I finished reading the book of Lovecraft stories...and I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it. Even at this age, it still was pretty inventive. The storytelling was good, though the stories get to be formulaic. Take one academic type person, have them discover hints at an ancient horror, have them slowly pick up a trail of clues until they finally learn the horrible truth, then have them narrowly escape and question the point of sanity in such a universe. It's a testament to Lovecraft that he was able to make this formula work well over and over. The different styles of horror were well-conceived. A demon here, a bloody religious sect here, a dark history to a bloodline there.
The forward I read made a big deal of Lovecraft's racism. Yeah it was there, but I didn't find it as overt as the forward led me to believe.
I liked the Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow over Innsmouth (I dug the twist of the ending), Nyarlathotep and The Terrible Old Man.
Anyways, you owe me two and a half minutes of exultation of my person.
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I always sorta viewed the repetitive structure as him playing with the form, so it never bothered me particularly. But then again, I've usually read a couple then moved on, rather than plowing through an entire book at once. Might be different int hat volume.
Lovecraft was pretty fucking racist, and it was occasionally... not subtle. A lot of collections leave out the more overt stuff. Read "On the Creation of Niggers" (if you can bring yourself to google it) and tell me he wasn't racist as all fuck.
The Cthulhu mythos is creepy as all fuck and still raises the hair on my arms. Gorram, that shit is bleak.
This year at the used bookstore I found a volume that collects everything he ever published. My precious.
Oh he's definitely racist, that's for sure. He had a tendency to name cats "Ole Nigger", but I guess the Barnes and Noble collection didn't want to push the envelope by putting the heavier stuff in.
And let me tell you, I'm glad to be done with the book. I only read at bedtime, and Lovecraft does not make for...peaceful...bedtime reading. One night I was reading "The Rats in the Walls" and there was a thump in my living room and my cat was beside me and it took a little while to calm down.
This can only be described as correct thinking. Instead of exultation I offer a full three minutes of mansex. The three minutes may or may not be all at once.
As for his racism, funny story, he actually married a Jewish woman and would sometimes start going on about "The Jews" at which point she would give him the, "Howard. Dear. Zip it." Then all was well.
Read some of his dream stuff. There a bit of overlap with Cthulhu but the style is different. Also his early non-Cthulhu work is quite good as well. I also first read him at night and it was...yeah. I had the ever loving piss scared out of me doing it. Remind me to tell you about it one day.
IA! IA!
*gibbers*
It should also be noted that my icon here is the REAL Elder Sign as Lovecraft himself drew it.
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