Why H.P. Lovecraft is a Masterpiece
(Just letting you know this is an essay for class but I thought it was good so I posted it online.)
H.P. Lovecraft was a pulp sci-fi writer from the 1920s who is arguably one of the greatest influences on modern horror. While he was not the best when it came to his prose he most certainly is a master of world building. As the author who invented Cthulhu and the Necronomicon, he is one of the first modern writers to create shared universe for all of his works. He is an inspiration for people like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, and also he is the basis for a lot of board games.
A typical H.P. Lovecraft story follows a very formulaic structure. An every man ("The Call of Cthulhu", "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", "Dagon") or an anthropologist ("At the Mountains of Maddness", "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family") are either about to go insane or are already insane and will proceed to recount everything that happened. These protagonists are always white males and live in an imperialist country (see any Lovecraft short story ever). The character then finds something related to or sees one of the elder gods in some way. The character then goes mad, usually at his own insignificance. And all of this usually taking place in Massachusetts or Rhode Island. ("The Shadow over Insmouth", "The Color Out of Space", "The Dunwhich Horror")
It should be made clear H.P. Lovecraft is a racist. He writes about the 'horrors' of being related to African primitive ape creature in "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family." There's a poem he wrote where black people are described as 'the space between good and evil'. However there is something interesting about his sense of horror that remained potent. These white imperialists had to deal with the existential prospect that they are insignificant in the universe. They are some of the best subjects for this type of fear because they claim to be the greatest beings on earth but they are not; it's cathartic. It is as if all of these imperialist white men are Ozymandias while Cthulhu and the elder gods are the desert.
Lovecraft's actual writing style is an odd one. Being a writer of 20s he has this hint of realism in his writing. His stories usually have a first person narrator or another person recounting events. However, he writes about events that are in the realm of the fantastic and so his style contradicts his subject matter. This does have the benefit of feeling uncanny but his prose tend to go on and on about the strange things characters see. These descriptions tend to be about how the geometry contradicts itself or the interesting shade of purple the tentacles were. These descriptions are weak but when he becomes ambiguous with his descriptions the writing becomes captivating. Readers want to know exactly what the creatures look like. They want to know what eldritch thing could be so horrifying that it defies description. This is the kind of horror that only works as written word; you do not know what it looks like and so you fill in gaps. This is what compelled a lot of people to keep reading.
The most compelling aspect of Lovecraft was the Cthulhu mythos itself. The Cthulhu mythos is the interconnected universe of H.P. Lovecraft. Its become a playground of ideas for horror writers to play in. Half of the joy of reading the stories involves piecing the universe together. The crux of his universe is the city of Arkham, Massachusetts, home of Miscatonic University and it's copy of the Necronomicon. So many of Lovecraft's stories reference this location readers cannot help but try to piece the story together. For example Lovecraft referenced the being Hastur, from Ambrose Bierce's "Haïta the Shepard", in "The Whispers of Darkness" and that made it completely possible for other authors to contribute to the universe. And so more pulp writers started to add to the universe, even Lovecraft himself was a co-author that some of these writers made.
H.P. Lovecraft redefined horror for the modern age. This is why the Cthulhu mythos is a masterpiece, it has created an entire subculture and this subculture influences mainstream horror writing a lot. Authors before him explored similar themes, but Lovecraft serialized it. He made a scary version earth people kept coming back to long after his death.
Works Cited
House, Wes. “We Can’t Ignore H.P. Lovecraft’s White Supremacy.” Literary Hub, GROVE ATLANTIC AND ELECTRIC LITERATURE, 26 Sept. 2017, lithub.com/we-cant-ignore-h-p-lovecrafts-white-supremacy/. Web.
Lovecraft, Howard Phillips. The H. P. Lovecraft Collection. Arcturus Publishing, 2016. Print.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Cthulhu Mythos in Popular Culture.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Dec. 2004, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos_in_popular_culture. Web.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Hastur.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Sept. 2005, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastur. Web.
Wikipedia Contributors. “H. P. Lovecraft.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 July 2003, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft. Web.
Appendix 1
Hey, the Nash's Corner awards are soon and I lost track of how many there have been so rather than give them proper numbers post in the comments ideas for absurd numbering. Like the color orangeth or a drawing of a duckth.
H.P. Lovecraft was a pulp sci-fi writer from the 1920s who is arguably one of the greatest influences on modern horror. While he was not the best when it came to his prose he most certainly is a master of world building. As the author who invented Cthulhu and the Necronomicon, he is one of the first modern writers to create shared universe for all of his works. He is an inspiration for people like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, and also he is the basis for a lot of board games.
A typical H.P. Lovecraft story follows a very formulaic structure. An every man ("The Call of Cthulhu", "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", "Dagon") or an anthropologist ("At the Mountains of Maddness", "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family") are either about to go insane or are already insane and will proceed to recount everything that happened. These protagonists are always white males and live in an imperialist country (see any Lovecraft short story ever). The character then finds something related to or sees one of the elder gods in some way. The character then goes mad, usually at his own insignificance. And all of this usually taking place in Massachusetts or Rhode Island. ("The Shadow over Insmouth", "The Color Out of Space", "The Dunwhich Horror")
It should be made clear H.P. Lovecraft is a racist. He writes about the 'horrors' of being related to African primitive ape creature in "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family." There's a poem he wrote where black people are described as 'the space between good and evil'. However there is something interesting about his sense of horror that remained potent. These white imperialists had to deal with the existential prospect that they are insignificant in the universe. They are some of the best subjects for this type of fear because they claim to be the greatest beings on earth but they are not; it's cathartic. It is as if all of these imperialist white men are Ozymandias while Cthulhu and the elder gods are the desert.
Lovecraft's actual writing style is an odd one. Being a writer of 20s he has this hint of realism in his writing. His stories usually have a first person narrator or another person recounting events. However, he writes about events that are in the realm of the fantastic and so his style contradicts his subject matter. This does have the benefit of feeling uncanny but his prose tend to go on and on about the strange things characters see. These descriptions tend to be about how the geometry contradicts itself or the interesting shade of purple the tentacles were. These descriptions are weak but when he becomes ambiguous with his descriptions the writing becomes captivating. Readers want to know exactly what the creatures look like. They want to know what eldritch thing could be so horrifying that it defies description. This is the kind of horror that only works as written word; you do not know what it looks like and so you fill in gaps. This is what compelled a lot of people to keep reading.
The most compelling aspect of Lovecraft was the Cthulhu mythos itself. The Cthulhu mythos is the interconnected universe of H.P. Lovecraft. Its become a playground of ideas for horror writers to play in. Half of the joy of reading the stories involves piecing the universe together. The crux of his universe is the city of Arkham, Massachusetts, home of Miscatonic University and it's copy of the Necronomicon. So many of Lovecraft's stories reference this location readers cannot help but try to piece the story together. For example Lovecraft referenced the being Hastur, from Ambrose Bierce's "Haïta the Shepard", in "The Whispers of Darkness" and that made it completely possible for other authors to contribute to the universe. And so more pulp writers started to add to the universe, even Lovecraft himself was a co-author that some of these writers made.
H.P. Lovecraft redefined horror for the modern age. This is why the Cthulhu mythos is a masterpiece, it has created an entire subculture and this subculture influences mainstream horror writing a lot. Authors before him explored similar themes, but Lovecraft serialized it. He made a scary version earth people kept coming back to long after his death.
Works Cited
House, Wes. “We Can’t Ignore H.P. Lovecraft’s White Supremacy.” Literary Hub, GROVE ATLANTIC AND ELECTRIC LITERATURE, 26 Sept. 2017, lithub.com/we-cant-ignore-h-p-lovecrafts-white-supremacy/. Web.
Lovecraft, Howard Phillips. The H. P. Lovecraft Collection. Arcturus Publishing, 2016. Print.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Cthulhu Mythos in Popular Culture.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Dec. 2004, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos_in_popular_culture. Web.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Hastur.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Sept. 2005, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastur. Web.
Wikipedia Contributors. “H. P. Lovecraft.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 July 2003, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft. Web.
Appendix 1
Hey, the Nash's Corner awards are soon and I lost track of how many there have been so rather than give them proper numbers post in the comments ideas for absurd numbering. Like the color orangeth or a drawing of a duckth.
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