/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22974782]

Is he mid? Did his ideas blow up because theyre out of copyright?

[Anonymous No.22975157]

>is he mid
no, he's great, but he unforunately overshadows authors who were just as important to the genre and normies who haven't read lovecraft assume he invented cosmic horror when it was around far before him
And most of lovecraft's stories aren't cosmic horror
>Did his ideas blow up because theyre out of copyright
partly and partly because his work was reprinted unlike other cosmic horror writers

[Anonymous No.22977275]

>>22974782
>Is he mid? Did his ideas blow up because theyre out of copyright?
the copyright situation with lovecraft is actually really funny

I have a zine on the subject that's out of print, anyone want me to scan it? some law student wrote it

[Anonymous No.22977378]

>>22975157
What are some of the good authors that he overshadows? I haven't really delved in to the genre much other than reading most of Lovecraft's work, definitely curious for recommendations.

[Anonymous No.22977968]

>>22975157
>when it was around far before him
post some prelovecraft cosmic horror pls

[Anonymous No.22977971]

>>22974782
I've never read his work because I'm extremely put off by his personality. He strikes me as a pathologically neurotic man, and I never write off anyone as pathological other than to mock them. With him I really mean it. He seemed perpetually immobilized by fear and thus his books all being about some apocalyptic monster that fate cannot overcome, impending doom, makes sense to me. I don't really have much interest in taking it in.

[Anonymous No.22977982]

Lovecraft is more of an aesthetic. As a writer, yeah, he's pretty mid. He's got one or two stories, maybe, that really hit the mark.

[Anonymous No.22978451]

>>22977378
>good authors that he overshadows
Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson, Clark Ashton Smith

>>22977968
>prelovecraft cosmic horror
William Hope Hodgson - The House on the Borderland
Arthur Machen - The Great God Pan
Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow
Algernon Blackwood - The Willows
Guy de Maupassant - The Horla (arguably)

[Anonymous No.22978754]

>>22977275
Yes

[Anonymous No.22978807]

>>22974782
He looks like he is ready to explode, holding in a fart so the monsters won't find him.
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath confused me. At some point I stopped understanding what was going on. I don't know how to describe it. Everything that has happening sort of blended together and I wasn't stimulated enough to make sense of it. I mostly remember it for having Nodens act so unlikely.

[Anonymous No.22978848]

>>22978451
I wouldn't say all those authors are superior to him. Rather they're all comparable.

[Anonymous No.22978869]

>>22974782

Minimalism and realism have been the "IN" thing in literature for over 100 years. Lovecraft despised both, so he's naturally on the outskirts.

If you thinking Hemingway is the gold standard of prose or that all literature must have psychological deep characters then you'll be bored.

If you liked the English and American romantics like Blake, Coleridge, Byron, Wordsworth, Poe, and Melville then you will probably like Lovecraft.

and before some anon complains, No. I'm not saying Lovecraft is on par with these writers. He is just closer to them in terms of his goals then many modern writers.

[Anonymous No.22978902]

>>22978848
I'm also not saying they're superior to him, I'm just saying that Lovecraft is overshadowing them.

[Anonymous No.22979098]

>>22978754
Alright I'll scan it later today

[Anonymous No.22979133]

As materialism dissipates as a worldview, so too will interest in Lovecraft

[Anonymous No.22979285]

>>22977971
Perhaps fear is an emotion with which you’re uncomfortable? But I suppose I see what you mean. Lovecraft was always a reclusive man until his later years after having been married. I also think his long-distance friendship with REH helped encourage him to toughen up a little later on. But the majority of his works came before these developments, and the change was short-lived. Many of the classic authors who wrote in these unusual genres or topics were often misaligned in several aspects of their lives and isolated by nature, yet their genius shined when it came to the work that they produced. It’s like the old concept of the tortured artist who draws from his fears, pains, and inadequacies to create something insightful about some aspect of the human condition.

I don’t think we should look at the fearfulness or isolated lifestyle of these authors as some manner of inability or foolishness, however debilitating it may have been in their personal lives, and we certainly shouldn’t let it detract from their otherwise excellent writing. They were troubled people, and yet there is always something to glean from their work whether in prose, concepts, or interpretations of how such self-educated men on the fringes might view the world around them and enlighten us with things we may not have otherwise seen. Understanding things that are familiar and unfamiliar is the essence of literature, and if we only ever read stories from people exactly like ourselves, we wouldn’t ever create anything new.

[Anonymous No.22979288]

>>22978451
thanks

[Anonymous No.22979292]

He's a cheap magazine writer given undue praise by Americans and genre fans because they think big words = literary merit.

[Anonymous No.22979324]

>>22979292
He popularized cosmic horror and modernized gothic horror for a larger audience, in turn, influencing popular culture. Lovecraft was more than just “the big words guy”; It seems intellectually dishonest to reduce him in such a way. Just say that he isn’t your preference and move on.

[Anonymous No.22979382]

>>22978451
Lovecraft championed all of them though, he's the main reason that most of them are still both read and in print today. And odds are 99 to 1 today that someone who read any of them, did so after discovering them through Lovecraft

[Anonymous No.22979389]

>>22979324
He ripped off a handful of British writers and would have died in obscurity had it not been for August Derleth collecting his stories into cheap paperbacks. Nobody outside of a few gay needs cares about cosmic horror.

[Anonymous No.22979396]

He's an ideas guy

[Anonymous No.22979400]

>>22977971
>He strikes me as a pathologically neurotic man
That's all modern literature. Never forget manly man me speak short words go fish hunt, was a petty man who blew his brains out like a pissant little baby, while Lovecraft suffered through a lifetime of misery finding joy in creating a community of likeminded outsiders

[Anonymous No.22979496]

>>22977275
>>22978754
>>22979098
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pMhmd8oE6DiamDRn9Grh5ZrhQ3D8F4Ui/view?usp=sharing

Here's the scan! Maybe someone here knows how to compress this?

[Anonymous No.22979586]

>>22979382
Being more popular =/= is a better writer

[Anonymous No.22979751]

>>22979496
Thanks bro.

[Anonymous No.22979768]

>>22979292
Filtered.

[Anonymous No.22979789]

>>22979496
Thanks, interesting read. Some real cunts like Derleth out there.

[Anonymous No.22979799]

>>22979292
So did Clark Ashton Smith, and he was recognized in his time as a great poet by figures like Sterling and London. I believe even Yeats read and liked "The Star-Treader and Other Poems".

[Anonymous No.22979824]

>>22979586
None of them are better writers than Lovecraft, either, thought. In fact they are all in the same group, having written some masterpieces, some really good stories, and a lot of forgettable fluff. And the reason anon categorized them as prelovecraft cosmic horror is that Lovecraft identified them all as such and incorporated them into the genre he constructed. It's just that the hipsterist namedropping impulse is always strong with some

[Anonymous No.22979882]

>>22979824
I don't know what you mean. Lovecraft coined the term, but the others still fall into that category, so why not name them then, if someone else asks for it?

[Anonymous No.22979901]

>>22979882
That's all great of course, as is spreading awareness of the other writers. It doesn't change the fact that you know them through Lovecraft, and that he invented cosmic horror and incorporated them into it, nor that they are better writers than he, which was implied in the post I responded to

[Anonymous No.22980640]

>>22974782
AAAAAAAAAA
FUCKING LOSER
I’d tell lovecraft fans to killthemselves but GUESS WHAT ?! IT WOULDNT FIX IT HAHhha