/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.14156356]

For me... it's The Outsider

[Anonymous No.14156397]

>>14156356
>not Whisperer in Darkness
Get out m8

[Anonymous No.14156420]

>>14156356
Contender for best non Cthulhu Mythos, non Dream Lands story. IMO it competes with The Shunned House.

[Anonymous No.14156430]

>>14156420
This. It was one of the few that really caught me off guard and pulled the rug from under me. What's his best overall story?

[Anonymous No.14156455]

What do you guys think of "The music of Erich Zann"? and "The moon bog"? They both have this hazelike, captivating quality that I can't really describe.

[Anonymous No.14156456]

>>14156430
Personally I think his best is between The Color Out of Space, The Dunwich Horror and The Shadow out of Time.

[Anonymous No.14156463]

His most tragic story for sure

[Anonymous No.14156470]

For me it's The Lurking Fear

>God knows how many there were—there must have been thousands. To see the stream of
them in that faint, intermittent lightning was shocking. When they had thinned out enough to
be glimpsed as separate organisms, I saw that they were dwarfed, deformed hairy devils or
apes—monstrous and diabolic caricatures of the monkey tribe. They were so hideously silent;
there was hardly a squeal when one of the last stragglers turned with the skill of long practice
to make a meal in accustomed fashion on a weaker companion. Others snapped up what it
left and ate with slavering relish. Then, in spite of my daze of fright and disgust, my morbid
curiosity triumphed; and as the last of the monstrosities oozed up alone from that nether world
of unknown nightmare, I drew my automatic pistol and shot it under cover of the thunder.

>Shrieking, slithering, torrential shadows of red viscous madness chasing one another through
endless, ensanguined corridors of purple fulgurous sky . . . formless phantasms and
kaleidoscopic mutations of a ghoulish, remembered scene; forests of monstrous
overnourished oaks with serpent roots twisting and sucking unnamable juices from an earth
verminous with millions of cannibal devils; mound-like tentacles groping from underground
nuclei of polypous perversion . . . insane lightning over malignant ivied walls and daemon
arcades choked with fungous vegetation. . . . Heaven be thanked for the instinct which led me
unconscious to places where men dwell; to the peaceful village that slept under the calm stars
of clearing skies.

[Anonymous No.14156480]

>>14156455
I like the latter more. The wonderfully dreamy build up and the sense of real time passing and a legacy of this great civilisation on the page. Everytime I try and wrote something like that I end up rushing through it with stupid levels of speed and it feels rushed even though it might cover the same number of pages. Zann is good too but I feel the ultimate horror of the final encounter is less of a pay off than it should be. The tension Zann feels about the window is kino, it should have been the protagonist hearing the horror take him from downstairs or something.

>>14156456
I always felt Dunwich was a bit of a creature feature and too monster orientated for HPL. He is best with the gentler touch.

[Anonymous No.14156504]

>>14156470
This. I was convinced it was a force of nature at first or something to do with the storm but then these disgusting albino golems come along. Pretty fucking good desu.

[Anonymous No.14156537]

>>14156356
Ghouls are amazing. All of his material that mentions ghouls excites me greatly.

[Anonymous No.14156560]

For me it's the Whisperer...

[Anonymous No.14156590]

>>14156480
Maybe, but I feel that Dunwich has one of his best climaxes.
>He is best with the gentler touch.
But I agree with this. He is at his best when lorebuilding. It's what makes Shadow Out of Time so fantastic. It is gripping not because of any dramatic build up, but because the civilization and culture he details is so fascinating. It is also why I love Shunned House. The investigation of the house's history, with the subtle horrific implications that spring up occasionally, is delightful. Rats in the Walls has this as well.
Lovecraft is horror fiction for historians.

[Anonymous No.14156612]

Through the Gates of the Silver Key

>a strange, awesome mutation… a sense of incalculable disturbance and confusion in time and space, yet one which held no hint of what we recognise as motion and duration. [Punctuated, nevertheless, by] some perceptible rhythm… a faint, cryptical pulse. […] Now, there was neither cave nor absence of cave; neither wall nor absence of wall. There was only a flux of impressions not so much visual as cerebral, amidst which the entity that was Randolph Carter experienced perceptions or registrations of all that his mind revolved on, yet without any clear consciousness of the way in which he received them.

[Anonymous No.14156627]

The Haunter of the Dark is underrated.

[Anonymous No.14156631]

>>14156480
Yeah I do too. The moon bog is definitely the better horror in my opinion. I really like the foggy swamp-like setting, more horror stories should use it. The thing I like about Erich Zann is the mystery and the atmosphere, very comfy read.

[Anonymous No.14156643]

>>14156631
>Erich Zann

It has great cityscape descriptions too.

>I have never seen another street as narrow and steep as the Rue d‘Auseil. It was almost a cliff, closed to all vehicles, consisting in several places of flights of steps, and ending at the top in a lofty ivied wall. Its paving was irregular, sometimes stone slabs, sometimes cobblestones, and sometimes bare earth with struggling greenish-grey vegetation. The houses were tall, peaked-roofed, incredibly old, and crazily leaning backward, forward, and sidewise. Occasionally an opposite pair, both leaning forward, almost met across the street like an arch; and certainly they kept most of the light from the ground below. There were a few overhead bridges from house to house across the street

[Anonymous No.14157228]

>>14156590
100 percent agree. He is kino when it comes to building a vague and misty lore. If he gets too heavy with the reveal he runs it some. Although I love whisperer and that is very up front with that kind of description. But it is a species and not the big bad at least.

[Anonymous No.14157250]

>>14156430
I'd like to say the dream quest of unknown kadath, but its only good because it references all those other stories.

[Anonymous No.14157271]

For me, it's Polaris.

[Anonymous No.14157284]

>>14157228
The nameless city is great at this. The lizard thing's only showing of humans being one being torn apart always makes me shudder.

[Anonymous No.14157300]

I've only read the Cthulhu mythos stories so far and my favourite is probably Whisperer or Innsmouth. Dreams in the Witch House is up there too. I'm looking forward to reading the dream cycle stories.

[Anonymous No.14157320]

>>14156590
Yes I agree also. For instance, I really liked the set up and beginning of Mountains of Madness but I basically lost interest after the 'thing' happened. I feel like Lovecraft is very good at building up to something but can't always pull off a reveal to match the quality of the tension he previously established.

[Anonymous No.14157400]

>>14156627
It certainly is anon.
>>14156631
The mystery is good but then kicking the door down to watch a luminous entity swallow poor erich is kinda silly to me. Just have the petrified protagonist lurk at the door and hear the horror from afar imo.

[Anonymous No.14157440]

>>14157250
I haven't read it in a while but I remember it being a bit too dreamy and nebulous and moonbog gave a really rich atmosphere and setting in comparison.

>>14157271
Good shout anon. I like it for the dreamscape setting but also having a narrative too of a mad high priest and the trials of a city there. Usually you get one or the other.

>>14157284
Great shout anon :)

>>14157300
They are my least favourite. For me he is better as a solid physical horror writer rather than a dream one. Whisperer is my favourite besides outsider. The ongoing buildings upon terror is superb. And all of it real too rather than fever dream.

>>14157320
The only lovecraft story or poem or anything I never read. I must go and do it one day.

[Anonymous No.14157468]

BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP

besides the gay ending of course

[Anonymous No.14157520]

Who do you guys think he wrote Old Bugs after?

[Anonymous No.14158289]

>>14156356
The White Ship is my favorite. It's not Lovecraft's best by any means, but I love reading it and listening to it. I especially like this audiobook:

>>14156420
>Cthulhu Mythos
>Dream Cycle
Get out of here with that trash. Almost all Lovecraft stories have varying degrees of physical cosmicism, classic horror and dream. They can't be sorted out into definite categories like that.

>>14156455
I think The Moon Bog is one of Lovecraft's weakest stories, although it certainly has some interesting elements and a captivating atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.14158301]

>>14157468
>besides the gay ending of course
That's the best part, you pleb.

>"You have been my friend in the cosmos; you have been my only friend on this planet—the only soul to sense and seek for me within the repellent form which lies on this couch. We shall meet again—perhaps in the shining mists of Orion’s Sword, perhaps on a bleak plateau in prehistoric Asia. Perhaps in unremembered dreams tonight; perhaps in some other form an aeon hence, when the solar system shall have been swept away."

Beautiful.

[Anonymous No.14158321]

>>14156356
The White Ship is my favorite. It's not Lovecraft's best by any means, but I love reading it and listening to it. I especially like this audiobook:
https://youtu.be/mLMlo_0oIs0

>>14156420
>Cthulhu Mythos
>Dream Cycle
Get out of here with that trash. Almost all Lovecraft stories have varying degrees of physical cosmicism, classic horror and dream. They can't be sorted out into definite categories like that.

>>14156455
I think The Moon Bog is one of Lovecraft's weakest stories, although it certainly has some interesting elements and a captivating atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.14158390]

>>14158301
no, it's incredibly unelegant and completely obliterates that haze of ineffability that characterises the rest of the story. our knowledge of this entity isn't gradually revealed to us - it's a zap, an assault, which in turn renders the knowledge mundane imo. but, taste is taste i guess

[Anonymous No.14158464]

>>14156612
I have yet to see someone convey the experience of altered states of consciousness as effectively as Lovecraft. It's ever the more surprising when you know that he never touched a single mind altering substance, not even alcohol.

[Anonymous No.14158569]

>>14158321
>white ship high up
>moon bog low on the list
Why would you say something so controversial yet do brave?

[Anonymous No.14158688]

For me lads, it's At the Mountains of Madness

[Anonymous No.14158724]

>>14158688
your sons are patrician
also checked

[Anonymous No.14158777]

>>14156397
fpbp

[Anonymous No.14158810]

>>14158569
I just don't find The Moon Bog to be all that compelling nor particularly well constructed, desu. Also, most of the elements which make this story interesting were recycled from The Doom that Came to Sarnath and for The Rats in the Walls, in which they are far more effectively executed. That doesn't mean I don't like it; on the contrary, I revisit it from time to time. I just find it to be inferior to other Lovecraft stories.
On the other hand, I think The White Ship is a beautiful and captivating story with a pleasantly poetic prose. Dunsanian pastiche? Maybe. But I love it.

[Anonymous No.14158922]

What do you guys think of The Strange High House in the Mist and Hypnos? They are seldomly ever discussed.

[Anonymous No.14159004]

It's a bit of a popular one these days, but my favorite is "The Colour Out of Space". The atmosphere is intense, the concept/premise is enigmatic and imaginative, and it's fairly spooky/horrific. I have no hope for the movie and I really wish they weren't making it. "Cool Air", didn't impress me too much when I first read it, but it's stuck with me and It's become probably my second favorite. It's almost more black humor than anything else, and I think it's short and sweet and still pretty evocative.

>>14156397
"Whisperer in Darkness" is obviously one of his incontestably best works, though.

>>14157250
>but its only good because it references all those other stories.
Considering that he literally wrote a whole mythos, having one grand story that connects or references many/all of them isn't really a knock against it at all.

[Anonymous No.14159088]

>>14157320
>I feel like Lovecraft is very good at building up to something but can't always pull off a reveal to match the quality of the tension he previously established.
This is most apparent in The Picture in the House. That story has a masterfully tense build up - seriously, it is one of his most effective - and then the ending is such an abrupt cop out. It feels like Lovecraft had no idea how to end it satisfyingly so he just pulls an absurd deus ex machina out of nowhere.

[Anonymous No.14159122]

The Silver Key for me, although I'm just now getting into his later stuff so I'll probably find a new favorite. It comes off as more philosophical than anything else I read from him.

[Anonymous No.14160123]

[Anonymous No.14160153]

For me it's the name of his cat

[Anonymous No.14160847]

>>14156356
>For me... it's Nigger Man

[Anonymous No.14161037]

I was gonna make a seperate thread, but what is the lit concensus on Algernon Blackwood, recently read The Wendigo and The Willows aND it caught me off guard how actually scary they were

[Anonymous No.14161058]

>>14156356
Shout out to "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". It's not his best, but showing recurring protagonist Randolph Carter meet a benevolent Yog-Sothoth and get turned into an alien sorcerer really pulls the rug out from under you.

[Anonymous No.14161064]

You mean, the king in yellow?

[Anonymous No.14161079]

I live in Arkham. They are painting it, bulldozing it, making it seem all nice and pretty and 21st Century (instead of cashing in on the slogothian horror that is our true legacy.) But it's OK. Like Charles Dexter Ward, they will find out. Oh, they will find out.

[Anonymous No.14161179]

>>14158922
I get all sorts of comfy feelings from the house in the mist.

My favourites are Pickman's Model and The Thing at the doorstep (I just love the fact that there's an actual supernatural antagonist mingling with humans)

[Anonymous No.14161298]

>>14160153
>>14160847
VERY patrician posts anons.

[Anonymous No.14161308]

>>14161037
I, the OP, really like him. The one with the two ghosts of the natives that invade the cottage is really fucking good.

But for me, outside of HPL, it's Robert W Chambers and his first four stories from The King In Yellow

[Anonymous No.14161309]

>>14156612
And this dude never did any drugs. There wilm never be one like him again

[Anonymous No.14161311]

>>14156356
The Doom that came to Sarnath has the best opening sentence in all of literature, prove me wrong.

[Anonymous No.14161315]

>>14161311
Remind me?

[Anonymous No.14161316]

>>14161308
Lovecraft = Hodgson > Chambers > Algernon > Dunsany > Derleth

[Anonymous No.14161323]

>>14161315
Slightly misremembered, it's the first paragraph

[Anonymous No.14161335]

>>14161323
Pretty good. 100 years of solitude tho my dude.

[Anonymous No.14161344]

>>14161335
For me the only things that come close are Moby Dick and I, Claudius. Maybe A Tale of Two Cities

[Anonymous No.14161369]

Charles dexter Ward is underrated but color out of space is still the best. I know it's a basic bitch opinion now since we found letters of Lovecraft saying it was his own favorite but he's still right.

[Anonymous No.14161388]

>>14160847
Nigger Man appears in one of his strongest stories actually, Rats in the Walls

[Anonymous No.14161390]

>>14156356
Medusa's Coil.
Very underrated

[Anonymous No.14161406]

>>14161388
He always saw kitties as protectors from shadowy nightmarea, I think all Randolph Carter stories have cat guardians in them.

[Anonymous No.14161448]

>>14161390
So underrated I cant remember a damn think about it.

[Anonymous No.14161519]

For me its Dagon. Although supremely short, it manages to convey a sense of utter isolation and alienation I find unmatched in the rest of his works.

[Anonymous No.14162030]

>>14156356
So is Color out of Space gonna be good?

[Anonymous No.14162060]

>>14161448
Weird.
Your memory must be flawed

[Anonymous No.14162279]

>>14160123
*sad bellowing sounds*

[Anonymous No.14162294]

>>14161079
I wonder if Arkham or human civilization itself would still exist in the present day in Lovecraft's "universe". The town is pretty much doomed at the end of The Colour Out of Space.

[Anonymous No.14162312]

>>14156612
Lovecraft's collaborations are underrated. Most are basically 100% his works and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" specially is among his best.

I particularly like "The Challenge from Beyond", written by him in collaboration with C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long. I don't know much of the other authors, but it is hilarious to read Lovecraft's and Howard's parts and how they contrast with each other. Lovecraft introducing his typical ancient texts, body horror and alien abduction in the story and then Howard going full Conan with the human protagonist in the alien body conquering the entire alien civilization.

[Anonymous No.14162319]

>>14161448
The thing I remember most from this story is how the depiction of a woman as part-black is treated with more horror than the fact she is related to Cthulhu.

[Anonymous No.14162414]

Nyarlathotep is my personal favorite, something about it is so otherworldly and menacing, as if the story itself doesn’t belong in our realm.

[Anonymous No.14162422]

>>14162030
Yeah that's definitely one of my favorites.

[Anonymous No.14162429]

>>14162414

I too love that story.

>Trackless, inexplicable snows, swept asunder in one direction only, where lay a gulf all the blacker for its glittering walls. The column seemed very thin indeed as it plodded dreamily into the gulf. I lingered behind, for the black rift in the green-litten snow was frightful, and I thought I had heard the reverberations of a disquieting wail as my companions vanished; but my power to linger was slight. As if beckoned by those who had gone before, I half floated between the titanic snowdrifts, quivering and afraid, into the sightless vortex of the unimaginable.

[Anonymous No.14162439]

>>14162030
Lol absolutely fucking not.

>>14162060
It actually really is. Fucking trashed desu. That's why I never like "what's your favourite book anon" questions because wtf who knows what was in that thing, I just remeber how it left me feeling afterwards.

>>14162319
Top kek, classic Howard.

>>14162414
I like how they also all loved and feared and wondered at him so much and he was as terrible as he was intriguing. Pushes home the really disdain HPL had for christian duality for example and how a god would be as terrible as be was glorious.

[Anonymous No.14162466]

Fuck almost all good ones are here. Anyway imo the best gateway stories, the triumvirate, for a newbie wanting to get into HPL are:
Dagon - cthulhu mythos/ancient and terrible but earthly horror among us
The Outsider - eerie celestial theme and being alone/minute in a vast world of the unknown
The Music of Erich Zann - awe of something outworldly yet laden with insanity
Each gives a tinge of HPL's core concepts namely ethereal, antediluvian, cosmic, inconceivable and such

[Anonymous No.14164086]

bump

[Anonymous No.14164129]

>>14156356
Was there a subject known to man he was not extremely knowledgeable in? I think he covers every natural science and art form with some depth in his body of work. Dude must have been a walking encyclopedia.

[Anonymous No.14164150]

>>14164129
>Was there a subject known to man he was not extremely knowledgeable in?

His alpinism knowledge was lacking.

[Anonymous No.14164166]

Would anyone recommend me some authors who are similar to Lovecraft?

[Anonymous No.14164181]

>>14164166

You could do worse than reading the authors Lovecraft loved. Check out his "Supernatural Horror in Literature" for pointers.

[Anonymous No.14164359]

>>14164129
Academic subjects? Not many. But this anon >>14164150 is right. He was a total fucking pleb when it came to most stuff outside of something made for a book. He had a literal 0 on his charisma SPECIAL too and his knowledge of women is literally laughable.

[Anonymous No.14164369]

>>14164166
Robert W Chambers is my favourite for the first 4 stories of King in Yellow alone. Clarke Ashton Smith is a bit of a geezer too.

[Anonymous No.14164392]

The Hound is extremely comfy with its lush descriptions of cemetaries at night.

[Anonymous No.14164992]

>>14164166
Clark Ashton Smith.

[Anonymous No.14165265]

>>14160847
Dr. Niggerman, I presume.

[Anonymous No.14165717]

>>14161037
>Algernon Blackwood
I was in a thrift shop in Montreal recently and I bought this big old collection of his work from the 70's. I didn't know much about him, only vaguely recognized his name from horror lit discussions/recs. Glad to see that he's liked here. Any stand-out stories I should start with?

[Anonymous No.14165873]

>>14156356
What was his endgame?

[Anonymous No.14166384]

>>14165873
Bringing about the very cosmic horror he created by seeding it in the mind of people where, when enough believed in it, it'd essentially be real. Meme magic, essentially. Or something like the Lovecraft-inspired film Mouth of Madness

[Anonymous No.14166426]

What's the best quick-read (at most 20 minutes) Lovecraft story an why is it The Doom that came to Sarnath?

[Anonymous No.14166567]

>>14166426
The answer is actually "Cool Air"

[Anonymous No.14166655]

>>14156356
For me it's Ex Oblivione

[Anonymous No.14166683]

>>14156356
Who /the colour out of space/ here

[Anonymous No.14167368]

>>14166655
Based and suicidepilled

[Anonymous No.14167373]

I'm by no means a Lit expert but I did well in English and am generally not an idiot. I'm in the middle of my third Lovecraft story (Dagon, Tomb, and Innsmouth), and I'm utterly disappointed. Can't believe I fell for the Lovecraft meme. I'm reading Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and having a much better time. Is there a more "kino" Lovecraft? I've been meaning to read House of Borderlan, Turning of Screw, and Murders in Rue Morgue. Maybe I'll be satisfied with them.

[Anonymous No.14167536]

>>14167373
You need to expand. Lovecraft went through great phases in his life. Read his weird short stories that are 10 pages long and then read his very short novellas like Whisperer in Darkness. He's not supposed to be high level big brain classic lit anon, he's a pulp writer so expect intrigue and drama and fainting couch horror.

[Anonymous No.14167541]

>>14167536
I love weird shit, but the heavy handed "fish people" intrigue is not interesting to me. But I will continue reading though because I need to get to the bottom of this.

[Anonymous No.14167548]

>>14167541
Try whisperer. No fish, plenty of weird. And The Lurking Fear is good. Old castles and shit.

[Anonymous No.14167555]

>>14167548
Thanks senpai