I haven't read Swift to Chase yet but I heard it's pretty good. I started with The Beautiful Thing that Awaits Us all, then read Occultation, and both of those are pretty awesome. I think "Procession of the Black Sloth" is in the Occultation book - that story alone is worth the price of admission.
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Cosmic horror, and the fear of the unknown
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I haven't read Swift to Chase yet but I heard it's pretty good. I started with The Beautiful Thing that Awaits Us all, then read Occultation, and both of those are pretty awesome. I think "Procession of the Black Sloth" is in the Occultation book - that story alone is worth the price of admission.
Honestly, it didn't really hurt at all. My butt hurt more from sitting in the chair for 4 hours! Forearm is one of the least painful places, you feel it a bit more at the wrist, and close to the crook of the arm. But overall it's just a kind of pinch that ebbs and flows in intensity, it's 100% bearable. I felt the solid black a little more, but again it's not some intense pain, and you'll probably always get vague answers because it's a bit hard to explain. Just find a good tattooist, do your research and it's fine.
Calamari41
41 > 38
Thank you! I already have Swift to Chase on the way, but I will move on to Occultation right afterward on your recommendation.
nailbombxx
Member
Been thinking about Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House" a lot lately.
Lovecraft pretty much dropped the ball with the quality of the tale, but reflecting on it, but the concept is rather fascinating. Lovecraft came up with the idea that the magic of witches is actually evil geometry that allows them to move between dimensions and space. Therefore: interdimensional satanism.
Lovecraft pretty much dropped the ball with the quality of the tale, but reflecting on it, but the concept is rather fascinating. Lovecraft came up with the idea that the magic of witches is actually evil geometry that allows them to move between dimensions and space. Therefore: interdimensional satanism.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
That's cool!
Charles Stross does something similar in The Laundry Files. In short, eldritch abominations essentially exist inside The Mandelbrot Set. Or summink.
TheRedSnifit
Member
You can do magic when you are good with math is what I take from this post
Iirc, that's literally how it works.
Suddenly numbers stations became more terrifying.
nailbombxx
Member
Neat!
Someone needs to commission Santiago Caruso, one of my favorite illustrators, to illustrate an (english) volume of Lovecraft. He already illustrated the Dunwich Horror in Spanish.
Behold true cosmic horror
This is up on UK Netflix if anybody is interested. I wouldn't recommend it tbh. Although it does have Ron Pearlman innit.
I'm more amazed something like this exists at all. Lovecraft and his works are the opposite of easily digestable kid friendly schlock and that's not getting into the racism lol.
RuinerPrime
Member
Been reading House of Leaves and I'm really enjoying it. Thanks thread!
Yessss!!!
Also, John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness.
Where do folks fall with Clive Barker? His Books of Blood series were great, and even though he delves into more typical Hell stuff, he often infuses it with ancient lore that is beyond human knowledge/comprehension.
Rights are free so it's probably easier to cram Lovecraft into your children's movie than be creative.
I do think a stop motion Lovecraft film would be really cool tho.
Read The Willows because of this thread and loved it. One of my favorite short stories ever. Also checked out The Wendigo by the same author which was a bit more "cosmic" than I would have expected. Liked that a lot also.
Read The Fisherman because of this thread as well. Liked it but IMO it's best moments were the more traditional type horror.
Read The Fisherman because of this thread as well. Liked it but IMO it's best moments were the more traditional type horror.
I picked up The Fisherman from Amazon a couple weeks ago, and started it today. I was really enjoying it, but am now struggling to keep going. Structural spoilers from four chapters in.
Really bummed. I've it aside for now.
Week later edit: donating it to the library. Really awful structure and the story was constantly defusing itself.
The book starts out as a story being retold after it's happened, a bit clumsily. But it's a good story and I'm starting to get pulled in. Then Part 2 starts - and looking ahead, that part takes up 2/3 of the book. And it's an account of a story someone in a diner told the main characters about the place they are about to go, rather than the story of what happens to them when they get there. Only after that diner tale is recapped does the story with the characters seem to resume, for maybe 1/4 of the book's total pages.
I completely lost interest a few pages into the second part, because I want to follow the main characters I've started to get invested in, not this giant diversion.
I completely lost interest a few pages into the second part, because I want to follow the main characters I've started to get invested in, not this giant diversion.
Week later edit: donating it to the library. Really awful structure and the story was constantly defusing itself.
More_Badass
Member
My dad saw the movie The Void last night. It was his first introduction to Lovecraftian horror. Now I got to give him a primer on what that is because he had no idea what happened in that movie
The Scollard
Member
Hey just, I'm looking at a couple complete Lovecraft compendiums to get, and I was wondering if anybody could tell me whether or not they use the S.T. Joshi remastered versions, since I can't find the information on Amazon.
They are The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, with notes by Leslie S. Klinger and The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, published by Race Point Publishing and part of the Knickerbocker classics series.
Here are the Amazon pages for the first one and the second one
I was wondering if anyone, if they had the books, could check, or recommend me any that uses the Joshi versions.
They are The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, with notes by Leslie S. Klinger and The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, published by Race Point Publishing and part of the Knickerbocker classics series.
Here are the Amazon pages for the first one and the second one
I was wondering if anyone, if they had the books, could check, or recommend me any that uses the Joshi versions.
Just finished The Fisherman and checked to see if GAF had any talk going on about it. Looks like this thread just started me down a new rabbit hole.
I really enjoyed The Fisherman. I wish there was a bit more meat on either side of the "other" story in there, but it was a great book. It really does a great job slowly building up and layering in the horror.
I read this coming off of the Troop and I prefer The Fisherman quite a bit in regards to the horror stuff, though I've heard The Deep is more of a genre match. I'll have to look into it.
I really enjoyed The Fisherman. I wish there was a bit more meat on either side of the "other" story in there, but it was a great book. It really does a great job slowly building up and layering in the horror.
I read this coming off of the Troop and I prefer The Fisherman quite a bit in regards to the horror stuff, though I've heard The Deep is more of a genre match. I'll have to look into it.
In my opinion like 90 percent of people who try Lovecraftian or cosmic fiction don't know what they're doing. I used to buy collections of these types of stories and the huge majority were just reusing the already tired tropes of insanity, weird names, tentacle monsters etc.
More_Badass
Member
Yeah, The Troop isn't cosmic horror or Lovecraftian. But The Deep is a better match for this thread
House of Leaves is fantastic too.
The Willows, The Wendigo
For real. I know cosmic horror and lovecraftian fiction expect you to use your imagination or struggle to describe that which cannot described, but this collection is ridiculous. its more like they're writing settings for a tabletop game and expect you to write/play the rest.
More_Badass
Member
Laird Barron's anthologies
Anyone know where I can get The Fisherman digitally?
Read it over ten years ago. Fantastic book!
Will check out!
Thanks!
Read it over ten years ago. Fantastic book!
Will check out!
Thanks!
More_Badass
Member
Nook, Kindle, etc.
Huh, can't find it on Amazon/Kindle (Norway here).
Started The Deep today. Looking for more in the genre outside of short stories or novellas, it really gets hard to find much. I suspect a lot of it has to do with how hard it is to write in the genre well, but I'm pretty shocked at how few the number of recommendations turn up when you start asking around for novels.
More_Badass
Member
A bunch was recommended above
TheChewyWaffles
Member
So I've read a bunch of Philip Acassi lately. Good stuff. What else should I read to to my 5 year old at bedtime?
(j/k about the 5 year old part...he's actually 4)
(j/k about the 5 year old part...he's actually 4)
nailbombxx
Member
Looking up this anthology... Seems like Lovecraft pastiches by unknown amateur authors - I've never heard of any of these names and I've been scraping the bottom of the barrel for this stuff for a while (not necessarily bad, there is plenty of unknown talent). But I would expect some mediocre writing for sure.
Sounds like 90% of what you've been reading is your typical gimmicky Lovecraft pastiche schlock. This stuff has always existed even since he was alive even - but nowadays there's a lot more of it since Lovecraft popularity and fascination has exploded and there's money to be made on anything tied to his namesake. There's a certain breed of authors writing uninspired, tropey material that's sold on mostly its connection to Lovecraft mythos fanaticism alone, to the least common denominator of "weird fiction" fans, so to speak.
A good rule of thumb is to be wary of anything with heavy-handed use of buzzwords in the title: Lovecraft, Cthulhu, Necronomicon, Eldritch, etc.
Beyond of this specific demographic, there is no shortage of genuinely talented authors who form a community of modern weird fiction practitioners who owe a lot to Lovecraft among others, but don't write exclusively Lovecraft mythos pastiches. I'm talking about Laird Barron, Simon Strantzas, Jeff Vandermeer, John Langan, Caitlin R Kiernan, Gemma Files, Richard Gavin, Jon Padgett, Wilum Pugmire, Livia Llewellyn, etc, etc. All very respected authors by weird fiction enthusiasts beyond Lovecraft fans.
I don't care for many of these authors works either like Vandermeer and his Southern Reach trilogy which I was no fan of. China Mieville does a great job with his writing and one of the few who can pull off decent cosmic horror and weird fiction.
nailbombxx
Member
Well I'm not especially a fan either of Vandermeer either but he's a well respected author who doesn't write derivative schlock. The rest absolutely know how to write. For an older generation of writers, Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell and TED Klein have done Lovecraftian horror extraordinarily well.
I can't explain how bad it is. I'm getting actively irritated/upset/buttangry at some of these stories. There's one story that uses the word Yellow maybe 19.2billion times (possibly exagerration). One story has literally ended in the middle of itself (Imagine if the protags of Mountains of Madness never went back to camp and instead went to go get a glass of whiskey and that was it, skipping the entirety of the story.) Another ended as if the person just saw the Soprano's series finale. I'm about halfway through it and pushing through because I accidentally spent real cashmoney instead of my audible credit on it.
I guess I'm more frustrated with it being themes that I love but done so poorly. With cosmic horror, so few get it right. These authors can write for sure, they just can't tell a good story. I suppose I'll come back and scream about one of the stories being good if there is one, but my hopes are begrudgingly low.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Yeah, I like both of these films - anything similar I should check out? Obviously seen In the Mouth of Madness as well. Been meaning to watch The Void as well.
TheChewyWaffles
Member
I can't explain how bad it is. I'm getting actively irritated/upset/buttangry at some of these stories. There's one story that uses the word Yellow maybe 19.2billion times (possibly exagerration). One story has literally ended in the middle of itself (Imagine if the protags of Mountains of Madness never went back to camp and instead went to go get a glass of whiskey and that was it, skipping the entirety of the story.) Another ended as if the person just saw the Soprano's series finale. I'm about halfway through it and pushing through because I accidentally spent real cashmoney instead of my audible credit on it.
I guess I'm more frustrated with it being themes that I love but done so poorly. With cosmic horror, so few get it right. These authors can write for sure, they just can't tell a good story. I suppose I'll come back and scream about one of the stories being good if there is one, but my hopes are begrudgingly low.
Maybe it's meta-cosmic horror and the pain they're inflicting on you is the real point
looks real good but I was told that the dev has really bad track record.
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