the vernacular used or even cutting out passages entirely, so I'm always trying to figure out which specific version is the way to go.

>not a single post mentioning William Hope Hodgson

I hope you fags know about him, House on the Borderlands is an incredible piece, comparable to Lovecraft's Quest for Kadath

>>18897211
Don't be put off by endless unfunny Cthulhu memes. His stuff is p. good.

>>18913032
>lovecraft had some cool ideas but his writing honestly fuckin sucked, dude had a thesaurus stuck up his ass.

Yo, all because you're illiterate, doesn't mean his writing sucked.

>>18913128
bro my literacy has nothing to do with the fact that he went out of his way to use archaic words to try and sound fancier and more confusing. like, fuckin, "eldritch?" the definition of that word back when Lovecraft starting using it was "really really old." but no, the word "ancient" wasnt incomprehensible enough, so he had to use that one. his writing is FULL of that shit. it's a fuckin slog.

>>18903900
>Derleth

Oh boy!

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>>18899149
>>18899149
Picked this up today. Has all of the stories you mentioned, just not in that order. I've only read "night gaunts" so far, in which I was captured by Lovecraft's use of description and fear. Dagon is the next story. I remember when I was a kid, hearing an audio tape of it, so I think I know what to expect. Gonna be good.

>>18913150
Didn't he flesh out hastur into a GOO? I'm a little unclear on that character as it has like 3 different authors

>>18902200
I came to say this. Sorry, /x/. I thought he was cool when I was a teenager, too.

>>18905354
Lord Dunsany rip off.

>>18913596
Where'd you find this jewl?
Is this the paperback version on amazon?

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>>18913036
see >>18913596

and/or pic related

>>18904331
I am not an English major or anything like that but can you please explain why he is a terrible writer. I love the way he can set up the setting with multiple lines of adjictives. His ability to paint you a picture of what you couldn't picture in the primordials is outstanding.
> you just did the whole I'm smart and I don't like it because it's dumb. Yet you have done nothing to discredit.

>>18898141
>cats: something that shits in a box for you you to clean up, that has no interest or emotional towards you other then you getting it off by scratching it's fur

>dogs: animals that will quickly become attached to you, learn your moods, be able to read your subtlest movements and react to them, and would die to save you

Yeah, dog owners are the retarded ones right?
Having a useless violent and smelly animal that doesn't give a fuck, just so you can have your "squeeeee! Furry KEY-YOU-TEEEEE"
vs
Having a lifetime shared bond with an animal that truly has emotions and deep love for you; a mutually spiritually rewarding relationship.
Loser.

>>18903930
popularity is more closely tied to name-recognition than anything. that's why propaganda works, retard. ask literally anyone with knowledge about marketing or politics.

>>18904278
>thats literally lovecrafts writing tho lol

>>18917292
>>>/an/

the stories are kind of unique

>>18917292
Holy fuck, he is mad

Father of "analog" internet/messageboads. Dude would write letters send them to peers, they would contribute, reply, send them to others then back to Lovecraft then would circulate again.
Also father of cosmic horror , creepypastas are basically his invention.
Reduced to "the squid head guy horror"
sad

>>18913032
>so he died of malnutrition after eating nothing but canned beans and candy for like a month
Wow top fucking kek.

>>18898247
It still beats lurking /x/.

>>18901625
Wait, what?

>>18913032
>dude had a thesaurus stuck up his ass
That happened to be because he wrote stories for publishers that paid him by word count.