Architecture
"The Anti-Architecture of H.P. Lovecraft" is a post by Enrique Ramirez.
HPL "successfully deploys architectonics and materiality in service of
profoundly architectural observations."
Art
Grim Reviews has photographs
of Donal Buckley's Lovecraft-inspired dioramas. Shops already sell
something similar-miniature scenes based on the theme of Hallowe'en as well as
related tableaus for The Munsters and
Tim Burton's The Nightmare before
Christmas. Watch out Christmas villages. *** And the same site offers
drawings by HPL, a concept worth
deeper exploration in a critical article.
Biography
HPL, Robert E. Howard, and Ambrose Bierce
are among the select for The Good, the
Bad and the Mad: Some Weird People in American History (Barnes & Noble
Books, 2005) by E. Randall Floyd.
Book
Reviews
Nancy Barr Mavity, literary editor of the Oakland Tribune (in California), shows
more knowledge of HPL than a number of critics of that time in her review of Best Supernatural Stories (17 June
1945).
Books
From 1961: old book authority Van Allen
Bradley states (The Daily Mail (Hagerstown, MD), 21 April 1961) that Arkham House's
The Outsider and Others and Beyond the Wall of Sleep are worth about
$35 each in fine condition with dust jacket.
Comic
Books
Locke
& Key (#5) features a "Lovecraft, Massachusetts."
Criticism
"Paradoxical Narration in Modern Fantastic Literature - Edgar Allan Poe,
Howard Phillips Lovecraft and J.R.R. Tolkien" by A. Simonis appeared in Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift (vol. 54, no. 2 (2004) p. 195-213). *** "H.
P. Lovecraft and the Anatomy of the Nothingness: The Cthulhu Mythos" by
erstwhile member Massimo Berruti was in Semiotica
(vol. 150, no. 1-4 (2004), p. 363-418). *** "Problemas cientificos de Las Montanas de la Locura de Lovecraft"
[i.e., "Scientific Problems of Lovecraft's At
the Mountains of Madness] by Carlos Bonet Betoret was in Bipedia (January 2001, p. 7-14). ***
"Itinerary of Writer of Fantastic Literature - Lovecraft between the World
Within and the Beyond" by Jacques Goimard was in Europe-Revue Litteraire Mensuelle (vol. 58, no. 611 (1980), p.
115-122). As stated in The Criticaster 38, Goimard authored Critique du Fantastique et de l'Insolite
(Pocket Agora, 2003). *** In speaking with praise about macabre literature and
HPL, Eugene Fallon (The Florence Morning News (S.C.), 12 April
1959) makes several blunders. "Horace" P. Lovecraft did not write for Black Mask nor a Flynn's Magazine, nor did he die around 1939, nor was he a Brown
grad, und so weiter. *** In an
editorial about the pleasures of fright, Newport
Daily News (12 April 1957) referred to "the superlative and
often-overlooked stories of a Providence man, H.P. Lovecraft." *** August
Derleth reviews Exiles and Fabrications
by Winfield Townley Scott (The Capital
Times, 17 August 1961). In another issue (18 July 1963) Derleth also
reviews HPL's Collected Poems.
Fashion
Some things are hard to make up. For example, there is a line of canvas
shoes that go under the name of "H.P. Lovecraft." Bearing illustrations by
creator Hayley Parker, the shoes are sold at boutiques around the world.
Folklore
In 2006 I reported on Timothy Evans'
article about HPL and folklore (C'aster
47). Now "The Folklore of Horror" by Kimberly Shain Presley not only describes
Evans interest in him, but informs us that he is writing a book, whose
tentative title is H.P. Lovecraft's
America. (Found via Chris Perridas blog.)
Genealogy
According to Daily Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana; 7 June 1869) a McKendry &
Lovecraft (stave manufacturers) had been burnt out about a year earlier and
were again victims. *** Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Lovecraft and daughter Miss Edna
Lovecraft of Rochester visit Olean, New York in 1894.
Magic
"Dr. H.P. Lovecraft's Magical Medicine
Show" was advertised in Oakland Tribune
(24 November 1975). (In 'aster 29 I
noted the appearance of this show in 1990 at Sea World of California.) Another
newspaper (San Mateo Times, 17
December 1975) refers to "San Francisco's most famous magician, Mr. Lovecraft."
Movies
Director Stuart Gordon states in an
interview, "You can't top Lovecraft for imagination, what a mind! His ideas are
still so far out there. We haven't even caught up with him yet, 70 years since
he's left us." *** Artist and
filmmaker Gris Grimly has scripted a favorite Lovecraft tale "The Picture in
the House." *** Referred to as Dunwich in the article by drama writer Robert Taylor (Oakland Tribune (Calif.), 18 April
1969), the movie that was to be The
Dunwich Horror had a script that its star Sandra Dee said "kept me
interested until the end." Director Daniel Haller is quoted,
"American-International owns the rights to all [Lovecraft's] stories," about
which he was probably mis-informed.
Music
The photography book True
Norwegian Black Metal (Vice, 20078) by Peter Beste has a quote by HPL. ***
Horrors! There's a download for Britney Spears music apparently called "Gimme
More: The Lovecraft Remixes." *** The 1900 operetta Foxy Quiller
featured a character named "Lovecraft" as one of "six inferior intellects." ***
A musical piece with ghosts reminded a reporter of the amiable ones of John
Kendrick Bangs "rather than the terrifying ones of James or Lovecraft" (The Morning Herald (Hagerstown, MD), 1
February 1945). *** Dedicated to HPL, "Beyond the Ghost Spectrum" was a piece
choreographed by Indian Hill faculty member James Waring, for who Lovecraft was
a favorite author (Berkshire Eagle
(Pittsfield, MA), 6 August 1969).
Politics
In the opinion piece "Abdulaziz
Al-Mutairi´s Somaliland and H. P. Lovecraft´s Cthulhu-land: Both Fictional" by
Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, an unflattering parallel is drawn between the
government of Somaliland and Cthulhu's R'lyeh.
Publishers
Library of America's recent publication of
a collection of Philip K. Dick novels has been their "fastest-selling title
ever." The number sold, 23,750, is compared with the Lovecraft work, 11,860, in
its first year (its total so far is over 26,000).
Radio
In a substantial interview on Yog
Radio-which can be downloaded--S.T. notes, among other things, that he is
looking to release the complete
version of his Lovecraft biography, to which he'll add some updates. Here's
hoping. (via Grim Reviews)
Science
Fiction
How's this for a predictive authorial
juxtaposition? In a discussion of fantastic stories on 25 October 1948 a
reporter notes that successors of Wells and Verne "are writers like H.P.
Lovecraft and L. Sprague de Camp, whose out-of-print books are amazingly
expensive" (Evening Times;
Cumberland, MD).
Supernatural
Designed for young monster lovers, Encyclopedia Horrifica: The Terrifying
Truth! about Vampires, Ghosts, Monsters, and More (Scholastic, 2007) by
Joshua Gee has a two-page spread on HPL.
Technology
"Herbert West, Reanimator" has been
displayed as a "word cloud," which I think means that the most frequent words in
the story are displayed most prominently as a jumble. Via Changetion.
Television
The Animanachronism discusses Lovecraftian elements in Demonbane. ***
Lovecraft to be a series? The premiseconcerns a businesswoman who is involved with fashion and the actual Lovecraft
Bio-Fuels.
Theatre
A drama class in Prague has put on plays based on "From Beyond," "The
Temple," "Dagon," and "The Shadow over Innsmouth," with a linking story written
by blogger Logan and set in Arkham Asylum. There are photographs and a synopsis
of each adaptation. ***
The 16th annual Shakespeare by the Sea (St. Johns, Newfoundland)
offers again on one bill a dramatization of "The Rats in the Walls" and Poe's
"The Cask of Amontillado." *** In Hoboken, N.J. there has been put on a 2008
adaptation of Ben Jonson's 1614 play Bartholomew
Fair, which has changed character names-for example, Dame Purecraft is now
Dame Lovecraft.
Influence
Basil Copper: A Life in Books (PS
Publishing, 2008) by Stephen Jones includes something about August
Derleth. Copper has been associated with
several Arkham House titles. *** Mark Samuels' short "The Gentleman from
Mexico" might have a touch of HPL. *** Vampire Hunter D's creator, Hideyuki
Kikuchi, stated that "The Dunwich Horror" had a big influence on him.*** Author Laird Barron (The Imago Sequence & Other Stories)
alludes to HPL in an interview. *** Sarah
Monette's collection The Bone Key
(Prime Books, 2007) has drawn comparisons with M.R. James, Blackwood, and HPL.
*** And there is a comparison between HPL and J.G. Ballard (who never read him)
in "Ballardcraft: Ballard/Lovecraft."
Influences
on HPL
A new biography is out entitled Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the
Supernatural (J. P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2008) by Jim Steinmeyer. There is no
reference to HPL.
Contemporaries
Amygdala has a look at Willis
Conover and HPL.
Butor
In my last issue I noted: "Apparently in Michel's
Butor's Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Ape HPL was on a recommended reading list." Subsequently I've scanned
through the fantasy memoir. HPL is mentioned but once in the text: "I had come
by to return Algernon Blackwood, H.P. Lovecraft." (Dalkey Archive Press, 1995;
p. 25). Maybe this accounts for that farrago of a blurb on the back cover which
has it that "this is autobiography as if invented by H.P. Lovecraft, Bram
Stoker, and Edgar Allan Poe, and then as reinvented by the French New
Novelists" etc.
Houdini
Houdini: A Definitive Bibliography (1991) seems hardly that, if only because of its mere 37 page size. Its compiler, the late Manny Weltman, lists "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" and its various reprints, but omits the obscure "Cancer of Superstition," written for Houdini. Beyond "Pharaohs" two items are connected with Weird Tales: "The Spirit Fakers of Hermannstadt," (designated a "short story" but actually a two-part serial) in the March and April 1924 issues; and a circa 1924 article, "A Word about [picture of Houdini] by Himself."
Out of Mailing 141
Ken:
Thanks for reprinting the 1946 Providence Journal review of Marginalia;
it was my first reading of it. *** I agree that the John Hay Library is a
natural gathering point for Lovecraft correspondence; for copies if not
originals. Yet what percentage of collectors is willing to make copies? There
will inevitably be holdouts. *** Re the addition of the 1903 Whipple V.
Phillips will to WikiSource-since this is a wiki, anyone should be able to
post, so if you have access to a copy of the will, you can do it.
Fred:
How are the lines anti-Semitic: "A spider 'twas that rescu'd Islam's head/ When
from the foe within a cave he fled"?
Lovecraft was right in his allusion. The story is that Mohammed fled
from Mecca and hid in a cave from the Koreishites, who did not find him in part
thanks to the spider that wove its web across the cave mouth. This is
undoubtedly a multi-cultural folklore convention that should be in Stith
Thompson's Motif‑Index of Folk‑Literature. I like spiders,
the most effective form of insecticide. For a sympathetic poem about them, see
Don Marquis' "pity the poor spiders."
Ben:
That's an eye-lovely cover of IBID, which reproduces in color the
(counterfeit reproduction) dust jacket of your own The Outsider and
Others. I wonder how exact it is in the area of, say, color registration.
There are 22 parallel lines across the repro-is this picked up from a mylar
covering? *** You speak of first reading virtually all of HPL in the army and
of preferring his fantasies, such as "Celephais." Maybe your unfamiliar
surroundings and circumstances caused you to invest personal and relevant
meanings into this and related stories. *** The article comparing Merritt and
Lovecraft was the first I've seen, and it prompts me to read more-or
re-read-Merritt. The tracing of the name "Cthulhu" to Merritt's octopoid
"Khalk'ru" is a bombshell, and one that needs wider knowledge. Too bad AM
didn't live to complete those stories he mentions in that letter to you, sent
four months before his unexpected death. *** My only dissatisfaction with the
reprint of the postal card (HPL to REH) is that I can't read it. Had the image
been expanded then maybe I could've done it. But thanks for making it
available.
T.R.:
The change in constellations as a result of time's effect ("The Shadow out of
Time") may be traceable back to H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine." How do you
figure that "nebulously recombining" is part of an astronomical vocabulary? ***
What an incredible amount of detail that you consistently bring to your
research.
Don and Mollie: Don, I joined
the EOD in 1985, and for the first time I find that you are actually
writing loc's. Congratulations. May it continue. *** Of things that you hate,
might I recommend hating intolerance as well as ignorance, whether yours or
theirs. And speaking of ignorance, how much do you know about the practitioners
of Islam? I don't mean just the radicals (every belief-system has that, doesn't
it?), but the common man and woman from many countries and cultures? So far as historian and philosophy maven Will Durant
being (as you denominate him) an "idiot"-labels don't make arguments (to quote
Mr. Spock), and I dare say that his view is shared by the majority of academic
historians. So far as suggesting chimpanzees could just about do what many
learned astronomers have done-locating and naming stars-I suspect that you
would be opposed in this opinion by the overwhelming majority of credentialed
astronomers. What constitutes real science is open to debate. Comparing Greeks
and Arabs is comparing apples and oranges, and your generalizations come with
little evidence. Your being a professional mathematician does not make you an
expert on the history of mathematics, and your speaking ex cathedra hardly
seems to suggest the propositions that inform science, which must be open to
contradictory and other views.
You refer to "Islamic culture." Yet you had asked in mailing 137, "What
'culture?' (Where is their Shakespeare? Their Bach?)" This is the remark that I
chose to answer with the Durant quote. I could, on the other hand, have an
appropriate Moslem state of Western culture: "What 'culture?' Where is their
Firdausi? Their Arabian Nights?)" Or if you prefer someone from the
Orient: "What 'culture?' Where is their Li Po? Their I Ching?)." And why
did you single out Shakespeare and Bach, individuals from hundreds of years
ago-hasn't Western culture produced anybody of that stature in recent
times? In sum, beware of being
inebriated by your own culture. I don't see you particularly as a "cultural
elitist" so much as a Western culture isolationist and ethnocentrist.
You state "Some human cultures are demonstrably superior to others"
(the italics are yours). This is involved with subjective criteria and who
defines the criteria. To take one example, you imply that living in a cave
proves inferiority-so does that mean that people living in shacks are inferior
to those in houses; and those in houses are inferior to those in mansions?
Superior culture (you state) is "more conducive to knowledge, beauty" etc. That
"knowledge" might be connected with the Bible's Tree of Knowledge.
I'll conclude with two quotes. The first I'll use to contrast with your
remarks of Islam when you asked "What 'culture' and defined "beauty" as
conducive to culture. H.P. Lovecraft
wrote appreciatively, "We concentrated on the mediaeval Saracenic glories of
the Califs whose magnificent tomb‑mosques form a glittering faery
necropolis on the edge of the Arabian Desert" (from "Under the Pyramids").
Concerning your stated enmity to ignorance, here's an internet-harvested quote
attributed to Saul Bellow: "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in
ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Sean: So far as I can
discover, the earliest Spanish translation of a Lovecraft book in Spain may be
a year or so earlier than your 1966 finding (though this is not the earliest
translation into Spanish). I hope that you are able to do a further study on
the history of Lovecraft translations in Spain. I wonder if the business
correspondence of August Derleth could throw light on this. *** Re your
comments on terrorism-if aliens judged the human race by the actions of
extremists, they would (I imagine) consider its extermination desirable. Also,
beware of ad hominem arguments as well as intolerant tones toward those
you might think intolerant.
Martin:
The contumacy of your computer and its corruption of your W. H. Hodgson
bibliography of translations into Swedish sounds like a horror story. My sympathy.
John
H.: Your discussion of Derleth's mythos fiction was welcome, and showed me
things I didn't know and found interesting, though it may not drive me to
re-read it in toto. Of your style I will note that it suffers from italicitis,
a superfluous use of italics; I'd prefer you to drop all italics, save those
for titles or when they are already in quotes. Also, I continue to yearn to see
endnote numbering. You observe that "The Shuttered Room" ended Derleth's use of
terminal italics for CM stories-but he wrote few stories of this kind after
this time, didn't he? *** As a kind of digression, I suggest that Derleth's
good vs. evil concept and Christian myth is more related to the Arthur Machen
Mythos than Lovecraft's.
What about Me?
Call this self-serving. In the 1980's I did an academic paper about
HPL's Dunsanian fantasies. As I recall I was trying to identify characteristics
of fantasy as it related to HPL's work. Doubtlessly I might make changes if I
were doing it today, but who would not in a paper that came out more than a
quarter of a century ago? Actually I had begun it in the 1970's.
In S.T.'s EOD-circulated chapter from his bibliography that contains
academic papers, I find that mine is absent. Reasoning from this omission, I
suspect that in other bibliographic categories there will probably be missing
the various EOD offerings, however significant they may be, even if they are
difficult to access for a non-member. That a research article appears in EOD
should not disqualify it any more than the fact that the appearance of an
article of suspect workmanship in a professional publication qualifies it.
Algis
Budrys RIP
The late science fiction writer and
reviewer wrote an entertaining and at times perceptive article (The Magazine
of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1975) on L. Sprague de Camp's
biography, Lovecraft. I hope it gets collected in a Lovecraft anthology.
Tales
of Tomorrow and Stanley Weinbaum
Available on DVD, this TV series began in the early 1950's, but I'm
watching it for the first time. This is an interesting visit to the past. The
endings are frequently apocalyptic, from an alien invasion to a scientist
convinced his atomic experiment will be successful and not blow up the world (he's
wrong). The ideas run from simple to a certain sophistication-for example, that
the ability of people to figure out how to enter a cave sends a signal to
aliens that Earth life has evolved enough to be dangerous. (This comes from a
script and story by Theodore Sturgeon.) In another story ("All the Time in the
World") a woman from the future gives a shady character a mechanism that slows
time so that he can steal various artworks. Perhaps it comes as no surprise
that she is aware the current world is ending and she is salvaging various
masterpieces. She allows him to keep the time-retarding mechanism, telling him
that though the world is ending in minutes from a bomb that is being tested, he
can grow old simply by keeping time at its slow pace. Will he do it? The story
wanders into philosophical territory, and I was keen to see who could've
written this superior work. Alas, the credits were missing; but on imdb.com I
discovered the story was by a major talent, Arthur C. Clarke. Also, apparently
he (and Jack Vance and other sf writers) was associated with another early
series, Captain Video.
But to return to Tales of Tomorrow. The adaptation of Henry's
Kuttner's "What You Need" was alright. (I can't recall how it compares with its
Twilight Zone version.) Like
other stories it appeared to be recorded live. As a result, there were some
on-air gaffs-in "The Little Black Bag" (story by C.M. Kornbluth) an actor
misread a date that was shown to the audience, then later announced that the
bag (established as being from the 24th century) was from the 21st.
"Test Flight" concerns a business man risking his millions to build a
space rocket that he plans on riding. I quickly determined that this was Robert
A. Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold the Moon," save for the twist at the end. Yet
to my surprise Heinlein is not credited with the story, but Nelson S. Bond.
What gives?
An episode titled "The Miraculous Serum" begins with a scientist/doctor
who has invented what he believes is a cure for various ailments, but he has to
try it on a human. Next one sees a lovely woman dying in the hospital. At that
instant I presciently decided that this was Stanley Weinbaum's "The Adaptive
Ultimate," which term was later used in the dramatization. To get some
background I re-read Sam Moskowitz's chapter on Weinbaum (Explorers of the
Infinite), where he identifies Tales of Tomorrow as a radio series.
Apparently it was a radio series, too. But was it dramatized on radio as well
as television? Sturgeon wrote the teleplay, which in contrast to the story held
out hope for the recovery of the ruthless heroine, who loses her adaptability
and lies again on a hospital bed.
The series had the cooperation of "The
Science Fiction League of America."
The
Mathematics of HPL
A good Lovecraft horror story, if rendered
in the mathematical proportions of aesthetics, should be about 45% terror, 40%
wonder, and 15% beauty. However, if one is considering the Dunsany fantasies,
the proportions change to what you will.
The Golden Army
While I found no HPL references in the
imaginative Hellboy II, I was intrigued to hear several references to
"Bethmoora,." Whether this is a deliberate Dunsany plug or an unknowing
appropriation, I cannot judge. What you have in the film is chiefly a fairy
tale that is chockablock with visionary images that are at times poetic.
Poe
Vs. the Critics
I picked up a book about Edgar Allan Poe with a short introduction by
Harold Bloom. If I say what I scanned in the introduction enraged me, I am
overstating the case. However, Bloom doesn't have much respect for this
artist-for example, he states that if he has to read him, it must be in a
translation. Here is the problem with some media-darlinged critics. If they
don't like something, they don't try to understand what is valuable about it,
but try to convince you what is wrong with it by bringing in the high culture
card. Since ours is a world that dotes on polarities, I'll say that there is
low culture (e.g., the majority of currently popular writers) and high culture,
the type that is taught with reverence in university courses.
Arrogance or snobbery should not be part of the critic's perception, but
a willingness to appreciate that which may not be easy to do from his or her
perspective. Otherwise the mind is closed. If Bloom's feelings are honest about
Poe, the allowed commercialization of his name for a product he finds fault
with suggests an amount of unscrupulousness.
Thanks for reading the 57th issue of The Criticaster (July 2008, mailing 143) by S. R. Walker. Eventually published
on the Net as The Limbonaut (no 28).