Mfw people on this board unironically suggested "lovecraftian is more than just tentacles, detective stories...

You should read the Dream Cycle stuff.

Cats of Ulthar, The Other Gods, Pickertons Model and, of course, The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath.

Very few tentacles, not a lot of madness. Fantastic descriptions of cities, great inspiration for fantasy stuff.

I did. And the disparity between those few good ones and the absurd amount of the rest is just insane (no pun inteded) all by itself. I get it, the guy was writing classic penny dreadful stories, but their general quality is just subpar. There are some gems, looking even better due to the comparison, but in general, it's just shit, recycling the same concepts all the fucking time.
It's like having that GM who had once or twice a genuinely great scenario, so you stay with him, hoping for another brilliant game, but he instead usually just delivers crige-worthy shit and you are bored to tears on his games, still waiting for that moment of glory.

Ultimately Lovecraft is about the fear of the unknown. His life was defined by it and it shows in his work. He fears just about every Other there is. He fears the uncertainty of a world without God, which was much scarier then than it is now. He fears unknown ideas and traditions, fears that they have an infective quality that is like a madness, he fears that there is nothing but a descent into chaos when the known and the unknown meet. Like Tolkien, he feared the unknown of the future; he could not understand or accept places like New York and clung to country life. He feared that all culture was being dissolved into madness by the careless mixing of ideas and traditions; that the unknown of the Other and of the future was slowly annihilating the concrete and the certain and replacing it with the uncertain and the ambiguous.

Lovecraft's works are a man's attempt to explore and maybe resolve his extraordinary anxiousness with the unknown, a phobia that exists in all of us to at least some extent. If he had lived a little longer, maybe he would have - many of his later writings demonstrate degree of self awareness that he lacked in his earlier works.

Fucking Veeky Forums niggers, genre fiction should be added to the word filter already

You're comparing your current mentality to the skills and mentality of the 1920's.

In comparison, you're jaded, used to seeing the impossible on a regular basis, and you've been fed on a diet of horror, slasher flicks, and overwhelming monsters since you were a child.

You're sophisticated, compared to the average 1920's person, and that means you're looking at his work with a set of premade blinders and an attitude BUILT on the foundations of what he wrote. Of course yuou consider it trite - compared to the stuff we have nowadays, it's extremely trite.

But back then? The number of people who could even conceive of the shit he wrote could be literally counted on the fingers of your hands. To say that you're jaded is doing his work an injustice.

...

user, don't want to break it for you, but he sucked even for 20s standards.

Besides, you are trying to question all the good books, stories and all writing created in the past with some absurd argument of "people wrote worse in the past".
Well fuck you and your insane logic.

Besides, Lovecraft ONLY started selling in fucking early 80s, where a bunch of spergs marketed him for the masses. It wouldn't be a stretch if you would say that the TTRPG game was responsible for making this guy revelant AT ALL.

But hey, bestest horror writer ever, right?

virtoptim, is that you?

He echoed a question a lot of other writers at the time were asking: What do we know for sure?
I mean, is there one thing you can get everyone to agree on in the modern world?
Uncertainty is the greatest strength and the most horrendous bane the 20-21st centuries have seen through so far. Uncertainty lets us create wonders using tools we never thought could exist and overcome problems deemed impossible to solve. However, uncertainty also leads to the bleak mediocrity of the modern world, where nobody is right, nobody is wrong, the statistics are all made up and the only people whose opinions make the news are the people who yell the loudest and understand the least.

>2016
>Neo/v/ still using virt meme

Long time no see! How is your virginity treating you? I can see that you're autistic as always

Co9nsiderign 90% of today's horror is based on his ideals, yeah, pretty much.

And I'm not the one casually dismissing the historical value of the fiction, you know. I'm pointing out that OP is jaded by the horror developed by Lovecraft's works.

Any horror you read or watch is based on the works of Poe, Bierce, Dunsany, Lovecraft, Smith, Burroughs, and other authors of that period, or they're based on even older folk stories. The ones that aren't are usually from Asian countries. The amount of original horror that gets produced is maybe - MAYBE - one to three pieces ever 2-5 years.

>"A middle-aged white guy gets scared shitless, because he can't handle world outside his house"
I want to see a "lovecraftian" story from the point of view of a jaded traveller sitting next to that guy.
> "And it turns out it was a vaguely unusual fish. The End."

How weird would be your life with Lovecraft glasses?

It's called social anxiety disorder, and they treat it with drugs now.

>Some old-ass bitch got mad her son drowned and decided to murder the counselors that let it happen.
>Fucking lazy teenagers can't do anything right these days.

He himself wrote a story like this once. It was about meeting a forest ghost/devil. There were two characters in the story: a middle-aged writer of horror stories, who self-admits his writing is shit and his friend, who travells aroun the world and shit.
It goes pretty much like you described, with the evil spirit being wild goat.

>Co9nsiderign 90% of today's horror is based on his ideals, yeah, pretty much.
[Citation needed]

Last time I've looked, horror was Lovecraftian in mid80s, with very, very short resurgence around 2010 or so, both time very brief and both time leaving without an echo.

But hey, Lovecraftian mustard race, right?
You know, mustard race would fit Lovecraftian horror just right. Just imagine the descriptions!

>Any horror you read or watch is based on the works of Poe, Bierce, Dunsany, Lovecraft, Smith, Burroughs, and other authors of that period, or they're based on even older folk stories. The ones that aren't are usually from Asian countries. The amount of original horror that gets produced is maybe - MAYBE - one to three pieces ever 2-5 years.
So you don't read anything else than Veeky Forums-related stuff. Nice to know

>Citation needed
Watch any horror movie.

>Last time I looked
You haven't watched much of the 60's and 70's horror movies, and you haven't looked at anything you didn't like.

>You don't read anything
Ah, now you have to cast aspersions on my character because your actual arguments can't withstand a little scrutiny.

It takes like a day tops to read his complete works, and that's assuming you're a slow reader. If you can't determine for yourself that you dislike his writing it sounds like your problem.

No amount of shitposting will earn back those few hours you spent reading Lovecraft

Okay WotC.

>Watch any horror movie.
Slashers and jump scares are again dominant.
For about a decade already

>You haven't watched much of the 60's and 70's horror movie
Did. Predominately "classic horror", a la Hammer Studio. Experimental movies, too. A lot of early gore.

>your actual arguments can't withstand a little scrutiny.
They just did. And you made yourself look worse than before you've tried to reply to me.

I read through his entire collection. Liked 4 stories from it. Mountains of Madness was genuinelly good and still holds. Beast in the Cave was good, even if it is now pretty much dead horse. I can't recall the title of the Egyptian one now, but it was also pretty good. And of course there is Dreams in the Witch House.
Everything else was either rehashing the same ideas ad nauseam or just trite. And the guy couldn't write for shit, that's for sure, while having sometimes pretty good ideas.

Quite cool of him to write that, I must admit.

>2016
>virt is still trying to peddle himself as a meme
Nice try, virt.

It was one his last stories, when he himself realised how bad his style is.
Generally, he had three stages of writing: early stuff, where he was still experimenting and looking for ideas (good), middle stage, where he created lion share of his stories and almost all of them are worse than shit and final stage, when he figured out just how bad his writing is, so he created a lot of self-aware stories and revisions of his older ideas (again, good stuff).
And people usually discuss either his early works or latest, with middle ground (roughtly 80% of his output) being carefully ommited.

>2016
>Veeky Forums still using bogeyman who himself admitted he's too tired for this shit anymore
Nice try, neo/tg/

It might surprise you, but virt is running a blog.
And he declared it pointless to show up on Veeky Forums, when he can just have his blog, post what he wants and not have to deal with people.
Bonus points for him being very pro-lovecraftian

... but what would Veeky Forums do without crying "VIRT!" every 5 minutes?

Not even him, but you've just proved you don't watch horrors at all, neither modern nor the old ones.
Or, which is actually worse, don't have any clue what the fuck Lovecraftian horror even is.

VIRT!

>It might surprise you, but virt is running a blog.
It's a blog of Veeky Forums and Reddit trollposts.

How the hell is he going to have anything to post on there if he doesn't keep trollposting?

>And he declared it pointless to show up on Veeky Forums
Oh good, because we can always trust what virt says....

Lovecraft was written for a different world and zeitgeist.

Try reading 'A Colder War', by Charles Stross. It's free online and shouldn't take half a hour.

What if a writer doesn't have to 100% of the time write the story that 100% pleases OP? Also what if lovecraft fanboys don't have to unquestioningly love everything he crafted?

They're scifi pulp shorts. Not all of them are going to be very good. There might be a cool idea, and a description or two that really catches you, and that's fine. Sometimes there are gems and that's dope. That's how reading fiction works if you're not a spoiled idiot who has to have everything exactly the way they want made by a dead guy from almost 100 years ago.

So, you've both seen The Kindred from 1986?

>Stross
Completely irrevelant to your disscussion, but I suggest Missile Gap. Anything else from him is irrevelant compared with that masterpiece.

Thanks. I just discovered him last weekend, finished Jennifer Morgue today.

>The Bait in the Walls

>Single movie is my entire argument
>A movie that perfectly fits the "mid80s" requirement already stated in the thread
>Everything else doesn't matter now
And answering your question - yes, I did. It's fucking garbage

>Missile Gap
Literally best sci-fi stuff I've read in past decade. And I read a lot of sci-fi.

I wouldn't go as far, but then again, I've discovered Lem last year, so it kind of puts a damper on a lot of things
Yet another time when Poles are based and provide quality content.

> poles
Roger Zelazny wrote 'For A Breath I Tarry', as well as Lord of Light.
Joseph Conrad wrote Heart Of Darkness (with English his third language)
Poles are ridiculously based.

>he has never read the dreamlands lore and considers himself an expert already

>still waiting for that moment of glory.
see, that's your problem. it's not about moments of glory. it's about the weird

>It's about shit writing
FTFY

Because when one talks about the quality of writing and other about content, this is the only conclusion

So the family of incest-cannibals, the musician playing insane music, and the undead mad scientist who has to refrigerate himself or he'll dissolve aren't Lovecraft, now?

that's a matter of taste. me, for one, i like lovecraft because he's so oddishly different from supposedly "good writers".

some people seem to think jazz is just noise too, after all. again, I like the oddness of it.

Yes.

>my opinion is objectively right

Fuck off back to /lit so you can plug your prolapsed ass with another copy of Infinite Jest.

>some people seem to think jazz is just noise too
You might be 80 years late, gramps.
It's electronic music that's noise, nowadays.

>And he declared it pointless to show up on Veeky Forums, when he can just have his blog, post what he wants and not have to deal with people.

So, he's gone from being an annoying suicidal shitposter to talking to himself.

Honestly, it's an improvement.

He's claimed he's gonna stop posting here multiple times, don't count on it.
Besides, wherever someone is an aggressively obnoxious douchebag, virt is there. Wherever someone shits on games he doesn't like, virt is there. Wherever someone pretends their subjective opinion has objective merit, virt is there Wherever a an elf is murder raped, virt is there
. He lives on in the hearts of pathetic asswipes everywhere.

I mean if you frequent any board you realize they each have one or two individuals who completely shit up every thread they touch. How bugguy isn't banned from /an still confuses me

...

They aren't Lovecraft for Veeky Forums anyway

>He's claimed he's gonna stop posting here multiple times, don't count on it.
He honestly quit last year, so what's your problem?

can't speak for the US but outside of it, your average pleb will think of jazz still as noise - their ear has never been trained.

Nice meme. Because nobody cares about jazz for past 40 years as a thing to complain.
Last time I've checked, people were pissed by indie bands and/or avanguarde and experimental crowd.
Jazz was fully integrated and accepted around times when rock & roll was considered satanic, gramps

Well there are also Irish.

Do you think Lovecraft was aware about Latinos?

>should actually read his work
About three weeks ago there was a thread on Veeky Forums what fa/tg/uys even read.
It was scary. Just downright horrifying how bad is the taste of average fa/tg/uy. Screw Veeky Forums elitism, but the shit people read around here is so garbage tier, making fucking Hunger Games into some sort of epic.

>40 years

Not even! JAZZ SCHMAZZ, I say.

youtube.com/watch?v=WB6Ix1sw0iI

I'm sorry people enjoying things you don't instills Lovecraft-like revulsion in you user. I know it misty be very hard for you.

I have an anxiety disorder. Lovecraft doesn't bother me that much.

The only thing I ever had to stop watching, reading, etc., was the first season of Bojack Horseman after he kissed Diane because she was nice to him when his old friend refused to reject him. I picked it back up later and was fine, but that messed with my anxiety like you wouldn't believe.

>>Bait in the Walls

"Can't you here them? They are in the walls, all around us, memeing!"

if i put on some more experimental miles davis stuff, i can guarantee you plebs here will complain

I read almost all of his works during downtime at my job last year and i thought they were great.

Your milage may vary.

You should be rather sorry for people declaring Harlequin-tier books best read they had in this year. Because that's what that thread was about.
And if you don't see where is a problem with that, you can feel sorry for yourself too.

Which part of "experimental" you didn't understand the first time around?

Jazz as such is mainstream for fucking half of a century.

>A day tops to read his complete works
Nigga what? The version of his complete works I have is 1000+ pages. Either you missed some stuff or are trained in speed reading.

>he can't read 5000+ pages in one day

whoa someone call the scrub patrol

>jazz
>mainstream
>anywhere outside the US
confirmed isolationist ameritard

Who were the good horror writers of his time?

heh

I'm a Pole, you moron.
There is jazz festival in my town each year.
Said town is in the middle of nowhere and somehow only locals show up.
Meanwhile, the "big deal" festival held in one of the bigger cities in the south sells tickets 4 months in advance and runs for almost two weeks

So if anything, you are confirmed as stupid fuck trying to argue bullshit that doesn't even exists

>1000+ pages
That's exactly how much you can read per day without any training.

And assuming you want to read only the revelant stuff, it will be 400+ pages tops. The one I've read was 600+ and there was already lot of superflous crap in it.

That would actually require him to know what the hell he was talking about instead of spitting out "lovecraft bad" memes.

Its Weird as in the literary definition. It's in a place between fantasy and scifi.

Ah, so you actually have no idea how horror works and have been utterly jaded by today's "superior" horror.

Good to know.

Nobody. That's the entire point. 20s were the era where penny dreadful and pulp stories where what was written by shitty writers and plebs with no skills. Hell, Burroughs and Howard both get into the business when they've learned how much people are earning by writing utter shit.

It wasn't until Campbell set a quality requirements in 30s in his magazine when the whole sci-fi and horror finally stopped being anything else than unfiltered and undestilled crap.

I was referring to Lovecraft having the anxiety disorder, you know.

I never said anything about contemporary horror, so kildly keep your implying for yourself.
I'm just pointing out how one Lovecraftian film - which was utter crap by the way - doesn't make the genre revelant.

And it was crap, because it has utterly atrocious directory, bad editing and eye-gouging "acting". The script meanwhile is just trite mixed with over-used cliches.
In short - it's a bad movie on every possible level.

Not him, but just compare first 3/4 of Descent (the less is said about sudden turn into a slasher, the better) with The Kindred.
It's basically the best The Beast in the Cave adaptation we will ever have and one of the best horrors ever made.

Or compare The Thing, arguably THE best horror film in existence and basically Mountains of Madness made BETTER, with your utterly bad film

By using bad film to strenghten your argument you are only harming yourself

>The Kindred
>Implying it's hard to find film superior to that schlock
Fucking Twilight Zone episodes are better, mate.

Descent turned into gore, not slasher.

But the rest of your post is just spot on. It really takes to be mentally challenged to not pick The Thing as Lovecraftian horror, but instead go for a film which one step from becoming a TV movie.

Yeah, but wouldn't that suggest that an anxiety disorder would make me relate more to the horror in his stories?

Not him, but - how?
Anxiety disorder doesn't work that way. You would have to share a lot more to be spooked by the same shit as Lovecraft did, rather than just having the same disorder.

Are you an asexual racist with serious inferiority complex?

I'm bisexual and I get called a SJW on /co/ for only hating Marvel's tokenism and not the very idea of having more diverse superheroes. I do have a little bit of an inferiority complex, but I've gotten way better in that regard than I used to be.

Did you know that Lovecraft actually became much less racist later in life, to the point of showing a black family in a very sympathetic life in one of his last stories? Probably at least partly because of his friendship with Robert E. Howard.

He generally got better the longer he wrote. In the final two years or so the quality of his writing jumped sharply, at least compared with the stuff he wrote previously. Some user already mentioned it in the thread

Tokenism can be good, if handled right. Sadly, that rarely happens. Want good tokenism? Try Friedkin's "Sorcerer", preferably HD restored version.

>A Colder War
>Missile Gap

Thanks for that. Any more non-obvious good stuff?

What late stories can you recommend?

Sure. But I think generally, it's a shitty kind of liberal anti-racism that ignores broader structural issues. I actually generally like how DC does things in that regard. Renee Montoya, a lesbian Latina, becoming the Question, was awesome, and it wasn't a gimmick; it made perfect sense in the situation. Her predecessor was treated with respect and mourned and it was a beautiful passing of the mantle.

I'll check out Sorcerer. Thanks.

>some people show up to a local jazz festival
>jazz is now mainstream
that's like saying TTRPG are mainstream because there's a local con

>Meanwhile, the "big deal" festival held in one of the bigger cities
TTRPGs aren't mainstream, in spite of GenCon and SPIEL, you moron

>2016
>Jazz is not mainstream

Live in France, jazz plays in the grocery stores here all the time. Its okay your jazz isn't avant garde. Happens to everything.