H.P. Lovecraft

This is the closest he was able to pull to a smile.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a writer of horror fiction for 1920s pulp magazines. He pioneered the idea of "cosmic horror", in which the horror arises not from prosaic fears of death and dismemberment but from the idea that the universe itself is utterly alien and indifferent to us, full of unguessable horrors that our minds are ill-equipped to cope with.

This idea replaced the traditional spooks, werewolves, vampires and psychos with tentacled monstrosities from beyond space and time, dark gods sleeping beneath the ocean and secretive cults carrying out terrible rites to bring their masters back to the world of the living. His influence can be felt throughout our culture - Mind Flayers in D&D, the insidious cults and corrupting influence of the gods of Chaos in Warhammer, and of course Call of Cthulhu.

Lovecraft himself was a shy, gentlemanly soul, and a prolific writer of letters. He corresponded with many of the other authors of the time, including Robert E. Howard (Conan), Clark Ashton Smith, Frank Belknap Long, and even a young Robert Bloch (Psycho). Many of his correspondents wrote pastiches of his distinctive style of horror. In fact, Bloch and Lovecraft each wrote stories in which the other made an appearance - and died in a suitably gruesome way.

Lovecraft's work was heavily influenced by many of his own personal beliefs. Most prominently, he has a peculiar abhorrence for other races and particularly the idea of racial co-mingling, with views that even some of his contemporaries considered on the extreme side, he despised country-folk, and he absolutely loathed seafood, which is why so many of his more grisly monsters resemble amalgamations of particularly disgusting sea-life. Don't believe us? We have the "winged starfish/seacucumber hybrids" of the Elder Things, the "flying lobster" Mi-Go, the "squamous jellyfish" Shoggoths, the "giant squid-worm" Chthonians, and of course the "dragon octopus" of Cthulhu and his race. And that's a short list.

Although the greater "Lovecraft Mythos" is particularly contentious, even Lovecraft's own works haven't always transitioned well, making his works somewhat "hit and miss" in terms of actual scariness to modern audiences. The more overtly racism-based stories in particular haven't held up well; "The Shadow over Innsmouth" works because the narrator actively turns into a hideous-looking fish-frog-monster at the end. "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family", on the other hand, tends to elicit a "dude, what?" reaction to the titular character going mad over the fact his great-great-great-granddaddy fell in love with and married some sort of monkey-girl he met in Africa before smuggling her home to America. And absolutely nobody takes "Medusa's Coils" seriously these days, what with the reveal that the terrifying secret of the villain's family is... she's the product of a white man marrying a black woman. Some generations ago, mind you.

Influences

• The monsters of DnD-- Mindflayers (cthulhu), gibbering mouthers (shoggoths), kuo-toa (deep ones).

• The Jabberslyth in Warhammer Fantasy (shoggoths)

• The concept of Chaos in both the Warhammer Fantasy and 40,000 settings.

• Magic the Gathering's entire Eldrazi set, as cheesy as it was, was about the Old Ones awakening.

• The Pathfinder RPG gets a lot of mileage out of Lovecraftian themes, like the stuff about aboleths creating the human race, the Vault Keepers, Aucturn the Stranger, and the Dark Tapestry.

See Also

Cthulhu Mythos and works based on it, including:

• Call of Cthulhu
• Trail of Cthulhu
• Arkham Horror

Other /tg/-relevant sci-fi authors:

• H.G. Wells
• Robert Heinlein
• Isaac Asimov
• Arthur C. Clarke
• Matthew Ward *BLAM* Heresy!

External Links

• The H.P. Lovecraft Archive
• Complete Works at Dagonbytes