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Gods, Monsters and H.P. Lovecraft’s Uncanny Legacy
The author’s stories have influenced countless works. But how do modern adapters reckon with his racism, his sexism and his profound weirdness?
If Lovecraft remains a prized writer, that has more to do with the atmosphere his stories evoke than with the turgid prose. His pacing can be slow, his dialogue stilted, his humorlessness suffocating. But for a taste of his crawling chaos, here are some ghastly places to begin.
‘At the Mountains of Madness’ (1936)
Dr. William Dyer, a professor of geology at Miskatonic University (think Harvard, but eerier), joins a trek to Antarctica in this harrowing novella. His team discovers frozen prehistoric life-forms. Then mayhem begins. Dyer uncovers the remnants of an ancient alien civilization, a race of Elder Things and intimations of an even greater evil waiting nearby.
‘The Call of Cthulhu’ (1928)
This twisty story follows a man piecing together various writings left behind by his recently deceased professor uncle. Had his uncle stumbled on a series of cults devoted to the worship of an Elder God? He had!
‘The Colour Out of Space’ (1927)
A surveyor assigned to an odd corner of Arkham, Mass., discovers that a fallen meteorite has poisoned the local floral and fauna in this short story. The meteorite, which produces a color unlike any on the visible spectrum, affects humans, too, driving one farm family to depredation and death.
‘The Dunwich Horror’ (1929)
In this story set in Dunwich, Mass., strange things are afoot at the Whateley farmhouse. So strange that Wilbur Whateley tries to break into the Miskatonic library and steal a copy of the “Necronomicon,” an ancient spellbook. With Wilbur thwarted, an invisible horror begins to roam the countryside.
‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ (1936)
A novella dripping in genre elements, this odd tale stars an unnamed 21-year-old college student who stops off in Innsmouth, a dumpy, insular fishing town. Our narrator notices that the locals have narrow heads, bulging eyes … and hey, are those gills?
I have tried and largely failed to enjoy Lovecraft. The guy is a master of macabre mood, no doubt. But his prose is turgid and beyond purple, his plots plodding, and his characters would have to grow another 1.5 dimensions to even qualify as two dimensional. And he loved the deux ex machina ending.
As for reckoning with his racism and sexism ... meh. I don't get my socks in a twist about it. If you're going to read widely, you are eventually going to run into authors views you don't share or even find abhorrent. You gotta learn to pick through the weeds so you can enjoy the fruit. Most classical authors thought slavery was a perfectly justiable practice. Wrong? Sure. It doesn't mean there still isn't a lot of good stuff in classical authors.
My introduction to H.P. Lovecraft occurred in high school, when my sister bought a book of horror stories during one of the school's book sales. It had a lot of good stories, including The Dunwich Horror. After I graduated from college and was working and living in Cleveland, I was reading a Stephan King introduction. He talked about how he had been influenced by Lovecraft, and mentioned that Lovecraft's books were available from Arkham House in Sauk City, Wisconsin. I went to the library, looked up Arkham House address, and wrote to them. Upon receiving the catalog, I ordered The Horror in the Museum, at the Mountains of Madness, the Dunwich Horror, Dagon, New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, and The Watchers Out of Time. H.P Lovecraft quickly became my favorite horror story writer.
One of my favorite stories is The Strange High House in the Mist. There are 2 quotes from The Call of Cthulhu that appeal to me: "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming." and "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange eons even death may die." There's also a reference to the Massillon State Hospital in The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
In addition to the enjoyment I get from reading Lovecraft, his works have also expanded my vocabulary.
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