Baby's First Lovecraft

[quietprofanity]

So I read "The Rats in the Walls" last night. Just a couple of impressions here ... I don't plan to do this for every work, but I figured I might as well say what I think of He-Who-Has-Been-Turned-Into-Internet-Phenomenon.


- "Niggar-Man" the cat ... ye gods, white people can be so embarrassing. (Oddly enough, I'd only heard a month ago while reading up on the Golliwog that racist names were common for black-furred animals. It's like that bear that keeps following you around and shitting.)

- Someone might be pissed at me that it was the first thing I pointed out. But how can you ignore a thing like that, really?

- I wasn't really horrified, but a bit creeped out. Especially because the wind was creaking the apartment. I read a Dorothy Parker story after this until cyberweasel gave me a call.

- Some of his sentences really seemed to go on into blabbing geekery, but to be honest I didn't really find the sentence structure or language that difficult. I had to look up a few words, yeah, but I have to do that for everything.

- I actually didn't realize Delapore ate Norrys at the end, and when I read about it on wikipedia I felt (and still feel) really stupid. Then again, I was pretty sleepy when I read it.

- Overall, willing to read more. I know this is one of the better stories, so I know others may be ... not-so-good. I could just stick with the collection I have, but I want to read the Randolph Carter stories so I may be wise in the ways of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I WILL NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS NO I LOVES IT!!!) so ... well, at least I probably won't hate it all.


Oh, and um ... don't get The Government's Manual for New Wizards. Trust me on this. I'd talk in detail but it seems like the writers are those guys that troll the Internet looking for people who dislike their book and make snotty comments back.

ETA: And it happened! Wow, only four hours and I didn't actually say any specific criticisms! That's special. Oh well, let's return to discussions of cats with racist names, shall we?

Comments

Snot.

[(Anonymous)]

It's true: We are, and we do. In proper English, no less.

Re: Snot.

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope it makes you feel better.

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

I recommend THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH or THE DUNWICH HORROR. Both very good.

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

The book has got both of them, so no problem on that one. :)

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

The earliest, Dunsany-iest stuff is the weakest (unfortunately the Randolph Carter / Kingsport / Dream Lands material falls into this category) - I happen to like DREAM QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH, but it's not as strong as his later, tighter work.

In many ways it's best to think of Lovecraft as a fan author who has stayed in his basement reading the antique stuff he loves for so long that he's lost touch with the fact that people don't speak the way they did 100 years earlier (in 1825 idioms as opposed to 1925 idioms), who never wrote any more than one draft, and who had no Beta-reader other than the editor he was attempting to sell the story to.

That being said - when he comes to the creepy stuff, he's laid such a webwork of normal that the strange just kind of jumps at you.

I also like THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP, THE WHISPERER IN THE DARKNESS and, of course, CALL OF CTHULHU.

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

D'oh! Oh well, I'm expecting to read not-so-good stuff in my Read-the-Extraordinary-Gentlemen mission. (I actually bought this book to read "Call of Cthulhu" before I read "The Black Dossier" until what-I'm-hoping-will-be-a-new-friend told me, "Come on, you know who he is. Just read it.") I think I'm going to be chewing on tinfoil during Bulldog Drummond. I can't wait to watch Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, though.

So Dunsany was kind of good on his own, but his idiosyncrasies were a bad thing for Lovecraft? You and Neil Gaiman both mentioned that too much Dunsany was a bad thing for Lovecraft.

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

I don't think it ever hurts to actually read something rather than simply going with the popular cultural impression of it. CALL OF CTHULHU is a much better story than most people think it is, I feel, and CTHULHU isn't Godzilla, no matter what people selling you plush or cute versions of him might want you to think.

Baby Jane will be a lot funnier having seen the movie, believe me.

Don't feel odd about this - I bought a copy of Fanny Hill to better enjoy that sequence in the Black Dossier, by the by.

You've seen Jess Nevins' annotations, right?

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

I think the one of superhero-Cthulhu got me the most ... (and yeah, I've seen the Cutethulhu video.)

But yeah, you're right about knowing being better. I just read "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and read the section in Vol. 1 with Dupin -- he really GOT that character.

(Also, as an aside, Kevin O'Neill's work has REALLY improved.)

You've seen Jess Nevins' annotations, right?

Oh, totally. I spent Christmas weekend reading through "The New Traveler's Almanac" with the annotations. (I didn't realize there've been, like, THIRTY matriarchal societies on earth over the years.) I'm thinking about buying the books now, too.

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

Kevin O'Neill is the unsung hero of THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. The scene in the first volume of all of them sitting around the table, smoking, drinking port and eating cheese is one of my favourite moments in the series - and that's all O'Neill's work.

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

Lovecraft's love of Dunsany prevented Lovecraft from finding his own style (which I think he has near the end of his creative period). He really has things under control by the time he produces the stuff he did after he and Sonja divorced. The stuff Lovecraft did in imitation of Dunsany wasn't *bad*, it was just just a very slavish attempt to write like someone who was a better writer than Lovecraft was, and so the seams show painfully clearly.

Many people tend to fixate on Lovecraft's early xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism, but by the time he was single again, he had gotten past a lot of that. He was, as poor an excuse as this is now but probably more fair in teh long run, a creature of his times. If, by any chance, you're looking for a good, sympathetic biography of Lovecraft, I direct you to ST Joshi's recent book before you look at the hatchet job put together by L Sprague DeCamp in the early 1970s.

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

You know those people who've read so much Anne Rice or JK Rowling or Chris Claremont that they think all the little characteristic fiddlybits are just "how people write" instead of "something that's idiomatic to their personal god-this writer"? Lovecraft didn't think he was being ornate or "precious", either.