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[Idiom]

Sorry for the resurrection, but Herbert West seemed to have such a great time doing that...
I figured I might as well use an existing thread.

I'm looking for a compilation of all of Lovecraft in one giant volume. I know it's free online, but e-text hurts my eyes. I'm wasted so much paper and ink just on the Shadow Out of Time. All I can find are mini-collections of just a handful here and there, as well as a book of poetry.
I'd like a book with all his novels, short stories, the poems if possible, and his essays on proper horror would be a bonus.
Has anything like that even been published? If not, I'm surprised. There's no copyright on his stuff. I'd think there would be by now.

[inaluct]

You used to be able to just google it and find the complete works published online (No copyright on them anymore).  I've heard they can still be found if you do a little digging.

Sliiightly off topic, since it isn't representative of his greater body of work, but the following was written by Lovecraft under a pen name and is a hilarious bit of parody/satire:

Sweet Ermengarde

Scrolled down, saw ""Never . . . ha ha ha ha!" leered the brute."

I am so reading this. It sounds like he just read a romance novel and wrote down what he pictured happening.

Also, you can start reading his stuff anywhere. He makes a lot of nonsense references, so most people assume that they're missing something from an earlier story. They usually aren't. He makes up some words, too, but not often enough for it to be a big problem.

[Wiles]

Neil Gaiman has a few short stories based on the Lovecraft universe. They're pretty good.

[Idiom]

I have a giant volume of everything Shakespeare. It's expensive, impractical, heavy, but when I want Shakespeare, I have Shakespeare.

Is there, or is there a Lovecraft equivalent? I want it in print. Please answer the reason that I resurrected this thread for.

[Nonanonymous]

I sincerely doubt it.  He's not exactly as skilled and famous as Shakespeare.  I'm almost certain you have to get into standard curriculum to warrant a comprehensive volume.

[Idiom]

I think he's skilled, but not exactly at writing.
I love his works. It's like a dead art. Someone with better writing skills should have built on his stuff, like Lovecraft did with Poe.
Steven King tried. Sort of. It was fairly Lovecraftian.

There is very little real horror in modern culture. It's all gore. Almost as if all the Hollywood directors and modern writers have a fetish for that.

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Hey, Lovecraft's universe is CHAOS, right? Cool. No [Good] v.s. [Evil], since I'm bored with that.

[Cthulhu]

There is very little real horror in modern culture. It's all gore. Almost as if all the Hollywood directors and modern writers have a fetish for that.

Not gore, money.  Violence sells, it's the viewers with the gore fetish, the directors are just catering to their tastes.

[Earthquake Damage]

Lovecraft defied several popular notions:

1.  His universe was fundamentally amoral.  There was none of that good vs evil stuff we eat for breakfast.

2.  His protagonists always "lost" in the end AFAIK.  While modern horror films (thriller would be a more accurate term, since most "horror" films distinctly lack actual horror) often show in the last few seconds that the villain is still alive, the protagonist still typically "wins" the confrontation in some sense.

3.  In his universe, humans had no place in the big picture.  There was nothing special about humanity.  In fact, humanity was powerless in the face of the supernatural.  There was no epic heroism saving the day.


It wouldn't surprise me to find that the average moviegoer prefers the common slasher or zombie movie to Lovecraftian horror.

Also, nameless, shapeless horrors probably don't produce the same quality special effects that standard gorefests do.

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Lovecraft defied several popular notions:

1.  His universe was fundamentally amoral.  There was none of that good vs evil stuff we eat for breakfast.

2.  His protagonists always "lost" in the end AFAIK.  While modern horror films (thriller would be a more accurate term, since most "horror" films distinctly lack actual horror) often show in the last few seconds that the villain is still alive, the protagonist still typically "wins" the confrontation in some sense.

3.  In his universe, humans had no place in the big picture.  There was nothing special about humanity.  In fact, humanity was powerless in the face of the supernatural.  There was no epic heroism saving the day.


It wouldn't surprise me to find that the average moviegoer prefers the common slasher or zombie movie to Lovecraftian horror.

Also, nameless, shapeless horrors probably don't produce the same quality special effects that standard gorefests do.

Ah, but that's quality. Anyway, it seemed a pretty Atheist setup, isn't it?

[deadlycairn]

In relation to your third point, heroism does make for a good story. But the hero(ine) doesn't have to kill/defeat/humiliate the 'bad guy' everytime, like Hollywood believes. Sometimes the best stories are the heroes that fail.

[Nonanonymous]

Ah, but that's quality. Anyway, it seemed a pretty Atheist setup, isn't it?

Lovecraft was an atheist.  In fact, he was more of a philosopher than a fiction author, in my opinion.

[Reasonableman]

Lovecraft is the scariest stuff I've ever read. Specially at 3 AM by the light of, well, a backlight: got the Moon Books compilation specially formatted for the DS.

[Nonanonymous]

Also, for those who like Lovecraft, check out the House on the Borderland.

[Fishersalwaysdie]

I think this thread needs a shameless plug.

It's an RPG set in the Lovecraft's universe, it seems pretty good so far, the designer is rather keen on keeping the Lovecraft feel in it.
So no fighting major Mythos entities.
 They are some complains to it being isometric and turnbased, but I would buy a game like that even it was in, like... ASCII.


On a side note, anyone knows some good Cthulhu Mythos games? I downloaded one text adventure thing for Amiga, but it didn't quite deliver.