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Cosmic horror, and the fear of the unknown
- Thread starter More_Badass
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JasonUresti
Member
She's a nice artist but her stories are pretty flimsy. Not much of a writer.
Its funny but I found out about this music video from the thread about Sony first party studios and what they're working on as an idea for another Bloodborne style game. Its an animated music video I hadn't even known about till yesterday but I think once everyone watches it they'll know exactly why I linked it.
NSFL:DyE - Fantasy
NSFL:DyE - Fantasy
nailbombxx
Member
Heads up, this video is definitely NSFW. Lol.
So its properly Lovecraftian.
I was listening to a reading of The White People last night while going to sleep, and it may be just because I have the new season on the brain, but it was giving me strong Twin Peaks vibes. With a young girl being conditioned by a strange adult and tempted by a mysterious force in the woods which we are discovering through her diary. Along with the theme of people and forces that aspire to true Sin and Virtue, and not our flawed common facsimiles.
It doesn't line up one to one, but it's an interesting companion piece.
It doesn't line up one to one, but it's an interesting companion piece.
Astral Dog
Member
Yeah only one story had a good conclusion but the drawings were entertaining.
Got this in the system. I'll put a request on it and check it out next week.Fear of the unknown?
This is AMAZING. It may have already been mentioned in this thread but if not, READ THIS NOW.
I haven't read much "cosmic horror" aside from some Lovecraft (and if you want to count Stephen King as "cosmic" given the macroverse stuff though on an individual novel level that's rarely in evidence), so this is a great thread.
Anyway, "The Colour out of Space" is probably one of my favorite stories ever followed by "The Dunwich Horror" if I had to pick my favorites out of the Lovecraft I've read. They affect me far more than "Call of Cthulhu".
Anyway, "The Colour out of Space" is probably one of my favorite stories ever followed by "The Dunwich Horror" if I had to pick my favorites out of the Lovecraft I've read. They affect me far more than "Call of Cthulhu".
This is literally the only thing to watch for when picking up a Lovecraft book: was the text edited by S. T. Joshi? Only buy it if the answer is yes. Many archived Lovecraft stories were copied from Weird Tales, and those texts contained numerous editing errors. One story is even missing a whole page in some non-Joshi collections.
Joshi has spent decades researching Lovecraft's original handwritten manuscripts. He painstakingly compiled Lovecraft's definitive versions of his texts, and fixed all publisher errors that were frustratingly preserved in various stories that had been floating around for decades.
He also gave permission for anyone to use his edits in any and all future Lovecraft collections published since he finished his work, and the only reason new books are still being released with pre-Joshi errors is due to the laziness of publishers. Annoyingly, there have been some beautiful books released over the last couple of decades that dropped the ball on using Joshi's definitive edits, so it pays to be mindful, and be aware that not all Lovecraft texts are the same.
I have the Arkham House editions, but the Penguin Classics, Library of America, and plenty of other collections also use Joshi's remastered Lovecraft stories.
nailbombxx
Member
My man. Those are exactly my two favorite Lovecraft stories too, oddly enough. They both have an amazing folk horror-like atmosphere like Machen or Blackwood, except set in rural New England with Lovecraft's interest in crazy shit from space.
If you really like "The Colour Out of Space", then definitely read "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" by Thomas Ligotti. From the Grimscribe collection. Incredible story - like the inverse of The Color Out of Space.
Speaking of Ligotti, any Lovecraft fans who are unfamiliar with him need to go read "The Last Feast of the Harlequin", ASAP. Especially if you're afraid of clowns too.
I finished Uzumaki today. Overall I thought it great. When it tries to be creepy it's decently creepy. When it's a little silly it still stays genuinely interesting. There was 1 chapter (or maybe 2) near the end I could have done without as it felt a little too out of place tonally. I did find the writing kind of weak though. I mean it was serviceable, but maybe a little too on-the-nose. It could be a translation issue or something. This was my first manga though, so maybe it's just a common thing with them.
RoyaleDuke
Banned
I think my two favorite obscure Lovecraft Stories are probably Cool Air and Beyond the Wall of Sleep.
The Colour out of Space is wonderful too, probably one of my favorites too.
The Hound is fantastic, as is The Dunwich Horror, The White Ship is a haunting story as is The Music of Erich Zahn.
The Whisperer in Darkness, The Shadow Out of Time are also incredible The Whisperer In Darkness's ending is fucking incredible.
Cool Air though, that story unsettled me for a couple months when I first read it.
In comparison the first time I read IT, I was only disturbed for a day or two.
The Colour out of Space is wonderful too, probably one of my favorites too.
The Hound is fantastic, as is The Dunwich Horror, The White Ship is a haunting story as is The Music of Erich Zahn.
The Whisperer in Darkness, The Shadow Out of Time are also incredible The Whisperer In Darkness's ending is fucking incredible.
Cool Air though, that story unsettled me for a couple months when I first read it.
In comparison the first time I read IT, I was only disturbed for a day or two.
Eternal Gamer
Member
Cool Air is a great short story, everybody whom I have given a copy of it have become fascinated after reading it.
RoyaleDuke
Banned
When I was in High School I had to do a presentation on Lovecraft along with a huge essay, it was being graded on College AP level so the pressure was on. Citing Joshi's work helped me get an A+.
A lot of people just half assed it but I really put in the effort because the more I learned about Lovecraft(thanks in large part to S.T Joshi), read many of his letters. I had both The Call of Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories as well as the second volume, The Thing On The Doorstep & Other Weird Stories, both under the Penguin Classics imprint which uses Joshi's work exclusively to reproduce the best reading, complete forms of Lovecraft's work. The work that has so influenced me so deeply as a writer.
I learned a lot about Lovecraft and a lot about myself weirdly, me and him were Born 100 years apart, in the same month but his a day later at the same hour as me, he lived his life a sickly person with awful night terrors. We were both oddly bright young children who could read and write at very young ages, well beyond our peers. A love and fear of science, etc.
I mean I find the man and his work fascinating.
It's an incredible story on the power of obsession and ambition, warped by the weird. Another great story for that is From Beyond(the movie is great too ahaha).
The actual Herbert West story is also pretty fucking amazing.
You're so right about The Whisperer in Darkness. As for more obscure favorites, I especially love He and The Festival. Is The Music of Erich Zann obscure? It's one of Lovecraft's very best, and deserves to be discussed in the same breath as Innsmouth, Colour, etc. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kaddath is another one I feel doesn't get the appreciation it deserves, but few people read Lovecraft for his dreamier work.
By far my favourite obscure Lovecraft tale is The Mound. It's a novella that was commissioned by another author who essentially asked Lovecraft to write a story about the ghost of an Indigenous American man, and Lovecraft just went nuts and created an insane story about a bizarre ancient civilisation of decadent nightmare people living underground and worshopping Tsathoggua. Up there with my all time favourite stories.
RoyaleDuke
Banned
By the time you reach the conclusion of the whisperer in darkness, you are just as fucking wrecked, scared, and fearful as the narrator describing everything in lurid, analytic detail. You know, I find it funny that people say Lovecraft gave no form to his horrors, that is absolutely not true, it's just that the form we see is simply one we can perceive. He often describes something as indescribable then describes it carefully, but people often forget the feeling of history and dread that his stories contain, his love of architecture for example is greatly outlined in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Dunwich Horror. Many of his characters are either partial mirrors of Lovecraft himself, his views or ideals and interests or people he knew.
The Mound isn't bad, it's kind of like Under the Pyramids(with Harry Houdini), another obscure one if I remember the name correctly is called The Tomb. Basically, archeologists find a crazy non-euclidean ruin somewhere, one dude sets up a radio station outside it and another dude goes on inside while talking back what he sees over the radio. Eventually, his friend
goes silent and a terrifying voice tells him that his friend is dead and to run for his life.
It was such a fucking scary read.
Erich Zahn is pretty obscure man, most people haven't heard of it. Another incredible read.
EDIT: and no one gives Herbert West: Reanimator enough credit, the short story is a nightmare ride that paints West as a complete sociopath, and his creations as unkillable and he inevitably falls to hubris. Most people know it as that one story that spawned a movie by Stuart Gordon that is also great.
PensivePen
Member
Happy to see a thread like this. I first began reading Lovecraft when I was about 14 years old, during my Junior year in High School. I had heard the name before, but wasn't familiar with his works. I remember pretty vividly the cover of the book I picked out from my local library when I wanted to start his work. The first two stories I read were The Picture in the House (which I chose for its brevity) and the Colour out of Space. I was chilled, and fascinated, and immediately began reading more. I was fortunate that I happened across Joshi's two volumes of annotated Lovecraft works. They're two excellent books which I always recommend to people wanting to get started with HPL. The notes within helped me get past some of the obscure language and the insights only fueled my passion to read and learn more.
A couple years later after devouring all of Lovecraft's own work I started delving into the world of Lovecraft-inspired anthologies and the works of his friends and colleagues. I think my personal favorite Lovecraft-but-not-Lovecraft story is Robert Bloch's "Notebook Found in a Deserted House" which has a terribly oppressing atmosphere of isolation and builds up to such a great, suspenseful climax. In general I find most Lovecraft-inspired fiction to be very hit or miss, more miss than hit unfortunately. I tend to like it more when an author brings their own writing style and themes in rather than attempting to mimic Lovecraft's prose.
In recent years I've begun delving into the world of Lovecraftian tabletop roleplaying with games like Call of Cthulhu (designed by Sandy Petersen of Doom fame), Trail of Cthulhu and Delta Green. Getting to engross oneself into a cosmic horror story through them is a pretty delightful experience, provided the players and GM are equally invested. Even just reading the various sourcebooks is often enough to set the imagination alight with ideas.
I have become very interested in Delta Green's line of fiction lately, which attempts to bring Lovecraft's ideas into the modern day world of government conspiracy. (Well, I say 'modern day, but the line of fiction/material actually started back in the 90s). Probably my favorite Delta Green based story is Dennis Detwiller's "Drowning in Sand" which is available online in free audiobook form.
A couple years later after devouring all of Lovecraft's own work I started delving into the world of Lovecraft-inspired anthologies and the works of his friends and colleagues. I think my personal favorite Lovecraft-but-not-Lovecraft story is Robert Bloch's "Notebook Found in a Deserted House" which has a terribly oppressing atmosphere of isolation and builds up to such a great, suspenseful climax. In general I find most Lovecraft-inspired fiction to be very hit or miss, more miss than hit unfortunately. I tend to like it more when an author brings their own writing style and themes in rather than attempting to mimic Lovecraft's prose.
In recent years I've begun delving into the world of Lovecraftian tabletop roleplaying with games like Call of Cthulhu (designed by Sandy Petersen of Doom fame), Trail of Cthulhu and Delta Green. Getting to engross oneself into a cosmic horror story through them is a pretty delightful experience, provided the players and GM are equally invested. Even just reading the various sourcebooks is often enough to set the imagination alight with ideas.
I have become very interested in Delta Green's line of fiction lately, which attempts to bring Lovecraft's ideas into the modern day world of government conspiracy. (Well, I say 'modern day, but the line of fiction/material actually started back in the 90s). Probably my favorite Delta Green based story is Dennis Detwiller's "Drowning in Sand" which is available online in free audiobook form.
Hope it's okay to post this here, felt like it was the best place to show it off, this was some ink that I recently had done, designed by a very talented friend of mine and then tattooed by an artist in Brighton. I know Cthulhu has become almost cliche in recent years, but the story means a lot to me and what it represents to me personally was something I felt so strongly about as to want this work done.
RuinerPrime
Member
Looks great! I also plan on doing something Cosmic Horror in nature for my first tattoo.
mcz117chief
Member
So who watched the short movie Laokoon I posted on page 2? It is definitely one of the best Space Horrors ever made.
I always rep The Outsider as the secret best Lovecraft story. Something just so... off about it that you always feels but don't really truly pick up on until the story ends. The entire beginning is filled with so many partial bits of information that paint a rather disturbing whole while never really telling you what's going on. The ending is great as well but the whole story just has a very strange even uncomfortable feel without being too in your face about it.
That was seriously awesome, especially the ending haha. Was not expecting that. Thanks for the share!
Spladam
Member
I watched it, had to use your translations. That shit was bat shit crazy, like Monty Pythons meets Science Fiction.
Also, I would like to thank this thread for introducing me to SCP Foundation.
mcz117chief
Member
It is always nice to see aliens who actually look alien
Did you like any of the SCP stuff you read so far? I really couldn't find any legit good ones expect for the joke ones like the killer ice cream truck, which is amazing, but no scary ones.
piratepwnsninja
Member
It is always nice to see aliens who actually look alien
Did you like any of the SCP stuff you read so far? I really couldn't find any legit good ones expect for the joke ones like the killer ice cream truck, which is amazing, but no scary ones.
I find a number of SCP entries to be more unsettling than outright scary.
D
Deleted member 80556
Unconfirmed Member
I might have started reading SCP's when I was a bit young, so I was prone to get scared, but I always found the Old Man incredibly scary.
We also had a SCP thread where people posted their favorite SCP (wished that hadn't been left to die, but oh well), and this is one of the creepy ones.
What Happened to Site-13?
We also had a SCP thread where people posted their favorite SCP (wished that hadn't been left to die, but oh well), and this is one of the creepy ones.
What Happened to Site-13?
More_Badass
Member
The news here is not completely confirmed, but damn if it isn't the perfect prompt/starting point for a good lovecraftian/cosmic horror story
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...m-million-dollar-home/?utm_term=.904792ca5c3a
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...m-million-dollar-home/?utm_term=.904792ca5c3a
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
That's pretty damn creepy.
Secret Fawful
Member
It's pretty incredible. It's one of the best depictions of an unknowable space horror I've seen. A really similar Polish horror series that really gets under my skin is Kraina Grzybów, or Land of Mushrooms, which is pretty unknowable and surreal. I don't know that it fits into cosmic horror, but I thought I'd mention it.
I don't think I've ever seen anything that frightens me more and makes me feel like I've seen something unutterable than this series.
i'm two episodes into this and it's exactly what i've been looking for. like Welcome to Nightvale but played completely straight. spooky as hell.
I did - that was crazy! I didn't see your translation part until after I'd watched it but the visuals were so striking that I could follow it pretty well. Nice find!
Very cool! I always said if the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl I'll get a tattoo, so...
How bad did that hurt on the inside of your arm like that? I think it looks awesome but I'm just imagining have to fill in all that black.
You're in for a treat. I haven't listened in a while, but it was consistently good to where I last listened (which was 35 I think?)
Question to the others - where the hell do I start with SCP stuff?
cr0w
Old Member
The Hound scared the shit out of me when I first read it. The lead up to opening the grave as the hound's baying was getting closer...fuck.
TheChewyWaffles
Member
After reading Lovecraft's "The Colour out of space" this weekend and having read Vandermeer's trilogy, I'll say that the latter is very much cosmic horror, especially the first novel, which I think is directly inspired by the Lovecraft short story given some of its similarities.
Anyway, I've read a bunch of Lovecraft this weekend due to this thread, and last night had some really, really weird dreams.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
That's sick. People are sick.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
More_Badass
Member
Write them down, maybe you'll be the next Lovecraft
Any of you know of any good cosmic horror audiobooks on audible? I have a credit to burn and don't think I'm gonna continue with The Dark Tower series. I'd like to take a break from King for right now also.
A large collection of short stories is welcome. Already burned through Lovecraft, fiddling with King in Yellow.
A large collection of short stories is welcome. Already burned through Lovecraft, fiddling with King in Yellow.
Calamari41
41 > 38
Getting a fat Amazon cart from this thread, thanks to everyone for the myriad suggestions.
One question I have is where should I start with Laird Barron? It looks like he has quite a lot to choose from, and I'd prefer to start with one book. Is "Swift to Chase" a good starting point?
One question I have is where should I start with Laird Barron? It looks like he has quite a lot to choose from, and I'd prefer to start with one book. Is "Swift to Chase" a good starting point?
Baconsaurus Rex
Member
This beautiful little thing came in today
and it's a misprint
The pages have been put in upside down.
and it's a misprint
The pages have been put in upside down.
Also for metal fans. I raise you Obed Marsh
https://obedmarsh.bandcamp.com/
(Portal is amazing too, but Obed Marsh is pretty special.)
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
can do it the old fashioned way and start from scp 001 proposals http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-001 and work your way down from there or check out some of our other threads for some good recommendations
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=629066
and
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1268628&page=1
https://neogaf.site/forum/showthread.php?p=232870771
More_Badass
Member
Hey, hey!
So like HBO + Jordan Peele + Lovecraft mythos (adaptation of Lovecraft Country book) is a thing that's happening
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=237046560
So like HBO + Jordan Peele + Lovecraft mythos (adaptation of Lovecraft Country book) is a thing that's happening
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=237046560
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