r/Lovecraft

Hi everyone! I've spent some time with the new Lovecraftian title Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss. The sound design is honestly top-tier, but the pacing might be a bit slow for some.

I made a short (2-minute) review covering the mechanics, atmosphere, and technical performance to help anyone on the fence about buying it.

What do you guys think of the sanity mechanics in modern horror games? Does this one hit the mark or feel too scripted?

So Azathoth is usually known as the being that dreams the entirety of existance, but it's pretty unclear where that actually comes from. Do you know which lines from Lovecraft himself give the strongest hint to this interpretation?

As the title says this was a quote from my roommate. While I'm not entirely versed in H.P's works I do know he's was a blatant racist. I also know of 1 story in particular with blatant racism. Of the 20 some odd stories I've read of his I don't see the "every story is racist" angle they're coming from.

Recently I watched Color Out of Space. I liked it a lot when I read it, but this movie... I tried, but to me at least it's garbage. The visuals are cool, but the whole mood and script are very weird, it has nothing to do with Lovecraft's fear and mystery, so I think it's pretty terrible.

Recently I also watched Dagon (2001) and man, THIS IS Lovecraft. The whole thing is very dark, evokes fear in the depths of us, brings the whole atmosphere from the original, creates a faithful translation, and makes good use of what was changed.

So, to me, Dagon is a really good adaptation of the Lovecraft Work, and color out of space is not even close. (i respect those who liked it, its just not for me)

Just stumbled across this and thought I'd share

Page 235 of Gou Tanabe's shadow over insmouth, theres a winged creature flying on the bottom panel. I saw this again somewhere else but cant find the page.

Does anyone know what this could be? I wish i could send a pic.

If you're not already familiar with the Lovecraft Investigations audio drama, it is highly recommended. The first 4 series were commissioned by the BBC but subsequent output has been crowd funded. Pre-sign up to back the next series has just been announced.

Hi everyone,

Azathoth Blues is an audio drama that's deeply inspired by Lovecraft, taking his literary and philosophical ideas seriously even as it tells its own story. It's a huge production with an awesome cast of people from the world of horror and beyond, put together by myself (lead writer of the Talos Principle series) and Chris Christodoulou (Risk of Rain composer), and released entirely for free. It doesn't even have ads.

>Something is deeply wrong in the city. Strange murders are being ignored, dangerous new drugs are spreading, corporations are corrupting everything they touch, and the law itself seems to have a price tag.

>Into this mess step three cops who, against all odds, have stayed honest. Harrison Crane (Joe Lynch) is a war veteran slowly drinking himself into oblivion. Ben Wade (Adam Green) is an idealist desperately trying to stay hopeful. Susan Danton (Kacey Camp) is principled, analytical, and utterly alone. The reward for their integrity is reassignment to the Unified Cold Case Taskforce, an infamous unit buried in a basement office nicknamed the Murder Dungeon and overseen by Captain Donovan (Sean Branney), a legendary hardass no one wants to work for.

>But nothing is quite as it appears, and what starts as a dead-end assignment turns into something far stranger. Their pursuit of answers will lead them on a journey into paranoia, conspiracy, murder, ritual, and madness. But will finally uncovering the truth save them, or destroy them?

The cast also includes Highlander TV legend Peter Wingfield, whom we collaborated with in our previous show, Gospels of the Flood, and who was also in The Talos Principle 2.

We're also very lucky to feature several performers from the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, including its founders, Sean Branney and Andrew Leman.

Chris and I invested countless hours and no small amount of money to make this thing, and we did it out of a deep love of Lovecraft's stories and Lovecraft himself, complicated and frustrating as old Howard could often be. We've worked really hard to tell a story that's not a pastiche but also isn't one of those things where they just slap some Lovecraftian terminology onto a story that contains nothing truly Lovecraftian in a deeper sense. We wanted to tell a story that would engage with the literary and philosophical ideas Lovecraft was exploring in his writing.

I initially didn't post here because I was wary about the rules limiting self-promotion (and I frankly hate advertising my own work), but I really think we've made something you're going to enjoy. 8 episodes of the 10-episode first season are available so far.

Website: http://www.azathothblues.com

RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/azathothblues/feed.xml

Bandcamp: https://chrischristodoulou.bandcamp.com/album/azathoth-blues-audio-drama

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6uS-jMm7A0&list=PLLDf8Bnp1K1JCjNfkaVlwrGisl3jgtnSQ&index=1

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4wwmpjhZGTy7AnKGZl3ucv

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/azathoth-blues/id1876347986

Pocket Casts: https://pocketcasts.com/podcast/azathoth-blues/47562240-e9ad-013e-7e05-0afffc11161f

Just my opinion in Tl;DR : Yes, I love yapping. Basically its three stories connecting to each other leading to a conclusion and more info uncovered as you read. First story felt boring and interesting at start and as I began the second one I liked it more. I liked a lot the second story and fell in love with the last which made me appreciate the other too as well.

And a small context of the stories in TL;DR : The main character's uncle dies, he searches some of his documents. First story is about some dreams that led emotionally sensitive people to madness, and an artist visiting the MC's uncle at that period. That artist dreams about a bas-relief clay of a weird entity. Second story is an investigation of a cult at a swamp that chants over a stone idol, the same as the one in the before mentioned dreams. Third story is peak won't say anything else.

Long Review/Yapping: First of all hi! I learnt about Lovecraft through Cthulu, who has been mentioned in games I've played in the past such as DnD, Terraria, Call of the Sea etc... So I was searching about Cthulu's story and found out about lovecraft. I like ranting a lot and probably I will be reviewing every single story I read just because I like reviewing lol. It could also help any person who is new to cosmic horror decide if they want to read it or not!
The stars are right, so let the review commence. :
The CoC (Call of Cthulu) narrative is not a singular tale, it is a grim triptych. They are three different documents/reports studied by Francis Wayland Thurston a nephew who inherited the said documents by his uncle, professor George Gammel Angell, who met his demise at the winter of 1926. Not gonna lie, the first two stories took me some time to read and understand the concept due to the heavy and archaic language Lovecraft used, however his purpose is to describe the indescribable so who can blame him.
The first testimony is about a period that people around the globe would have strange dreams of cyclopean cities made of green slime. His uncle as well a newly introduced artist named Wilcox, who visited Angell, are victims of the said dreams too, with Wilcox while half asleep dreaming of a high detailed sculptured bas-clay of a figure of a creature that's a mix between a dragon, a human and an octopus. (small note: this global madness affects mostly mentally ill, unstable or sensitive people). After reading the first story I was weirdly hooked and confused at the same time. I had so many unanswered questions which made me feel like a part of the mystery too.
The second report is a tale about an inspector that discovers a dark ritual in the deep swamps of Louisiana were a cult of the degenerate chant to a stone idol , and simultaneously revealing a global conspiracy that predates the memory and even the existence of man itself. The story itself is pretty interesting, helped me connect the dots to the previous story consisting the said dreams of madness.
The last story is the most climatic, the build up through the last two made me anticipate to uncover more about about the nephew, the stars, Cthulu and the sunken city mentioned which were answered here. I on purpose wont tell you anything about the last story as I believe it's something you should read by yourself. It seems like an interesting introduction to the Cthulu mythos. Cthulu is one of the most famous characters and I would definitely recommend this story to be your first. Am I right? Probably not as I've seen people recommend other stories to start with but that's just what I chose to read first lol. My current rating of it is 9/10 I really loved it , the stories were short but due to the heavy description and vocabulary it felt larger than it was, however, it made me picture the whole scenery in a really precise manner and the atmosphere build up was crazy in all three stories, especially the second and third. The first story was feeling flat at first but after beginning the second one I appreciated even more. If I said anything wrong about the tale let me know and I'll edit it right away! I would like to see other peoples' opinions too about this tale! Lastly I hope you liked the review or at least considered it okay-ish! Have a nice day/night <3

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

(Next read will be The Shadow over Innsmouth so I'll post my review when I finish it, thanks to all recommendations in my previous post btw)

What do you guys look for in new entires in the genre? What calls to you when looking for something modern and contemporary but that keeps to what Lovecraft wrote?

And, does anyone have any recommendations for modern cosmic horror books or movies?

Title sums it up

Is there a bibliography for this essay?

I recently realized that a play written in 1887 « The Father » anticipates Lovecraft’s Colour Out of Space story, most obviously, a meteorite with evidence of alien life is an instrument for destroying a family-though not the most destructive factor nor is its nature inimical to earth life in any way. In conjunction with « Miss Julie », Strindberg’s other play from about the same time, it is clear that Strindberg incorporated Darwininian theory into his plays, understood its implications and expected his audience to understand it as well. This is important, because Darwin establishes a number of the prerequisites for cosmic horror, notably that humans are just like any other animal and subject to the same indifferent application of nature’s laws and removing any need for God to explain life or the history of life.

I do not know if « The Father » was a source consciously or subconsciously for « The Color Out of Space », Lovecraft was certainly familiar with Strindberg, but it does show that post Darwin, authors were advancing the key foundational elements cosmic horror to an audience that could appreciate them and doing so at a surprisingly early date-it usually takes about 50 years for a paradigm shift like that to become a part of pop culture-Lovecraft started writing his stuff very close to the 50 year mark after the publication of « The Origin of Species ». I don’t think that the coincidence of meteorites with proof of extraterrestrial life is convincing evidence that Lovecraft borrowed from the earlier play, it is a natural, almost inevitable trope and something very much the sort of thing that might occur to someone after reading   «  The Origin of Species »

i am posting a little essay on the topic that I wrote in the comments below.

I just finished reading the call of Cthulhu and I think it's a great book however I'm quite confused on the ending/last few pages.

Johansen and the others stumble upon R'lyeh and physically open the door to let Cthulhu out.

A few minutes later Cthulhu awakes and walks out this is where I get confused.

If the door is so big to let Cthulhu walk out how did they open it?

Where was the cult during all this if their God and the stars aligned or can the cult not physically open the door.

How was Cthulhu hindered by the boat causing him to go back into the depths to dream. Was he forced to go back due to the stars no longer allinging or was he not truly awake?

It’s been a long ride but I almost finish all his original work.

I am wondering if his collaboration with other authors can give you that same feeling of cosmic dread?

I only have Shadow out of Time and Hunter of the Dark left and now I kinda not want to start his next work because I don’t want it to end.

Also, which one of his collaboration I should start with? Thank you in advance!

So long story short ilI was playing Terraria and was feeling curious about Cthulu, then learnt about lovecraft and picked the call of cthulu as my first and got hooked. What should my next one be? Is there like a linear lore to all that or all lovecraft stories are standalone? Regardless of that, what would you recommend me as my next one?