Ahira's Hangar

This forum is devoted to Howard Phillips Lovecraft and any other writer of the macabre you care to talk about: Stephen King, Dean Knootz, Oliver Onions, Anne Rice, etc...I was first introduced to H.P. in 1971 when I saw Lin Carter on the Joe Franklin Show, in NYC. He had just become editor of Ballentine Books Adult Fantasy series. He was promoting The Dreamquest of the Unknown Kadath as well as similar graduates of Miskatonic University and Arkham House: August Dereleth, Clarke Aston Smith, Clifford D. Simak, William Hope Hogsdon, L. Sprauge deCamp and their mentors; E.R. Edison, William Morris and Lord Dunsany--he was, also, very proud of a young writer named Robert Anton Wilson who he touted as H.P.'s hier-apparent. Of course many of you now know him as the author of such classics as the Illuminatus! trilogy and Schroedinger's Cat. Yes, L.Sprague deCamp and Lin Carter are also the guys who mopped up the Conan series--but Carter's really not that bad a Sci-Fi writter and deCamp wrote probably the best biography ever of H.P. Lovercraft! Dreamquest is one of the most delightfully creepiest books I've ever read! Talk about Poe too, if you dare! I'll probably need a moderator for this page asap as I'll probably be too scared to creep down in this sub-subterrainian cavern below Pickman's grave! So have fun, let the monsters loose! Fall Far and Well Pilots!<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 11/14/06 11:13 pm
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Nobody has given me nightmares like Stephen King or Bentley Little! They are my favorite horror masters. I've heard so much about Lovecraft; just never picked up a book by him. I figure that life is so fleeting, I want to read something I'm sure of and can count on. So many books, and only so much time... Arise now, Riders of Théoden!Let horse be bridled, horn be sounded!Forth Eorlingas!<i></i>

It's definitely worth your while to read Lovecraft's stories. Maybe they won't scare you. After all, they've aged quite a bit, and probably aren't very scary by today's standards, but they have one thing that modern horror stories (like King's, Barker's, etc.) sorely lack: good writing. Lovecraft could write. He often got carried away with needlessly long words, and other less-than-flattering literary devices, but still - despite all his flaws, he was a good writer. He lacked Poe's great style, but was a more adventurous writer, and was more "pure" as a horror writer.

Anyway, the main advantage of giving Lovecraft a try: most of his works are short stories. In other words, you're not taking on an 800 page novel that might bore you. If you're a slow reader, it will take you 45 minutes to one hour to read a Lovecraft story.

VALIS
Rolling Moss Won't Get You Stoned.<i></i>

beyond cool! another Lovecraft fan, I love it! I really like H.P.'s short stories like; The Colour Out of Space, The Fungi from Yuggoth (poem) (made in2 a movie called Die Monster Die! w/Boris Karloff), At the Mts of Madness and my total fav: The Horror at Red Hook. Mts of Madness has, roughly, been made in2 a couple of movies (Iceman and The Thing, if I'm not mistaken) and, I'm told Reanimator was based on one of his stories and Dagon. The Dunwich Horror is a great read and made in 2 a pretty good movie w/Bruce Dern & Sandra Dee. "The windows of the houses leered over me like fisheyes!" There's also a fairly new movie w/Sam Niell as a writer who causes the end of the world and starts and ends in an insane asylum: In The Mouth of Madness--if it wasn't based on a Lovecraft story it should have been. That movie was great I put that up with my 2 other horror fav movies: The Haunting and The Serpent and the Rainbow. Fall Far and Well Pilots!<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 6/9/06 10:48 pm
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Aside from the overly sentimental ending, I'm a big fan of the story "The Outsider".

VALIS
Rolling Moss Won't Get You Stoned.<i></i>

I'm trying 2 remember the name of a certain H.P. Lovecraft short story, no I don't think it The Colour Out of Space, but similar: it's about a guy going nuts and plastering all the corners of his house, or apartment, because "straight edges and especially their intersections" let demons or Other Gods in...from the Veil Beyond Time. I just can't remember it---on another forum: Realm of Sci-Fi & Fantasy somebody really liked The Silver Key and since I'm a huge Kadath and Randolph Carter fan I had 2 totaly agree! The Strange High House in the Mist in the same collection is dam good.
--Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos--Yog Suggoth--the Void where Azathoth gnaws hungrily in the dark!---The Necronomicon: written in blood on pages of dried human flesh by the mad arab Abdul Alhazred! Oh, gotta love it! Fall Far and Well Pilots!<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 12/14/02 7:06:28 pm
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Some of my Favs are the writings of Douglas Adams,
"Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy" "Dirk Gently's Psychic Detective Agency","Restaurant at the end of the Universe" "Thanks for all the Fish" Some of these are short stories...Lots of irony and who knows maybe he does know the secret of life and why we are here. Anyone else like his stuff? Think he is British. His main hero is Arthur Dent who I think lives in Salisbury,UK? <i></i>

Thanks 2 u I'm inspired 2 start a Douglas Adams topic in Gen Sci Fi--he really is Sci-Fi and a blessing 2 all Sci Fi fans as there really isn't enuf good humor in the genre, but Adams is hilarious and make ups 4 it big time!--back 2 the topic of horror--H.P. always scares the hell out of me I still think he ranks right up there w/the modern masters--what he has, 2 me, that they don't is this nervousness-I don't kno I get this crazy trembling worrying out of my mind feeling when I read Lovecraft. And I worry about Lovecraft the person when I read it--he was 1 strange guy! It apprears, from his style, that he was on massive amounts of drugs--but he wasn't!! I guess he makes me paraniod--and that's probably y The Horror at Red Hook scares the crap outta me as I'm am insanely claustropobic. I liken his style 2 this: The Haunting of Hill House (the old movie and the new 1 simply called: The Haunting) Lovecraft talks about and builds up huge fears about these horrible, horrible monsters and Other Gods from the Veil Beyond Time or other dimensions and space--but many times they don't appear when they should their very absence drives the characters mad or 2 suicide. Deeply psychological, strange, eerie and creepy. If u have never read Lovecraft b4 I urge u 2 get The Lurker at The Threshold--a GREAT short story collection that contains The Lurking Fear! btw-Lovecraft knew of Pluto's xistence b4 it was ever discovered: he called it Yuggoth and I believe he talks about a 10th planet in either The Silver Key or Strange High House in the Mist I think it starts w/an X...Xanth (or something like it..). Fall Far and Well Pilots!<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 12/14/02 7:08:33 pm
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Here comes another Lovecraft fan. I don't think Lovecraft's brand of horror has aged; conversely I think he is often scarier than many modern authors. Koontz holds no candle to him; King can only in his best moments approach what Lovecraft is a large part of the time.

I think my favorite is The Outsider for the wonderful atmosphere, and after that a great number of stories in no particular order, including such as The Shadow out of Time, The Colour out of Space, and The Shadow over Innsmouth.

By the way, the story in which the man plasters the corners of the room is not Lovecraft, but the excellent The Hounds of Tindalos by Francis Bellknap Long (sp?).

For the end, here is the link to The Eldritch Dark the Clark Ashton Smith site which I have been giving around a lot lately because it deserves attention. You can read online or download a great number of Smith's stories and poems. Smith is far too little known today and many of those stories and poems are out of print even though many of them are truly excellent. I think Smith can equal Lovecraft in scariness and is also a very good writer, so what are you waiting for? <i></i>

Very cool site Nerdanel! I already c @least 3 books I need 2 add 2 my endless reading list, so I will b there often. Thanks 4 joining out humble little board! Please fell free 2 start a Smith topic if u would like! U really seem 2 kno ur stuff--would u like (or have time) 2 moderate The Corner? How far do you fall Pilot?<i></i>

I'm sorry I don't think I'll have the time for moderation. But I think I will start that thread on Smith "soon". It's weird that I'm on a holiday and I still have trouble finding time. <i></i>

Hey all;
Alright. What hooked me on Lovecraft was The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Can't remember when but that was the one. The Lurking Fear is the weirdest in as much as when I read it I was living in a veeeeeery small town where you could truly believe something like that would occur. I'd love to know where his idea's came from. Your always sort of looking over your shoulder kind of after you've read one of his. The fact that he can make such an impact on people still without mulititudes of murders and gore says it all about his abilities as a writer of what, weird?
Innsmouth Lady
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Hello danlo60.
Just a short question. Which anthology contained the story Horror at Red Hook? I can't place that title but I'm sure I read it. If not then I would love to. Thanks.
Innsmouth Lady <i></i>

My Lady, The Horror at Red Hook is now in a new anthology called Transition to Lovecraft: The Road to Madness, I don't know if I'm right but it may have been in the old Ballentine collection At the Mts. of Madness. If u go 2 the link in the overhead banner u can read it online... Mathematics is a game. It's pieces are the axioms we create, and it's rules our logic. That mathematics is occasionally useful to mechanics and pilots is accidental -Mahavira Lal, third Lord Cantor<i></i>

Thank you danlo;
I thought I had read it but wasn't sure. Found it as you said in The Road to Madness. Will have to give it a once over again today. By the time that series of 4 books came out i had begun to think I might never get all his tales. Printed out a complete list of Lovecraft stories at some site so I know I have some to locate yet. But it's certainly worth the search. Thanks again
Innsmouth Lady <i></i>