He's one of the most influential writers of horror, who created his own universe over top our own that many crazy people have made cults to. Hail Dagon! His fiction was weird, terrible, cosmic, and blew people's minds. He was ahead of his time, and created a pantheon of gods and monsters that to this day still inspires and disturbs people. Stephen King called Lovecraft "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."
I still don't agree with H.P. that cats are our saviors, but I'm highly allergic and every cat I've ever met has pretty much tried to love me to death for it. It's like they have a sense for those who cant be near them.
So Happy Birthday H.P! Thanks for leaving behind a legacy of madness and tentacles!
Sweet Nyarlathotep's nutsack, I love that pic. ^__^
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna celebrate by watching a couple Lovecraft-inspired movies.
I love H.P. "High-Powered" Lovecraft so much that I constantly force myself to overlook the fact that he was one of the most blatant racists in American literature. My personal favorite Lovecraft story: "The Hound." What's your fave?
ReplyDeleteThat's a bit strong. Prejudiced, xenophobic, but he wasn't a skinhead or anything. His life history, especially his childhood, reveals some f&ck$& up events. also, he grew up in an unenlightened time and it was the 1920's, when the KKK was resurgent and claimed 20million members when the US only had a total pop. of 100 million. Forgive him.
DeleteForgive him? I dunno if forgiveness is really necessary. He's dead. He doesn't care what we think of him anymore. The man was a bigot, sexist and racist. Just because he lived in an unenlightened time period doesn't mean he gets a free pass.
DeleteAnd I love the guy, but he hated women-kind.
People are still unenlightened, and we are supposed to be past all that. Should I forgive the politicians who are saying women can't get raped because their bodies just push the unwanted baby out? No. Just because H.P. Lovecraft was brilliant, and I can see merit in his work, doesn't give him a free pass to be an asshole. It just means I have to put my own biases aside when I read it. He loves friggen cats too, and I am not a cat person. Doesn't mean I can't love his fiction, or how he writes.
Marvin clearly likes H.P. He's just not going to blindly love him and forget the man had big, glaring flaws.
*Sorry, cant get pregnant when they are raped...
DeleteThanks for the reminder, Kweeny. HP is a favorite author; it's nice to see him honored.
ReplyDeleteNice portrait of him!
ReplyDeleteThe things that must have went on inside of his head! I'm trying to remember a particular short story of his that scared the heck out of me.
ReplyDeletegreat post!