Has Lovecraft become required reading?

[Henry]

Lest we forget to mention, the original trilogy of Freeport modules had a heavy lovecraftian influence, too. It's been stamped all over D&D as a hobby for generations, now.

As to Wicht, using Statement of Randolph Carter as a bedtime story - you're either one of the top ten most evil dads, or one of the ten coolest. I'm unsure which.

As for my take on Lovecraft -- he had a very evocative imagination, and his stories were great at introducing dread, even if I don't find them to introduce tons of "creepy." "The Picture in the House" was FANTASTIC at giving us creepy, even if I think personally he missed the best payoff by one or two sentences too many in the last paragraph of the story.

For D&D, we have him and his circle of writers to thank as possibly one of the first prototypes for a gaming group in history. Think about it -- a group of people with close correspondence, weaving stories both for one another and together, including each others' characters and personas in various stories (Lovecraft kills off as many fellow writers as they kill him off in stories), and who actively encouraged borrowing themes and ideas from the DM (Lovecraft) in the telling of their own tales. I'm unaware of that level of myth-crafting and world-sharing among individuals prior to this point; his vary nature of consenting plagarism for the sake of a good story ("game") makes him a target of interest to future gamers, and that circle's ideas being taken for inspiration for the past 90 years....

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast at www.hppodcraft.com. A series of short, 20-30 minute podcasts discussing Lovecraft's stories. It's a great cast, very entertaining, and introduces Lovecraft's writings in the order they were written and the environment Lovecraft was writing in! Well worth the listen if you enjoy finding out more about the man and his stories.

 

[Ariosto]

Lovecraft and King keep memorably creeping out huge audiences, generation after generation. Less successful contenders for the horror crown keep trying to ramp up physical violence and gore and disgusting goop and simple "BOO!" as their main subjects, as those become ever more commonplace in adventure stories and even comedies (and of course in Hollywood "slasher flicks").

The masters' mastery of the tools of the fictional trade can also add to the game master's kit. It's not just horror, either, that benefits from the careful building of suspense.

I would recommend watching Hitchcock's films as well!

 

[Ariosto]

I think Lovecraft's importance to D&D lies in his being a writer not so much of "horror" in particular as -- naturally enough, in the context -- of fantasy. Much of his work also falls into the overlapping science-fiction category, as the fantastic is clearly "technological" and the gods and monsters extraterrestrial but not supernatural. File him with the (once much more famous, I think) Abe Merritt.

The stories of his "dream cycle" are at first clearly imitative of the great Lord Dunsany. "The Doom That Came to Sarnath", "The Cats of Ulthar", "Celephais", "The Other Gods", "The White Ship" and "The Quest of Iranon" are, I think, in the same vein as that which led to the sword and sorcery tales of Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance.

"The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" is a tour de force, but shorter works may be preferable if his style does not suit one's ear.

 

[Doug McCrae]

For D&D, we have him and his circle of writers to thank as possibly one of the first prototypes for a gaming group in history.

How about the Brontës, over a hundred years earlier. From Charlotte Brontë's wikipedia entry -

At home in Haworth Parsonage, Charlotte and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily and Anne — began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of their imaginary kingdoms. Charlotte and Branwell wrote Byronic stories about their country — Angria — and Emily and Anne wrote articles and poems about theirs — Gondal. The sagas were elaborate and convoluted (and still exist in part manuscripts)

 

[Wayside]

But he was a pulp writer. Try to read any pulp writer and you'll usually see similar flaws. Amongst his peers, Lovecraft is good, and more than that, he's good, full-stop, provided he's read with an understanding that you're not reading regular modern prose (with all of its own insistencies on naturalistic speech and the bland, brief style only people like Jack Vance can break out of), but pulp prose. In the same way as Shakespeare is the greatest writer ever provided you remember you're not reading prose, but Elizabethan poetry intended to be acted on stage.

Actually, Shakespeare wrote significant portions of the plays in prose. Most people just don't realize it because they don't know how to scan verse and the prose is (usually) printed with line breaks. For example, Hamlet:

. . . I have of late--but
wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
you seem to say so.

That's prose.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

Hey, Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Weblog, short fiction, art, and discussion is having Lovecraft Month, with a lot of essays from science fiction and fantasy writers about Lovecraft and his influence. Have a Cthulhu Christmas!

 

[Celtavian]

re

No. I've never read Jack Vance and he was a major D&D inspiration.

Even if you don't like horror in general, you may like Lovecraft. He was a great writer. If you like language, you'll like Lovecraft. I don't go looking for horror books, but I like King and Lovecraft because they tell a good story with rich language. I appreciate that no matter the story.

 

[SpydersWebbing]

...and of course I happen to post right after the guy who appreciates Lovecraft's prose.

I don't think Lovecraft is essential. Read The Call and was not impressed at all. While I understand he's had a positive influence on the game I plan on never reading him again.

 

[Wycen]

Originally published in Mythos Collector #6, Winter 2004.

http://www.danieljbishop.ca/That hideous face.pdf

???

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'm a Lovecraft fanboi, I have collected many reprintings of his stories over the years. I've collected many anthologies of Lovecraft himself and anthologies of other authors who wrote homages.

I do not believe you need to read Lovecraft is required reading for D&D. I believe the Lovecraftian influences stand on their own and don't need an insider's admiration of HPL for any extra meaning or depth.

That said, I do think that someone interested in getting a broad yet shallow introduction to the entire HPL mythos that peeks in everywhere could just pick up a copy of The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana.