New OOTS products from CafePress
New OOTS t-shirts, ornaments, mugs, bags, and more
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 31 to 43 of 43
  1. - Top - End - #31
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    OldWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Everywhere you want to be

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    He was the inspiration for Alien and the film version of Annihilation.

    Style changes, and it's been nearly ninety years since most of his stuff was written - closer to a hundred in a few cases - and there aren't many authors who can persist through four generations without seeming more than a little old-fashioned.

    If you want a quick sample, try "From Beyond", or even "Ex Oblivione", to see if anything interests you.
    Alignments are objective. Right and wrong are not.
    Good: Will act to prevent harm to others even at personal cost.
    Evil: Will seek personal benefit even if it causes harm to others.
    Law: General, universal, and consistent trump specific, local, and inconsistent.
    Chaos: Specific, local, and inconsistent trump general, universal, and consistent.

  2. - Top - End - #32
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2011

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Alien is deservedly a classic, but I thought Annihilation was absolutely terrible. Virtually no plot, cardboard characters, and an extremely cheesy and disappointing ending. Even the CGI for the final creature looked cheap and artificial.

    None of which reflects on Lovecraft, of course; but after all the hype about Annihilation, I was severely underwhelmed.

    .
    Last edited by Palanan; 2020-05-24 at 05:22 PM.

  3. - Top - End - #33
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    OldWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Everywhere you want to be

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Wow, we have entirely different opinions about that movie. Either we must agree to disagree, or fight to the death with knives.

    How about the German version of The Color Out of Space, Die Farbe? Much less cheesy than the recent American adaptation, but just as creepy.

    "It's only a color... but it burns..."
    Alignments are objective. Right and wrong are not.
    Good: Will act to prevent harm to others even at personal cost.
    Evil: Will seek personal benefit even if it causes harm to others.
    Law: General, universal, and consistent trump specific, local, and inconsistent.
    Chaos: Specific, local, and inconsistent trump general, universal, and consistent.

  4. - Top - End - #34
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2011

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Knives it is. Your continent or mine?

    I'd never heard of the German version of Color, but if it's less cheesy and still creepy, that sounds promising.

  5. - Top - End - #35
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    OldWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Everywhere you want to be

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    What are your feelings on John Carpenter's The Thing? Technically based on Who Goes There? by John Campbell Jr., the movie draws a great deal from At the Mountains of Madness in tone, if not plot.
    Alignments are objective. Right and wrong are not.
    Good: Will act to prevent harm to others even at personal cost.
    Evil: Will seek personal benefit even if it causes harm to others.
    Law: General, universal, and consistent trump specific, local, and inconsistent.
    Chaos: Specific, local, and inconsistent trump general, universal, and consistent.

  6. - Top - End - #36
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2011

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Haven't actually seen that one. I usually don't watch a lot of horror, but if it traces its lineage back to Lovecraft, that's certainly worth a look.

    Speaking of which, the trailer for the German version of Color was definitely effective. I have a feeling that's much better than the Nicholas Cage version.

  7. - Top - End - #37
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Eldan's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Switzerland
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Die Farbe I would call better than the Cage movie, yes. Very different, though. For starters, not set in a modern setting.
    Resident Vancian Apologist

  8. - Top - End - #38
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

    Join Date
    Feb 2016

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    Don’t get me wrong Lovecraft as some good stories and he did create the whole cosmic horror genre which is nothing to scoff at but he is the kind of writer who works better in concept that execution. His prose is long winded to the point of boredom,
    The way I always liked to describe it was that he tells good stories badly. A trait which he shares with both Dickens and Tolkien.

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    his reliance on leaving the monster to the reader’s imagination sometimes means there’s nothing actually scary in the story, his protagonists are either so bland they don’t have any character, author avatars or both and in all cases generally lack any positive quality or willingness to actually do or investigate anything. And a lot of his writings have aged terribly either in case of mores or of overuse of the concept meaning that you will see the twist coming looooooong before the characters or won’t see anything wrong with it. I mean there’s a story where the terrible truth is that the narrator is one-hundred-twenty-eighth Congolese, excuse me for not being horrified. Or one where a street’s genus loci kills a bunch of communist Mexican Jews, excuse me for not being relieved. And the shadow over insmouth is at 80% an allegory for the horrors of the great replacement. That hampered my enjoyment of it somewhat, I must say.

    They’re classics true, but I won’t be re-reading them any time soon.
    These days his stories read better if you think of them as science-fantasy rather than horror.
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

    Omegaupdate Forum

    WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext

    PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket

    Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil

    Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)

  9. - Top - End - #39
    Barbarian in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Munich, Germany
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    Don’t get me wrong Lovecraft as some good stories and he did create the whole cosmic horror genre which is nothing to scoff at but he is the kind of writer who works better in concept that execution. His prose is long winded to the point of boredom, his reliance on leaving the monster to the reader’s imagination sometimes means there’s nothing actually scary in the story, his protagonists are either so bland they don’t have any character, author avatars or both and in all cases generally lack any positive quality or willingness to actually do or investigate anything. And a lot of his writings have aged terribly either in case of mores or of overuse of the concept meaning that you will see the twist coming looooooong before the characters or won’t see anything wrong with it. I mean there’s a story where the terrible truth is that the narrator is one-hundred-twenty-eighth Congolese, excuse me for not being horrified. Or one where a street’s genus loci kills a bunch of communist Mexican Jews, excuse me for not being relieved. And the shadow over insmouth is at 80% an allegory for the horrors of the great replacement. That hampered my enjoyment of it somewhat, I must say.

    They’re classics true, but I won’t be re-reading them any time soon.
    (emphasis mine)

    I assume you're referring to "Facts concerning the late Arthur Jermyn and his family?" The reveal is not that he is one-hundred-twenty-eigth Congolese, but that Jermyn's great-great-great-grandmother was an actual ape (not that Lovecraft saw much difference between ape and person of color, mind you). That said, it's not a very good story and probably Lovecraft's most blatantly racist one, so you're still right.
    Personally I vastly prefer the stories that don't use the supernatural as a thinly veiled stand-in for non-white people (looking at you, "Shadow over Innsmouth"), with "Colour out of Space" and "Mountains of Madness" being my favorites.
    What did the monk say to his dinner?
    Spoiler
    Show
    Out of the frying pan and into the friar!


    How would you describe a knife?
    Spoiler
    Show
    Cutting-edge technology

  10. - Top - End - #40
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Bohandas's Avatar

    Join Date
    Feb 2016

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Quote Originally Posted by Morgaln View Post
    (emphasis mine)

    I assume you're referring to "Facts concerning the late Arthur Jermyn and his family?" The reveal is not that he is one-hundred-twenty-eigth Congolese, but that Jermyn's great-great-great-grandmother was an actual ape
    And a white colored ape at that

    Quote Originally Posted by Caledonian View Post
    He was the inspiration for Alien and the film version of Annihilation.
    The plot summary of Annihilation that I've read sounds to me to be closer to Clark Ashton Smith's story The Metamorphosis of Earth
    Last edited by Bohandas; 2020-05-28 at 11:35 AM.
    "If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins

    Omegaupdate Forum

    WoTC Forums Archive + Indexing Projext

    PostImage, a free and sensible alternative to Photobucket

    Temple+ Modding Project for Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil

    Morrus' RPG Forum (EN World v2)

  11. - Top - End - #41
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Fyraltari's Avatar

    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    France
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Quote Originally Posted by Morgaln View Post
    (emphasis mine)

    I assume you're referring to "Facts concerning the late Arthur Jermyn and his family?" The reveal is not that he is one-hundred-twenty-eigth Congolese, but that Jermyn's great-great-great-grandmother was an actual ape (not that Lovecraft saw much difference between ape and person of color, mind you). That said, it's not a very good story and probably Lovecraft's most blatantly racist one, so you're still right.
    Personally I vastly prefer the stories that don't use the supernatural as a thinly veiled stand-in for non-white people (looking at you, "Shadow over Innsmouth"), with "Colour out of Space" and "Mountains of Madness" being my favorites.
    Actually I got it mixed up with Medusa’s coil where the twist is about the titular woman, not the narrator and it definitely isn’t a supernatural ape but actual people of colour. Which probably means it beats Arthur Jermyn as most racist. As does The Street, I would say.
    Forum Wisdom

    Mage avatar by smutmulch & linklele.

  12. - Top - End - #42
    Troll in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    England
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
    Actually I got it mixed up with Medusa’s coil where the twist is about the titular woman, not the narrator and it definitely isn’t a supernatural ape but actual people of colour. Which probably means it beats Arthur Jermyn as most racist. As does The Street, I would say.
    'Medusa's Coil' was written by HPL and another author. As it was published two years after his death its unknown how much of it, if any, he actually wrote
    All Comicshorse's posts come with the advisor : This is just my opinion any difficulties arising from implementing my ideas are your own problem

  13. - Top - End - #43
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    OldWizardGuy

    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Everywhere you want to be

    Default Re: Travel Between Worlds in the Lovecraft Mythos

    None of the stories HPL wrote by himself are extraordinarily racist. You have to go to his letters to find the truly offensive stuff.
    Alignments are objective. Right and wrong are not.
    Good: Will act to prevent harm to others even at personal cost.
    Evil: Will seek personal benefit even if it causes harm to others.
    Law: General, universal, and consistent trump specific, local, and inconsistent.
    Chaos: Specific, local, and inconsistent trump general, universal, and consistent.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •