Lovecraft, where to start?

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

For those of you who are really big fans of Lovecraft's work; what exactly do you consider to be his strong points? Cthulhu's Librarian, for example, recommended some collections; I'd love to see some specific story recommendations, and why you like them, for instance. Although, perhaps, that does indeed go beyond the scope of the thread at bit.

Sure, i can do that, but I'm about to head out from work. I'll post some specific stories and my reasons tomorrow. I think my favorite story is "The Rats In The Walls". I also really like "The Colour Out Of Space" quite a bit. My favorites tend to change, usually based on what I have read most recently, but Rats always tops my list.

 

[Klaus]

Here's my list:

Call of Cthulhu - I love its "global" feel, with the clues coming in from several distant parts of the world. Very conspiracy-like. Plus it has the big C.

Shadow Over Innsmouth - Talk about paranoia and being alone in the dark.

The Lurking Fear - Very vivid descriptions, I could practically "see" the scenes.

Cats of Ulthar - Very short, yet very well done. Having a cat myself, I imediately identified.

Dagon - The companion piece to Innsmouth

The Festival - The realization of the Worm That Walks is great!

The Statement of Randolph Carter - The only time HPL's "last sentence in italics" works.

Pickman's Model - Okay, maybe it worked here as well...

 

[Merlion]

I second Klaus on "The Festival" and the "Lurking Fear." A Lot of HPL's older stuff is quite good and in some ways even more unique than the more mytho-sy stuff. I read a big chunk of it a couple months ago and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I also strongly recomend a story called "The White Ship." I'm currently working on and off on a rather stream-of-conciousness type story losely inspired by that one. It has an almost poetic feel.

The Colour out of Space was the first of his stories that I read. Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwhich Horror, Shadow over Innsmouth, Pickman's Model, The Dreams in the Witch House, all of those are great. The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is wonderful to.


As to HP's skills, and why I love him like I do...well theres a lot of reasons. A big one is the simple fact that he's different. His writting style is very unique...his creatures and beings also are strange and different not your usual by-the-mold beasties.

Also, especially his older stuff has just a wonderful dream like quality...not neccesarily much of a plot, just ideas and concepts and images.

Really, I love Lovecraft for many of the same reasons I love Anime.

While Joshua is right that he did consider himself a "horror" writer, his idea of horror is/was a bit different than many people's. It was less about imediate fear, about being scary, and more about a sense of "cosmic dread", the idea that the world is a far less inviting place that we had thought, and that if we looked just a little ways beyond our day to day sphere we'd encounter things that would leave us unhinged and afraid for the rest of our lives. I think he usualy succeeds at presenting that kind of fear, personally.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

My favourite Lovecraft story is "Pickman's Model".

I recommend, as have others, the Arkham House editions of Lovecraft's stories. I have The Dunwich Horror and Others, At The Mountains of Madness, and Dagon and Other Macabre Tales, but not the fourth volume which contains mostly his fixups of other writers' stories and fragments, which interest me much less.

For modern Lovecraft-inspired anthologies, I recommend Del Rey's Shadows Over Innsmouth, especially Kim Newman's "The Big Fish", and Cthulhu 2000.