Heartland

So many people in 'the real world' just seem slightly phased and incredibley confused when I wiggle my imaginary face tenticles at them...

Does anyone else think that Dr Zoidburg from Futurarma is an uncanny likeness?

Me and the missus are regular Cthulhu RPGers.

Both playing and GMing.

1920s, 1990s and the new Delta Green setting.

Nuff said? Kiss me, I'm Eldritch

Cthulhu for President! Why settle for the Lesser Evil?

IZ.

(I'm such a geek I even spotted the misspelled F'tagan thingy )

IZ.

Good song

I did the dissertation for my Certificate of Sixth Year Studies in English, on HP Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos.

Does that count?

while going home today by metro, i recognized that the girl near me (virgin_and_clever looking, in glasses) listens to Metallica "The Call of Ktulu"

How did you know she was a virgin?

boudicca wrote:How did you know she was a virgin?

listening to The Sisters Of Mercy gives an ability
i tried to guess

Read the books years ago, so I reckon I'm an option 2-er.

And yes, that guy out of Futurama does have an uncanny resemblance.

Bores the medicated man breasts right off me

lovecraft is over-rated IMO. his occult knowledge is appallingly inaccurate (necronomicon anybody? a made-up grimoire using very dodgy parts of actual magickal texts such as the grand grimoire and the grimoire honorious out of context is ill-considerd at best) and his white, anglo-saxon protestantism doesn't excuse his racial sterotyping and obvious xenophobia.
the idea of the old gods lurking behind thresholds, eternally waiting to break through and "slither" in a "hideous", "monstrous" and occassionaly "eldritch" manner is hardly an original one -and then there's the "slithering, hideous...etc., etc." which is just thesaurus fiddling. i prefer augustus derleth -editor of many of lovecraft's works who later wrote stories in the mythos himself.

I too have been touched by Cthulhu but I cannot recall the experience, for it is an experience of such horrors that it would drive you all to insanity!

*takes medication*

eastmidswhizzkid wrote:lovecraft is over-rated IMO. his occult knowledge is appallingly inaccurate (necronomicon anybody? a made-up grimoire using very dodgy parts of actual magickal texts such as the grand grimoire and the grimoire honorious out of context is ill-considerd at best) and his white, anglo-saxon protestantism doesn't excuse his racial sterotyping and obvious xenophobia.

I don't think that Lovecraft was actually trying to be accurate, the Necronomicon was basically a tool him and some other writers created to implement in their horror stories, what he was trying to do was create a new mythology of sorts.

As for his racial stereotyping, I try not to let that get in the way. I'm certainly not going to let a writer's personal Deficiencies and prejudice get in the way of a great work of art or story. Celine, for example, was a terrible, misanthropic anti-semite, but her certainly wrote some fantastic novels, such as "Journey to the End of the Night" and "Death on the Installment Plan". I don't know if it is possible to do, but with people like Celine, I try to separate the art from the artist to a certain extent.

the idea of the old gods lurking behind thresholds, eternally waiting to break through and "slither" in a "hideous", "monstrous" and occassionaly "eldritch" manner is hardly an original one -and then there's the "slithering, hideous...etc., etc." which is just thesaurus fiddling. i prefer augustus derleth -editor of many of lovecraft's works who later wrote stories in the mythos himself.

I could be wrong but I think that the genius of Lovecraft was that he took the supernatural/religious stories of the times of yore and modernized them for the age of science. He created what the age of science was missing: it's own mythology. Aliens are, after all, the modern angels.

His mythology totally reinvented and synthesized all the old religions, in that in his stories the aliens are always misunderstood and worshiped as Gods by mankind (if I'm not mistaken; it's been a very long time since I've read any of his stories), and the weird thing is that there are actually people out there who believe in this Lovecraftian idea (I've met plenty of them on the web).

Also, you cannot deny that he was a master of psychological horror. He really perfected and enhanced the idea of the monster in the shadows; and also, without Lovecraft you wouldn't have writers such as Derleth.

just for you josh i'll leave ol' HP alone...after all his brown sauce is excellent.

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: just for you josh i'll leave ol' HP alone...

That was a rather geeky rant of mine, wasn't it?

after all his brown sauce is excellent.

Ya fud.

I have.
Quite a lot when I was younger, occasionally these days.
Lovecraft's obvious racism - and all other manner of prejudice btw - is of course a source of concern. But I try not to let that get in the way. The man was obviously completely deranged, and his racism was but the other side of his literary talent.
He was no actual activist, he was just completely fcuked up. Even if word is that Derleth had to stop him from writing the US equivalent of Mein Kampf...

Badlander wrote:the US equivalent of Mein Kampf...

"My Eldritch Struggle Against Inhuman Chtonic Lifeforms, Lurking In The Dark"?

Badlander wrote:Even if word is that Derleth had to stop him from writing the US equivalent of Mein Kampf.

My mother actually read Mein Kampf in the 70s and said it was a very well-written book.

Lovecraft was a genius. "Occult knowledge" inaccurate?
Errh, his own highly symbolic representation of his own vision of the universe is inaccurate? How could that be? God manifests both in man and amoeba.

And Mein Kampf is a well-written book, actually. Read it before you diss it for lack of literary merit. It's not high literature but as political books go, it's not bad...the writer had true vision and believed in what he was saying, that usually is first mark that the book is well-written.

GGFH

itnAklipse wrote:Lovecraft was a genius. "Occult knowledge" inaccurate?
Errh, his own highly symbolic representation of his own vision of the universe is inaccurate? How could that be? God manifests both in man and amoeba.

And Mein Kampf is a well-written book, actually. Read it before you diss it for lack of literary merit. It's not high literature but as political books go, it's not bad...the writer had true vision and believed in what he was saying, that usually is first mark that the book is well-written.

GGFH

Have you hugged your Gug today?

And on another note... Tolkien was also accused of racism in his books... well, as long as it is not propagating racism in an explicit way, I always give the benefit of the doubt.

Lovecraft is highly enjoyable, if you can dig his style. William Chambers, author of 'The King In Yellow', has a similar style. Yet a lot of people find him boring anf repetitive. Well, it was a certain style of Victorian Horror-writing i guess...

Still glad Lovecraft was the kickoff for one of the coolest RPGs the world has ever seen!



IZ.

nick the stripper wrote:

Badlander wrote:Even if word is that Derleth had to stop him from writing the US equivalent of Mein Kampf.

My mother actually read Mein Kampf in the 70s and said it was a very well-written book.

Well... It could be well-written, apart from the fact that is was written by an utter bastard...

IZ.

Izzy HaveMercy wrote: And on another note... Tolkien was also accused of racism in his books... well, as long as it is not propagating racism in an explicit way, I always give the benefit of the doubt.

I think he made it clear on some occasions that he wasn't endorsing racism in any way. You know how the story goes : at some point when you get famous you're always accused of almost everything and the opposite. I'm sure FGG will experience that eventually.
Some stories actually don't have any political hidden meaning.

Still glad Lovecraft was the kickoff for one of the coolest RPGs the world has ever seen!

Oh yeah !

The accusations of racism aimed at Tolkien (as I understand them) are of two main strands:

Firstly that the runic inscriptions and the dwarf names from the Eddas are racist because of the Nazis' use of runic inscriptions and nordic folklore. OK, the Nazis used this therefore it's racist. Go figure.

Secondly that the "enemies" always come from the south and the east. While this may appear racist on the surface, in a "secondary world" based, at least initially on Europe, with the Atlantic to the west (and no America across it, just the "True West") and the Arctic to the north, where else are any enemies going to come from?

markfiend wrote:The accusations of racism aimed at Tolkien (as I understand them) are of two main strands:

Firstly that the runic inscriptions and the dwarf names from the Eddas are racist because of the Nazis' use of runic inscriptions and nordic folklore. OK, the Nazis used this therefore it's racist. Go figure.

Secondly that the "enemies" always come from the south and the east. While this may appear racist on the surface, in a "secondary world" based, at least initially on Europe, with the Atlantic to the west (and no America across it, just the "True West") and the Arctic to the north, where else are any enemies going to come from?

Or as the man himself used to point out, in the first of the stories he wrote the enemies were in the north, as it was traditionally in the legends he drew from. His use of the east was merely a geographical convenience.

markfiend wrote: Firstly that the runic inscriptions and the dwarf names from the Eddas are racist because of the Nazis' use of runic inscriptions and nordic folklore. OK, the Nazis used this therefore it's racist. Go figure.

Yeah and Vikings were Nazis too !
In the same vein, Nazis quoted Hegel, therefore Hegel was a Nazi. Lame.