/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22593489]

Highly recommend you read this if you're into Lovecraft. It's a biography almost entirely in his own words and honestly he comes off as really interesting, funny and erudite. It's also a great intro to his massive body of correspondence.

[Anonymous No.22593501]

>>22593489
Very cool, i wasnt aware of this. Thaks OP

[Anonymous No.22593503]

>>22593489
>Speaking of industrio-economic matters—let me assure you that a 2-or-3-dollar-a-week dietary programme need not involve even a particle of malnutrition or unpalatability if one but knew what to get and where to get it. The tin can and delicatessen conceal marvellous possibilities! Porridge? Mehercule! On the contrary, my tastes call for the most blisteringly high-seasoned materials conceivable, and for desserts as close to 100% C12H22O11 as possible. Indeed, of this latter commodity I never employ less than four teaspoons in an average cup of coffee. Favourite dinners—Italian spaghetti, chili con carne, Hungarian goulash (save when I can get white meat of turkey with highly-seasoned dressing).

>“Like Italian cooking very much—especially spaghetti with meat-and-tomato sauce, utterly engulfed in a snowbank of grated Parmesan cheese.”

>“Of meats, I fancy I rather prefer beef for all-around consumption, but like most others pretty well. Fond of sausage—especially the old fashioned baked or fried sort. Like fowl—but white meat only. Can’t bear dark meat. My really favourite meal is the regular old New England turkey dinner, with highly seasoned dressing, cranberry sauce, onions, etc., and mince pie for dessert.”

>“How can anybody dislike cheese? And yet Little Belknap hates it as badly as you do! I don’t suppose you would like spaghetti if you don’t like cheese, for the two rather go together.” (to J. Vernon Shea, 30 October 1931)

>“...preferably of the common hard variety, medium strength. I hate Roquefort, dislike cottage cheese, just tolerate Camembert and Brie, and am neutral about Limburger—which latter I’ve tasted only once, at Whitehead’s a year ago last spring...” (to Robert E. Howard, 7 November 1932)

[Anonymous No.22593507]

>>22593503
Not sure if this was from the book, I just enjoy his comfy food autism. Who could dislike a guy who goes on completely sincere and unironic tangents on spaghetti and ice cream flavors in his pages-long letters to his mates lol

[Anonymous No.22593509]

>>22593503
>>“...preferably of the common hard variety, medium strength. I hate Roquefort, dislike cottage cheese, just tolerate Camembert and Brie, and am neutral about Limburger—which latter I’ve tasted only once, at Whitehead’s a year ago last spring...” (to Robert E. Howard, 7 November 1932)
Never would have expected i could lose so much respect for a man in a single sentence.

[Anonymous No.22593511]

>>22593503
>loves canned food
>doesn't like dark meat
>"tolerates" brie
>likes NE cooking in general
I'm glad he stuck to writing books. But thanks OP, if you have more of these weird off the beaten path recommendations, let me know, will check this out.

[Anonymous No.22593516]

>>22593503
AHHHHH IS THAT BRIE?!? I'M GOING INSANE!!

[Anonymous No.22593517]

>>22593511
Imagine if he were able to see the US today
He'd be horrified at the cultural enrichment but delighted at the wonders of goyslop

[Anonymous No.22593524]

>>22593517
all that post needs is an AI image of him in a Denny's, he'd be in heaven.

[Anonymous No.22593526]

>>22593503
>Porridge? Mehercule! On the contrary, my tastes call for the most blisteringly high-seasoned materials conceivable, and for desserts as close to 100% C12H22O11 as possible.
He would have loved dorritos and mountain dew.

[Anonymous No.22593795]

>>22593503
>>22593526
He was literally a 4chan poster born in the wrong times

[Anonymous No.22593899]

>>22593503
didn't know I could love this man more than I already did
I would have expected him to be ascetic and only eat bland food

[Anonymous No.22594038]

>>22593509
>It is good to be a cynic – it is better to be a contented cat – and it is best not to exist at all. Universal suicide is the most logical thing in the world – we reject it only because of our primitive cowardice and childish fear of the dark. If we were sensible we would seek death – the same blissful blank which we enjoyed before we existed.
>H. P. Lovecraft, Nietzscheism and Realism
What do you think about this one?

[Anonymous No.22594051]

>One writer for these magazines the prolific romance writer Fred Jackson was much beloved by readers, and they took umbrage when, in 1913, Lovecraft attacked Jackson’s sentimentality in a long and archaically worded letter to the editor. Shortly thereafter the controversy took an odd direction, and several writers including Lovecraft began to write salvos in verse. Lovecraft, of course, ever the Anglophile and literary archaicist, resurrected the verse satire of Dryden and Pope in a series of stinging squibs with the general title Ad Criticos. The controversy lasted more than a year, and in the course of it Lovecraft was contacted by Edward F. Daas, a recruiter for the United Amateur Press Association (UAPA), and invited to join the association.

Holy fucking shit lmao

[Anonymous No.22594055]

>>22593503
Posts like this are why I still browse /lit.

[Anonymous No.22594066]

hp lovecraft looks like that chick from the xx

[Anonymous No.22594069]

>>22593503
>>22594051
If he was alive today he'd just be another poor soul mindbroken by Twitter.

[Anonymous No.22594083]

>>22593503
>Cottage cheese? Detest it. Second-rate, ephemeral, puffed-up.
>Camembert - a favorite between the ages of 10 and 15, but no longer. Essentially a cheese for very young people.
>Roquefort? Dislike it rather intensely, but now and then its smell causes a kind of electric tingle.

[Anonymous No.22594086]

>>22594083
This is written like that list of Nabakov's opinions on other authors.

[Anonymous No.22594087]

I think not getting into Brown is arguably the greatest tragedy of his life, not just because he was clearly very intelligent and academically-inclined but also because it ended up condemning him to poverty which eventually killed him.

[Anonymous No.22594099]

>>22593503
>I’m not, however, a heavy eater—take only 2 meals per day, since my digestion raises hell if I try to eat oftener than once in 7 hours. In winter, when it’s too cold for me to go out much, I subsist largely on canned stuff. I always get my own breakfasts, anyway—doughnuts and cheese. I have financial economy in eating worked out to a fine art, and know the self-service lunch rooms where I can get the best bargains. I never spend more than $3.00 per week on food, and often not even nearly that.

>Incidentally—not many doors away, on the other side of Willoughby St., I found a restaurant which specialises in home-baked beans. It was closed on Sunday, but I shall try it some time soon. Beans, fifteen cents, with pork, twenty cents. With Frankfort sausages, twenty-five cents. Yes—here is a place which will repay investigation!

>But I more often take ice cream, of which my favourite flavours are vanilla & coffee (the latter hard to get outside New England) & my least relished common flavour is strawberry.

>But as for jam or jelly—I am your utter opposite, for I like it so well that I pile on amounts thicker than the bread which sustains them!

> Pie is my favourite dessert, and blueberry (for summer) and mince (for winter) are my preferred kinds—with apple as a good all-year-round third. Like to take vanilla ice cream with apple and blueberry pie.

> Of other vegetables I like peas & onions, can tolerate cabbage & turnips, am neutral toward cauliflower, have no deep enmity toward carrots, prefer to dodge parsnips & asparagus, shun string beans & brussel sprouts & abominate spinach. I like rhubarb—& am also really fond of baked beans prepared in the ancient New England way...

[Anonymous No.22594425]

>>22594099
>> Pie is my favourite dessert, and blueberry (for summer) and mince (for winter) are my preferred kinds—with apple as a good all-year-round third. Like to take vanilla ice cream with apple and blueberry pie.
A man of taste.

[Anonymous No.22594452]

>>22594099
He would have loved tendies

[Anonymous No.22594457]

>>22593503
He's literally me (adjusted for inflation)

[Anonymous No.22594530]

>>22594099
>this nigga-man eating beans

[Anonymous No.22594789]

>>22594086
Oh, anon...

[Anonymous No.22594853]

>>22593509
Sounds pretty autistic. I know an autistic guy who only eats things like white rice, hamburger without seasoning, macaroni and cheese with lots of butter to water form the cheese taste, and stuff like that. He can’t stand the taste of anything extreme. For some reason he also loves Dr Pepper. Of course he’s 400lbs.

[Anonymous No.22595258]

>>22594853
Bruh they were just discussing food. People used to write long-ass detailed letters to each other. Shocking, I know.

[Anonymous No.22596194]

>>22595258
Nta but being overly sensitive to flavours, like the delicous creamy goodness of Brie, is a sign of autism. Plus its Lovecraft.

[Anonymous No.22596220]

>>22593509
de gustibus non disputandum est

[Anonymous No.22596622]

>>22594099
AI really hates drawing him. You have to get autistically detailed and it still hates doing it. Guessing his cat has something to do with it...

[Anonymous No.22596635]

It's pretty cool think that if Lovecraft was alive, you would be able to write him a letter and he would almost certainly respond.

Some of the descriptions of buildings in Providence make it clear to me that he would have been an interesting historical writer had he chosen to go down that path.

Album below related if anyone here enjoys schizo-punk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL-sX36SJvc

[Anonymous No.22596653]

>>22594051
>Lovecraft, of course, ever the Anglophile and literary archaicist, resurrected the verse satire of Dryden and Pope in a series of stinging squibs with the general title Ad Criticos.
Holy based. Even his shitposting was top-tier.

[Anonymous No.22596731]

Lovecraft's mom was nuts:

>She called HPL “disfigured”, “stoop-shouldered” and “ugly”. A neighbor recounted that: “Mrs. Lovecraft talked continuously of her son who was so hideous that he hid from everyone and did not like to walk upon the streets where people would gaze at him,” a statement the neighbor considered “exaggerated”

Pretty sad.

[Anonymous No.22596755]

[Anonymous No.22596760]

[Anonymous No.22596766]

[Anonymous No.22596775]

Rare photo of HP Lovecraft eating breakfast circa 1922

[Anonymous No.22596789]

>>22593524
Ask and ye shall receive.

[Anonymous No.22596790]

>>22596789
Lmao the stuff going on in the window behind him is too good

[Anonymous No.22596829]

I wish Lovecraft never had cancer, so that he could live to the beginning of the goyslop. Then, he might’ve felt some relief from his all-powerful fear of life.

[Anonymous No.22596856]

>Help me niggerman, this hamburger is beyond all comprehension

[Anonymous No.22596924]

>>22596856
>Is that a… No… NOO THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE. A FIVE DOLLAR HAMBURGER? 2 DOLLARS FOR CANNED BEANS? THAT… NO ONE CAN POSSIBLY SUSTAIN HIMSELF WITH THOSE… AIEEEEE NOOO IM GOING INSANE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THESE PRICES ARE ABOMINABLE! SAVE ME NIGGERMAN!!!! AAAAAAARRRGHHH!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous No.22597245]

>>22594853
For all his faults, Lovecraft was not autistic.

[Anonymous No.22597284]

>>22593509
How could someone be neutral to Limburger cheese?

[Anonymous No.22597294]

>>22594853
as someone who has legit diagnosed autism from a professional, the hatred of extreme flavors really depends on the autist, but textures are a major factor, not so much the scoville heat units. I mean I'm pretty fucking autistic but I can enjoy stuff like calamari and texas bbq.

[Anonymous No.22598219]

>>22593489
Why is ST Joshi the authority on Lovecraft? Whenever you look up anything on Lovecraft his name will come up, and it's in there somewhere in just about any edition of Lovecraft's works.

[Anonymous No.22598242]

>>22598219
He devoted his academic career to it, is involved with Arkham House and knew a lot of the people in HPL's original circle.

[Anonymous No.22598250]

>>22596731
He turned out pretty well for someone with a childhood that fucked up.

[Anonymous No.22598258]

>>22598242
He's also a major-league prick that wrote an entire paper just tearing the fuck out of Brian Keene. Keene may not be the greatest writer in the world (although I love most of his stuff), but Joshi acted like he fucking killed his cat. He made it personal for whatever reason.

[Anonymous No.22598260]

>>22595258
Considering it took months to arrive(if it arrives) depending on the distance it makes perfect sense to write as much as you can.

[Anonymous No.22598394]

I came to /lit/ to ask about HP Lovecraft biographies and lo and behold the universe giveth before I even ask.

[Anonymous No.22598731]

>>22598394
Michel Houellebecq also wrote an essay about HP Lovecraft if you haven't already read it.

[Anonymous No.22598781]

page 168: "there are many elephants more human than many Bantu n——s"

damn, Lovecraft is kinda racist...

and on Jews (p234): "I've easily felt able to slaughter a score or two when jammed in a N.Y. Subway tain"

[Anonymous No.22598799]

>>22594086
Excellent observation, anon

[Anonymous No.22598804]

>>22596622
>his cat
Alexa just informed me that H.P. Lovecraft never owned a cat, nor did he ever write about cats in any of his stories. You must be mistaken, anon.

[Anonymous No.22599358]

>>22594086
Woosh

[Anonymous No.22600286]

>>22593489
Lovecraft had a very interesting life, he visited Quebec and Florida, in fact he loved Florida and wished he could reside there, and a Minnesotan correspondant of his (I think Donald Wandrei?) hitchhiked ro visit HPL in Rhode Island and they had ice cream together. Very different from the cartoon pushed by August Derleth.

[Anonymous No.22600309]

>>22598804
The infamous cat was his father's, was named by his father, and was played with by HPL in childhood.

[Anonymous No.22600473]

>>22594530
>down the stygian stacks of comestibles a phalanx of nothing but beans, beans to the end of time filling the bottomless abyss; God is dead and beans have killed him.

[Anonymous No.22600476]

>>22596731
Cluster-B spider mothers are eldritch beings if there ever were ones, poor sot.

[Anonymous No.22600487]

Lovecraft’s extensive correspondence both saved his life and killed him.

[Anonymous No.22600603]

>>22600286
He was actually much more open and gregarious than the impression one usually gets. His mother fucked him up psychologically though. Once she died, he suddenly came out of his shell and started his amateur journalism thing.
Seems like an all-too-Freudian tale of castration by a domineering woman. Today she'd have made him a tranny.

[Anonymous No.22600632]

>>22599358
Ah...

[Anonymous No.22600803]

Is there any way to get Lovecraft's poetry freely online? I can't find anything on the usual sites like libgen.

[Anonymous No.22600821]

>>22593489
Does he write about cats at all? Not memeing. I really wanna know his take on cats.

[Anonymous No.22600826]

>>22600821
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/cd.aspx
very based takes on cats

[Anonymous No.22600833]

>>22600821
Cats of Ulthar and essay anon posted here >>22600826

He loved his cat.

[Anonymous No.22600860]

>>22600826
>>22600833
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was hoping for.

[Anonymous No.22600940]

>>22598260
>months
It was the 1930s, not the middle ages. It would have taken a few days for a letter to get from Rhode Island to central Texas

[Anonymous No.22601364]

Lovecraft enjoyed viddying the old films now and again:

>As you surmise, I am a devotee of the motion picture, since I can attend shows at any time, whereas my ill health seldom permits me to make definite engagements or purchase real theatre tickets in advance. Some modern films are really worth seeing, though when I first knew moving pictures their only value was to destroy time.

[Anonymous No.22601543]

>>22601364
LMAO He really was born in the wrong time

[Anonymous No.22601547]

>>22598781
Curious how he never so much as murder-raped his wife if he was truly possessed of such powerful anti-Judaic urges

[Anonymous No.22601749]

>>22593489
>>22593503
Would they have gotten along

[Anonymous No.22603298]

>>22601749
Would've sent witty letters to eachother while falsing assuming that the other hated them.

[Anonymous No.22603307]

>>22601364
Lovecraft ghost wrote Under the Pyramids for Harry Houdini. It's so crazy that they worked together.

[Anonymous No.22603418]

>>22593503
>Like fowl—but white meat only.
lol Based.

[Anonymous No.22603425]

Funny to think how HPL,instead of writing 5000 letters, would be the King of 4Chan shitposting if he were born today.

[Anonymous No.22604815]

>>22603298
I choose to believe

[Anonymous No.22605702]

>>22596731
HP was adorable wtf

[Anonymous No.22606392]

>>22593489
>racist cat man and his loser NEET pals created what was essentially the world’s first discord circle jerk
Why am I not surprised.

[Anonymous No.22606408]

>>22606392
Nothing wrong with a good old circle jerk. Which reminds me, how is your mother doing?

[Anonymous No.22608086]

>>22593489
>foremost lovecraft scholar is indian

[Anonymous No.22608224]

Can anyone post that picture of a lovecraft biography where he bemoans an ice cream parlour only having 22 of its 24 flavours in stock as being "emblematic of the downfall of standards in the civilised West"?

[Anonymous No.22608240]

>>22600476
Interesting term. Is this a slang term for weirdo and histrionic mothers?