What the hell was up with HP lovecraft and those Cthulu mythos/deities
- Thread starter DragonSJG
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Lovecraft was also likely inspired by Lord Dunsany and his first several works, the first being: The Gods of Pegāna.
There are a number of parallels.
There are a number of parallels.
Actually the peak is in Sweet Ermagerde when the heroine hijacks the villain's plan:
"'Squire, dear,' she murmured, 'I have reconsidered all. I love you and your naive strength. Marry me at once or I will have you prosecuted for that kidnapping last year. Foreclose your mortgage and enjoy with me the gold your cleverness discovered. Come, dear!' And the poor dub did."
Alan Moore has produced two in the last 15 years or so: The Courtyard, and Neonomicon. Both directly reference the mythos. Both are also peak Moore insofar as they're well-written but they betray an old man's attempt to stay cool and edgy. But both also feature some fantastic Lovecraftian artwork.
NB: Neonomicon has a pretty graphic interspecies rape scene, just FYI.
EDIT: I forgot Providence, which is another entry in the same series.
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It's a fantasy horror story about an alien colour. Why are you bringing science into this?
The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society produced a pretty decent silent-movie adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu in 2005.
I'm believe the DVD is available at their store. (Probably on Netflix & YouTube, too).
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bWwZ5o-7r0
He didn't liked (had fear of) Italians, the Irish and immigrants from Central/Eastern Europe.. so not just "anyone not white"
One of Lovecraft's favourite novella's The Willows by Algernon Blackwood.
Great story. About two backpackers rowing down the Danube.
They were considered "not white" at the time.
Great story. About two backpackers rowing down the Danube.
They were considered "not white" at the time.
Yes.
Underwater with Kristen Stewart.
Wait. This is the fucking monster on that movie?!? Spoiler be damned I'm in.
I mean by your definition of creativity, Cthulhu is more creative than just some obscenely massive octopus.I mean, Cthulhu is just a giant with dragon wings and an octopus for a face. He's not that hugely inconcievable. It's like asking how did people come up with unicorns. Some dude just said "What if horses had horns?" That's how creativity happens.
Now Yog-Sothoth is where it's at.
He also goes in pretty hard on Vermont in The Whisperer. I can't remember if it conflates to any racist sentiment, but to be honest it's pretty hilarious.
His stories are much more fiction than science fiction. A core concept of Lovecraft is that the world might not be what we understand it to be; that we are limited beings who might not even know what we don't know. In his universe, science is humanity's overconfidence, and his capacity to imagine something outside its rules is what makes his stories so gripping.
I take your word for it that Lovecraft probably didn't have a deep knowledge of science, but I'm not sure he really needed one to write the stuff he was writing.
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There was a little group of (some racist some not) writers that collaborated and shared ideas for Cosmic horror. Howard of Conan fame was one. They tended to share horrible enities or make reference to them in eachothers stories. Its all based on an uncaring universe that would blast your mind if you knew the truth. With lots of xenophobia etc laced throughout.
The fungi of yuggoth (pluto), taking brains in jars so they can fly around the universe carried by wing fungi... I love the story where the guy is taking to the brain jar through a phonograph.
The fungi of yuggoth (pluto), taking brains in jars so they can fly around the universe carried by wing fungi... I love the story where the guy is taking to the brain jar through a phonograph.
He was xenophobic, but I'm not even talking about racism - the man was actually terrified of anything outside his very small world. The outside and the unknown terrified him greatly, caused him many nightmares, and he was talented at conveying the sheer alienness of what scared him. Fantastic writer, but wow man had issues. And honestly his issues fueled his writing.
Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell) finished Providence recently and its a love letter to everything HP Lovecraft created, well as much as a of a letter as can be that takes Lovecraft and his more shitty aspects to town. For example it stars a gay Jewish man at the turn of the 20th century investigating and exploring many of the places from Lovecraft's work as well as meeting a variety of his most famous creations. Its an excellent fucking story but I will say having a knowledge of Lovecraft the person and his writings is a huge helper because Moore goes in deep on the lore and just about everything else Lovecraft created while creating an amazing tale. Its also got some excellent fucking art:
Wilbur's grandfather was a cultist who used his daughter in a ritual that led to Wilbur.
For Lovecraftian movies, I recommend In the Mouth of Madness and From Beyond as inspired works. Meanwhile Color Out of Space and Dagon are great movie adaptations of existing stories. Dagon was a nice surprise. Very graphic and horrifying. The first Hellboy movie was basically Lovecraft without saying it and so was Underwater.
Alan Moore did a comic book about a decade ago called Neonomicon which I remember liking. The Hellboy comic has had stories inspired by and entire arcs that have basically been Lovecraft stories. There are also direct comic adaptations of various Lovecraft stories if you look for them.
The Sinking City was a recently released video game that is heavily inspired by HP Lovecraft's work. Of course there is Bloodborne as well (which is also a board game now!).
For other board games, you are in for a treat because creators *love* the sandbox world that the Cthulhu mythos has become. Top 10 Cthulhu Board Games That list was from 2017 so I would add "Death May Die" to it!
I highly recommend listening to the following couple of audio stories via Youtube. Dagon is not very long and is a great short story. I believe it was Lovecraft's personal favorite. At the Mountains of Madness is much longer but I think is one of Lovecraft's best.
Alan Moore did a comic book about a decade ago called Neonomicon which I remember liking. The Hellboy comic has had stories inspired by and entire arcs that have basically been Lovecraft stories. There are also direct comic adaptations of various Lovecraft stories if you look for them.
The Sinking City was a recently released video game that is heavily inspired by HP Lovecraft's work. Of course there is Bloodborne as well (which is also a board game now!).
For other board games, you are in for a treat because creators *love* the sandbox world that the Cthulhu mythos has become. Top 10 Cthulhu Board Games That list was from 2017 so I would add "Death May Die" to it!
I highly recommend listening to the following couple of audio stories via Youtube. Dagon is not very long and is a great short story. I believe it was Lovecraft's personal favorite. At the Mountains of Madness is much longer but I think is one of Lovecraft's best.
Underwinter by Ray Fawkes is some of the best cosmic horror out there.
If you're fine with novels, Stephen King's Revival is a great piece of cosmic horror and basically a "what if Lovecraft but good at writing"
People like to criticize Lovecraft's writing and it's certainly purple in its prose and the language is archaic, even for his day, but I think he's an incredibly evocative writer that was able to produce a mood that very few of his successors have ever come close for even if they ape everything he did from the prose to the weird monsters with unpronounceable names.
... This is the most relatable thing I've ever read about any man.
Seriously, I'm convinced that people that are able to endure math, let alone find use for it, are beyond us mere mortals.
The Hellboy series is hugely inspired by Lovecraft's work as well as things like folklore from around the world.
You say that, but Batman fans everywhere still tremble at the approach of Mr. Freeze.
It's not just Lovecraft. You can say the same about the people behind Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Silent Hill, and every horror movie that you've ever seen.
The people with the most fucked up imaginations often have the best stories to tell.
The people with the most fucked up imaginations often have the best stories to tell.
This...is the best post on this subject I have ever seen, thank you.
I enjoyed The Lovecraft Anthology Volume 1 and 2. Each one has multiple Lovecraft stories adapted by different artist.
Sounds interesting, I did enjoy both of the del Toro movies, so I might have to have a look at some Hellboy graphic novels as well then.
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He had a fear of the New England countryside, which in itself is hilarious to me. I can just picture him recoiling in terror upon the sight of rolling hills and autumn foliage.
They intentionally kept it out of the promotional materials to avoid the big reveal begin spoiled, but after the film's release the director talked candidly about the "boss creature" being Cthulhu. The movie was in post-production for a long time, and as they were deciding what the aquatic monsters looked like they started going in a more Lovecraftian direction; after that, when it came to the film's "Behemoth" they just decided he would simply BE Cthulhu instead of inspired by. It fit perfectly into the story as well.
I don't know if I'd agree 100% with you, but The King is Yellow DOES feel like Lovecraft stripped of a lot of Lovecraft-isms (no pages of descriptions of historic New England buildings). Fantastic book.
Same for Algernon Blackwood and The Willows, which is a fav of mine.
lol
There is so much of this in a lot of his stories. Shadow Over Innsmouth is packed with stuff like "as I checked into GILL MAN hotel and was accosted by a man that looked like a fish, I felt very sleepy and went to bed. There's something strange about this town..."
Lovecrafts xenophobia was on a different level.
It kills me I can't find a proper source but apparently Shadow over Innsmouth was inspired by his horror when he discovered one of his grandparents was Welsh.
It kills me I can't find a proper source but apparently Shadow over Innsmouth was inspired by his horror when he discovered one of his grandparents was Welsh.
Here's a simple answer. Lovecraft's creations are a product of a crossroads period where most gothic horror before him that he read drew their inspirations mostly from the occult, supernatural, folklore, etc - and early science fiction that fantasized about space that was becoming big in the pulps.
So the mythos deities are kind of like a combination of evil pagan gods/demons and incomprehensible aliens from science fiction. For example, there was one story (Dreams in the Witch House I think) where he explores the idea of witches having interdimensional black sabbaths with these elder beings.
That and Lovecraft was just extremely weird and neurotic (and racist, obviously), even for the standards of authors at his time.
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So the mythos deities are kind of like a combination of evil pagan gods/demons and incomprehensible aliens from science fiction. For example, there was one story (Dreams in the Witch House I think) where he explores the idea of witches having interdimensional black sabbaths with these elder beings.
That and Lovecraft was just extremely weird and neurotic (and racist, obviously), even for the standards of authors at his time.
EDIT:
I mostly disagree with you on this point. There have been hundreds of authors through the years that have emulated "Lovecraftian horror", most of them are boring pastiches that just recycle the tropes and names without the genuine creative insanity behind the pen, almost like fan fiction. The authors better than Lovecraft in this niche of weird fiction usually do their own thing without trying to be explicitly "Lovecraftian".
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Yeah, intepreting everything in Shadow Over Innsmouth makes sense if you view it from a xenophobic/racist perspective. Fear of the "other" breeding with your women to take over your race, etc.
Robert E. Howard was less subtle about it in the Conan stories. The black savages would bow in awe of Conan's white skin, etc. He corresponded quite a bit with Lovecraft, although I don't know if I'd call them "friends". They both weren't the type to really make friends like that.
Robert E. Howard was less subtle about it in the Conan stories. The black savages would bow in awe of Conan's white skin, etc. He corresponded quite a bit with Lovecraft, although I don't know if I'd call them "friends". They both weren't the type to really make friends like that.
The man suffered from a plethora or phobias most notably fear of water and wish, both his parents died in insane asylums, due to mismanagement from relatives he was left penniless when his beloved grandfather died, probably had several mental illnesses, and was insanely racist even for his time though he got much better about it later in life.
Add women to the list too, and sex. Pretty much anything to do with reproduction ends in horror, and the only time women feature prominiently in his stories as characters is as antagonists.
I think it all comes back to fears around lineage- that's the linking factor between his colossal racism and obsession with family trees, secrets buried beneath old family homes, bloodlines and monstrous spawn. That's the human elements of his stories, the unrestrained bigotry of which, even for his time, was just awful.
The concept of a universe that isn't just uncaring but actively hostile to humanity is fascinating though, but you can see how he put everything together into a single construct. His bigotry becomes the corrupt children of the star spawn of the Old Ones, seeping and bleeding and weighing down from the darkness as an eternal burden on those conveniently white protagonists.
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Weren't Jews the one minority he didn't hate, actually? I recall him marrying a Jewish woman. He definitely feared and hated literally everyone else though
I'd like a source on that, tbh. Not the racism, obviously -- that's well known. But I never read about him being literally "afraid" of Antarctica, Egyptology, fish, etc.
I'm a bit skeptical of some of those claims because Lovecraft was an atheist who thought very little of superstition, so comparing him to some scientifically illiterate Covidiot going off about 5G towers doesn't seem accurate. Science inspired his writing in the sense that it contributed to his themes of the bleak and nihilistic indifference of the cosmos with regards to humanity.
So yeah, I don't think he feared fish and lobster and the sea or whatnot, not quite literally; he feared immigrants and minorities, and the fish-people of Innsmouth is, sadly, an allegory for that. But, maybe I'm wrong.
I tried to write a witty reply that would include noisome, squamous, and gibbous, but I came up short. xD
How many of his creations did he really design though? I've seen a drawing he did of Cthulhu, but I know his work has a bad habit of just going "it was so horribly horrible it is impossible to describe". I feel like some other people came in and maybe gave his creations the forms we know.
Also he's an awful person.
Also he's an awful person.
I like some of his stories because of what he doesn't say, sometimes. It's more fun to imagine things for me. My favorite story of his is The Temple.
And yes, the dude was a racist, paranoid individual, for sure. The Temple is written from the POV of a WW1 German submarine officer, and some of the lines about being "superior" and such felt a little too genuine, especially once I dug deeper and found out just how bigoted HPL actually was. Still a fun story, though.
And yes, the dude was a racist, paranoid individual, for sure. The Temple is written from the POV of a WW1 German submarine officer, and some of the lines about being "superior" and such felt a little too genuine, especially once I dug deeper and found out just how bigoted HPL actually was. Still a fun story, though.
In terms of the creature designs, yeah, I think a lot of them first gained visual cues in terms of 'drawing the indescribable' in the 'Call of Cthulhu' bestiary images for the tabletop game by Chaosium in the 1980s. That then spawned a lot of fan art, and it went from there.