Just read my first Lovecraft Story...

[spacemonkey]

Me being a fan of Stuart Gordons movies, I guess it was only a matter of time before I picked up on Lovecraft.

http://www.vintagelibrary.com/pulp/hpl/art/road.jpg

I just bought this compilation of 25 of Lovecrafts stories called
"The Road to Madness" its one of three Lovecraft compilations, I just bought this specific one because it had Dagon and Herbert West Reanimator.

My first story was Dagon. After having read it I asked myself why hadnt I discovered his work before, it just blew me away. The eerie images that this great author can conjure up in my mind, were amazing.

**Minor Spoilers of the DAgon shortstory up ahead************

But I did find the shortstory to be very different from the movie.
Actually there is very little of this story, in the movie itself. The story is more about how this guy goes almost insane after having seen Dagon the underwater God. I guess the movie has more of Shadow Over Innsmouth in it, then the Dagon short story. One of the key differences being that what the main character finds is a giant monolith and in the movie he finds this big underwater structure. Still the movie has a lot of little elements that come directly out of the story, like the scene where Paul Marsh jumps out of the window because there are some creatures behind his door.

The fact that the movie wasnt very similar to the shortstory didnt come as a shock to me since Id heard on the dvd commentary that Dagon the movie was only "loosely" translated on this shortstory.

But I sure did enjoy the hell out of this cool short story story. It is very atmospheric and very different. He uses loooong paragraphs to describe stuff, something very uncommon in todays modern literature.

Anyhows I urge any schmoe outthere to check out H.P. Lovecrafts stuff its amazing...tonight Im gonna read "Cool Air" followed by "Herbert West-Reanimator" I cant wait to catch up on this great authors work!

[thebloodfeaster]

All of his works are great. In addition to his fiction, check out the essay he did on Supernatural Horror In Literature. He talks about all the horror pieces of literature that were influences to him.

[Klownzilla]

Spacemonkey, that's the same exact book that I bought in October! After reading a bunch of his stories online, I decided to go looking for published works and I found that book! I hope you like it as much as I do. Dagon is a great short story. I could just imagine those carvings of the fish people(their description reminds me of the Gill Man). Check out Beast in the Cave, and then Herbert West: Re-Animator. I think I bought that book just because Re-Animator was in there.:D

[FeydRautha]

Spacemonkey, you're going to LOVE H.P. Lovecraft. I've been a big fan of his for years. Try to get the three-volume complete collection of all his stories (I think it's published by Collins). Does your compo have "The Dunwich Horror"? One of his best stories.

The 3-volume set also contains a little-known novella he co-wrote with the famous magician, Harry Houdini, one of his essays and an essay by his longtime friend & publisher, August Derleth.

[izombie]

Let me buy you a drink Spacemonkey!!!

Lovecraft has been a fav or mine for years, when Reanimator came out I started a quest to read all of his works!

Cool Air is not a bad story but I think you are really going to enjoy Herbert West:Reanimator.

[Fer0x-13]

I think the film 'Dagon' is more based on Shadow over the Innsmouth' than the Story Dagon itself. I haven't seen the film so I can't tell u for sure..

I think Re-animator was another comissioned story too..

They are also making a film of 'At the Montain of MAdness'.

[spacemonkey]

Originally posted by Klownzilla
Spacemonkey, that's the same exact book that I bought in October! After reading a bunch of his stories online, I decided to go looking for published works and I found that book! I hope you like it as much as I do. Dagon is a great short story. I could just imagine those carvings of the fish people(their description reminds me of the Gill Man). Check out Beast in the Cave, and then Herbert West: Re-Animator. I think I bought that book just because Re-Animator was in there.:D

Yeah I also like you bought it to see what Stuart Gordons films are based on. Two of em being Dagon and Reanimator.

Yeah Ferox13 I also think that Dagon the movie based more on Shadow over innsmouth than Dagon. But Ive yet to read Shadow over innsmouth. But too bad I couldnt buy the other book it was in. There were three books I had to choose from and this one had Dagon and Re-animator so I got this one, but Im also interested in reading the story in wich the film The Resurrected is based on, that should be and interesting read. I think its called "The Case of Dexter Ward".

I think Gordons intrested in doing "The thing on the doorstep" as his next film. That should be cool to see. And Ive also heard Guillermo del Toros interested in doing "In the mountains of Madness" as a film, right?

[the night watchman]

I started reading Lovecraft in high school, and I'm glad to see he's still as popular as ever. Yes, del Toro is working on "At the Mountains of Madness." That I simply cannot wait for. And I'm glad to hear Gordon's interested in "The Thing on the Doorstep." That should be interesting.

Pretty soon I'm going to pick up a couple of videos with short, low-budget adaptations of Lovecraft's work called "The Lurker in the Lobby" Vol.s I & II, and another called "Out of Mind," in which, apparently HP somehow gets pushed forward in time an attends a Lovecraft convention. Should be a hoot.

[spacemonkey]

Originally posted by Klownzilla
Check out Beast in the Cave, and then Herbert West: Re-Animator. I think I bought that book just because Re-Animator was in there.:D

Hey Klownzilla dude, I just read The Beast in the Cave. Its interesting to see what an interesting story Lovecraft could do with just a man in a cave in total darkness...this ones got an Indiana JOnes feel to it...heh...I just kept imagining Indiana Jones trapped inside a dark cave...:D

It was good. Im noticing one thing though hes got no dialogue in most of his stories and I find it very interesting that most of his stories are very descriptive and told from a first person point of view.

Um I think Im becoming a bit addicted to his stories...love them so far.

Hey Feyd Rautha, sorry but it doesnt include Dunwich Horror in it...but Im gonna get the other two compilations I saw and Im sure its in there somewhere...theres a movie out there based on this story right? Hey but my compilation does have In the mountains of Madness wich looks to be one of his longest stories...cant wait to read it!!

And I Zombie, Thanx for the drink! Buttoms up! I let you know what i think about Herbert West after I read it tonight with some candles lit close to midnight...heh heh...

(jeez us horror fans are preatty weird...here we are in the middle of christmas and im lighting up candles and reading lovecraft...heh...)

[Klownzilla]

Originally posted by spacemonkey
Hey Klownzilla dude, I just read The Beast in the Cave. Its interesting to see what an interesting story Lovecraft could do with just a man in a cave in total darkness...this ones got an Indiana JOnes feel to it...heh...I just kept imagining Indiana Jones trapped inside a dark cave...:D



This is one story that lets you get a glimpse of Lovecraft's atheistic view. Just thinking that the ape-like creature was once a man hints at another form of human evolution. There's another cool story called Arthur Jermyn which mentions a hidden species of hominids living in an ancient city.

[izombie]

Spacemonkey,


Another good compilation of Lovecraft stories is:

The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and The Macabre

Don't know if it is still available though, it has:

The Dunwich Horror
The Rats in the Walls
The Picture in the House
The Wisperer in the Darkness
The Dreams of the Witch-House

All of which are good reads IMHO.

Enjoy

[spacemonkey]

Originally posted by Klownzilla
This is one story that lets you get a glimpse of Lovecraft's atheistic view. Just thinking that the ape-like creature was once a man hints at another form of human evolution. There's another cool story called Arthur Jermyn which mentions a hidden species of hominids living in an ancient city.

Aurthur Jermyns is also in my compilation Ill get to it eventually.

Klownzilla I was kind of wondering myself, what happened at the end of The Beast in the Cave.

I mean I got the fact that it was an ape-like creature, but I didnt get what led them to think that it was once a man. What they saw is not reveled, at least thats what I understood. Im i wrong on this? or does HP Lovecraft leave that to our imagination?

Just wondering:D

The stories that I can recognize that are in the book I bought are these:

-In the mountains of madness
-Dagon
-Herbert West reanimator
-The Lurking Fear
-The Unnamable

As you can see my list includes stories for wich they have done or are thinking of doing movie adaptations...

[Klownzilla]

Originally posted by spacemonkey
Aurthur Jermyns is also in my compilation Ill get to it eventually.

Klownzilla I was kind of wondering myself, what happened at the end of The Beast in the Cave.

I mean I got the fact that it was an ape-like creature, but I didnt get what led them to think that it was once a man. What they saw is not reveled, at least thats what I understood. Im i wrong on this? or does HP Lovecraft leave that to our imagination?



The description of the creature made me think of the cryptozoological legend of the Yeti. I guess that could be one of the possibilities. But yeah, Lovecraft probably wants the reader to ponder the origin of the beast.

[the night watchman]

The Beast in the Cave, as for as I understand it, is based on the old misconception that individual organisms "devolve." In other words, in the story the beast was a man who had long ago become hopelessly lost in the cave and then underwent a biological, physical and psychological transformation to adapt to his surroundings. This misconception was based on the observation that species of reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects that live in caves tend to be albino and eyeless, so it was supposed that these eyeless albinos were once "normal" creatures that became trapped in these lightless worlds and "devolved." You must remember that Lovecraft was a teenager when he wrote "The Beast in the Cave."

[spacemonkey]

Originally posted by the night watchman
You must remember that Lovecraft was a teenager when he wrote "The Beast in the Cave."

Yeah, I noticed this because in my compilation thet put The Beast in the Cave in his "Early Years" section. Right along stories like The Alchemist and The Book wich he wrote in his younger years...I guess thats why the compilations called The Road to madness, cause heres where he started his trip down the horror genre...wich would eventually take him to horrofying yet wonderful places...

And thanx for that explenation on the story, its very interesting to see what the Author was thinking of while he was writing this story. Ive noticed also that Lovecraft bases some of his stories on what was then know as scientific fact...

And Ive also noticed him making some ratial remarks on some of his stories. I read on the intro that he makes many such racists remarks through out his work and that this is a down side to his writing.

Anyone notice this? I noticed a little of it while reading Herbert West re-animator...when he mentions that some "negroes" did the dirty work of getting him some of the corpses he used in his experiments...and the fact that in the story Herbert West is white, blue eyed and blond...I guess we have to keep in mind also the time in wich he wrote. Racial issues were a big deal in those times... havent read all the stories yet, has anyone seen him do this in any other stories?

[the night watchman]

Well, the unfortunate racism is there, but, like you said, it's more a product of Lovecraft's time than anything else. Heck, read Kipling's poem "White Man's Burden" to see what I mean.

The only other story off the top of my head where Lovecraft goes crazy with the racist sentiments is in "Arthur Jermyn," which is also known under the much more racial title "White Ape." (I think Klownzilla brought that one up.) “Red Hook” has some unpleasant descriptions of immigrants. Stories like "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Lurking Fear" aren't racist per say, but they illustrate HPL's concern over the potential degeneracy of the human race, a la "The Beast in the Cave," although brought on, not by environmental pressures, but by moral and intellectual decay.

[Klownzilla]

The forward to "Road to Madness" talks about Lovecraft's racism. There's something about "degenerate eskimos" in Call of Cthulhu and the occassional "negro" remarks. I'm not bothered by it, though. In Herbert West: Re-Animator, I remember the detail he gave about some screaming Italian woman.

[the night watchman]

As a sidebar: The term "negro" was considered proper, or what might we might today call Politically Correct, up through the 50s and 60s.

[FeydRautha]

Originally posted by Klownzilla
The forward to "Road to Madness" talks about Lovecraft's racism. There's something about "degenerate eskimos" in Call of Cthulhu and the occassional "negro" remarks.

Lovecraft was never a racist. If you read his biography (the one that has a forward by August Derleth's daughter...sorry, can't remember the author's name) he was actually something of an integrationist. The Eskimo comments he made in "The Call of Cthulhu" and other remarks he made in "The Dunwich Horror" and other stories based in Dunwich, Ipswich and Ainsley all had to do with in-breeding, not race. If he'd been around in the 70's, he could have written "Deliverance" accurately.

Someone in a previous post said he was using language based on his time...the early 1930's Northern America...and I think that's the best explanation. He certainly never held any ill feeling toward other races.

If you want to see a kinder, gentler side of Lovecraft, I recommend everyone seek out and read "The Mad Arab's Lamp". It's one of the last stories he wrote, when he knew he was dying, and was pining for the joys of his childhood. The story starts out a little scary, then becomes incredibly nostalgic. You're actually rooting for the hero when he takes that last walk into the lamp's light. If I say any more I'll spoil the story for you. Read it for yourself and see what I mean.

[spacemonkey]

Originally posted by FeydRautha
Lovecraft was never a racist.

Someone in a previous post said he was using language based on his time...the early 1930's Northern America...and I think that's the best explanation. He certainly never held any ill feeling toward other races.


Well Im gonna have to strongly disagree with you there Feyd.

Check this passage from the short story Herbert West Re-animator and tell me what you think of it...Its taken from part III of the story wich is entitled Six Shots by Moonlight read it and let me know what you think of it.

Here it goes:

"The negro had been knocked out, and a moments examination showed us that he would permanently remain so. He was a loathsome, gorilla-like thing, with abnormally long arms wich I could not help calling fore legs, and a face that conjured up thoughts of uspeakable Congo secrets and Tom-tom poundings under an eerie moon. The body must have looked even worse in life-but the world holds many ugly things."

Now you guys tell me how Im supposed to take that.

Weird thing is "Six shots by moonlight" was the coolest part of the Herbert West short story, except for those racial remarks. Six shots by moonlight has this really cool ending thats incredibly gruesome towards the end...you know when the zombie has the little girls arm in his mouth and Mr. West proceeds to empty his gun on the zombie.

Now Im not an ativist or anything like that and I dont go around doing strikes or calling tv shows that offend other races or anything, I just find it a bit amusing and shocking Lovecrafts racism show in his work like that. But like I said before I understand that the times in wich he lived in and the mindset of those times was very different from todays, but its still a bit shocking for me to read this.

This doesnt mean I dont like Hp Lovecrafts writing its great stuff. So far what Ive read is excellent! I love it! And I know I still got a long ways to go in the world of Lovecraft. But you gots to admit that this is a downside to his writing.

[the night watchman]

Well, I don't know if it's exactly a downside. It's just his world view. In a way, for me, it always made HPL's stuff more macabre and nightmarish. We were talking before about "The Beast in the Cave" and how it was based on an incorrect scientific speculation. Just because it's wrong doesn't make it any less effective within the context of the story -- the thought of a man degenerating into a beast psychologically and physically is pretty creepy.

And, yes, spacemonkey, I think that "Six Shots" is the best chapter in "Hebert West: Re-Animator", too. The story was originally printed as a serial, so that explains its somewhat distracting and irratating repetativeness. I've always wanted to sit down and rewrite it "straight," without all the rehash at the beginning of each chapter, but I've always just been too lazy to do it. :rolleyes:

[spacemonkey]

I agree with you night man, even though i found this a little off key, It didnt stop from enjoying the moody and downright spooky stories that Lovecraft wrote. Even though I dont agree with it I put it aside and enjoyed the story for what it was...Herbert West and his fanatical enthusiasm for bringing back to life what was once dead.

It does get a little annoying cause in every chapter he sort of like summerizes everything that happened in all the previous ones that youve allready read. So I infered that it was printed monthly on some magazine or something. I think he printed some of his work on Weird Tales right?

[the night watchman]

Originally posted by spacemonkey
It does get a little annoying cause in every chapter he sort of like summerizes everything that happened in all the previous ones that youve allready read. So I infered that it was printed monthly on some magazine or something. I think he printed some of his work on Weird Tales right?

Right, "HW: Re-Animator" was serialized (I don't know if it was "Weird Tales" or not), but one chapter was printed each issue, and hence, the rehash of the story up to that point.

[spacemonkey]

Hey Nightwatchman, last night I saw the movie The Unnamable cause it was related to Lovecrafts work.

I liked some parts of it, but for the most part was dissapointed with this low budget attempt at making a horror movie.

So, I start flipping through my book, and there it is, the shortstory that this movie was based on. Needless to say I read it right away. And as was expected, I enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than the movie. Had they stuck a little more to the story maybe the movie could have turned out a little better, but alas, it turned into your basic formulaic low grade, horror flick.
The creature itself, looked cool in some scenes and some of the gore was good, but the bad acting and uninteligible plot fucked this movie way to much.

The story on the other hand was very spooky, very atmospheric and completely satasfying. I liked the fact that the story starts out with these two college students in a graveyard having this philosophical conversation about wether there can be such a thing as something to horrible or something so terrafying that it defies explanation. Cool stuff.

Like in most of his stories, Lovecraft surprises us with a wham bang ending, wich I enjoyed very much.

[the night watchman]

I felt the same way. I saw this movie when it first hit video, and was excited to see it, having all ready read the story. I thought it would be an expansion of the story, like Stuart Gordon more or less did with "From Beyond." Alas, "The Unnamable" turned out to be little more than a slasher movie with a monster instead of a maniac. :(

BTW, here's a thread called "Lovecraftian Horror" you might be interested in.

http://www.joblo.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41271

[spacemonkey]

I enjoyed them very much.

Now I see what Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli did. They read all of these short stories, and made an amalgam of them. Theres little bits from all of the stories on the movies.

Like for example the talking head appears in on of the stories. Only in that one the person whos head Herbert chops was one of his colegues who was actually studying reanimation with him...only he died in a helicopter crash, so herbert used his body...

Also on Bride of Re-animator Herbert and Dan are working as medical personnel in a war in Italy...and in one of the stories the same thing happens. Herbert goes to war only to use the freshly dead in his experiments...cool stuff.

In fact I remember one scene in Re-animator in wich Dean halseys in the mental institution banging his head against the walls of the assylum, this part of the films is taken directly out of the stories, I think it was one of Herbert Wests first experiments that ended up in an insane assylum after they found him roaming around the streets.

The stories themselves are excellent minus the repetitive summaries he does in every single one of them.

[steve-dejected]

i love dagon, it was one of those movies that left me feeling great

[izombie]

Spacemonkey,

If you can find the story :The Case of Charles Dexter Ward pick it up, very good read, I believe it is one of Lovecrafts longest stories (at least the longest I've read).

[the night watchman]

Speaking of "Re-Animator": this site has two trailers for "Beyond Re-Animator." I got a thrill seeing Combs as Herbert West again. I hope the movie's good. Looks like it might be better than "Bride".

http://www.filmaxinternational.com/default.cfm?num_seccio=7&num_noticia=105

[spacemonkey]

I got goosebumps seeing Herbert West banging that dude on the head with that trash can...hes at it again...heh heh...:D

The film certeainly doesnt look cheap, a bit grander in scale than the first two...that prison local looks cool, big and gothic...hope this one kicks ass...