How would you describe Lovecraft to someone who has never heard of Lovecraft before?
>>17143951
"Lovecraft" is arrangement of 9 ASCII characters designed to verbally/textually specify a specific object (usually a human being)
He was a 20th century author of surreal, sci-fi horror stories. Despite this his writing is so mediocre he makes those elements boring and a chore to read. He was also overtly racist and had no friends.
>>17143951
Autism and tentacles.
A very creative man who, sadly, should have gotten someone else to write the actual prose.
>>17143951
He thought nothingness was the scariest thing ever, so in a way a lot of his work was about nothing.
guy writes about big scary space things that make you go insane cause theyre big and scary
also theres big and scary magic shit
>>17143951
Caucasian, thin, almost gaunt at times. Typically clean shaven, had drably dark, short cropped hair. Typically dour expression, I'm not sure there's a photo around of him ever smiling. Singularly ovoid face, strong chin and jaw. Kinda big ears.
Lovecraft was essentially the first sci-fi horror writer.
A kind of racist writer from the 20's who worked his fear of sea life into some of his work, most of which weren't all that popular until after he died of cancer.
Stories that are vastly better when summarized into a single paragraph.
>>17143951
Shite.
A horror writer who didn't know how to actually horrify people so instead relied upon vague references to people witnessing something so horrible that it cannot be described.
a mediocre author whose fame is the product of extreme hype
>>17144014
>>17144021
>>17144030
>>17144017
Lot of angsty hate her guys...
>>17144030
And marketing. I think the board games based on the cthulhu mythos are more fun to play than than books are to read. Lovecraft made a decent universe too bad he couldn't write for shit.
>>17143951
>>17144021
>>17144033
Not angsty hate, I have most of his books. Just being realistic. After all you hear about it, his writing is just sort of disappointing.
I respect his place in the progression of horror writing and the influence he has had on many things, but his work itself is sort of like watching Nightmare on Elm Street today. It may have been scary as shit back then but it's more of a novelty today.
>>17144021
Ah, another person who's never read any Lovecraft. Wonderful, but I think OP was kind of hoping for informed opinions, not bullshit.
>>17144054
Sorry that my opinion differs from yours I guess.
>>17144054
care to offer your own then? thus far only one person has even half-praised his writing and im guessing it wasnt you since they didnt tripfag themselves.
>>17144058
It's not your opinion, its your bullshit. Lovecraft regularly gave his critters fairly in-depth descriptions. The Migo, the Elder race, the Great race of Yith, Moon beasts, Gugs, the list goes on!
See, it's not about opinions, it's about informed opinions. Anyone claiming Lovecraft didn't describe his creatures clearly hasn't read any. They're working off of second hand knowledge and trying to sound smug and superior. It's weird yet adorable how, no matter how many times that behavior's exposed as silly and counter-productive, people still regularly fall into it in a misguided attempt to impress people.
>>17144054
>I think OP was kind of hoping for informed opinions, not bullshit.
Yes, of course. Like your post.
>>17144000
>>17143951
Knowledge is maddening.
>>17144082
I can't believe no one's given me props for my dubs AND trips. People these days are just rude
Nobody is actually aware that Lovecraft did something else than the elder god / Cthulhu stuff. Try read something else he wrote.
>>17144078
I'm not talking about descriptions of creatures. I'm talking about his tendency to conclude his stories with vague references to the narrator losing his mind after what he witnessed and/or killing themselves.
This is an absolutely overwhelming theme in his writing and it was a completely unnecessary crutch that for some reason he relied upon. It's the literary equivalent of ending a movie with a jump cut to the credits.
He just had a peculiar, literally arcane writing style. It was very influential when it was rediscovered in the late 60s and many successful pop horror writers capitalized on it during the 80s and 90s while of course driving it down for better mass appeal.
The fact that this "second wave" of Lovecraftian style fiction is now becoming passe combined with the fact that his actual writing is exactly the opposite of two-sentence horror tweets that kids today are into makes it no surprise that he catches a lot of hate, just like Nikola Tesla will be very soon.
Thing is that these people were never appreciated or successfulin their lifetime so it's pretty hilarious to trash then personally.
Who's next? Oscar Wilde?
>>17144098
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!
None of this is accurate either. Vague references? Pickman's model isn't vague. Guy doesn't go on subways, and it's perfectly understandable why he wouldn't. Shadow over Innsmouth isn't vague. Guy gets to the government, informs them of the menace, they raid Innsmouth, he finds out he's got innsmouth blood. Charles Dexter Ward isn't vague. They successfully kill Curwen and end his cult. Mountains of Madness isn't vague. He flees a clearly superior and dangerous lifeform in Antartica and urges authorities not to go around trying to piss it off. And it goes on and on.
Sorry, you should definitely try reading some of these. It makes commenting on them intelligently a lot easier!
>>17143951
spooky squid monsters n' shit
>>17143959
Made me laugh like a fool.
>>17143975
This, really. The guy had a ton of half-cocked scary as fuck concepts, but he lacked either the intelligence or ambition to truly see them actualized (not to be confused with the term Kirsten Dunst kept using on Fargo).
>>17144120
Mountains of Madness - Danforth sees something indescribable and goes insane.
The Hound - narrator thinks his only refuge from his horror is suicide. The entire story is actually a suicide note.
Dagon - narrator thinks his only refuge from what he witnessed is suicide. Entire story was a suicide note.
The Rats in the Walls - everyone goes insane.
The Unnamable - entire story about an entity so horrifying it cold not even be described.
Innsmouth had a great ending, and so did Pickman's Model. I'm not saying every single piece of his writing followed the same themes. I'm saying he had a small handful of literary tropes that he fell back upon consistently in much of his weaker works.
Every writer has a few good stories you can call upon as evidence that they were something great. But don't pick up his complete works and expect even 1/10th of his stories to be up to the level of The Color Out of Space or The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
You could just say cosmic horrors OP. He did create the fucking genre.
Lovecraft was a hack fraud who spent half of any page describe how scary something was and how the narrator was totaling shitting his pants because he was so freaking scared
>>17144050
fukkin saved m8.
I can't wait to start laying these around town.
Tentacles and shadows and geometry and shit.
>>17144012
>>17143964
I hate the "lovecraft was racist" meme.
>>17144616
Lovecraft wanted to induce horror in all his readers, SJWs included.
>>17144680
You only need to have opinions of your own to do that, though.
>>17143951
Lovecraft's answer to "is there a god?" would be
"Yes, there is a god, and probably he wants to eat you "
>>17144021
That sounds interesting. Could anyone give a specific example of this?
>>17144616
I don't understand why it is surprising to anyone.
Conan is based in racist imagery ect...
Going back further Charles Dickens, Shakespeare ect all had antisemitic works. Literally books we introduce to children in school.
>>17145089
Lovecraft didn't delve into "high literature" and represents an easier target to the racially-obsessed. The other authors you mentioned are far too fashionable to abandon.
>>17144616
He kind of was though, he saw non-whites as subhuman monsters.
Where do you think the inspiration for Shadow over Innsmouth came from? Fear of interracial breeding basically.
Build them a craft with love.
Lovecraft was a deceiver.
He really didn't like seafood
>>17145089
There's nothing wrong with anti-semitism.
>>17145143
I'm not sure how that story would be particularly racist. They were literally breeding with extraterrestrials.
If anything Arthur Jermyn felt more racist, what with apemen living underground in Africa and insane gorillamen hybrids being the protagonists.
>>17145240
Well....There was that thing that happened in the early 20th century.
>>17145278
You mean the German Revolution?
If anything that justifies it.
>>17145323
The War of 1812, anon.
>>17145327
That's the 19th century, brah.
>>17145331
Wait, A.D. or B.C.?
I'd probably use his own words rather than half-baked and regurgitated criticisms requisitioned on an anonymous message board for kids more socially crippled than the man himself.
"All my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast comos-at-large."
or this oft-quoted gem from the opening of the Call of Cthulhu, which captures his tone, primary subject matter, and style quite well: "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
>>17143951
Lovecraft wrote 3 kinds of things:
Stories about unimaginable, madness-inducing interdimensional space monsters/gods trying to get to earth and their human cults
Rip-off Edgar Allen Poe stories
Rip-off Lord Dunsany stories
>>17143951
One of those people whose characters and settings are more memorable than his stories
Lovecraft wrote bout stuff he dreamt about. He did after all live in an addict most of his life to the point he was a neet for awhile. He just wrote down what he dreamed about and things that he saw in the dark. Honestly people should do more research or even search google. I don't understand why people still don't know how to use google in this day and age.
>you cannot fathom such ancient evil
>niggers
>>17143951
Nowadays the whole "oh we are so small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things", and how we shouldn't be to cocky since there's always something larger and more powerful than we could hope to be despite all we could possibly work for. That's nowadays.
Back then, Lovecraft's stories were unique and brought with them a a certain existential crises for those who read them. His writing style is unique, and the kinds of monsters and scenarios he penned were something else of its own, and the pure imagination of them is truly something else. Buuuut it's a very acquired taste, it uses some esoteric words, and there can be a few walls of text.
Overall, if scifi, horror, and things about Gods and their relationship with man are your thing, then you should give the Lovecraft a try.
>>17144078
You type like a smug, plump and bald chinese unic. That's you in my head. I'm not sure what you're going for, but that's my mental image.
>>17148778
Do you mean eunuch?
>>17148786
Yes. And I'm not saying it as a bad thing/ good thing, it was just the mental image I had reading his posts. I could have been more succinct and just said the bald guy from game of thrones, honestly.
>>17143975
>>17144161
y'know prose composition was a lot different 100+ years ago
ol' HPL was perfectly cromulent for his day, he just seems hella prosaic from our perspective
>>17144000
>not sure there's a photo around of him ever smiling
here he is contemplating niggerdeath
note the grin
>>17144098
>the literary equivalent of ending a movie with a jump cut to the credits
thats not what a jumpcut is
>>17144818
>Lovecraft's answer to "is there a god?" would be
>"Yes, there is a god, and probably he wants to eat you "
more like "There might be, but it'd be as likely to accidentally inhale you as bother to regard you, sub-insect that you would be to it."
>>17148450
>He did after all live in an addict most of his life
hey he was only with sonia greene for like 2 years and there's no evidence she was an addict
>>17144116
>just like Nikola Tesla will be very soon.
Goddammit. What happened now?
>>17143964
Don't cut yourself on that edge.
>>17143964
If his writing is "mediocre" then the rest of us stand no chance.
>>17144187
There's a pretty wide difference between your criticism here and your initial criticism.
The world is a horrible place but we're lucky we are too caught up in our own bullshit to realize just how bad things are. Ignorance is not bliss or safety, but at least its not despair and madness. It's better this way, since nothing we can do will save us anyway.
Also, niggers.
>>17149827
bet your fun at partys.
>>17149438
It was recently discovered he was racist
