When does Lovecraft get good? I'm reading through his entire collection of stories right now, about halfway through. His stories so far have fallen into three categories
>The crazy adventures of some guy in a dream. Look at all of this crazy shit in this dream, so fucking crazy woooooo
>Look at this creepy thing, it's kinda creepy but there's a normal explanation. But what really happened in the end was it was waaaaay spooky woooooo
>Look at these crazy monsters and how weird they look. Crazy right?
I'm reading the reviews of this stuff, and in every story it's saying that even Lovecraft thought it was shit. How am I supposed to enjoy stuff that its own author didn't even write? There have been a couple of good stories, but most of them have been shit. Also, I don't really understand why Cthulhu is so popular or why that's the story that sticks out. Yeah it was better than most of the stories I read so far, but it was still fairly boring.
>>7851764
1/10 made me (you)
>>7851836
I'm not baiting though. When does Lovecraft get good? Because it's been shit so far. The Music of Erich Zann was good. Call of Cthulhu and Re-Animator were okay. The rest were mediocre to shit.
>>7851862
Do you just not enjoy horror, dread, or impending doom? What did you think his stories were about? They are all about dreams and monsters and aliens and other worlds.
Specifically which stories did you read? Maybe take a crack at the shorter pieces. But if you don't enjoy ones like Cool Air, Pickman's Model, or The Temple then maybe Lovecraft isn't for you.
Why aren't you reading about the lives of women in 19th century England, OP? Lovecraft is a genre writer. He can't be good.
>>7851891
Pickman's Model was the epitome of "Look at this creepy thing, it's kinda creepy but there's a normal explanation. But what really happened in the end was it was way spooky"
Never. He might be the worst prose writer in history. Some cool ideas though. He should have just published like a bestiary a fictional history or something.
>>7851916
>normal explanation
Are you fucking retarded? All the monsters were real. Just stop. Lovecraft is not for you. Go pick up a copy of The Fault In Our Stars.
>>7851764
Read The Dunwich Horror. If you don't enjoy it, Lovecraft isn't for you.
At first I though the same (albeit in a less retarded manner) but when I read The Other Gods everything changed.
Lovecraft is kind of hit and miss, which makes sense considering he wrote for a living.
But there's a hint of genius every now and then.
That said Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is probably one of his best.
Der Golem by Gustav Meyrink is similar but better than Lovecraft imo.
>>7851764
>How am I supposed to enjoy stuff that its own author didn't even write?
Quality sentence for quality post.
>>7851764
>How am I supposed to enjoy stuff that its own author didn't even write?
Would you think a book is good just because its author says so?
>>7852305
I wasn't talking about the word mistake m8
I was quoting it because I don't think what the author thinks about his books is relevant at all.
Dude could be narcissistic or madly insecure.
I predicted this phenomenon.
I said people are going to start finding ways to attack Lovecraft over the nigger thing. Even his non-nigger works.
>>7852388
>Nigger
I don't give a shit about that. I'm annoyed that his shit isn't really that good yet it has an astonishing legacy.
It was bad on his part to be so fucking stupid about his racism though. Having a cat in his story named "Nigger Man" is just poor taste and would obviously bite him in the ass. Even when he wrote that people were becoming more and more sympathetic with the black plight, especially up north.
>>7852394
>that second paragraph
You've obviously let your dislike for his views infect your enjoyment of the stories.
>>7852397
Nigger nigger all niggers must die
Fuck off fag. It has nothing to do with that. I was simply calling Lovecraft stupid for being offensive for no logical reason. It doesn't bother me.
>>7852394
He took the high road. It would have been so easy for him to just get rid of it but he didn't. It should be irrelevant and people should be able to separate the racism from the stories and then judge the stories for themselves.
I know this guy in real life who will often do something he wants, knowing that people will disapprove and possibly try to stop him. He feels that he is completely justified in doing it and waits for someone to argue so he can tell them.
A part of me is annoyed because it would be so much easier to just go with the flow, but another part of me has respect for him for always standing up for what he believes in.
It seems quite a bit idealistic and juvenile to stand up for yourself, but maybe I haven't lost all my ideals yet and that is were the respect comes from.
>>7851764
>How am I supposed to enjoy stuff that its own author didn't even like?
Yeah Kafka is awful amirite guys
>>7851920
>Baroque prose that's not terribly different from Gothic/Romantic short stories
>worst prose writer in history
Not as long as Dan Brown, Christopher Paolini and E.L. James exist.David Foster Wallace's prose in Infinite Jest is fucking disgusting, too.
>>7852429
>Dammit, I'm going to name by cat "CuntFucker" and there's nothing you can do about it!
It's just out of place. He was a serious writer. His work was never really satirical or social commentary. It's just odd that he would use it as a forum to stick up for free speech. It's out of place and it's stupid, it's beyond his personal beliefs bleeding into his work. That name added nothing to the depth of the story, to the characters, to anything. It was a meaningless throw away device and he decided to go with the offensive route.
I'm all for free speech, but as a professional writer, there's certain things you avoid. Like if you were to use the word "fag" in a story, it would have to be important. You wouldn't just have a character named "fag" with no one acknowledging the fact that the person is gay, or not gay, or whatever.
NICE BAIT FAGGOT.
>>7852456
I believe it was the name of his own cat. I don't think The Rats in the Walls was a /pol/ tier "hurr I'm going to violate as many PC rules as possible to upset them dirty libruls muh first amendment" attempt. If you really think it was I think you might actually be retarded.
>>7852468
I was just responding to that poster's defense of it.
It's still stupid if you ask me. Again, that has nothing to do with me not liking Lovecraft. I think his stories are all the same and are all boring. There are a couple of gems that I read like Erich Zann, but a lot of it is boring descriptions of weird things with no sense of danger or suspense.
I read the Dream-Quest of the Unknown Kadath today. The whole time I was just thinking "This is just a dream. Why do I give a shit about anything that's happening?"
>>7852481
Why are you such a fucking idiot? Have you no suspension of disbelief? I bet watching a movie with you is worse than being raped with a barbwire niggerdick. Why are you so miserable? Please, tell us what you prefer? Give us a writer and story that you think is better.
The places in the dreams were real. His consciousness was travelling outside of his body to other places in mythos. He was not just making shit up. How do you not feel the danger or suspense that the characters in his stories feel? I get the feeling that jumpscare horror is more your speed. Because Lovecraft is not. Stop reading it here, we gave you so many good examples and you feel the same about them all.
>>7852456
Are you listening to yourself? He was a serious writer and also a serious racist. He hated foreigners and blacks. That was how he genuinely felt and for the time he was not alone, y'know in the 19-fucking-20s. It wasn't the overly pc world we live in now. So it wasn't so much the offensive route as much as it was the status quo.
And so what if Lovecraft was insecure about his work? Are you some kind of girl that you require someone to be confident in themselves to enjoy their work? Because a lot of insecure people do great things and a lot of arrogant pricks fill the world with shit. I pray to the Great Old Ones that you're just baiting us all.
How do you enjoy any book at all? Right now there's a monster of unspeakable horror lurking just beyond your line of sight. By the time you realize where it is you feel it at your throat. Is that scary enough? After it kills you the reader finds out it was a nigger, but not only that, it was a dream, even scarier, the dream of a nigger man.
>>7852394
you obviously give a shit about it, liar
>>7852573
>He hated foreigners and blacks.
there is literally nothing wrong with this
how dare you tell me how the fuck i should feel
I can hate whoever the fuck I want
fuck off
>>7852588
Hey, I didn't say there was anything wrong with that. But I mean, he did hate them. He didn't even praise all whites. He had a hard-on for the English.
People get so hung up on this. He was born in 1890. What do they think he thought? You think that soon after the Civil War people just suddenly stopped hating niggers? Fuck chimps and fuck that guy for getting mad about the name of a cat.
>>7851764
Guess you just don't appreciate good racism anon
>>7851764
Listen here you little shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2UQv2JUZoU&t=15
>I don't like Lovecraft and list criticisms as to why I don't like him
>All of a sudden I'm a piece of shit panzy ass queer who's opinion is shit
Is Lovecraft some sort of God? You guys are fucking autistic or something. I don't like Lovecraft and I don't see why you like him, and the only defense of Lovecraft I've seen in this thread is I'm a piece of shit who knows nothing. Thanks for discussing literature with me /lit/, it was great.
>>7851764
>and this fucking thing was scary it was combination between these animals and it was so scary that I can't remember how to describe but it did a fucking number on me
>>7852849
He's an interesting writer, if not for purple prose, and basically defined the formulas of good horror in the modern era. Basically every horror notable counts him as an inspiration. I get the impression Five Nights at Freddy's is more your speed.
>>7852855
It's almost like you've only read "The Call of Cthulhu" because you believe it's his best story owing to the fact it's a meme now.
>>7852849
There's a loud minority of posters on /lit/ who are just here to be contrarian, not sure why.
You could post about orgasms and they'd post "overrated, 4/10"
Anyway, Lovecraft certainly gets boring after 10 stories or so, it's mostly the same stuff with a few outliers like Color Out Of Space, so you really have to read his stuff in small doses, a collection would bore me to tears.
>>7852849
It's one thing to not like something, it's another thing to say you can't see why anyone would like something, period.
Lovecraft has a touch of the 'sperger but that makes him endearing to a lot of people and also unique.
He was also a font of fairly novel and disturbing story concepts like "The Color out of Space."
He also evokes a bygone world where mystery and exoticism still existed here on Earth and all the wonder and promise of the early scientific forays, before we knew what would be uncovered.
His novel plots and florid, janky prose and autistic dialogue are just kind of cute to me. I like how all his stories are this kind of awkward shamble to some indescribable chthonic nightmare scenario.
>>7852859
>I can't defend Lovecraft without insulting you
>>7852865
>Assuming that this is a formal argument
>"You guys are fucking autistic or something."
>>7852865
Sorry if you're too dumb to appreciate Lovecraft, but it really can't be helped.
What do you want me to say, exactly? Build a time machine and get better genetics?
>>7852870
I was just calling you all douche bags because of how this thread turned out. I wasn't arguing anything in that post.
>>7852872
>Too dumb
>Spooky shit happened it was crazy. People think I'm crazy because I talk about it, but I have this one piece of evidence that proves it was TRUE. In the end it was all a spooky monster!
Yeah man. At least Nigger Man is around to cheer me up. That little cat always pawing at those rats in the walls.
>>7852874
>Nigger Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2RJhnGiUOg&t=31
>>7852865
>>7852874
Where is your argument?
>>The crazy adventures of some guy in a dream. Look at all of this crazy shit in this dream, so fucking crazy woooooo
>>Look at this creepy thing, it's kinda creepy but there's a normal explanation. But what really happened in the end was it was waaaaay spooky woooooo
>>Look at these crazy monsters and how weird they look. Crazy right?
>>Spooky shit happened it was crazy. People think I'm crazy because I talk about it, but I have this one piece of evidence that proves it was TRUE. In the end it was all a spooky monster!
He is not making some cheap horror movie where the zombie jumps out and everyone screams. His work requires effort on the readers part like most good stories do.
>Ulysses
>Just some guys doing normal stuff, waaaa so boring
>Crime and Punishment
>so dumb he just murdered and got away with it, so boring now, it should have just ended there
You have to put yourself in the world Lovecraft creates. You need to employ the suspension of disbelief. It's a book. The words wont scare you if after every line you think "nope, that doesn't exist in real life, gawd this is so stupid."
>>7851764
Never. He's just a meme author loved by faggots who whack it to le cunthullu maymay.
Did you expect the earth to crumble around you and drag you down to horrible depths right there while reading it?
>look at that hotel, it's all empty, now dad is crazy, whoo
>look at that person, it could be an alien. No whoops this is an alien, see how it transforms. Wow, here's another alien transformation and another. So spooky. Now everyone is dead so it doesn't even matter who was the alien
>wow it's literally just some fucking kids romance but one of them is a vampire and it's set in some fucking foreign country, then the bullies die for no reason
>>7852910
>You need to employ the suspension of disbelief. It's a book.
There's a difference between "This character is in trouble!" and "This character is dreaming that he's in trouble!"
>>7852960
>look at that hotel, it's all empty, now dad is crazy, whoo
You could compare that to what I'm saying if every single book Stephen King wrote was about a dad going crazy in a hotel.
>>7851764
He's shit. So was Edgar Allen Poe, but Poe's prose doesn't hit you in the face with its shitness the way Lovecraft's does. Poe was turned into a major figure by the French despite his writing, but Lovecraft's is too big a hurdle, anyone who's read him past the age of 12 cocks an eyebrow to say the least. Of course, some people are committed to only ever know as much as they did at 12, so it works out.
>>7851929
>implying lovecraft isn't just overrated genre fiction
>>7853063
Please.
Besides, reading Lovecraft would be terrible for escapism. Pretty much reverse escapism; after you finish a story you just feel relieved you're not in it.Until you realize the insignificance of the human race and existential bleakness that he hits on aren't just contained within his stories.
>>7853051
>>7853052
Anon, I seriously think you might suffer from clinical psychopathy, and that you cannot experience empathy for others. It's very clear that you can't suspend disbelief or immerse yourself in anything outside of your own reality, kind of like a woman. You can't understand why someone would be scared, especially in FICTION. Maybe you should only read historical text, but I fear even then it would be so removed from your actual life that you wouldn't care.
The dreams quests are scary because of their level of detail. they are real places that exist not just in his head, and he is travelling to them. If you want a more visceral comparison, think about how Freddy Krueger can hurt and kill you in your dreams. Or for something even more realistic, if you piss in your dreams you can piss yourself and your bed.
Now consider the fact that this could happen to you every time you fall sleep and you have no control over it. You have to sleep every night. You can't avoid sleep forever. When you finally give in to sleep these other worlds are waiting for you, demons are licking their lips, and your pants will be pissed.
How the fuck is that not scary to you? Invest yourself in something.
>>7852402
>the regression is real
I feel like you were hyped for Lovecraft by the countless stories, shows, movies, games, and artwork that have been influenced by him, and now that youve read a few stories you realize he's not as fun as Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Zombies. But just because you don't enjoy a work doesn't make it overrated or bad in any way, just because you see no value doesn't mean that value is nonexistant.
That isnt a bad thing, but in general you should be looking for things that interest you-if you dont like Lovecraft's stories, fine, play Darkest Dungeon, or the Batman Arkham series, you could also watch the movies Alien(s), The Burrowers, or Cabin in The Woods.
Those are some of the more popular works, but if you enjoy any of them then you're a fan of Lovecraftian horror.
Like I said his influences are everywhere, i'd like to think there is some merit in that.
>>7851764
Comlpetely agree, OP. True, I haven't read anything but most short stories just end in a sudden burst of violence perpetrated by craziness. I feel like Lovecraft minimally improved Chambers gimmick and stuck with it.
>>7853765
>*haven't read everything
Lovecraft's most important role was the inspiration he spawned.
>>7851764
He's not bad but he's no literary giant either. His stuff is pretty formulaic so reading a bunch at once would probably get boring. They're just fun scary stories with an interesting mythology behind them that's all anon. Sometimes his racism adds a bit of comedy.
Sounds like you went into this with inflated expectations.
>>7853060
>everything is bad unless its deep literature
End this meme.
based niggerman saving howard philips from having cuck fans once again
Here you go Opie
