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HP Lovecraft didn’t know Sumerian, Babylonian, or Aramaic. But that didn’t stop him from making up incantations in other worldly languages. ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn! Yi-nash Yog-Sothoth-he-lgeb-fi-throdog-Yah! The Strange High House in the Mist: Intriguing, surprisingly more joyous than menacing, with beautiful poetic descriptions and phrases. The Shunned House: Disappointing; long, dull, and without a good payoff. The only thing to fear is French itself. The Thing on the Doorstep - also, a greatly crafted tale, with another epic ending - Lovecraft knows how to bring them endings!! In the story, the evil creature that haunts the church can't function except in complete darkness (hence the story's title), so it kind of reminded me of the vampire novels I've been reading recently. I'm unaware of Lovecraft ever writing about vampires, so I guess this is as close as it gets. It follows his common theme of deep time and elder gods, with a little bit of a twist that most of his stories have.
Q: Does the Collaboration Stories include the so-called "posthumous collaborations" with August Derleth? The editor S.T. Joshi is a man who divides opinions, having set himself up as the world’s most prolific scholar of supernatural horror and weird fiction. Judging solely by this book though, his introductions to the collection and each individual work are short and informative, giving the impression of commendably thorough research without insisting on overbearing opinions and grandstanding. As such, some stories appealed to me while others did not. But on the whole, this collection is absolutely phenomenal! The stories aren’t charming or magical or inspiring or anything like that. Which is fair, they’re cosmic horror. But don’t expect to come out of reading these stories energized to do good in the world or to treat your fellow human beings with greater love and kindness. Unless you think doing good in the world involves sacrificing a goat to the Elder Gods to stave off their hunger and imminent return. In which case you may well be plenty inspired.And yes, there’s a whole bunch of criticisms to be made of Lovecraft’s writing style, a number of which I’m sure hold some academic weight. He was after all published in pulp and mostly self-taught, aspiring to the level of social, scholarly and artistic respect owed to an M.R. James but having no means of achieving it in his lifetime. Whether any of his work counts as ‘literature’ is a debate which could go on indefinitely. While this is contrary to what modern readers will likely have experienced, in Lovecraft's style it actually works surprisingly well. Today, Lovecraft is considered second only to that other once scorned visionary, Edgar Alan Poe, in the pantheon of horror writing, and it is Lovecraft's chilling hybrid of gothic horror and Science Fiction that is the major inspiration and model for almost all of today's supernatural fiction. The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Dagon: An early hint at the later mythos tales that would capture the public's interest. Obviously the name points to later work. It contains story elements that would later be seen expanded in the iconic The Call of Cthulhu.
Overshadowed by Lovecraft's reputation as a master of horror is his unique contribution as a science fiction visionary. There are no supernatural elements in his stories. None. All of his horrifying creations are creatures of an incomprehensible but strictly materialistic science. What I really liked about this story were the friendships and relationships in it; two friends growing up together and one going off and getting married. Then there's the confusion of the souls switching bodies. Relationships were not a big part of Lovecraft's writing, probably because he was such a recluse. And this story was one of the few to have a strong female character. I think he rarely talked to women in real life. Now that I think about it, Stephen King may have gotten his idea for Christine from this story. In Christine, the protagonist's body is invaded by the soul of his car's previous owner. Truthfully there are precious few works here I don’t love to a greater or lesser degree and even in his supposedly lesser efforts I find much to admire. This is especially so with his later material such as The Haunter of the Dark, The Thing on the Doorstep and The Dreams in the Witch House which are little celebrated but favourites of mine. Perhaps my favourite of all is The Music of Erich Zann – hardly a conventional choice – although depending on mood I may have to give the nod to The Call of Cthulhu. The charms of the poster-child of weird fiction are not easily resisted.
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The White Ship: A terrific early contribution to the Dreamlands. The first of many Lord Dunsany-inspired tales.
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