Zwillinger's Call of (to?) Cthulu

Lovecraft's style is strange - mostly because he's trying to describe things, feelings and sensations that are beyond words.
His usual method is to start off in a very dry, precise "educational" way - there are usually quite a few facts, dates, references and history, real and made up, that helps to give an impression of normality and make the situation seem real - but as the story progresses, his writing becomes more and more weird, using older and rarer words and a more "poetic" style to give the impression of the previous normality breaking up as the "truth" is uncovered.

Well then...now I know what I'll be doing at work for the next few days.

*sigh*

Quote:

Originally Posted by EarthWyrm But I do understand that there is an internet rule that any bad idea must be presented by someone at least twice a year to remind everyone who hasn't already read every previous thread on the topic precisely why the idea is bad.

If you're a fantasy fan start with his Dreamlands stories - if you're more into horror, then start with the Cthulhu ones - both of them overlap, but they both have a different style of presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFzdIaBnckg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSvsy11PHxM

Some mood music for the invasions, thanks to the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society for the cool tunes.

@Aurora Girl:

Suggest the following titles:

The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror or At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
The Repairer of Reputations by Robert W. Chambers or The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
(James Blish's story More Light tried to write out the play itself, to decent effect).
The Lurker at the Threshold or The Shadow out of Time from August Derleth and Lovecraft

You might also want to look for the "cycle" series like The Azathoth Cycle, The Shub-Niggurath Cycle, The Hastur Cycle published by Chaosium as they have a mostly modern take on the mythos. Coming to mind is one where Azathoth's light was used as sort of nuclear weaponry against "Gojiras" infesting the earth, to unfortunate side-effects.


Ia Shub-Niggurath!

The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a bit baroque for AG's tates as best I can infer. Although I usually suggest something like The Dunwich Horror as a starter for most people. Perhaps Herbert West, Reanimator for those who lean to that sort of taste in horror.

Cool Air, to me, is a much shorter and more modern specimen of his tales, one that could probably be passed off as a Stephen King story. And probably a bit more palatable to AG.

In addition to horror, some of Lovecraft's stories are straight-up science fiction or fantasy, too.

A few of my favorite Lovecraft stories that I recommend highly are:

The Rats in the Walls
The Call of Cthulhu
Pickman's Model
The Colour Out of Space
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Shadow Over Insmouth
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Shadow Out of Time

Read in the dark near a simple, low-powered light (or candle) on a stormy night!

The Rats In The Walls was the first Lovecraft I read, back when I was sixteen or seventeen and it seriously creeped me out.

The Colour Out of Space is another good one that skirts the border between "sci fi" (Lovecraft wouldn't have understood the term and probably wouldn't have acknowledged the story as being "sci-fi") and horror. Or maybe it illustrates, like the movie Alien, that sci-fi and horror aren't mutually exclusive genres.

you may be familiar with HP Lovecraft's short stories, but are you familiar with his work as a Whitman's Sampler copywriter?

White Chocolate Truffle

What black arts could have stripped this chocolate of its natural hue? The horror of the unearthly, corpselike pallor of this truffle’s complexion is only offset by its fiendish deliciousness.

Nut Cluster Crunch

This eerie candy will test the sanity of all but those who possess the strongest of constitutions. Strange congeries of almonds, walnuts, and pistachios dance hypnotically within, promising to reveal their eldritch secrets to anyone foolish enough to take a bite of these ancient nut clusters!

Coconut Creme Swirl

They say that the Coconut Creme Swirl sleeps. But if the dread Coconut Creme Swirl slumbers, surely it must also dream. It is certain that while it dozes the Coconut Creme Swirl is absorbed by terrifying visions of exacting its creamy tropical vengeance upon mankind! Consume the Coconut Creme Swirl before it awakens to consume you!

Dark Chocolate Fudge

Dark! All-encompassing, eternal darkness! Human eyes cannot penetrate the stygian blackness of this unholy confection!

Peanut Butter Cup

In 1856, a fisherman from a tiny hamlet on the New England coast made a terrible pact with serpentine beasts from beneath the sea, that he might create the most delicious sweet seen upon the Earth since the days of the great Elder Race. Thus was forged the satanic pact between peanut butter and chocolate that resulted in the mutant offspring you see before you!

Chocolate Cherry Cordial

You must not think me mad when I tell you what I found below the thin shell of chocolate used to disguise this bonbon’s true face. Yes! Hidden beneath its rich exterior is a hideously moist cherry cordial! What deranged architect could have engineered this non-Euclidean aberration? I dare not speculate.

Caramel Chew

There is a dimension ruled by a blind caramel God-King who sits on a vast, cyclopean milk-chocolate throne while his mindless, gooey followers dance to the piping of crazed flutes. It is said that there are gateways in our world that lead to this caramel hell-planet. The delectable Caramel Chew may be one such portal.

Toffee Nugget

Few men dare ask the question “What is toffee, exactly?” All those who have investigated this substance are now either dead or insane.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/s...ler-copywriter

See, while that's funny in a "hah, I get it" kind of way, it really doesn't get me interested in reading his works.

I'm not saying I want "Joe walked to the door, saw a monster, and ran," but I also don't like "Joseph strolled carefully towards the wooden edifice, slowly lifting each turgid limb from the floor in careful succession blah blah vomit."

Not every noun needs six adjectives, folks. A foot is a foot is a foot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EarthWyrm But I do understand that there is an internet rule that any bad idea must be presented by someone at least twice a year to remind everyone who hasn't already read every previous thread on the topic precisely why the idea is bad.

Highlights added by me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mallerick Here's a brief sample of his writing (from Rats in the Walls), judge for yourself: "It was a twilit grotto of enormous height, stretching away farther than any eye could see; a subterraneous world of limitless mystery and horrible suggestion. There were buildings and other architectural remains—in one terrified glance I saw a weird pattern of tumuli, a savage circle of monoliths, a low-domed Roman ruin, a sprawling Saxon pile, and an early English edifice of wood—but all these were dwarfed by the ghoulish spectacle presented by the general surface of the ground. For yards about the steps extended an insane tangle of human bones, or bones at least as human as those on the steps. Like a foamy sea they stretched, some fallen apart, but others wholly or partly articulated as skeletons; these latter invariably in postures of daemoniac frenzy, either fighting off some menace or clutching other forms with cannibal intent."

Unnecessary adjectives, all. Maybe it's the journalist in me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EarthWyrm But I do understand that there is an internet rule that any bad idea must be presented by someone at least twice a year to remind everyone who hasn't already read every previous thread on the topic precisely why the idea is bad.