"Human actions are as free and empty of meaning as the free movements of the elementary particles. Good, Evil, Morality, Feelings? Nothing but" Victorian fictions”. Only egoism exists. Cold, intact, and brilliant".-- Houellebecq on Lovecraft-1991.
I have always believed that Lovecraft was an invented name and that he never really existed. I mean, look at it. Who in tarnation would use the name Love Craft except someone who doesn't really exist? Kind of like Shake Spear, you know?
"Enterprising fans have stamped the name “Cthulhu” (Lovecraft’s most famous creation; a towering, malevolent, multi-tentacled deity) or other Lovecraftian gibberish on nearly every imaginable consumer product."
"Whereas Scithers and Wilson admitted their “Necronomicons” were made in jest, “Simon”– a pseudonym used by the editor– has insisted that his Necronomicon is authentic."
When I was a teen, I thought the Necronomicon was real (because now, of course, it WAS 'real' at the point in PKDick's sense of 'fake fakes'), so when I saw the occasional copy of the (fake-fake) I was all 'nopenopenope'. Also, all the actual Lovecraft fans were weird, but not MY kind of weird, so I took a pass on Lovecraft. I literally have only read one story because I found the atmosphere oppressive (the same way the omnipresence of the mythos is oppressive) and between the Cold War and my home life, I didn't really NEED more oppressive crap. So, hard pass.
('The King in Yellow' stuff was interesting to me since Lovecraft apparently snarfed that guy's (his name is not coming to me ... Robert W. Chambers) mythos and made it the basis of his own. I didn't find it that awesome, but it was still a little bit cool that it wasn't Lovecraft's mythos, so there was no sense of 'I have read this before even though I have never read Lovecraft'.)
(Fun story: at the bookstore I visit somebody stuffed Anton LeVay in the tarot card section. Then a couple of weeks later they insisted on front-facing the damn thing at which point I was thinking, 'No, pass, also f*** you.' I occasionally encountered the random satanist type ('Hi! Bye!'), and they're always the types who want to learn how to shoot lightening bolts from their fingerprints, and also tend to get high and decide they want to carve up a black cat on Halloween. (Which is the reason I always had to lock up the black cats on Halloween, lest some fool (Christian or Satanish) do something evil.) Having encountered an Anton LeVay rant (and read it) on online I subsequently decided that LeVay was an a**hole and I didn't need to listen to that schmuck in any way. So I was looking at this face-fronted Satin Bible in the bookstore with the same but darker distaste that I would have for the remaindered works of Donald J. Trump.)
"After Engulfment: Cosmicism and Neocosmicism in H. P. Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, and Frank Herbert. By Ellen J. Greenham. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press; 2022."
Since I know three of the four writers cited, I am keen to read that!
"Love of Knowledge Is a Kind of Madness"
... kind of ... but not exactly ... the one thing I know is there are a lot of resentful dumb bunnies (possibly 'highly credentialed') who are fine with their knowledge even when it's wrong, but are super-resentful of other people's knowledge. It's not a medieval guild, dude.
I happen to be a fan. I read some of these stories as a kid and was attracted to a possible world, like LOTR. Imho, worth watching was Lovecraft Country. Anton LaVay just seemed to be for selfishness, if anything else.
The fact that Lovecraftian horror has made its mark around the world, shows its interest hasn’t waned.
Great choice to bring up. Though personally I wouldn’t place him on par with Philip K. Dick or Harlan Ellison.
"Human actions are as free and empty of meaning as the free movements of the elementary particles. Good, Evil, Morality, Feelings? Nothing but" Victorian fictions”. Only egoism exists. Cold, intact, and brilliant".-- Houellebecq on Lovecraft-1991.
May Cthulhu eat you first!
^(,;,,;,)^
I have always believed that Lovecraft was an invented name and that he never really existed. I mean, look at it. Who in tarnation would use the name Love Craft except someone who doesn't really exist? Kind of like Shake Spear, you know?
"Enterprising fans have stamped the name “Cthulhu” (Lovecraft’s most famous creation; a towering, malevolent, multi-tentacled deity) or other Lovecraftian gibberish on nearly every imaginable consumer product."
Classic: https://www.flickr.com/photos/triborough/4019157321/
"Whereas Scithers and Wilson admitted their “Necronomicons” were made in jest, “Simon”– a pseudonym used by the editor– has insisted that his Necronomicon is authentic."
When I was a teen, I thought the Necronomicon was real (because now, of course, it WAS 'real' at the point in PKDick's sense of 'fake fakes'), so when I saw the occasional copy of the (fake-fake) I was all 'nopenopenope'. Also, all the actual Lovecraft fans were weird, but not MY kind of weird, so I took a pass on Lovecraft. I literally have only read one story because I found the atmosphere oppressive (the same way the omnipresence of the mythos is oppressive) and between the Cold War and my home life, I didn't really NEED more oppressive crap. So, hard pass.
('The King in Yellow' stuff was interesting to me since Lovecraft apparently snarfed that guy's (his name is not coming to me ... Robert W. Chambers) mythos and made it the basis of his own. I didn't find it that awesome, but it was still a little bit cool that it wasn't Lovecraft's mythos, so there was no sense of 'I have read this before even though I have never read Lovecraft'.)
(Fun story: at the bookstore I visit somebody stuffed Anton LeVay in the tarot card section. Then a couple of weeks later they insisted on front-facing the damn thing at which point I was thinking, 'No, pass, also f*** you.' I occasionally encountered the random satanist type ('Hi! Bye!'), and they're always the types who want to learn how to shoot lightening bolts from their fingerprints, and also tend to get high and decide they want to carve up a black cat on Halloween. (Which is the reason I always had to lock up the black cats on Halloween, lest some fool (Christian or Satanish) do something evil.) Having encountered an Anton LeVay rant (and read it) on online I subsequently decided that LeVay was an a**hole and I didn't need to listen to that schmuck in any way. So I was looking at this face-fronted Satin Bible in the bookstore with the same but darker distaste that I would have for the remaindered works of Donald J. Trump.)
"After Engulfment: Cosmicism and Neocosmicism in H. P. Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, and Frank Herbert. By Ellen J. Greenham. New York, NY: Hippocampus Press; 2022."
Since I know three of the four writers cited, I am keen to read that!
"Love of Knowledge Is a Kind of Madness"
... kind of ... but not exactly ... the one thing I know is there are a lot of resentful dumb bunnies (possibly 'highly credentialed') who are fine with their knowledge even when it's wrong, but are super-resentful of other people's knowledge. It's not a medieval guild, dude.
elm
pleasant sunday
Kathlee, once again, you are a national treasure.
And now something different -- horrors happening right now - with full support by the US government and US media:
Thank you very much. It is never explained WHY such pathological hate of capitalist Russia and total support of Nazi-dominated Ukraine government !!
Stand with Russia – it fights for all of us against bipartisan fascist US/UK clique.
https://thedreizinreport.com/2022/10/09/war-crimes-2/
I happen to be a fan. I read some of these stories as a kid and was attracted to a possible world, like LOTR. Imho, worth watching was Lovecraft Country. Anton LaVay just seemed to be for selfishness, if anything else.
The fact that Lovecraftian horror has made its mark around the world, shows its interest hasn’t waned.
Great choice to bring up. Though personally I wouldn’t place him on par with Philip K. Dick or Harlan Ellison.