Hi gang. I've been dying to jump into Lovecraft for my first time, but I don't know where to begin. Can anyone give some pointers as to where to start? Thanks a bunch!
@Rilo-Andy: If you want to get several specific books, get the Penguin classics. The Call of Cthulhu is a compilation with the eponymous story, as well as The Dunwich Horror and Shadow over Innsmouth, which are my all time favs. After that, get The Thing on the Doorstep, also published by Penguin.
@evan7257:
That is narrowing it down to its most sensational elements. You can find his actual influences in the work of Lord Dunsany, Poe and pretty much everything listed in his SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE.
Sure he was racist, but look at his back ground.
A white man from a well to do family in severe decline who lead a sheltered somewhat hermit like life. A life where the major influences on him were his mother and elderly aunts. It would be natural for him to be afraid and distrustful of the 'outsider'.
@Cthulhula: Oops. Meant to approve just your comment and it sort of ricocheted up the chain. Good observation, tho!
But so long as we're here: anyone want to expand on the impact of Relativity (Einstein's, right)? I'd think with the Elder Gods of Chaos, the discover of the sub-atomic universe would be more apt.
Ahh, Joshi. Some people have issue with his editorial commentary, but I think the footnotes that he added to the Penguin releases of Lovecraft short stories were very enlightening.
@crashedpc - unrein: Joshi's mountains of research (on the biography, the letters, the stories, the essays, and on and on and on) have definitely provided a foundation for the serious study of Lovecraft (and other weird writers). I just hope other scholars pick it up so that the field of weird criticism isn't so dominated by one voice.
@Shojo Bat: That reminds me, I need to finish this compilation by Robert Price. His short stories got repetitive after the first 15 or so, though. Hmm.
@crashedpc - unrein: I haven't made it to Price yet. I'm writing my dissertation on weird fiction, so I'm trying to read as much as I can. Oddly, I find some of the writers who immediately followed Lovecraft (Derleth and other fans) some of the most tedious. I think Joshi's newest book (which I also have not read) makes a similar argument.
@Shojo Bat: I'm no literary major (engineer yay), but IIRC Derleth was more about building onto the semi-established Lovecraftian mythos and it feels that he was trying to get his name all up in that.
The Price book that I have, Blasphemies and Revelations, starts off with several good short stories, but after a while I started to notice that every single one of them ended with a "WHATTA TWIST" sentence/short paragraph. That got tiring after a while, especially since the "shocking" revelation was easily predictable after 5 stories.
Uhm, I don't agree with that documentary 100%.
In my oppinion, there are strong differences between us and animals that makes us unique in the animal kingdom. Those "differences" are called creativity, imagination, thinking about the past, present and future (not just "what am I gonna eat" or "I have to find a mate"), reflection, culture (art, music etc.), great curiosity (which led to science --- I mean which other animal had ever built a space shuttle or a LHC?) etc....
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we are far better than any other animal (we are animals). But what I'm trying to say - you can't compare apples and oranges.
Clearly, it's an interesting perspective on humanity but the director should have mention human discoveries, space flights, computers, internet, maths etc. as well. Not just showing the human instincts and the "animalistic behavior". Mention an animal which is philosophizing about the meaning of life? Who/what created life? Where do we come from? Those questions led to religion and science.
Well, that's my oppinion.
You can criticize me if you like :) :P
@Shadowdagger: Maybe they don't philosophize about the meaning of life because they A. already know it (eat/have sex/ try really hard not to get killed), or B. they're scientists, and need results, not endless suppositions without proof!
Also, "The Great Questions scatter like roaches when you flip on the blinding light of pure pragmatism."
While I do not disagree with your main point (there are strong differences between us and animals that makes us unique in the animal kingdom) I would say that most of the traits we possess that make us different don't make us different by us having them, but to what degree do we use them. For example, crows, chimpanzees, parrots and dolphins all use tools in one way or another. We use the most the most often and with the most modifications.
@The_Sporean_Bob: I agree that many animals use tools as well. Animals can't modify them. They just take a stick or a stone to reach food and that's it. Humans modify tools and nature to make life easier - and not just for hunting. For example to create art.
@Shadowdagger: Chimpanzees in the wild have been observed modifying their tools to suit their needs, such as the chimps that were found tearing side branches off of sticks and sharpening the sticks with their teeth in order to hunt bush babies.
That's Gawker media for ya. Every now and then, they feel the need to cross promote their various blogs by plucking stories and then hitting the ol' shuffle button. This is why Gizmodo ends up with posts that should be on LifeHacker, and io9 gets the bits from Lauren that seemed originally written for TreeHugger. I'd give them a harder time about it, but it's not like they are the only ones doing it. AOL cross-promotes the heck out their properties too.
10/02/09
10/02/09
10/02/09
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10/02/09
10/03/09
That is narrowing it down to its most sensational elements. You can find his actual influences in the work of Lord Dunsany, Poe and pretty much everything listed in his SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE.
Sure he was racist, but look at his back ground.
A white man from a well to do family in severe decline who lead a sheltered somewhat hermit like life. A life where the major influences on him were his mother and elderly aunts. It would be natural for him to be afraid and distrustful of the 'outsider'.
10/03/09
But so long as we're here: anyone want to expand on the impact of Relativity (Einstein's, right)? I'd think with the Elder Gods of Chaos, the discover of the sub-atomic universe would be more apt.
10/02/09
10/02/09
10/02/09
10/02/09
10/02/09
[www.amazon.com]
10/02/09
10/02/09
10/02/09
10/02/09
10/02/09
The Price book that I have, Blasphemies and Revelations, starts off with several good short stories, but after a while I started to notice that every single one of them ended with a "WHATTA TWIST" sentence/short paragraph. That got tiring after a while, especially since the "shocking" revelation was easily predictable after 5 stories.
10/02/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
In my oppinion, there are strong differences between us and animals that makes us unique in the animal kingdom. Those "differences" are called creativity, imagination, thinking about the past, present and future (not just "what am I gonna eat" or "I have to find a mate"), reflection, culture (art, music etc.), great curiosity (which led to science --- I mean which other animal had ever built a space shuttle or a LHC?) etc....
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we are far better than any other animal (we are animals). But what I'm trying to say - you can't compare apples and oranges.
Clearly, it's an interesting perspective on humanity but the director should have mention human discoveries, space flights, computers, internet, maths etc. as well. Not just showing the human instincts and the "animalistic behavior". Mention an animal which is philosophizing about the meaning of life? Who/what created life? Where do we come from? Those questions led to religion and science.
Well, that's my oppinion.
You can criticize me if you like :) :P
09/21/09
Also, "The Great Questions scatter like roaches when you flip on the blinding light of pure pragmatism."
While I do not disagree with your main point (there are strong differences between us and animals that makes us unique in the animal kingdom) I would say that most of the traits we possess that make us different don't make us different by us having them, but to what degree do we use them. For example, crows, chimpanzees, parrots and dolphins all use tools in one way or another. We use the most the most often and with the most modifications.
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
That's Gawker media for ya. Every now and then, they feel the need to cross promote their various blogs by plucking stories and then hitting the ol' shuffle button. This is why Gizmodo ends up with posts that should be on LifeHacker, and io9 gets the bits from Lauren that seemed originally written for TreeHugger. I'd give them a harder time about it, but it's not like they are the only ones doing it. AOL cross-promotes the heck out their properties too.
09/21/09
Of course, I was tricked into learning about biology! Like educational toys! BOOO!!
Seriously though, I remember it being very interesting. I'll have to watch it when I'm not making honey for Queen Corporate.