The H. P. Lovecraft Appreciation Thread

[Tifaria]

Depends on when they were written.  If it's before 1978 (I think), then they would have to be renewed under that law, so if they weren't, they're up for grabs.  Or something.  I could have explained it better a semester ago, but I promptly emptied my brain of everything when summer started. 

Ah, okay.  The second reply here is a better explanation of how copyright works, and the wiki article is actually pretty informative:

"All works published before 1923 are public domain in the U.S.  However, there is some disagreement over who exactly owns or owned the copyrights and whether the copyrights for the majority of Lovecraft's works published post-1923."  Uh, that sentence is worded weirdly, but you get the idea. 

[Randolf]

Hmm. If it's still undecided, then I guess it's not legal for me to make any copies of the text just to keep on my computer for later reading, then. Or can I? I'm not exactly sure how the law would apply in this case, but I won't hit Ctrl+C until I know one way or the other.

Having read it recently, I recommend the paper "Notes on Writing Weird Fiction" in the site's Literary Criticism section. It's a great insight on Lovecraft's thoughts and principles on atmospheric horror writing; and he certainly practiced what he preached.

EDIT: Corrected some information.

[EyeOfPain]

If Wikipedia is to be believed, all of his pre-1923 writings are undoubtedly public domain, and no copyright extensions were properly filed for his post-1923 work.

Either way, I don't think he'd mind terribly as long as people enjoy his fiction, as most of the supposed inheritors sound downright greedy.

[Randolf]

Either way, I don't think he'd mind

He's dead. But of course... you knew that.

Finished reading The Thing on the Doorstep. I think this is one of my favorites thus far.

[EyeOfPain]

Well, if he was still alive, or some sort of zombie. But I guess your point would remain valid.

Finished up "The Dunwich Horror" earlier this evening myself. Pretty sure that's been the longest story of his I've read so far.

[R. Daniel 01]

His stories have inspired some truly grandiose illustrations. I'm sorry I haven't read any yet.

[Randolf]

His stories have inspired some truly grandiose illustrations. I'm sorry I haven't read any yet.

As is well evident by now, I linked to the H. P. Lovecraft Archive in the first post. Seriously, man, you've not many valid excuses at this point. Get in on this, it's good stuff.

Indeed, the art produced based on the fruits of his imagination can be be most excellent. In particular, the art produced for Lovecraft-based card and board games is of great interest to me. It still retains the spirit of his work, but... "prunes" it on a surface level, just enough to make it emotionally accessible.

Admittedly, he can get unnecessarily verbose at times (in Call of Cthulhu, he takes several lengthy paragraphs to say "I saw a piece of paper on a shelf at my friend's house, and it gave me a vital clue on the mysterious cult, which I now regret having ever seen or heard of".)

[Sharpshooter005]

including whether or not he was gay

Just like apparently EVERY historic figure/author/anyone of note who is now dead.

It's as if theres a cottage industry of people who figure "I want my name out there. If I claim (person) was actually gay it might ruffle some feathers enough to get me a piece of that limelight"

I'm casting kind of a broad net here, but it seems that a good 80 to 90% of the time, when somebody just goes "HEY GUESS WHAT, THIS DUDE/CHICK LIKED OTHER DUDES/CHICKS" and you start even mildly questioning their argument, they just go "NOPE, THEY WERE TOTALLY GAY, YOU'RE JUST BEING CLOSE-MINDED, FIE ON YOUR REASONABLE QUESTIONING OF MY ASSERTION"

..Alright so that was a derail. Anywho

Quake is also based on Lovecraftian lore

Well..I've read the original design documents, and they don't really mention Lovecraft if I remember right. In the final version the last boss is named shub-niggurath so clearly the designers were aware and referencing lovecraft. I dunno if it goes any further than that though

[Randolf]

I only mentioned the gay article because I figured people were interested in stuff like that-- which, as you said, they are to a fault. It might be a desperate attitude, by I've got no qualms against sensationalizing things a bit to generate some interest. Although, perhaps I should seriously rethink that.

I'm pretty sure Quake made only or two direct references to Lovecraft concepts, but (in my opinion) some of the game's other ideas seemed to tap into a similar methodology as Lovecraft (making it more Lovecraft-derivative in a broad sense than actually Lovecraft-based). But I know what you mean, shub-niggurath is literally the only thing overtly Lovecraftian in the whole game (unless you want to say all the pentacles are Elder Signs, which is frankly a crock).

Also, Quake's shub-niggurath in no way resembles Lovecraft's description of that Elder God. It didn't look even remotely goatlike, it was a squatting wad of flesh with a few slits in it and some tentacles.

Also, the method by which you defeat it falls so flat on its face it made me laugh.

[Yuko-san]

Wikipedia mentioned something interesting on Chiaki Konaka, Big O's main writer. Apparently he likes Lovecraft. I wonder if any of that showed up in Big O?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaki_Konaka

[Sharpshooter005]

I forgot he also did hellsing and lain

I can...kind of sort of see a strained correlation in hellsing (the notion of all this vast, ominous stuff going on that most people are fully unaware of)...I guess possibly you could interpret lain like that too. Probably moreso since theres that episode where it pretty much just ties in every conspiracy theory from stuff about the knights templar up through roswell with the plot.

Either way it's kind of a huge stretch. But yeah you could probably lump in the "Schwarzwald goes five sorts of insane from figuring out whats actually going on" into there, since a common thing with those stories is even getting an inkling of the entities like cthulu is enough to drive people totally out of their gourd.

Wait, wait. I forgot one. That episode with the hydroelectric dam always sort of reminded me of Lovecraft. It's an isolated seaside town, the locals all act like they're hostile to outsiders and are aware of some big secret, and even the thing he ends up fighting sort of resembles depictions of cthulu if I remember right. So basically the shadow over innsmouth but with a huge robot.

[Yuko-san]

^ I thought that the chtulla had tentacles on it's face. And from what I understand the chtulla had a more human shape.
Need to go get the full lovecraft collection. You can get them in omnibus editions. And I prefer to read real books.

[Sharpshooter005]

I forget if cthulu's ever actually directly described.

Also what the thing in that episode really looked like, it's been a while since I saw it.