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[Criptfeind]

I dunno. Although that at least sounds true (I've got no idea of like, actual historical psychology). Most of the people in lovecrafts books that are considered insane are not like, just weird or quirky. They are mostly pretty much of the bring harm to themselves or others variety, that we still recognize as insane today. It might have been a thing of the times to consider anyone weird insane, but that doesn't come though in lovecrafts stories. For the most part, people with weird and fantastical viewpoints in his stories can be, weird, and sometimes cartoonish, but they are not typically called or considered by others to be insane.

Edit: Well, there's also a lot of people who are like, paranoid schizophreniacts to the point of self harm. Or at least appear that way to others, in reality they might be justified, they might be who you are talking about? Although we'd still consider them insane today.

[Mlamlah]

I've always considered the insanity Lovecraft works refer to as actual insanity. This isn't mere "being exposed to deviant literature" level stuff, this is more along the lines of actual mind boggling things. Being confronted with the realization that you and everything you believe is totally meaningless drivel without any significance to the scope of the cosmos. Being forced to understand that you truly are as insignificant as microbial life to what else is out there, the truly labyrinthian minds of the *true* masters of the universe, who have motivations and goals beyond all scope of human imagining, that your entire existence rides on the whims of creatures that don't even understand human values, much less care about them.

[Bohandas]

But at least some of it is people relating their encounters with zombies and aliens and shoggoths and stuff and people who haven't been exposed to aliens etc just naturally assuming that they're crazy based on the contents of their stories.

[Bohandas]

I think a good clear example (albeit one very distantly removed from canon) of what I'm talking about regarding "insane" characters not actually being insane would be the scene in Evil Dead II where some people come across Ash shortly after he's gotten done hacking up the first group of posessed zombies, and based on the bodies and him being covered in blood and wielding a weapon and stuff they quite naturally come to the conclusion that he's some sort of deranged homicidal maniac.

[hops]

Lovecraft's characters quite obviously suffer from PTSD though. Like, the Dagon guy who went insane and shot himself just because he saw a fish?

[Xantalos]

Trust me, Dagon isn't the worst example of Lovecraft's flaws as an author.
Though it was a really fucking big fish.

[scrdest]

Dagon was also a really early story, so Early Installment Weirdness is in full swing.

[Xantalos]

Also very true, IIRC he took Dagon, thought 'I could make this less shit', and came of with The Call of Cthulhu.

[Spehss _]

Lovecraft's characters quite obviously suffer from PTSD though. Like, the Dagon guy who went insane and shot himself just because he saw a fish?

Not just a fish. A fish-man. A really big fish-man.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Also very true, IIRC he took Dagon, thought 'I could make this less shit', and came of with The Call of Cthulhu.

Which was also kind of shit. Even the retcon that the boated Cthulhu was actually just a stirring dream projection doesn't really make up for it.

[Xantalos]

True, though the boat didn't actually do anything to him like it's often touted, it just passed through him like he was a gas.

[wierd]

Actually............

Dagon is not 'strictly' a lovecraft creation. The ancient Assyrians worshiped a fish deity of the same name.

Lovecraft borrowed this dead religion, made it all "Lovecrafty", with his themes of racial purity, intrinsic horror, and victorian themes-- and conjured up Father Dagon, the somewhat anthropomorphic fish god, who wants to conquer the surface world by using human bloodlines to create hybrid offspring that can live both on land, and deep in the sea. 

The original Assyrian god was related to agriculture, and grain harvests. This is probably why Lovecraft spun him into giving the fishing village of Innsmouth bountiful fish harvests in exchange for their "Sacrifices", and "Worship".

(Sometimes having studies old, dead religions makes reading fiction seem kinda cliche.)

[Bohandas]

True, though the boat didn't actually do anything to him like it's often touted, it just passed through him like he was a gas.

like Lo Pan in Big Trouble In Little China?

[Bohandas]

I've always considered the insanity Lovecraft works refer to as actual insanity. This isn't mere "being exposed to deviant literature" level stuff, this is more along the lines of actual mind boggling things. Being confronted with the realization that you and everything you believe is totally meaningless drivel without any significance to the scope of the cosmos. Being forced to understand that you truly are as insignificant as microbial life to what else is out there, the truly labyrinthian minds of the *true* masters of the universe, who have motivations and goals beyond all scope of human imagining, that your entire existence rides on the whims of creatures that don't even understand human values, much less care about them.

Some of it is that, but some of it is people assuming that the guy ranting about ameoba-like shapeshifters and giants with octopus heads must be suffering from some form of psychosis

[Xantalos]

The oft-reviled Masquerade actually makes sense in Lovecraft because no one wants to acknowledge that the brain-melting horrors exist lest they attract attention.