H.P. Lovecraft's Bloodcurdling Tales of Terror

[Phae Nymna]

I had a copy of one of his compilations for a while, but that has sense returned to the library (:smalltongue:). So, I guess all that I'm wondering is what is your favorite Lovecraft story, and why?

Mine:
The Music of Erich Zann
I've always appreciated crooked, Burtonesque, French streets such as le Rue d'Auseil, so that was a turn on to this story for me. And I just sort of liked the unexplained power of the miasma that lay beyond the wall. I dunno... It just fits my personality.

P.S. Before you answer The Call of Cthulhu, :smallsigh: please try to remember that that was not the only thing he wrote. :smallannoyed:

-Admiral

[Solo]

The Dream-Quest of Unkown Kadath.

[ghost_warlock]

After much deliberation...I think I'll have to say that Pickman's Model is my favorite, although the Color out of Space and the Outsider also ranked highly. :smallsmile:

[Phae Nymna]

After much deliberation...I think I'll have to say that Pickman's Model is my favorite, although the Color out of Space and the Outsider also ranked highly. :smallsmile:

Ah, those are all closely tied with Music of Erich Zann. Me = Dangerously Vivid Imagination. Therefore: Pickman's Model + Color out of Space x Me = GRAHHHOMGWTFBBQSHOOPDAWHOOPSCRREEEEEEE!!!!! (Frightened, Confused, etc.)

[poleboy]

I like The Picture in the House for not relying on outside forces (i.e. elder things) for horror, but being more about human depravity. It's also very short but still creepy, which I think is admirable.

I like the one where some guy finds a painting in an abandoned house that is the gateway to some place, but I forget what it's called.
The Silver Key is cool too.

I much prefer his short stories, his archaic drawn-out style of telling things can get a bit much when he starts approaching novel length.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Actually, for me it is a tie between:

At the Mountains of Madness: The story from which about two thirds of my login name grew.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: Probably has the edge on the above as it is more tied in to human society and what can go wrong given the ... right ... influences.

(Interestingly, both stories were adapted for a long-running campaign I played in, so I knew the basic plots before I read the originals. Charles Dezter Ward was still scary...)

[banjo1985]

I really like The Rats in the Walls, and Herbert West; Reanimator, is also pretty good.

If we're allowing stuff that he did ghost writing for, I'd also put in a vote for Medusa's Coil and The Mound.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I've only read At the Mountains of Madness, Pickman's model and parts of the one about The Great Race of Yith.

[factotum]

I've read pretty much all of his output, but I'd have to put At the Mountains of Madness pretty high on the list--it's one of the few of his works that could genuinely be described as creepy.

[GolemsVoice]

I've not read as much of Big L as I wanted to, but so far I can say my favourites are, in this order:
The Dream-Quest for Unknown Kadath
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Music of Erich Zann

The Dream Quest is the best, in my opinion, because it just tells of what lies beyond humanity, without always bringing up that everything, form your electric torch to the antagonists maid is horrible, twisted, evil and sanity-shattering. Instead it tells of a place which can, at least in some parts, be described as beutiful, as mystical and which awakens your interest, so that you can feel with the protagonists desire to reach Kadath. The imaginery and places are vividly described, and it's easy to paint a mental picture of the somewhat greec-ish styled cities and mountains.

[Winterwind]

I get the feeling my choices are somewhat unusual, then...

For my favourite, I think I'd actually have to go with one of the non-horror stories of the Dream cycle. The Quest of Iranon would probably get fairly high up on the list; it's such a sad story...

Nyarlathotep, while being so short, evokes some horrific imagery; I really like the language in this one.

As for the one I found most scary... The Colour Out Of Space is quite effective, but for some reason The Hound really struck a chord with me. I can't think of any other story period that managed to terrify me as much as this one. I don't even know why, it's not like it has the most evocative language or fear-instilling concepts of all of Lovecraft's stories...

[Semidi]

I liked Rats in the Walls most, such a great Gothic story.

[allonym]

I can't choose one! But if I had to, it would be
The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
I also prefer The Loved Dead,
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
and The Dunwich Horror

[Aidan305]

I'm rather fond of The Statement of Randolph Carter myself. It gives a wonderfully terrifying suspense, and the ending is just brilliant.

[Myshlaevsky]

Mine's have all already been mentioned, but they'd be, in descending order: The Colour Out of Space, Nyarlahotep ("...the small hours of the night were rent with the screams of nightmare" :smalltongue:) and The Rats in the Walls.

[Phae Nymna]

I also genuinely enjoyed THe Crypt even though it was quite short and a rather simple premise.

[Muz]

And here I thought I'd be the only one nominating The Cast of Charles Dexter Ward. (I usually hear from people that it's too long/tedious/dull.) The way it all slowly unfolds is wickedly fascinating, and those painfully starving things in the pits that couldn't die gave me nightmares.

I've also stolen the name Joseph Curwen from that story for a character in my second novel as an intentional reference because it fit with what happens to that particular character.

[Mouse Anderson]

I'm goning to have to go with the cats of ulthar or At the mountains of madness. Cats is probably one of the best short stories ever written, and mountains allowed Lovecraft to really develop his "history".

[comicshorse]

' Rats in the Walls' with an honourable mention for 'Pickman's Model'

[Project_Mayhem]

Tied between 'The Colour from Outer Space', 'Shadow over Innsmouth', and 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'

[Stormthorn]

The Colour Out of Space was pretty bombin.
So was Rats In The Walls.
In Shadow Over Innsmouth he did a goob job of describing a place that would normaly be a little creepy in such a way that it was *really* creepy before he even told you much of what was wrong with it.

My favorites tho would probably be Outsider or Cool Air.

I also like his poem Nemesis.

I found Whisperer in Darkness, The Hound, and Colour Out Of Space to all be rather frightening as well. Especialy that last one. It wasnt *what* the colour was or how it was described. It was what it *did* to everything it came in contact with. And how the story ends with that valley being turned into a lake thats possibly all contaminated.

[Oregano]

It's got to be the Shadow over Innsmouth, mainly because I haven't read any of his books(not been able to find them:smallfrown:) but I've played the Call of Cthulhu game for The Xbox and it's apparently based on the Shadow over Innsmouth, which means it's awesome.:smallcool:

[Premsyl]

I like The Outsider.

[Warpfire]

The Call of Cthulhu. :smalltongue: No, seriously, that really is my favorite Lovecraft story. Deal with it.

Though The Thing on the Doorstep and The Picture in the House are ranked up there with it.

[GolemsVoice]

I haven't read Colour out of Space yet, but I've heard that it is considered one of H.P.'s best works. And, no, Winterwind, I also enjoy Lovercraft's dream-based books more than his real horrorstories, because they string something inside me.

[Zarrexaij]

"Nyarlathotep" and "Shadow Over Innsmouth" creep me out the most. Nyarlathotep's word choice is remarkably vivid and startling. Despite how short it is, I can't help but feel a sense of terror reading it. And Shadow Over Innsmouth... I just love the sense of wrongness everything has, and how it slowly builds up.

I like all of Lovecrafts works that I've read, but those two stick out the most.

[Powerslave44]

It's a tossup between Charles Dexter Ward and The Temple. The Temple was so short, maybe 7-10 pages, but man it was great.

[Muz]

It's got to be the Shadow over Innsmouth, mainly because I haven't read any of his books(not been able to find them:smallfrown:) but I've played the Call of Cthulhu game for The Xbox and it's apparently based on the Shadow over Innsmouth, which means it's awesome.:smallcool:

A lot (maybe even all) of Lovecraft's work is now public domain, and so can be found in full on Wikipedia's Wikisource (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Howard_Phillips_Lovecraft). :smallsmile:

[Bhu]

I havew a list of Cthulhu/Lovecraft related sites somewhere. I'm pretty sure some of them have his stories too.

[Winterwind]

A collection of all of his stories can also be found here (http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html).

[Dunesen]

Barely any love for The Whisperer in Darkness on this thread. I'd have to say that's my favorite, because I love the entire scenario. I enjoy the set-up from the correspondence and then the pay-off with the discussion in the library, and everything related to the aliens. What happens to Akeley is a truly frightening thing, because it's the embodiment (no pun intended) of helplessness.

After reading two of the three collections of his stories I have, one of the flaws I've seen in Lovecraft's stories is that he relies too much on saying how the characters are afraid rather than getting this across through the situation itself. I also thought he did a superb job in this story with building up the tension between Akeley and the aliens, even though it was just done in letters.

The ending is telegraphed, though, which is a drawback to many of his stories.

(I'm at a work computer right now, so I can't go to YouTube and find a link, but the HP Lovecraft Historical Society (I'm not affiliated with them, this isn't spam) has done a movie adaptation of the story in the style of an old horror movie. The trailer can be found at YouTube and it's really creepy.)

*

Of his other stories I enjoyed Call of Cthulhu, particularly for it's scattered narrative style. It comes across like a mystery more than just a horror story.

Shadow Over Innsmouth doesn't have much difference in how the story is structured than most of his other stories (someone relates all the background, main character sees weird things, flees for their life). But there are definite strengths that make it stand out from other things. First, the plot point of the entire town being corrupt rather than just an individual gives it a grander setting. Second, the final ending is well-done and deserved.

[Athaniar]

Most Lovecraft stories can be found at Wikisource, I guess.

I haven't read all of them (I haven't even read many of them, but still...), but I liked Shadow over Innsmouth.

[Renrik]

Dagon, because it was the first of his storiesI ever read and it holds a prescious place in my heart, and because I'm still afraid of swimming in deep bodies of water, which suckswhen you live in Minnesota.

The Rats in the Walls, because it was well-written, and because of that bit right at the end. Plus, I have rats in my walls. I can relate.

The Moon-Bog. I just liked it.

The end of The Outsider is great, as is the beginning, and, well, the whole thing.

The Festival. Same reason as Moon Bog.

I also greatly enjoyed Herbert West, as well as At the Mountains of Madness.


And then, of course, there's the obligatory Shadow over Innsmouth and his other later, elder-god-horror stories

[JellyPooga]

I'd have to go with Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath for No.1 spot (The Silver Key gets lumped in with it for being related, but Beyond the Gate of the Silver Key gets banished to somewhere near the bottom of my list for being a bit naff...).

Dream Quest is just so surreal; it's brilliant...I read it during a philosophy conference (read: social gathering involving too much booze and waaaaay too much thinking about bizarre topics of conversation from metaphysics to ethics to aesthetics...to put it in perspective, a paper one year was about the philosophy of pornography...and not in a pervy, filthy way; it was a serious paper, just a bit bizarre....anyway, I digress) in deepest darkest Wales...I think I had about 4 hours sleep in total over a 72 hour period, thinking about philosophy, boozing it up with people I don't really know, reading DreamQuest.....I was hallucinating (having waking dreams, tripping out, call it what you will) by the end of the weekend (and the tale)...a most surreal experience that I would reccomend to anyone of a creative-intellectual mind-set...

Honourable mentions must go to:
At the Mountains of Madness; sublime writing style on that one
Rats in the Walls; not sure why, but this one just stuck with me
The Hound; it's just good
The Statement of Randolph Carter; short and to the point, but eerily terrifying
and just about every other tale Mr. Lovecraft wrote

[Felizginato12]

I love the Shadow over Innsmouth.

However, I can't choose a favorite. I have a large book of all his work but I haven't read them all. He's kind of wishy washy for me, some times I like him and others I don't.

Sometimes it's just a pain to read his stuff. Sentences that go on and on and on and on while he spams the " , " and " ; " hehe.

But now i'm just being a critic. Lovecraft is good. I really gotta find the patience and a calm place to read his stuff. I can't picture it unless my mind is sorta cleared.

And is it just me or is his blatant racism hilarious? No offense, I just find it funny. I can't remember the story but there was a black cat that was named n***r cat, >_<. And he was a rascist in real life as well I believe. And a sexist. Or something like that, I might have been mixing up my famous personalities a bit :smalleek:

[Levyathyn]

I don't think Lovecraft was any more racist than anyone of that time period. There are elements of it, but remember, this was the 20's and such.

Polaris, like Rats in the Walls, blindsided me slowly with a surprise ending that creeps up behind you, instead of jumps out in front. It's a literary technique that few replicate, even today.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Cats of Ulthar, and The Doom that Came to Sarnath are a few more of my favorites. Yes, I love The Call of Cthulhu. I like every Lovecraft story I've read, which is plenty of them. My undisputable favorite, though, is The Shadow out of Time. The brilliance of the Great Race of Yith, and their time-spanning inquisition...it's just amazing. One I read once, but can't remember the name of (my original copy disppeared) is The Nameless City.

[Dunesen]

I don't think Lovecraft was any more racist than anyone of that time period. There are elements of it, but remember, this was the 20's and such.

He was a major Anglophile, so I don't think the racism he exhibited in his work (and in real life; he considered Asian people a significant hidden threat to the white race) is entirely what was common for his time. I'm not going to fulfill Godwin's Law here, but his devotion to a single country and its people as being above all others is a bit familiar.

No, he wasn't just a product of his times.

[Cuddly]

I'm not going to fulfill Godwin's Law here, but his devotion to a single country and its people as being above all others is a bit familiar.

You mean the fervent nationalism that swept the Western hemisphere during the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

[Dunesen]

You mean the fervent nationalism that swept the Western hemisphere during the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

Are you honestly asking what Godwin's Law is, or are you just saying that Lovecraft's racism was on par with the national pride people may have been experiencing at the time?

If the latter, I disagree. Lovecraft was an American that was enamored with Britain, his "homeland."

From Wikipedia (which, naturally, is infallible):

<<Lovecraft was an avowed Anglophile, and held English culture to be the comparative pinnacle of civilization, with the descendants of the English in America as something of a second-class offshoot, and everyone else below (see, for example, his poem "An American to Mother England"). His love for English history and culture is often repeated in his work (such as King Kuranes' nostalgia for England in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath").>>

Talking about an entire culture being better than all others is a bit different than saying a nation is better than all others.

[hamishspence]

In the library collection of Deep One stories, including Shadow over Innsmouth, the claim is made that its a parable for interbreeding of different races rather than different species, and that he was a white supremacist.

Maybe they are overstretching, or maybe not, but thats the argument made.

[Dunesen]

In the library collection of Deep One stories, including Shadow over Innsmouth, the claim is made that its a parable for interbreeding of different races rather than different species, and that he was a white supremacist.

Maybe they are overstretching, or maybe not, but thats the argument made.

I don't think it's overstretching it at all, though the idea never occured to me. I have a three-set collection of stories edited by ST Joshi, and in the notes he says Lovecraft considered it "above all, a story about heredity." It's about following your family's line, or something like that.

Lovecraft had a lot of love for his ancestral land of Britain, but Innsmouth seems like a darker version of "discovering one's roots."

[WalkingTarget]

Lovecraft was definitely an Anglophile, and that extended to the point where he didn't even particularly like non-WASPish people. This was more of an example of preferring a unity of culture than "race" and his opinions of the aforementioned nationalistic movement was a response to that as it was seen as pushing out other "non-native" elements of their culture. Hell, he would have preferred that the US had remained of mostly English descent (again, because he felt that in order to have a society that made any kind of sense or had any sort of national identity the people had to have shared a common cultural background). He had a neighbor who moved to Germany during the period in question. She moved back to the US after a while and at that point Lovecraft's words of admiration for a certain political leader dried up in his letters. The thinking is that this neighbor told him what was really going on there and it had an effect on his opinions of the situation.

It's also telling that the one romantic relationship the man ever had was with a tradeswoman of Ukrainian, Jewish heritage. This again shows that his aristocratic, Anglo-centric feelings of his younger years had softened a bit.

However, the man seriously had a blind spot when it came to other "races". He was a forward thinker when it came to a lot of scientific subjects, but even after the "proofs" of it had been rejected by the scientific community he still firmly believed that people of African heritage (and Australian natives for some reason, probably just due to melanin levels, unfortunately) were biologically inferior to Europeans. A result of this is the recurring theme of interbreeding = bad (Innsmouth, Arthur Jermyn, etc) as he really did view it as literally degrading the "superior" white race. No real use trying to defend the man on that point, but I don't let it interfere with my views of his stories.

If anybody is interested in Lovecraft's life, I recommend the biography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft:_A_Life) written by S.T. Joshi.

[hamishspence]

the collection had discussion of the idea that them chasing him around was merely a rite of passage and he was in no real danger.

It also discussed it from a more modern perspective: The FBI "rounding up" the Innsmouthers and hiding them away, the notion that Cthulu-ish horrors can be less scary in some ways than "in the interests of national security"

One of the stories suggested that the might invite the "author" of the Shadow over Innsmouth account back to the sea, but extract a painful price for what he brought down on them.

Another went with Dolphins as the highy intelligent, malevolent allies of the Deep Ones.

[Dunesen]

Another went with Dolphins as the highy intelligent, malevolent allies of the Deep Ones.

From Lovecraft to Douglas Adams now.

[hamishspence]

different author. I think they described it as Flipper meets Shadow over Innsmouth. It made me think a little of the Simpsons episode where the dolphins take over the land. the whole: Just cos it looks friendly doesn't mean it is theme.

[Dunesen]

different author. I think they described it as Flipper meets Shadow over Innsmouth. It made me think a little of the Simpsons episode where the dolphins take over the land. the whole: Just cos it looks friendly doesn't mean it is theme.

Was it a different version of Shadow entirely, or was it just a critical analysis?

[hamishspence]

it was a collection of Innsmouth type stories, including Shadow. the dolphin one was one of several.

And Shadow had critical analysis, some of the stories took off from some of the critical statements: like the idea of the ruthlessness of the FBI.

[Felizginato12]

Oh, I understand he was a product of his time, but just the way it comes across in his stories is funny.