Any H.P. Lovecraft Fans on Here?



Came on here to say yes I love him and remember reading a book of his stories and they scared me witless. Then realised I meant M R James, never read HP Lovecraft is he more science fiction ? Which I am not a fan of.

Getting my two initials and a surname authors mixed up. There are a few of them you know. 😅
 
CPLforever said:
Came on here to say yes I love him and remember reading a book of his stories and they scared me witless. Then realised I meant M R James, never read HP Lovecraft is he more science fiction ? Which I am not a fan of.

Getting my two initials and a surname authors mixed up. There are a few of them you know. 😅
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More horror than sci-fi, although sci-fi writers took plenty of influence from him. I'd give him a go if you like James.
 
CPLforever said:
Came on here to say yes I love him and remember reading a book of his stories and they scared me witless. Then realised I meant M R James, never read HP Lovecraft is he more science fiction ? Which I am not a fan of.

Getting my two initials and a surname authors mixed up. There are a few of them you know. 😅
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M.R James is one of the only authors that has made me scared. The BBC adaptations of his stories are well worth a watch.
 
Wild Card said:
Got his necromomicon book a while ago. Some good stories in it. Found the older language a bit of a challenge at times.
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Do you mean he can be a bit racist in his earlier books? He later recanted his racism if that helps?

But he is a bad man writing books about bad people in even nastier monsters
CPLforever said:
never read HP Lovecraft is he more science fiction ?
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He wrote pulp fiction in the 20s and 30s. He is mostly horror (as someone said above) mixed with some darker, cosmic aspects

No spaceships of robots if that is what you are worried about. More unnamable horror from the darkness
Wild Card said:
Any recommendations? Preferably shorter stories.
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Rats in the Walls. Call of Cthulhu.

His novella Mountains of Madness has been used as the inspiration for more movies than you can list
ErichZann said:
You can all of his short stories for next to nothing on Kindle or in physical format on Amazon. Not sure where to watch the adaptations they may be on iPlayer
Edit they're not
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Surprised that you can't find any of the BBC adaptations anywhere. The Michael Horden version of Whistle... is incredible. There were some modern versions done by Mark Gattis weren't there? Can see them either?

Amazon have this

Watch M.R. James' Whistle and I'll Come to You | Prime Video

Whistle And I'll Come To You is the thoroughly modern re-working of the evocative Edwardian ghost story
www.amazon.co.uk
 
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Lankester Merrin said:
Do you mean he can be a bit racist in his earlier books? He later recanted his racism if that helps?
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Yeah that was noticeable, I don't get particularly offended by it, it's not nice to read but I can appreciate the time difference.

Mainly thought the language in general was tough as a very novice reader. Found I had to re-read a lot of paragraphs. Up until about ten years ago I wouldn't read anything, I'm getting better now, my wife bought me world war z, which is broken into short different themed chapters and that helped get into books. Currently reading the shining and enjoying it. Maybe Lovecraft's massive necromomicon was too ambitious for a non reader's starting book.
 
Wild Card said:
Yeah that was noticeable, I don't get particularly offended by it, it's not nice to read but I can appreciate the time difference.
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His later work is better (Mountains of Madness) but he wrote of his time

There is a recurring character called Randolph Carter who Lovecraft uses as an alter ego. In one of his short stories for Weird Tales he gives Carter and explicitly anti-racist statement to distance himself from his earlier views.

Weird Tales got more complaints about Lovecraft being anti-racist than they did for the ending of Rats in the Walls. I won't give it away, but it is a corker

Wild Card said:
Mainly thought the language in general was tough as a very novice reader. Found I had to re-read a lot of paragraphs.
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Lovecraft has a very particular style, with lots of obtuse adjectives. Remember he was paid by the word and lived in poverty most of his life so he is prone to "cyclopean non-euclidian geometry" and similar phrases
 
Wild Card said:
Any recommendations? Preferably shorter stories.
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I read a book of short stories by M R James if you fancy, the collected ghost stories or something. Seriously, bloody terrifying. Not sure of the titles. One about whistling. The Mezzonet (?) Did he write the one about the picture that shows the figure and everytime the owner looks at the picture the figure is a little closer? Oh can't remember but seriously terrifying. Good old fashioned creepy stuff.
 
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Lovecraft is that strange thing: a poor writer for whom the phrase purple prose could have been invented, but at the same time someone who wrote wildly inventive stories that were different and some of which can really stay with you. He was a very odd man in many ways, and I think recanting his racism is over-stating it, given that only a year before he died he was chuntering on in his letters about the negro race being of 'definite biological inferiority' and that the difference between them and caucasians were 'in the direction of the lower primates'. Then, he was hardly alone with that kind of view.

For me, a lot of the best of his legacy is what he inspired in others, rather than what he wrote himself.

If you're looking for M.R. James rec's @Wild Card then start with Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You, A Warning to The Curious or Lost Hearts. He's a much easier read than Lovecraft, though the two of them were aiming for really different things.
 
The King of Um said:
Lovecraft is that strange thing: a poor writer for whom the phrase purple prose could have been invented, but at the same time someone who wrote wildly inventive stories that were different and some of which can really stay with you. He was a very odd man in many ways, and I think recanting his racism is over-stating it, given that only a year before he died he was chuntering on in his letters about the negro race being of 'definite biological inferiority' and that the difference between them and caucasians were 'in the direction of the lower primates'. Then, he was hardly alone with that kind of view.

For me, a lot of the best of his legacy is what he inspired in others, rather than what he wrote himself.

If you're looking for M.R. James rec's @Wild Card then start with Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You, A Warning to The Curious or Lost Hearts. He's a much easier read than Lovecraft, though the two of them were aiming for really different things.
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Will give the book a go. Watched the short film today @Lankester Merrin linked. The ending frightened the shite out of me, only to be compounded by Sunderland's finishing moments after.

Reading the reviews I don't think the short film adaptation was too close to the book so won't feel like I know the story too much.
 
Wild Card said:
Will give the book a go. Watched the short film today @Lankester Merrin linked. The ending frightened the shite out of me, only to be compounded by Sunderland's finishing moments after.

Reading the reviews I don't think the short film adaptation was too close to the book so won't feel like I know the story too much.
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That one departed far from the original story.

This classic adaptation is much closer.

 

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