Someone explain to me the appeal to lovecraft, I dont get it. I've read call of cthuluhu, the thing on the doorstep...

If you want a more unusual work, try Lovecraft's "Dream Quest of Unknown Qadath". Pretty psychedelic, not particularly comprehensible. The other Randolph Carter stories develop it a bit more.

yeah similar, I love all the stuff that is lovecraftian but I'm not a fan of actual lovecraft. Same for most of my friends who claim they love lovecraft they never read his actual books and those that did arent fans of the book but rather the stories and stuff that evolved from his work.

Rats in the Walls was good, didn't have too much of the "indescribable horror" stuff compared to lots of his other stories

Read Houellebecq's essay on it, it's good, it deals with the particular appeal.

...

The appeal is this; HP Lovecraft writes in a markedly elusive style which engenders feelings of unease and discombobulation, i.e. cosmic horror.

This is why he will describe monsters in a fragmented, byzantine way, or describe them in terms of what they are not, instead of how they are. It is also why he will use archaic and unusual words, and generally vague and reluctant to reveal the full picture, until the end.

E.g. his description of Cthulhu

>The figure, which was finally passed slowly from man to man for close and careful study, was between seven and eight inches in height, and of exquisitely artistic workmanship. It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters. The tips of the wings touched the back edge of the block, the seat occupied the centre, whilst the long, curved claws of the doubled-up, crouching hind legs gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way down towards the bottom of the pedestal. The cephalopod head was bent forward, so that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the backs of huge fore-paws which clasped the croucher's elevated knees.

He introduced the concept into horror, that you are an insignificant spec in existence, while all the devils, gods and monsters of the world, while horrible to you, are simply different. And that is how the universe is to you as a human. A mostly hostile environment, which far too big for you to understand and certainly too big for your hollow concepts of evil to apply.

This may seem like a simple half-truth to us. But back then it blew peoples fucking minds.

Conventional horror was mostly supernatural and easily understandable as "good/evil" and "that is the monster". In Lovecrafts stories, there never is anything supernatural and it simply seems that way to us, because we just hairless monkeys riding a small dirt ball through a space, much much older than anything we can imagine.

He introduced existential horror to a world where people felt quite confortable in their narrow conceptions.
It was like telling people who are scared of the open sea that they are already there.

Obviously that will barely resonate with us now. Now it's mainly just a comfy read with an interesting mythology. Also I enjoy his old timey English.
>fuck'n "electric torches" m8

I appreciate these responses thanks
further discussion here, I understand his style, and it is well written but I dont get a sense of unease or discomfort, I assume it has to do with the difference of the time and horror we have now but it doesnt really effect me in any way and i usually felt bored.

maybe read some of his earlier Lord Dunsany type stories? You might like those, or maybe not. They're not really supposed to be scary.

This, the style is extremely well done in evoking the most primal of our fears, something growling at you in the dark that you can't see is scarier then a dog growling at you in the light. His style wasn't necessarily straight horror it didn't it didn't try to scare you at all it was your own mind that made it scary. I've been playing Call of Cthulhu for years as well. But mostly it's about the fact that humans naturally want to feel they are part of something bigger hence religion and all that and Lovecraft brought up the fact we really don't mean shit in all reality.

It takes a bit more to "dive into it".
Maybe try audio narrations. I feel like it becomes more of an emotional ride that way.
(On Youtube I suggest "Ghastly Tales" and "HorrorBabble")

That or you simply don't have the patience for it. Which is okay.
But CoC is quite long and, well, slow. It was more of a mythology builder than anything.

/thread

You may prefer his early and more traditional gothic stories which are influence by Poe, like The Outsider, The Hound, Pickman's Model. They are more accessible, restrained, and less demanding; superior to much of his mythos and dream cycle stories.

>Think this through for me so I don't have to

>not outsourcing thought to an internet forum
go back to your wireless, gramps

I just throw out thought provoking nonsense when there's a lull

At least you pseuds are frank about it.

has more insight than , but I'm glad both posted.

This is almost a good post, but it get's too stuck in specifics.

wowee senpai bestow upon me your incisive candor and judgement

congrats, ya fell for it ya dip

Be careful what you wish for. With the insight of the Post Rater, you may go mad!

>le I was joking meme

classic faggot

His work is about the unknown and unknowable and how horrifying that is.

>el thinking it's the same person

timeless dumbass

Yeah the post rating shitpost was me.

Whatever, two and a half helpful posts in this shitty thread, the rest are just pseuds bumping into walls.

contribute something, then

Lovecraftian stuff not by Lovecraft unilaterally fails to capture the philosophical spirit of Lovecraft
>muh spooky empty mythos

the thread was answered, done deal.

if i wanted good lovecraft discussion, id go to my irl book group, not cast pearls before pseuds on a kentucky fried cartoon image board.

i only enjoy lovecraftian stuff for the dope spookz

I love Lovecraft cause he is really good at setting up a mood, rather than go through some banal storytelling. His main characters are also often just voyeurs of the whole thing, but they really have not much substance cause it doesn't really matter to him in the larger view point he's trying to have.

Lovecraft is the pillar of modern American horror. He's great, because you can give him the credit for the genre of horror being what it is today.

That being said, you're right. It's not scary to the modern reader. To me, his work is a revisiting of the origin of horror. There is still something to be appreciated, studied, admired, but it's not surprising that the "scare tactic" has no effect.

It's like reading Montaigne, for example. He pioneered the modern essay and citation. Today, the essay is so widespread and "normal" (so are aspects of his philosophy) that the work itself seems to have nothing noteworthy to the reader. Does that mean we shouldn't revisit his essays? A careful reader can always learn something new from a masterful text.

The people who go on and on about Lovecraft, I believe, are doing so through an historical lens. This is true for me, anyways.

He created a cool universe and mythology with interesting monsters and cults.
I was thinking once what if lovecraft had been born a slight bit more insane and charismatic and used this mythology to create a real religion like l ron hubbard did with scnientolgy.
World would be more interesting.

Well it works. I don't litter the thread with uneducated opinions and in return I get stuff like and If the thread asked for an outsider's opinion I'd be happy to participate.

don't forget
is an autistic faggot but he's right. he was wrong to use it towards you though, since you've actually done a buttload of work, only missing the tone.

posts like are completely useless.

Derleth did a decent job and the original call of cthulhu game did a decent job same as realms of cthulhu

Then why are you here

The appeal is this: Imagine a horror novel, film, whatever. Now whatever you imagine, imagine the world where this takes place. For example... in Dracula (by Bram Stoker) you have a world where vampires exist, they can be killed, fought against, and in general the world is not so bad because humanity is the good. Dracula and the vampires are the abnormalities in this world and also God presumably exists meaning to be human here is pretty ok even if you consider the dangers of vampires.

Imagine living in Arkham or Dunwich. Humanity living in this world is fucked. Humanity is an inconsequential blip. There is no real way to combat the threats. Cthulhu, for example, cannot be defeated. There is no god to look after humanity and give them a fighting chance. Hell, according to Mountains of Madness, humanity was created by Elder Thing scientists for pure amusement and occasional food.

Here is the horror. Here is the appeal! I love Lovecraft so much. I'm a massive fanboy really. But there's no way in hell I want to be living in one of his creations.

>why do people now seem to be in love with it or are they just in love with lovecraftian things
Exposure. Back in the day, just after his death, he had no publications. Things picked up in the 60-70s. But now with internet and Cthulhu being shown in pop culture more people are being exposed to this unique horror author.

>his stuff was supposed to be weird, not necessarily scary
This also needs to be pointed out. Weird fiction, weird tales... that was his primary background and focus.

I highly recommend this! Here is an article which is all extracts from this essay:
theguardian.com/books/2005/jun/04/featuresreviews.guardianreview6

Well said.

>it doesnt really effect me in any way and i usually felt bored
I was like this at first with him. Firstly his writing style is somewhat awkward but after getting used to it I found it much easier. I think that to really appreciate him you need to read him, stop occasionally and just think about the scenarios. It's not like a vampire novel which is generally fast-paced and usually lacks any philosophy to it. With HPL, stop, and just imagine being there in this world and think about the place of humanity therein. Also, frankly, as the Houellebecq essay states, HPL isn't for everyone.

Agreed.