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Falstaff Infection posted:Maybe I'm alone in this, but I sort of feel like Lovecraft just isn't scary to modern audiences. It seems that so much of the horror in his works relies on a belief in a well-ordered universe in which humanity is important. Nobody really believes that anymore, so I dunno if HPL can really have the same impact as he did in the 20s. That said, I still enjoy reading his works from time to time-- I dig the rich, musty early-20th-century flavor. Pickman's Model is probably my favorite. I actually think that Algernon Blackwood was better w/r/t "weird" fiction, though. I dunno about this. While people don't seem to believe in an ordered universe any more, most people have a deeply held belief that humanity matters. I think the cosmic dread thing still works pretty well because of that. I don't think HPL's at his strongest with that stuff though, I really prefer the stories that are more about (in the words of Terry Pratchett) normal stuff gone wrong (or nearly-normal stuff made horrible) than about big giant monsters or ancient races from spaaaaaace or whatever. Pickman's Model is probably my favorite too, perhaps tied with The Thing On The Doorstep and followed by Cool Air and The Tomb. The Music Of Erich Zann is up there too.
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Dec 25, 2014 08:48
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SgtScruffy posted:My main problem with Lovecraft is that I recently steamrolled through a "complete collection", and a good amount of his stories for a time followed the format of "I received a letter from someone that was crazy > I investigated > I found terrifying things > I'm in a mental institution now!" I love the ongoing implication that this poo poo that happens all the time and the general population just writes it off as "lunatics are lunatics, thrown them in the asylum and don't worry about it".
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Dec 26, 2014 00:12
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