Since last May, The R’lyeh Tribune has discussed various examples of Lovecraft’s shorter fiction, and some of their subsequent adaptations to movies, television and graphic novels. For the most part, the focus has been on his earlier, less well known stories. In these are found the beginnings of ideas, themes, characters and a world view that are more fully developed in his later works. This brief, initial exploration has identified a few things that are very striking about Lovecraft’s creations, which also include his attempts to create a stable personality and sense of self.
1. Lovecraft’s writing is full of
contradictions. What he says about
himself to others in his letters is inconsistent with the content of his poetry
and fiction. He is an avowed atheist who
makes frequent reference to biblical passages, whose terrifying “Old Ones” are
manifested through religious ritual, and whose settings often include churches
and graveyards. He is officially a
materialist, and yet his metaphysics of the dream world holds that dreams are
as real as so-called reality, and probably more so. In life, he felt that he was superior to the
rabble and especially to ethnic, racial and religious minorities. Yet he considered
himself feeble, frequently incapacitated, physically ugly, and a failure.
2. He remains popular and influential nearly 100
years after his death, despite having so little in common with his readers. For much of his life he did not work, was not
interested in women, and was a “gentleman” in a country that usually lampoons
such affectations. By some standards he
was not even a particularly good writer.
His stories lack dialogue, characterization, plot—Lovecraft himself
freely admitted that he was best at setting and mood, but little else. Yet he was able to conceptualize what is
truly and supernaturally horrifying and influence various types of horror
entertainment by contributing a vocabulary of settings, creatures and
mythologies.
3. In his poetry, fiction and correspondence, Lovecraft
leaves behind a remarkable psycho-emotional record of his fears and
disappointments. He carefully documented
his struggles with depression and sanity following his grandfather’s death, the
subsequent loss of the family fortune, and his inability to succeed as an adult
or as a writer in a challenging period of history. He conducted himself as if he were a devout
Puritan, yet had no hope or belief in a salvation. Near the end of his life he was still trying to
resolve the contradictions in his life and find a purpose—even an identity—for
himself.
Going
forward, H.P. Lovecraft’s work will remain a focus of The R’lyeh Tribune, but attention will shift outwards to explore
the circle of writers Lovecraft attracted and how they laid the groundwork for
the “Golden Age of Science Fiction” that followed soon after his death. It may also be interesting to go backward as well, and explore authors
who preceded Lovecraft in the late 19th and very early 20th
century, what Joshua Glenn of HiLo Books calls “Radium Age Science Fiction”.
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