Has Lovecraft become required reading?

[Desdichado]

I love pulp writing, although I'm not blind to the flaws of pulp writers. A few writers like C. L. Moore and Leigh Brackett kinda managed to transcend them, but oddly, that didn't necessarily make them any more fun to read.

I mean, I consider Edgar Rice Burroughs my second favorite author, behind Tolkien, fer cryin' out loud.

 

[SSquirrel]

And I'm sorry for dismissing Timothy Zahn too much. I'm certainly no fan of those particular Star Wars books, and I'm confident he won't be remembered as much as Shakespeare or Lovecraft, but it was snobbish of me and I apologise. Take your fun where you can find it.

No harm man. I had just been browsing my books and looking for something to be able to re-read at work when system wouldn't let me test and I re-read the Thrawn trilogy. Now I'm polishing off the later duology about thrawn (Spectre of the Past / Vision of the Future) and I just really enjoy the feel of it all.

I do agree with whoever said don't let George Lucas direct or script. The Indiana Jones crediting is perfect. Let the man create the characters, come up with the story and outline, but let others do the script. Please!

 

[Wicht]

I can see how not everyone would like Lovecraft but he is one of my favorite authors for rereading.

I would personally recommend "Pickman's Model" and "The Statement of Randolph Carter" as starting reads for Lovecraft, followed perhaps by "The Colour Out of Space" and "The Rats in The Walls". I used "The Statement of Randolph Carter" as a bedtime story for my kids a few years back as a way to introduce them to Lovecraft.

While I don't find Lovecraft particularly horrifying (not being a materialiast myself), I enjoy his prose and style. To me however, the thing about Lovecraft that makes him great, is that more than just about any other writer, when I read his stuff, I want to write too. When I want to write and find myself with a mental block, there is no author I know better than Lovecraft to help me break those blocks. And I don't think I am alone in that when one considers how many authors point to Lovecraft as being a major influence. On top of this is the fact that Lovecraft himself encouraged others to share in his world, thus laying the foundation for one of the richest mythologies of modern times.

While Lovecraft is not required reading to play Dungeons and Dragons, I think he should be read by anyone who wants to write fantasy (or horror) novels or games.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And saying that Lovecraft is 'cheating' by not describing unspeakable(!) horrors is, imho, just a sign of not getting the point.
In the days of the explicit violence of splatter-horror movies evoking feelings by _not_ describing/showing something, so that the reader's/viewer's imagination can take over seems to be a lost art (at least lost on some...).

I bet Alfred Hitchcock would have agreed- one does not tear down the curtain to display the horror, one reveals it by increments, letting the tension build. Perhaps the ultimate horror is best when only implied and never shown.

Besides, doesn't it kind of diminish the horrible, mind-blasting majesty of creatures with non-Euclidean, shifting forms you claim are "indescribable" if you, well...describe them?

Part of Lovecraft's premises of the Mythos is that to know the true form of these beings is to go mad...

Which is kind of a flipside of the reason why many religions claim that lesser beings cannot witness the true nature of the divine without being blasted from existence. Its part and parcel of why the gods of the ancient world had avatars rather than revealing their true selves- when they did, the mortals almost invariably met an unfortunate fate.

Even in Judeo-Christian writings, some angels are described as having 6 wings- 2 to fly, using the other 4 to obscure their bodies their faces in order to preserve the sanity of mortals. And they (and all other angels), in turn, are often described as having to avert their eyes.

 

[Oni]

Those who - wrong or right - are officially considered pioneers are often treated more equal than others, as it were.

The field of fiction writing is no exception to this rule.

I have often said, if you want to succeed, either be the first, be the best, or be accessible*.




*i.e. easily copyable, some people seem to love singers/artists/writers they can copy without difficulty, I think it makes them feel good.

 

[Shemeska]

I used "The Statement of Randolph Carter" as a bedtime story for my kids a few years back as a way to introduce them to Lovecraft.

I read 'The Colour Out of Space' when I was seven or eight years old at the county library. That had to have messed me up. The crumbling thing in the attic is not meant for seven year olds.

 

[James Jacobs]

Lovecraft is my favorite author, but I'd have to say that, no, he's not required reading to enjoy RPGs.

But that said, he's responsible for inspiring a lot more in D&D that most folks give him credit for. The cosmic horror/Cthulhu stuff is his most well-known work, but you can find his influence in the way D&D handles its ghouls and ghasts (he pretty much invented the use of the word "ghast" as a ghoul-like and ghoul-associated monster), the Underdark/Darklands, evil books like the Demonomicon, the kuo-toa, etc. And beyond that, the fact that Lovecraft inspired a lot of other authors who went on to inspire D&D's creation and expansion (Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Clark Ashton Smith all come to mind) also makes his writing important to knowing where the hobby's come from and why it is what it is today.

He's not required reading, but he can expand appreciation of the game for sure.

 

[SSquirrel]

I don't believe I've actually read the story of Dreams in the Witch House, but there was a movie version of it made. That creeped the heck out of my wife and I. Then again, we had a ~1 year old asleep in the next room. She had to fight not checking on her several times that night.

 

[Jhaelen]

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.

That nicely sums up my opinion, too (though in much better words)!

 

[mmadsen]

Is Lovecraft required reading? No, but he's certainly recommended, because his ideas have become so influential -- and because you only have to read a few short stories to get at the influential bits.

As for the quality of his writing, I'd say it was fairly mediocre, but nonetheless intriguing. There's something there, certainly, and that's why his ideas have spread.

For a D&D player, I recommend reading "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Shadow over Innsmouth". I can't recall which other stories mention elements that have influenced the game much.