Thursday, March 31, 2011

One important thing about Lovecraft, his lack of characters/dialoque makes his dreamlike stories more realistic than most contemporary fantasy, which generally fails for the 2D characters. I prefer these characterless stories over the vast majority of popular fantasy for this reason.

The Temple
Evil German fellow during I think WWI. His sub runs out of fuel and he's stuck finally alone on the bottom of the ocean amongst the remains of possibility Atlantis. Some ancient civilization.

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
Old Arthur counts among his ancestors some strange ape-like creature from a lost civilization. Which he finds out to his horror. I believe he immolated himself when he found out, which seems a bit of an overreaction...

The Street
The vague, misanthropic and suppose simply racist history of a street.

Poetry and the Gods
Actually has a woman character for what that matters in stories where it's just someone basically observing with hardly any dialogue.
She's wisked off to a lower level of a grecian heaven and meets Homer, Dante, Goethe, Shakespeare, Milton, and Keats.
Finally she is told, "Weep not at the bleakness of thy life, for the shadow of false faiths will soon be gone, and the Gods shall once more walk amoung men." Back to earth she goes and lives with the great next poet.

Celephais
A man dreams of a heavenly city and by dreaming it, he brings it into being and eventually becomes the king of it for all of time.

From Beyond
A movie was made of this which I saw. A machine is made which in effect exercises the pineal gland. Which gives you a sixth sense, thus you can see horrific creatures that are actually all around us.

Nyarlathotep
I guess Nyarlathotep is a sort of god or a sort of prophet. People hear him speak and seem to go crazy. Wasn't very moved by the story while I was reading. Now as I go back over it, understanding the whole of it better, it's more impressive. So Nyarlathotep brings havoc I guess. Such a dreamy feeling to Lovecraft such that it's hard to know what's really happening at times.

The Picture in the House
Blood dripping off the ceiling in the house of some guy who seems to be a nutty psychopath. So very many later slasher films had this stereotype. I wonder if Lovecraft started it?

The Crawling Chaos
An opium trip I guess. Wandering around through a psychedelic landscape. A bit too nondescript and just random.

Ex Oblivione
Again we're a fellow wandering around alone through a dreamlike world. Eventually happy to cease to exist I guess, to go into oblivion.

The Nameless City
Guy wandering along, as if a dream, goes underground and eventually finds all sorts of wonders. Similar to many Lovecraft stories. A bit too nondescript though.

The Quest of Iranon
This is about a dreamer who spends his life searching for the heavenly/utopian city of Aira. He stays young throughout his long life as he stays focused on his dream. In the end someone destroys his dream and suddenly he is old and dies. I liked this story a lot. Liked the dreamy feel of it. I suppose such was in vogue back then. Dunsany was similar at least I recall.

The Moon Bog
Guy drains a bog, scoffing/laughing at everyone who tells him not to. And something horrible happens to him as a result, although what exactly that is, is as vague as can be. Also, as usual, virtually no dialgue, still a decent story.

The Outsider
Excellent story about a ghoul who doesn't realize what it is. Only thing is I would remove the last line. It should be obvious he was looking in a mirror. Lovecraft often adds a sentence or two at the end of his stories which takes everything down a couple of intellectual levels. Turns the dreamy into something silly at times. But just how smart or stupid is the audience? How high do you dare aim?