# HP Lovecraft **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 20, 2011, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227 "2011-10-20T07:44:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/41 "2011-10-28T22:41:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Ya think? > > " One disgusting canvas seemed to depict a vast cross-section of Beacon Hill, with ant-like armies of the mephitic monsters squeezing themselves through burrows that honeycombed the ground. Dances in the modern cemeteries were freely pictured, and another conception somehow shocked me more than all the rest—a scene in an unknown vault, where scores of the beasts crowded about one who held a well-known Boston guide-book and was evidently reading aloud. All were pointing to a certain passage, and every face seemed so distorted with epileptic and reverberant laughter that I almost thought I heard the fiendish echoes. The title of the picture was, “Holmes, Lowell, and Longfellow Lie Buried in Mount Auburn”." > > – “Pickman’s Model” Good point. Mods, please amend my post to read “Lovecraft’s **putative** grave”. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/42 "2011-10-28T23:58:19Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [You may now atone.](http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/) Why, thankee, kind sir. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/43 "2011-10-29T01:16:41Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > So, whose dressing up as an old one this year? Actually, I had planned to wear a costume. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/44 "2011-10-29T02:18:15Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > That reminds me, Lovecraft’s grave is about half an hour from my house, and I keep meaning to visit it. I think I’ll do that…(after Halloween, that is). You ain’t got a hair if you don’t go there after dark on the 31st. Not a single one, I tellz ya! :D:D ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/45 "2011-10-31T23:22:26Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > So, whose dressing up as an old one this year? I’m putting the costume together over a period of years. 😃 Seriously, If I had had time, I’d have made an Innsmouth/Deep One costume if I could. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/46 "2011-11-01T03:50:01Z")
And there’s always The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/47 "2011-11-01T08:42:06Z")
_The Outsider_ is an old favorite of mine, I read it as a kid and it made an impression. And another vote for _The Colour out of Space_ being one of his best. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/48 "2011-11-01T15:23:48Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > And there’s always The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen. Definitely one of HPL’s influences. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/49 "2011-11-03T02:02:52Z")
There’s always this: > **[Dr. Seuss' The Call of Cthulhu for Beginning Readers](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=629694)** > > This is absolutely priceless Cover:DrFaustusAU - Traditional Artist | DeviantArt Artist’s site with all his pages: ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/50 "2011-11-09T18:13:13Z")
[moderating] Moved thread from “Boo!” to Cafe Society so discussion can continue when the Boo! forum closes later today. [/moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/51 "2011-11-09T23:44:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Not to be That Guy, but I’ve never been impressed with Lovecraft. Yeah, yeah, he leaves it to his readers’ imaginations… But why do I need a book for that at all? An author telling me “But really, take my word for it, it was really scary, but no I won’t tell you at all what was scary about it” just doesn’t do it for me. Honestly, this isn’t a very accurate description of most of Lovecraft’s stories. At least, not his major ones. In addition to the description quoted by **BrainGlutton** , “At the Mountains of Madness” includes a clinical autopsy of one of the Elder Things that describes the creature in minute details - it takes about two pages to get through the whole description. Cthulhu, in his titular story, doesn’t get as much detail, but there’s still some pretty solid imagery describing him. “The Colour Out of Space,” despite having his most abstract monster, gives a good account of what the monster looked like. Likewise for “Pickman’s Model,” “Rats in the Walls” (no actual monster, but he doesn’t pull his punches on the shocking reveal at the end), “Dreams in the Witchhouse,” and “The Shadow Out of Time,” just going off the top of my head. Lovecraft makes a lot of noise about ideas or sights that the human mind can’t comprehend, but that never much stopped him from going on to described those ideas or sights in vivid detail. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/52 "2011-11-10T06:30:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Hey, that’s not the whole of him, sometimes it’s like [this:](http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/dh.asp) > > > [@](#): > > > > The thing that lay half-bent on its side in a foetid pool of greenish-yellow ichor and tarry stickiness was almost nine feet tall, and the dog had torn off all the clothing and some of the skin. It was not quite dead, but twitched silently and spasmodically while its chest heaved in monstrous unison with the mad piping of the expectant whippoorwills outside. Bits of shoe-leather and fragments of apparel were scattered about the room, and just inside the window an empty canvas sack lay where it had evidently been thrown. Near the central desk a revolver had fallen, a dented but undischarged cartridge later explaining why it had not been fired. The thing itself, however, crowded out all other images at the time. It would be trite and not wholly accurate to say that no human pen could describe it, but one may properly say that it could not be vividly visualised by anyone whose ideas of aspect and contour are too closely bound up with the common life-forms of this planet and of the three known dimensions. It was partly human, beyond a doubt, with very man-like hands and head, and the goatish, chinless face had the stamp of the Whateleys upon it. But the torso and lower parts of the body were teratologically fabulous, so that only generous clothing could ever have enabled it to walk on earth unchallenged or uneradicated. > > I think that leaves just **enough** to the imagination. The Whisperer in Darkness! That’s my fav. (Whoops, Dunwich Horror, oh well) I can’t wait until I get my Kindle. I look forward to diving back into his works, and so many more. Imagine, a book-sized item that holds many, many books that can called up instantly! My teenaged self can’t believe the really modern world his adult self lives in. Link to some of his works from Project Gutenberg. [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?format=html&default\_prefix=all&sort\_order=downloads&query=lovecraft](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?format=html&default_prefix=all&sort_order=downloads&query=lovecraft) ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/53 "2011-11-11T15:38:10Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Did someone say [Pickman’s Model](http://www.joshuahoffine.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=0)? AUGH!!! Why did i look??? Slide #12 had me climbing over the back of the couch again. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/54 "2011-11-11T16:32:05Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Honestly, this isn’t a very accurate description of most of Lovecraft’s stories. At least, not his major ones. In addition to the description quoted by **BrainGlutton** , “At the Mountains of Madness” includes a clinical autopsy of one of the Elder Things that describes the creature in minute details - it takes about two pages to get through the whole description. _ATMOM_ also shows HPL’s talent for making a scary story even scarier by telling it **indirectly.** You **know,** when you read that account based on notes and transmissions and what is found in the camp, that what happened to the that missing sub-expedition was that some of the Elder Things they found were only hibernating, woke up, and killed all the humans and dogs, and buried those of their own who were too damaged to be revived. But it’s more chilling [_snerk_] than if he had simply described/narrated all that. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/55 "2011-11-11T18:11:03Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > _ATMOM_ also shows HPL’s talent for making a scary story even scarier by telling it **indirectly.** You **know,** when you read that account based on notes and transmissions and what is found in the camp, that what happened to the that missing sub-expedition was that some of the Elder Things they found were only hibernating, woke up, and killed all the humans and dogs, and buried those of their own who were too damaged to be revived. But it’s more chilling [_snerk_] than if he had simply described/narrated all that. Slightly worse than that: The Old Ones dissected some of the men and dogs, just as the men had dissected some of them. ISTR there were even some hints that the Old Ones dissected the men while they were still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/56 "2011-11-11T19:25:24Z")
Why has it taken me so long to read The Shadow Over Innsmouth? I like it a lot. It’s got creeping dread and heart-pounding action. But I’m going to be a bit of a grump and say that I wish it had been overtly written as a journal. Presenting it as a single narrative being written immediately before the protagonist is determined to return to Innsmouth makes the horror he describes and his revulsion at the natives, etc., really jarringly contrast with his final decision to go with his ancestral tendencies. Making it individual journal entries over time would make more sense. I heard an audio play version of The Statement of Randloph Carter that was really effective. Brrr. And Pickman’s Model might be the best story to introduce someone to Lovecraft - short and sweet, and it works on ya, long after you’re done reading. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/57 "2011-11-11T19:34:32Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > I heard an audio play version of The Statement of Randloph Carter that was really effective. Brrr. And Pickman’s Model might be the best story to introduce someone to Lovecraft - short and sweet, and it works on ya, long after you’re done reading. You know what’s a lot of fun? Read Pickman’s Model right before you ride the Green line through Boston, then walk through the North End. Especially late at night - I swear I’ve seen a ghoul asking for spare change. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/58 "2011-11-12T01:32:56Z")
I keep imagining a writer I call H.P. Likecraft. He’s written: \*The Colorado Space The Stumbler in Darkness Pac-Man’s Model\* The last one is a horror story about the Happy Face. (Call of Cthulhu has been done to _death_. There’s no way I could include a parody title.) ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/59 "2011-11-12T12:40:52Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I still firmly believe that a huge blockbuster CGI Cthulhu film would be absolutely spectacular. They spent tons on that shitty monster Cloverfield. Cthulhu would be 10 times better with a built in fanbase. My review without before the movie even exists: “The most squamous, rugose, cyclopean movie of the year!” ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227/60 "2011-11-17T15:46:37Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > You know what’s a lot of fun? Read Pickman’s Model right before you ride the Green line through Boston, then walk through the North End. Especially late at night - I swear I’ve seen a ghoul asking for spare change. Ghoul story, bro. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-lovecraft/600227.md?page=4)