How did H.P Lovecraft survive, I think his ideas were fresh and amazing, but he writes like an 8 year old

how did H.P Lovecraft survive, I think his ideas were fresh and amazing, but he writes like an 8 year old

(bad jpeg name)

He was a pulp writer and decidedly not literary.

That's not a bad thing, but it's something that often gets forgotten now that nerds have been trying to push him into the canon for so long.

Thats how genre sci-fi and fantasy fiction works

its like he directs people to feel scared

"and then everyone vomited out of fear of what they seem"

the problem i had with his writing was its referential nature "the obelisk was so scary that even milton couldn't describe it" (i'm paraphrasing but that was more or less that style)

A: Some of the work often featured in his collected volumes was written when he was just a kid.

B: He was dirt poor at times, and got paid by the word.

He usually wrote in the first person, and instead of vomiting, his characters tended to faint.

Overblown. Even in those passages, he still tends to go into immense detail describing or hinting at the "indescribable".

...

...

>thinking good writting comes from proper writting.

Dear Jesus...

>abnormally fungoid and cyclopean cock

amazing

This desu

He wasn't amazing compared to others, but he earned his place

>I don't like it. But it is not my problem, is everyone else's!

Your lose.

I mean, he's much better than Poe, who for some reason is still read. Lovecraft's stories are mostly all similar but they're extremely influential, and to be honest, the ones that take place in New England capture the eerie dying feeling of poor port towns very well, if you've never been to rural ports in Massachusetts or Maine or Connecticut.

>who for some reason is still read

I've been curious about Poe. You don't think it's worthwile to read his work?

Many of his most well-known stories are really short and can be completed all in an afternoon. They aren't bad, but they are written in a very simplistic way which can make them sound like something you'd hear around a boy scount bonfire.

That's why reading his works can be somewhat underwhelming by today's standards, especially for an avid reader. He did more or less invent the modern horror and detective novel however, so he shouldn't be disregarded.

Try The Tell-tale Heart, if it catches your interest in any way, then you could consider reading his other stories.

Thank you for your explanation and recommendation.

Anyone have that awful uncanny-valley deathbed pic of him?

>Written in a very simplistic way
>Somewhat underwhelming

user...I'm appalled. I wonder what your opinion on Nathaniel Hawthorne is. Are all of his short stories underwhelming as well? Poe's writing is beautiful.

What are good stories or books of his to read?

I'm saving these. Thanks user.

You can change those file names ya know?

Simplistic compared to Lovecraft's more lavish style. And yes, I was underwhelmed when I read Poe's work; note that I didn't think that they were bad.

But after having heard, read and watched so many horror stories growing up, when I finally got around to reading Poe, much of it felt like stuff I'd read or seen before.

For someone who has never read a detective or horror story before in their life, I'm sure The Murders in the Rue Morgue would be absolutely stomach-churning, but to me it wasn't. It was simply good.

>He was a pulp writer and decidedly not literary.
>decidedly not literary
What does this mean?

my personal favourite is Rats in the Walls. Standard beginners list is:
>Shadow over Innsmouth
>Colour Out of Space
>Call of Cthulhu
>Dreams in the Witch House
>Dagon

I'd also add the Thing on the Doorstep and Through the Gates of the Silver Key

Same way a lot of old pulp survived. It's cool pulp.

He didn't.

He died starving.

It was only social outcasts like metal bands and DnD basement dwellers that revived him.

And now that manchildren have disposable income and people can make money off of them, Lovecraft was revived even more.

That's not to say there were some cool ideas and scenes created by Lovecraft.

He is overrated, but I'd rather he be overrated than ignored. I'm not scared easily by horror, but Lovecraft's stuff managed it for me. Just the idea that we're adrift in "an island of ignorance" and that when we discover the secret to life, the universe, and everything, when we start to dig deep into the truths of the cosmos, the knowledge of it will be so horrible as to drive us insane. What a terrifying thought!

>unauthorised words

pure ideology

Rats in the walls is actually really good. One of the only lovecraft stories that actually got to me

You've piqued my interest; seconding this request

>like an 8 year old.

But that's wrong. Its very much like Welles and Verne, its dry, practically procedural, formal scientific prose. I certainly don't think its "great" but its surprisingly serviceable by the very virtue of its simplicity and plainness. When he's telling fictionalized accounts of "survivors" there is no need for purple prose or poetics. It does what it needs.

Can someone please post it??