October / H.P. Lovecraft Reading: The Call of Cthulhu: And Other Weird Stories

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We are reading The Call of Cthulhu: And Other Weird Stories by HP Lovecraft in October.

Please post your thoughts and questions on the book in this thread.

Stories included in this book are:

- Dagon
- The Statement of Randolph Carter
- Facts Concerning the Lathe Arthur Jermyn and His Family
- Celephais
- Nyarlathotep
- The Picture in the House
- The Outsider
- Herbert West - Reanimator
- The Hound
- The Rats in the Walls
- The Festival
- He
- Cool Air
- The Call of Cthulhu
- The Colour Out of Space
- The Whisperer in Darkness
- The Shadow Over Innsmouth
- The Haunter of the Dark

Book Club Procedures

Greetings

I have read this book several times over the years and find it contains some of Lovecraft's best works. The first 5 tales were originally published in fan publications, most of the rest are from "Weird Tales" and other pulp magazines.

Anybody wishing to chat about HPL or the pulps feel free to PM me or drop a note in this forom.

Jeff

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I do extremely love HP Lovecraft!He was really a man who was in possession maybe intuitive maybe erudite of many big responses to deep questions.HE was conscient of human decadency or that we are part of sort kind of decadent human type.(This been said by many cultures)He was afraid of modern society , about its ignorance, about the lost of magic and the lost of respect for the supernatural.
He was a real especial man, concerned about the multidimensional , and the supranormal and the magic ...the power of invocation, the other expressions of nature and religion.
I ve read a lot of Hp Lovecraft as teen ager and it was a thrilling and moving experience.I think hes not fiction writter nor terror writer but a real researcher or revealer...
I do love him AND LOVE ALMOST ALL THE PEOPLE WHO READS HIM.Except for those who want to became Wizards....you must not play with obscure powers!!reamin innocent, thats best.:D
Regards from...

I have been studying like crazy, but I want to try to fit in time for this book. I need the break! I will try to read with you guys and I look forward to reading everyone’s comments.

I read the first story - Dagon. I'm not really understanding why the guy was so freaked out about fishmen but I guess you had to see them to appreciate the real terror. It kinda made me laugh at the end where he said something about the squishy body coming to get him. I'll have to get the exact quote tonight.

Papaya there is a film adaptation on Dagon. Here

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264508/

I have already started with the book. I am on Herbert West - Reanimator, but it seems that Lovecraft's works are not exactly for my taste. The ideas are interesting, but I think they could have been developed better. Still, I find it interesting that there are some things that are quite constant in the stories, the Congo motive for instance. I have found a few more, but I have already forgotten them :) I am not at the end yet, so who knows may be I will change my mind ;)

Can anyone give me a link to where these works can be found online?

What can I say? I'm a Lovecraft craft lover.

This man had a great understanding of what builds fear in a book, though his monster designs are admittedly strange - and he was a horrible racist, but that's neither here nor there.

Lovecraft actually had a very deep fear of the sea, which he shows over and over again in his works and particularly with the overall theme of a fear of the unknown. Despite the obvious fact that so many of his monsters are aquatic in form and some of the most exciting scenes in his stories take place on the water, I love how he characterizes earth as literally being a small raft in a giant ocean with many sharks.

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Originally Posted by Pensive

Can anyone give me a link to where these works can be found online?

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http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600031h.html

:)

Thanks, Scher! :) Would start reading today hopefully.

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Originally Posted by KidTruth

What can I say? I'm a Lovecraft craft lover.

- and he was a horrible racist, but that's neither here nor there.

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You say racist, I say he was, "diversity intolerant."

Edit: The above was a deliberate politically correct untruth - HPL was quite racist.



Favorite in that list is Call of Cthulhu but Herbert West Re-animator is a close second.

Oh, The Rats in the Walls is one of my favorites! I am reading it now!!

Is The Statement of Randolph Carter also known as The Unnamable?

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Originally Posted by Pensive

Is The Statement of Randolph Carter also known as The Unnamable?

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They are different stories.

Jeff

Cool Air was made into a rather poor "night Gallery" story back in the 70s I believe. Night Gallery was a Rod Serling program that was a variation on his Twilight Zone programs.

While it was true that HPL said things that were racist and anti-semitic, he also married a Jewish woman. So one has to be careful about how much he said was for effect. It may be closer to the mark to say that HPL was bitter because he felt he had missed out on the 18th Century, which is the time he felt he belonged in. His idealization of the 18th Century was essentially that Britain ruled the world, and God saw it was good. This is not to say that HPL actually knew his history that well, but he was passionate about his conception of it.

This is my first time reading Lovecraft's work. I tried to pick out the stories randomly to read. I sampled Dagon, The Picture in The House and when I came to Cool Air, I'm captured. I felt the coldness, eerieness as narrated. As I read along, I kind of know what's coming up, but when the moment finally comes, it oozes horror!

Which stories would you recommend reading first? I hope to read his other stories once I have the time.

I haven't finished with the book yet, I have to read The Colour out of space and The Whisperer in Darkness. Still I am not satisfied with Lovecraft's works. I have already said that in my opinion the stories could be developed better. In spite of this I quite like The Call of Cathulhu, so may be you would like to continue with this one.

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Originally Posted by Alexei

I haven't finished with the book yet, I have to read The Colour out of space and The Whisperer in Darkness. Still I am not satisfied with Lovecraft's works. I have already said that in my opinion the stories could be developed better. In spite of this I quite like The Call of Cathulhu, so may be you would like to continue with this one.

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Being that Lovecraft wrote for the pulps time was not on his side. Time was money, so get it done and get it sold. What makes his stories special is that he was able to write as well as he did in that hurry up atmosphere.

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Originally Posted by jlb4tlb

Being that Lovecraft wrote for the pulps time was not on his side. Time was money, so get it done and get it sold. What makes his stories special is that he was able to write as well as he did in that hurry up atmosphere.

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I didn't know that :)
I have just finished the book and I still think that I don't like it so much. Still I will probably read some of his other works, so it isn't as if I haven't like the stories at all :p

Alexei,

Try At the Mountains of Madness. It's a novella, so it should be developed enough for you.

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Originally Posted by Dark Star

Alexei,

Try At the Mountains of Madness. It's a novella, so it should be developed enough for you.

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Thanks, I will read it, but right now I am absolutely unable to do it. Yesterday, I decided to take all the books i am currently reading and I ended up with two small piles and I will probably keep it for later.
Actually, after I finished all the stories, I didn't really change my mind about stories being a bit unsatisfying, but there were some ideas that really started interesting me, so I would like to read more by Lovecraft. Thanks for the recommendation, I will start reading it as soon as I menage to reduce the piles a little :D