H. P. Lovecraft: Master of Horror Stories, Or Conspiracy Historian?

reply to post by Chiiru


I've always had a soft spot for him and I appreciate the influence his work has had on some of our current artists and writers. There are worse people who could become 'fashionable'.

This is my story:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I doubt I will have any more recognition after I'm gone than I will get while I'm alive. I doubt I would deserve it either.

I'll say here, that my effort is just supposed to be for fun.

There is something to be said about his writting. Polaris is a short story unique and very revealing. As well as the call of Cthulhu which has coordinates to supposed sleeping place of the demon. While I am not sure about the validity of demons from space, he cetainately knew alot of things that he shouldn't of known. Something nostradamus said and the polaris story click if you hear them.


-Aza

Originally posted by Azathoth
There is something to be said about his writting. Polaris is a short story unique and very revealing. As well as the call of Cthulhu which has coordinates to supposed sleeping place of the demon.

First, Cthulhu is not a demon. While a powerful being, so mighty that humans mistake him for a god (or demon in your case), Cthulhu is a flesh-and-blood* extraterrestrial. He only appears supernatural to limited human understanding.

The coordinates Lovecraft gives for drowned R'lyeh (47° 9' S, 126° 43' W) do have significance, but they were not chosen because Lovecraft had some eldritch knowledge; Lovecraft picked those coordinates because they are close to the Pacific Ocean Pole of Inaccessibility, the farthest point from any land.

What do you find unique and revealing about Polaris? Much of it autobiographical and allegory concerning Lovecraft's atttudes about the Great War.

(*kind of sort of; in The Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft writes..."They were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape...but that shape was not made of matter" and in At the Mountains of Madness, he says, " Cthulhu spawn...seem to have been composed of matter more widely different from that which we know...")

reply to post by BitRaiser


HA, I have read all of hp's work, however, we are talking upwards of 20 years ago. The stories I like best are The color out of space and Dreamquest of unknown Kadath; in dreamquest he really let his imagination go wild.
I love the Half Life series and have played them all but did not make this connection until you mentioned it. The enemy troops are half human half alien and as you have mentioned there are many other parallels. I wish Valve would get off thier --- and get HL 2 episode 3 out. Also I have heard that a half life movie is in the works...hope they do it justice.

reply to post by GENERAL EYES


Actually this might well be true. From his wikipedia entry there is this quote:

Beginning in his early life, Lovecraft is believed to have suffered from night terrors, a rare parasomnia disorder; he believed himself to be assaulted at night by horrific "night gaunts." Much of his later work is thought to have been directly inspired by these terrors (Indeed, Night Gaunts became the subject of a poem he wrote of the same name, in which they were personified as devil-like creatures without faces)

Although Lovecraft himself was an atheist, I believe it is likely he suffered under a heavy demonic influence, possibly inherited from his parents who both died in insane asylums. No doubt they fueled his subconscious with all kinds of strange ideas, some of which may well be sourced from ancient and evil powers. New England seems to breed this sort of thing. Isn't Stephen King from Maine (lol). Interestingly Lovecraft was obsessed with family curses and compulsions due to outside influences. I think he's drawing from his own personal experiences here.

manybooks.net...

A link to viewing his books, you can download them in PDF form.

Enjoy.

There is something about HP Lovecraft that is very interesting to me,
and I hope this is on topic for the OP. I try to be on topic,
but by reactions I can tell that many times it is not
perceived that way by other contributors.
So disclaimers aside...

He was the center of a literary circle.
Something that is overlooked frequently
is that, not only was his own witting interesting
but everyone in his inner circle went on to dominate
and define the horror genera. He was the head of a club.

Similar to Ginsberg, with people like Kerouac and a slew of others.

It is surprising to me how often when one digs into the past
to learn more about one particular 'Lionized' hero of art
that they are part of a group that they defined,
built up, and lead. Look at the genius
surrounding Benjamin Franklin.
Look at Robert A. Heinlien.

Lovecraft didn't just write
horror stories, he
created the
genera.


David Grouchy


p.s. there is some serious racism in some of his stories,
but it was very tame for the age he came from.
But the modern world would condemn
him soundly for it if he
worte today.

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft

You can probably tell by my handle that I am an HPL fan.

I considered posting about HP, but was afraid there wouldn't be enough material, or interest.

The copy of the necronomicon published in the early 80's as a paperback went on at great lengths in the preface to show the links between Lovecraft's "Ctulhu mythos" and the Cosmology of ancient Sumer.

More than one of his stories hinted about atomic weapons.

So, was he "channeling" the truth? Or was he just plugging into man's deepest fears? Or have conspiracy theorists (perhaps subconsciously) copied his works???

to the last part of your post. i think bolth are true. lovecraft used lucid dreaming well before people recognized lucid dreaming as a legit thing.

the thing that makes me think that love craft new something is some of what he wrote about mars


Azhorra-Tha is an Outer God imprisoned on planet Mars
Lam The Grey An alien entity similar to Grey aliens dwelling in the dark side of planet Mars
D'endrrah (The Divinity) is sort of blurry female entity of supernatural beauty living inside a dark palace located on Mars' Moon Deimos
comibine all of this with the fact we know now that thre might be strucures on mars
and the fact that some say lovecraft's dad was freemason

reply to post by truthontheloose


Actually, none of those were created by Lovecraft himself. As has been mentioned, quite a few writers at the time shared ideas and plot points in order to build a more impacting and cohesive mythos.

I don't believe Lovecraft was possessed of any hidden knowledge or knew of any conspiracies, but instead was possessed of a uniquely creative mind. Many, MANY authors borrowed his ideas, or set their own stories within the mythos. Indeed, there have been so many books, movies or video games that were inspired by Lovecrafts works that it becomes very difficult for someone to distinguish what he wrote, and what he inspired.

I think, like H.G. Wells, he was a uniquely gifted individual who was able to imagine things science could not. Wells was writing about time travel, genetic manipulation and space travel before they were commonly used terms. Lovecraft, on the other hand, was writing about malevolent aliens, universes wholly different to our own, and the possibility that magic is nothing but another type of science that anyone can learn.

Regardless of whether he knew 'things' or not, he was an amazingly talented writer. I've never felt such a sense of hopelessness whilst reading a book.
Have to say my favourite would be either Colour out of Space, simply because the idea of an alien life form being something so, well...alien, is absolutely brilliant. Or Charles Dexter Ward, for the epic story of Curwen and his long term planning, and for the fact I still wonder exactly what it was he was aiming to do. Who was it Willet accidentally called up!?!?

reply to post by JackofBlades


Sorry but HG Wells is purely second rate in many ways. He was pro NWO and anti national sovereign rights etc.

His books are brain rotting and unreadable. Lovecraft knew the esoteric secrets and they enlighten us still to this day...

Well, Cthulhu just ate my last post. This time he'll have to contend with me cutting it to a text editor before hitting "reply". That is not dead, which can eternal lie in a txt file.

Anyway, Lovecraft got a lot of his inspiration from another guy who is considered the founder of the Elder Occult Horror genre, A.J. Merritt. People were so convinced that Merritt was writing about actual fact only slightly veiled as fiction that he spawned a cult following in his day, complete with an acolyte - Shaver.

He wrote as if his work was a true work, complete with faux scientific paper references and faux news headlines ala Crichton. And it was a type of fiction that wasn't common - it often seemed to be a travelog, only Merritt was going into the Hollow Earth.

His prototype novel was "The Moon Pool", it has everything you could want in a novel of this type - dwarves, kinky sex, murder, death rays, Commies, Hollow Earth super civilizations, Atlantis, extraterrestrials, evil AI (sort of), zombies, you name it, it's in there. Not only did HPL nab a lot of foundation work from it, if you read Clarke you'll recognize where he got the idea for "The City and the Stars" characters 'the mad mind' and 'vanamonde'.

The great thing is, since the copyright expired long ago, it's free!

First, to the member who scoffed at the "reptilian alien" connection, because the creatures were described as "frog like." First of all, take a few deep breaths. In deeply through the nose, and out slowly. Ooooh--saaaah.... Feel all the tension and uptight-ness draining from your body with each breath. Feel a little better?

Secondly, no offense, but grow an imagination.

Here are a couple depictions of so-called "reptoid" aliens:







Now, I'd almost bet anything, that if you showed these pics to 10,000 people who had never seen them before (and who were not familiar with the "reptoid alien" theory) I just about guarantee that some of them might describe it as "frog like" while others would see something "reptilian." I'm not necessarily defending the view that Lovecraft had secret knowledge, or visions, or whatnot... but IMHO yours is a very weak objection-- especially on a point like this.

Originally posted by Chiiru

Originally posted by berenike
I hope this isn't too off-topic.

A few years ago I found Simon's Necronomicon Spellbook and was interested to see his version of the Necronomicon itself.

I just knew exactly where to find it in the City. I knew which shop to go (not the one where I found the Spellbook) and I even knew which shelf in the basement of the shop, which wasn't famous for its book department.

I read one of the links here that says Simon's version is a hoax and that the connections he made to the Mesopotamian Gods were a bit stretched. All I can say is that the Spellbook worked very well for me and I'm grateful.

Thats interesting, considering Lovecraft admitted all of it was pure fiction, a device for his stories. Of course, there are others who deny this and claim the true necronomicon is housed in the Akashic records and Lovecraft was able to 'see' some of it through his dreams/nightmares.
Who knows?

I have heard even more people scoff at this notion. "The necronomicon is fiction, moron!" is one of the (more polite) types of responses you'll see to a claim like this.


However, if a student of the occult combs through the Simon Necronomicon, he will quickly realize that the book was indeed written by someone with a working knowledge of the occult. The book describes a number of rituals, most of which are smaller workings. However, the book goes into quite a bit of detail regarding a series of rituals intended to guide the magician through a series of "gates" (I think this is the term used, if I remember correctly-- it's been years since I've read any part of the book.) What is being described in this section is very similar to the practice of "pathworking" which is a major goal in some systems of western occultism.

Some might describe it as an "astral journey," others a "vision quest." Point being, the parallels are quite obvious to anyone with a little bit of knowledge in that area.


I have also encountered a person or two over the years who swore up and down that the rituals. work.


Point being, they are based on some actual occult theory / practice.

Originally posted by iwilliam
Now, I'd almost bet anything, that if you showed these pics to 10,000 people who had never seen them before (and who were not familiar with the "reptoid alien" theory) I just about guarantee that some of them might describe it as "frog like" while others would see something "reptilian." I'm not necessarily defending the view that Lovecraft had secret knowledge, or visions, or whatnot... but IMHO yours is a very weak objection-- especially on a point like this.

Not to burst your bubble, but the Deep Ones, to which I believe you're referring, are described as more than just frog-like. He describes them as being fish-like, man-like and even dog-like at one point. Further, the Deep Ones weren't aliens. They had evolved naturally in the seas, as we evolved on the land and, as the story tells us, were distantly related to humanity which is how they were able to interbreed. Though their genes aggressively asserted themselves as the child aged.

However, if a student of the occult combs through the Simon Necronomicon, he will quickly realize that the book was indeed written by someone with a working knowledge of the occult. The book describes a number of rituals, most of which are smaller workings. However, the book goes into quite a bit of detail regarding a series of rituals intended to guide the magician through a series of "gates" (I think this is the term used, if I remember correctly-- it's been years since I've read any part of the book.) What is being described in this section is very similar to the practice of "pathworking" which is a major goal in some systems of western occultism.

Some might describe it as an "astral journey," others a "vision quest." Point being, the parallels are quite obvious to anyone with a little bit of knowledge in that area.


I have also encountered a person or two over the years who swore up and down that the rituals. work.


Point being, they are based on some actual occult theory / practice.

While I do not disagree with you there, I will point out the Simon Necronomicon was actually published 40 years after Lovecraft died. And while this in itself does not disprove the existence of another book, I'm sure it's obvious to everyone that content has no relation to authenticity. The Simon Necronomicon has no information in it, that a studious researcher could not discover on their own. While it may contain some very accurate and in depth workings on ritual or whatever, that information is not 'privileged.' It doesn't tell you anything you couldn't have learned yourself simply by putting the hours of research in.

One thing that I don't understand is why so many people who insist Lovecraft was talking about all true things instantly ascribe an occult or magical nature to his stories. Very rarely did he actually venture into the realms of magic and fantasy. If you had actually paid any attention to the stories, you would see they are (to put it simply) alien invasion stories. Beings from another Universe are attempting to drag the Earth away for some hellish purpose. If we had Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in a lead role, this would be Independence Day. Except better.
While many of the characters in the stories interpret what they see as magic, quite often he goes to lengths to highlight the possibility that whatever it is conforms to laws of physics, or that mathematics are involved.
In essence, he tells us that the science of more advanced and nefarious beings, is like magic to us. And does that mean he 'knows the truth?' Don't be silly! All he's doing is telling us something we already knew. Indeed, Arthur C. Clarke put it best when he said:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

And that is all Lovecraft does. He presents us with something against which we can do nothing. He doesn't need to tell us how it works, because we don't know. All we know is that the Old Ones exist between the places we know, and that Yog Sothoth is the Gate, the Key and the Guardian of the Gate. Why? Doesn't matter. How? It'd make your head pop.

The recurring theme in his works is that whatever is out there is beyond anything we can comprehend, and that anything they have or can do, is equally incomprehensible. When faced with something we can't comprehend we call it magic or sorcery. All Lovecraft was doing is giving us a good bit of sci-fi, blanketed by fantasy, with a heap of terror and insanity on the side.

((I apologise if this is a tad blunt, or offends, but I get incredibly angry when people say Lovecraft MUST have plagiarised his stories from another source. It completely invalidates his genius, and discounts the simple creativity and imagination he had.))