"The Cats of Ulthar" (1920-audio 14 minutes)
"The Very Old Folk" (1927, audio 15 minutes)
"The Call of Cthulhu" (1928, 28 pages)
"A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson" (1917, 7 pages)
H. P. Lovecraft-Master of The Weird Horror Story
H. P. Lovecraft has long had a cult like following among lovers of horror stories and tales of the occult. Lovecraft (1890 to 1937-USA) wrote horror, fantasy and science fiction stories and novels. He is best known for what are called "weird horror" stories. His writings was deeply involved with the occult, hidden cults, and the real beyond the obvious. Much of his work deals with "secret knowledge" of some kind. (Wikipedia has a very good article on
Lovecraft which covers the basic facts about his life and lists many of his works.) Lovecraft was very into the reading life.
I was in the mode for a change of pace and Lovecraft had been in my "check out soon" list for a while so yesterday I read two of his stories and listened to two of them on audio.
Before posting on the stories, I do have to note that Lovecraft appeared to me to be a racist. There are numerous references to sinister dark people, clear statements that non-European people need to be controlled by their betters, and references to blacks in his stories often seem to suggest they were dangerous criminals. In one especially glaring passage he referred in "The Call of Cthulhu" to Americans having difficulty "controlling the wild tribes of the Philippines". In order to be sure I was not over reacting, I checked numerous web pages on Lovecraft and it is commonly accepted that he was a racist. Lovecraft felt those of Anglo-Saxon descent were entitled to a privileged position by right of birth and he saw a world in which this was even in his time declining as evidence of extreme cultural decay. Lovecraft was heavily influenced by the ideas of Oswald Spengler as expressed in
The Decline of the West. Spengler's basic theme was that the world was passing out of a period in which it was dominated by ideas from Europe and beginning a cyclical return to domination by ideas from ancient Egypt and India. Spengler was not a Nazi (he did vote for Hitler) but many of his ideas are part of the intellectual underpinnings of Nazi ideology. If one looked at the original publications (so called Pulp Magazines) where Lovecraft's stories were published, you would find art work depicting a very evil look Fu Manchu type Asian man looking at a young blond woman with very bad intentions. I do not know if Lovecraft was an advocate of anti-Semitism or not (Spengler was not). OK this being said I still enjoyed Lovecraft's unique style.
"The Cats of Ulthar" was a really good story. I really enjoyed the audio I listed to. I admit I decided to try it because if Lovecraft was a cat hater then for sure I was through with him! In this story he does show a proper fondness and respect for cats. The Story is set in a town where it is illegal to kill a cat. There is a very evil old couple who everyone fears that makes a practice of finding and killing cats. (Lovecraft seems to also associate being old with being sinister.) One day a caravan of "dark traveling strangers" stops for the night in the town. (500,000 or more people of Gypsy descent-I reject the term "Roma"-died in the Holocaust.) Of course all the decent people of the community are afraid of them. The old cat killing couple make a terrible for them mistake, they kill one of the cats of the strangers. I will not tell what happens to them but I will say I did love it. This was a really fun story and I am glad I read it.
"A Reminiscence of Dr Samuel Johnson" caught my interest as I am a life long reader of and about Samuel Johnson. This story is an account of a visit to Johnson's famous club. It is a first person account of a made up by Lovecraft member of the group and his impressions. It is well written but kind of pointless undramatic and uninteresting work. It is not in his main area of writing at all and the story has nothing to do with the fame of Lovecraft. It just caught my eye and it was short so I read it. No harm done!
"The Very Old Folk" is set Spain in the days of the Roman Empire. It is prime Lovecraft with evil old people, sinister folk practices in the mountains and occult lore. It was a fun story.
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| 1928 Cover |
"The Call of Cthulhu" is one of the core stories that are central to the Lovecraft cult. The story was originally published in
Weird Tales (a pulp magazine). It is a story of the influence of an alien being on the people of the earth. The story is told by three different narrators and Lovecraft does just a great job creating the sense of the chaos this hidden visits caused. Parts of it are read around the camp fire scary and parts are really fun. It is also full of pseudo-arcane knowledge. I want to thank E. F of
This Book and I Could Be Friends for her excellent advise on getting started with Lovecraft.
The world of Lovecraft is a self referential one. Readers of his works learn about his works from reading them. It is an escape from the real world more than an exploration of it. There are ugly elements below the surface in his work and they play into submerged fantasies. Lovecraft has been tremendously influential on horror writers the world over. I think had I discovered these stories in my teens I would have been fascinated.
You can listen to very good reading of his stories
HERE
You can read much of his work
HERE
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Post Script-since writing this post I have found that Lovecraft wrote horribly offensive racist poetry and wrote in support of the Klu Klux Klan.
