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/lit/ - Literature


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14678065 No.14678065 [Reply] [Original]

I just downloaded Lovecraft's Complete Fiction. I am not a fan of his writing style, I find it a chore to get through. Nevertheless, he shaped horror as a genre, and I owe it to him to at least read some of his works. What should I read?

>> No.14678070

>>14678065
The Street

>> No.14678074

>>14678065
rats in the walls

>> No.14678083

Call of Cthulhu is obviously a classic, and it's interesting in how it jumps from perspective to perspective
Shadow over Innsmouth is another big one but I found it anticlimactic
Those are the big two, I didn't really find Color out of Space that compelling. I know what you mean by being unimpressed by his writing style - perhaps I haven't delved deep enough into his work or it's simply aged poorly, but i was hoping for something more descriptive. I really wanted something that went into details of the madness people faced, descriptions horrifying and cosmic visions etc etc, but I didn't find that in the few texts I read. Maybe I just didn't read the right ones.

>> No.14678134

>>14678065
I like his stuff where there's a threshold between life and death, the portal to the land of the dead, or involving dead bodies

The Nameless City
The Outsider
Cool Air
The Thing on the Doorstep
Reanimator is long af and hilariously racist at times, but has a lot of life/death play

>> No.14678146

In the Walls of Eryx is cool as well.

>> No.14678194

>>14678065
Shadow over Innsmouth is my personal favorite.
Color out of Space is some decent body horror
The Bell in the Tower is something he wrote together with Lin Carter I think. It's pretty decent as well. At least the concept is interesting.

>> No.14678196

>>14678065
At the mountains of madness
Shadow out of time
The dunwich horror
The whisperer in darkness
The lurking fear

>> No.14678303

>>14678065
Dunwich horror is to call of cthulhu as the purloined letter is to murders in the rue morgue.

>> No.14678315

The Music of Erich Zann is essential

>> No.14678360

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is pretty comfy desu

>> No.14678362 [DELETED] 

>>14678065
https://discord.gg/CnGHv8u

>> No.14679569

>>14678303
and Dunwich Horror is just Machen fan-fic. Would recommend Great God Pan after reading Dunwich.

>>14678315
This and Color Out of Space are my favourites. From Beyond is very fun too.

>> No.14679627

>>14678065
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
At the Mountains of Madness
The Rats in the Wall
The Colour out of Space
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

>> No.14679646

>>14678070
this is literally his worst. Not good, but maybe worth reading because it is so bad and short.

>> No.14679652

no one ever recommends it, but Beyond The Wall of Sleep is dope.

>> No.14679688

>Color out of Space
A meteor lands into a small town farm and begins corrupting the land. Essential Lovecraft and is probably one of his best works
>Shadow over Innsmouth
A man goes to a small town and begins to notice the disturbing nature of the locales. Another Lovecraft must read.
>Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath
A young man enters a dream world and seeks out a mysterious city. It’s fantasy Lovecraft and he’s surprisingly good at it
>Curious Case is Charles Dexter Ward
The history of a family and its most interesting man. The idea of this is really fucking cool
>At the Mountains of Madness
Men discover an ancient city in Antartica. I love this idea of pre-human history
>Herbert West Re-animator
A scientist makes zombies. Campy as fuck and knows it. It’s Lovecraft being self aware and having fun with a cheesy story

>> No.14679727
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14679727

>>14678196
>>14678196
this is the best list to start with, well chosen.

>> No.14679958

How do you guys imagine Niggerman to be?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SHa4_RJqzs

>> No.14680011

>>14678065
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Whisperer in the Darkness
The Music of Erich Zann
The Call of Cthulhu
The Strange High House in the Mist

>>14678134
>Reanimator is long af and hilariously racist at times
It really isn't. In Re-Animator, a deranged scientist (THE BAD GUY) lures Negro laborers to his lair and conducts obscene experiments on them because after all, he reasons, here in the South no one will miss them and they're practically animals anyway. If a woke mulatto had written the exact same words it would be considered a hysterical screed against white privilege.

>> No.14680033

>>14680011
He compared the black dude to a gorilla

>> No.14680625

>>14680033
one that knows unspeakable Congo secrets

>> No.14680781

>>14680625
Bless Lovecraft’s heart

>> No.14680809

what name

>> No.14680815

1) Nigger
2) Niggers
3) The Nigger
4) The Niggers
5) Niggerman

>> No.14680901

>>14678065
His greatest/most-important works:

The Call of Cthulhu
The Rats in the Walls
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Colour Out of Space
The Music of Erich Zann
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Out of Time

>>14678070
This is by far Lovecraft's worst horror story. I would recommend it only to hardcore horror fans and people who get a kick out of Lovecraft's xenophobia.

>> No.14681199

>>14678065

When i was 14 I first read The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and in my crappy angst and virgin ridden teenager years i longed to escape to the dream world.
Even now when i see footage of Antarctica I look for strange cubes on the top of mountain peaks, thanks to Mountains of Madness.
The Dunwich Horror, as much for the rural setting as anything
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is another favourite and has me looking for Essentiale Salts when im wandering round the Petrie Museum.
Imprisoned With The Pharoahs. - I was 2 grand short when the annotated manuscript Lovecraft sent to Houndini came up on Abebooks. I wish i got a loan now.

>> No.14681228

oh and as a genuine bonafide swarthy half-breed mulatto with actual headhunting ancestors if Lovecraft wasnt a racist motherfucker his works wouldnt have been half as good. there actually were shunned tribes and peoples regarded as despicable engaging in taboo acts in my part of the world

>> No.14681298

I like "The Terrible Old Man"

He was horrible

>> No.14682785

>>14678065
bumping so I can respond

>> No.14682929

>>14678065
Read On the Creation of Niggers.

>> No.14682982

>>14678065
if it takes you a long time to read his work, just listen to audio recordings of his stories - that's what I did (just for the sake of expediency)
here's my top 5, arranged chronologically:
(1927) The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (51,500 words)
>keywords: Joseph Curwen, grave, witchcraft, Salem
(1927) The Colour Out of Space (12,300 words)
>keywords: grey, brittle, blight, well
(1928) The Dunwich Horror (17,590 words)
>keywords: Arkham, farmhouse, cattle, Necronomicon, mountain
(1931) At the Mountains of Madness (41,500 words)
>keywords: Antarctica, Old Ones, sculpture, decadent, Shoggoth
(1935) The Shadow Out of Time (25,600 words)
>keywords: Australia, Great Race, time, minds
also, I'd include (1922) Herbert West–Reanimator as an uncharacteristic macabre-comedy. its main defect is a consequence of its serialization: each chapter starts with a summary of the whole plot so far, and it gets really repetitive. that said it's also really hilarious at times, and short.