The other reason he's popular is that he constantly encouraged young writers, which endeared his memory to them after his unexpected death and turned them into evangelists for HPL and his writing and characters for decades to come. Had he not done so, he probably would have been forgotten.
Since i was 13 i loved dark souls and while watching a bloodborne lore video in like 2017 i heard the inspiration came from an author called H.P. Lovecraft so I checked him out since i loved the concepts in bloodborne so much
Strangely enough i grew fond of Lovecraft in a very early age - i must've been 11-13 or something around that. It mattered not that i couldn't quite fully grasp the full ramifications of his themes and mythos, but something in his stories was so deeply enthralling that i couldn't help but search for more stories in my local library (we didn't have internet back then). Unfortunately the librarry didn't have many stories of his, but that i think proved to be a belssing in disguise as, with the time moving on and me finally getting an internet connection - could finally find a steady supply of his stories as i grew. Thus, as i am now 26 and believe i've read all his stories, can finally appreciate their meaning in full scope. Also thank you very much for your videos, they are very interesting and give some additional information about Lovecraft and his mythos in general, even for such a fan as me.
Haha well thanks. I can't argue with that. Nobody on youtube has a channel like mine. But I'm almost at 1K subscribers and my latest video got 1.5k views in 2 days so... maybe I will get more popular soon?
Theoretical actually there is a couple other great UA-cam channels out there, while there's only a few like this that are completely dedicated to everything Lovecraft, there are a couple great ones that have videos on Lovecraft n his mythos. Check out this UA-cam playlist that I made:H.P. Lovecraft, all hail!: ua-cam.com/play/PLBzP_MhNm_IJ3TfG-9cUyLVZE26H2Ruhn.html
Reasons why I love Lovecraft. 1.) He has a talent for painting a picture with words. 2.) His brand of horror is a breath of fresh air. ( I feel funny saying that all things considered.) 3. ) He's kinda hard to pin down. ( To any and all SJW types who can only shriek racism. Name one classic author that wasn't, or just blow it out your ass.) 4.) He had no problem when it came to letting other authors add to his work. 5.) Without Lovecraft there would be no Necronomicon, no Necronomicon means no Evil Dead, no Evil Dead means no Bruce Campbell,. A world without those things, is a world I don't want to live in.
1) Agreed. Very comfy to read when he starts going on about architecture and his fictional towns. 2) Was back then, still is today, will be tomorrow. 3) My favourite part is how he triggers them so much. I love that salt. 4) Yeah, this is unironically awesome. He wasn't greedy or selfish. He had a goal he wanted all to aim for. 5) Groovy!
Evil Dead drew inspiration from such non-Lovecraftian sources House on the Haunted Hill, The Amityville Horror, Night of the Living Dead, and The Exorcist as well. So yeah, it would still exist without Lovecraft, only there would be no Necronomicon and less of a cosmic horror vibe.
I first heard of Lovecraft from the movie Re-Animator when I was in my early teens. At the time I haven't read any of his works yet. I first read his work when I was 17-18 like that, and it was 'The Statement of Randolph Carter'. I remember after I finished reading it, I re-read it again because it was so good! I'm 23 now, and I've only scratched the surface of Lovecraft's long back catalog (I've read only 5-6 of his works so far). No other author or writer has ever done that to me, not even Stephen King.
First, simply to get something out of the way: About the comments about King... It had been about 30 years (more or less) since I read more than an occasional short piece by King. Last year, somedamnthing got me to going back to his work from the earliest on... and I've gained a renewed respect for the man and his work. However... I do NOT consider him, save on occasion, a horror writer, but rather a suspense writer who sometimes does horror (sometimes science fiction, sometimes strictly nonsupernatural terror or horror, sometimes straight-out weird tales), so perhaps for that reason I don't think a comparison is particularly valid. And second... to the OP: I rather envy you having all that ahead of you. I first read HPL when I was about 11 ("The Colour Out of Space"), and then came across the pb (Beagle) edition of TALES OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS a year or so later... and was hooked. Read everything I could by the man, even the "posthumous collaborations" Derleth did. I had contracted the infection... and it's not something that can be cured (at least in my case). These days, I find myself reading a tremendous lot of things from a Lovecraftian perspective, including numerous writers who influenced him (the Georgians, going through all the suggestions in his "Supernatural Horror in Literature", reading various philosophical, historical, etc. books, and so on), as well as rereading Lovecraft himself (most recently the variorum edition and such tomes as MARGINALIA, SOMETHING ABOUT CATS, etc.)... and doing some critical essays on his work, from a variety of approaches. I think that, for me as for Robert Bloch, "Lovecraft was my university"; he opened the world for me in so many ways, and I owe him a tremendous debt. And, the older I get, the more experience I have, and the more literary works I read, the more levels I find in his own work as well. But there's never anything quite like that first discovery, when (as Ramsey Campbell has said), it seems as if what you are reading is almost something forbidden, something a good deal more than a story, but rather something with the power to change reality -- or at least one's understanding of it. So I envy you. You've one hell of a ride ahead of you. Enjoy!
He's popular mostly for the wrong reasons. Based on the popularity of works that rip off his ideas (badly) or names referenced in unrelated works. Sad that today when the word Arkham is brought up people think Batman.
He's a classical American author now. Funny, been a huge fan of Batman, I never thought of the name of the Asylum for the Criminally insane. Arkham City was other matter. After that I was like "Arkham Asylum is named after Arkham City!" The films, ironically despised by Lovecraft, keep the memory of his works alive
Great review. Lovecraft makes you feel insignificant and question reality. The idea of not being important enough for Cthulhu to not give two shits about us is awesome. Humanity's mark in space/time is like a squashed cockroach.....
As you noted, the "grey area copyright" was and is very important. Anybody can put out a Lovecraft adaptation, product, or book reprint without paying royalties to an estate. No heir or corporation controls his work (which stifles a lot of creativity and often smothers the creator's ideas). Anybody can join in. The really cool thing is we know that this is exactly what Lovecraft himself would have wanted, since he encouraged other writers to use his characters and themes in their own work. That was/is highly unusual. Most creators are fiercely protective of their characters and ideas.
I know. I really love that aspect of him. Him encouraging like-minded writers to freely borrow and as you said his encouragement of them and helping them without any thought of reward. He truly was a good person.
Another reason why Lovecraft has become so famous is because even non horror books and games and movies have a little bit of HP Lovecraft in them a good example would be the Doctor Strange comics (especially the older ones) the Hellboy comics and the Elder Scrolls game series all of which have quite a lot of Lovecraftian elements and even entities and creatures that look like they came from the mind of Howard himself, for Hellboy it's the Seven Gods of Chaos for Doctor Strange it's Shuma Gorath and for Elder Scrolls it's the Daedra Haemaus Mora (I think I butchered his name) these things are directly inspired by creatures and elements from the Cthulhu Mythos and when people see these things they'll go "oh I wonder how they came up with that" and that'll take them straight to HP Lovecraft
I discovered Lovecraft from an online wrestling club. Somebody suggested that my gimmick use the song "The Thing That Should Not Be" as a theme; and everything snowballed from there.
see this is why i have more respect for the way Lovecraft treated his genre vs per say the SCP foundation, in order to make an SCP they require all kinds of bullshit just to publish a decent ghost story or unique monster, but cant due to how the SCP owners take away any creativity, thats why i quit on them to do my own stuff. Lovecraft encouraged people to borrow his ideas and creations to make something new from your own point of view.
I would say that the other horror writers you listed were not so much stereotypical as much as they created the settings, tropes, and clichés that would become the sterotype. Small point, but important I feel.
I know him for his great horror stories its basically "gonna nope the fuck outta here" also i find Azathoth and Cthulhu the scariest parts of it, because it gives me the feeling that we could cease to exist at any moment and that my friend, is very fucking horrifying.
Might you consider doing a video about other key aspects of Lovecraft (which seem mostly ignored), such as his notions of the beauty of historical places and structures, his love of language and its uses? To what extent did he write about astronomical phenomena?----his appreciation, apart from horror---of the spectacles of the universe. I read many many of his published letters back in the 70's, but have forgotten a lot about these themes. His entire life wasn't about horror and dour endings, and it may be a chance to open up the discussion of HPL to other topics, to fill his life in a larger sense. Thanks for the video. Cheers..
Hi there, a solid idea and appealing to me too. I also want to learn these things. There is a book collection, 5 volumes of which I own 1, which focus on these exact things you've mentioned. However they are somewhat pricey altogether and are also the best sources of information to make such videos. I will get them eventually. There are websites but they don't provide enough info I feel.
When I discovered Lovecraft, there was no Google - but I came across his name in a Microprose game XCOM: Terror From The Deep. Very much influenced by Lovecraft. Then it was Call of Cthulhu RPG and I got hooked
Clark Ashton Smith is one of my favorites, I really enjoyed his weird tales on Mars. I got really into Edgar Rice Burroughs, so Smiths Martian tales were right up my alley. Also, dude your content is very rewatchable.
for me, it was the sense of loneliness, utter dread and being an outsider at a young age. especially since my first story was, oddly enough, "The Outsider", plus I'm an only child from a fucked up broken "home". I'm also like my daughter says, "nowadays being a Lovecraft fan is kind of a hipster thing, you know, like knowing the name Cthulhu, yet having no idea what Azathoth or a Deep One is. ".
I think there are 2 layers in the Lovecraft fandom. There are those who like Lovecraft's contributions on a superficial level... they appreciate the mythos for its aesthetics, lore, fantasy, etc. Then you get those who go deeper and realize what Lovecraft was actually getting at and then relating to it strongly. The latter type are the minority.
"I have frequently wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong." - Beyond the Wall of Sleep.
I've had some pretty odd dreams, nothing like the ones described in Lovecraft, but there's just something about some of them that begs narration in a book, which I am trying to currently write. I've read a few of Lovecraft's work years ago, and have since forgotten a lot of it. But I am listening to the audiobooks here recently and have found great inspiration. HP Lovecraft: "That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange eons, even death may die."
IDK, why is heavy - extreme - metal so popular? In the 1980s when only a handful of dysfunctional dropout types were into it, everyone was so sure it would go away. And oh how they hoped it would. But it did quite the opposite. It flourishes just like these dark tales. It is a darkening world we live in. Why is that? These are all very good philosophical questions. Worth exploring...
@@ArkhamReporter I'll try to give a straight answer to that. It's complicated for me at 52. I'd be lying if I said I still listen much. But back in the day: Thrash. Once a Slayer fan, always... And now: BlackMetal. Mostly Burzum, some Gorgoroth. I've been more of a singer/song writer than a connoisseur all my life. I could tell stories for days, but I'm not into reliving the past that way. It's more about the principles of it all. For example: I was on my way to band practice in '94 when I saw Varg on the news, being sentenced. I remember thinking wow, those Norway dudes look like us. And here this guy just got a 21 year sentence. How fkng tragic is that... So when I discovered YT in 2010 I looked him up and wow he's free and it seems prison in Norway doesn't destroy a person like it would here in the states. I think it's amazing he made it out the other side of that.
@@ArkhamReporter Yeah man, you remind me of myself at 25. I was into body building after work and forming a hardcore band. Howard and Lovecraft are my favorite writers. I never heard of Hodgson but I will check it out if you point me in the right direction with his work.
@@ArkhamReporter Oh, actually that does explain it, THANKS! While I have your attention, what's that 1920's sounding music that plays at the beginning of your videos? I really like how it sounds and I want to know if I can listen to it by itself.
Because it is written, and I like it. There is also another reason, some of it is relevant to truth. But mostly because I like it in a way to convey hidden truths one must write fictions with strange and unusual events to describe real strange and unusual events. I will be writing a Story / Book to explain this to you in the future. Pay attention when the shadowminders show up.
Hi there. 1) Canon: don't think of it as a strict canon like you have in Lord of the Rings or Marvel Comics. He never set out to make a canonical world with rules and official characters, etc. He used some characters regularly (Randolph Carter), some places regularly (Arkham), but that was not an attempt at making canon. He used characters from other writers and vice versa. He didn't mind others using his works, even for profit. It is more like a loose, overlapping narrative. 2) Books: He never wrote books. He was a short story writer and wrote a few novellas. Never books. He was mostly published in pulp magazines and I believe the only story which made it into a book in his lifetime was "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me here again if there is any more issue. Cheers!
@@ArkhamReporter But by searching and investigating. I found that this list is the most complete one? Is It right? At the Mountains of Madness (1931) Azathoth (1922) The Call of Cthulhu (1926) The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927) The Cats of Ulthar (1920) Celephaïs (1920) The Colour Out of Space (1927) Dagon (1917) The Descendant (1926?) The Doom That Came to Sarnath (1919) The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926-1927) The Dreams in the Witch-House (1932) The Dunwich Horror (1928) The Festival (1923) From Beyond (1920) The Haunter of the Dark (1935) Herbert West--Reanimator (1921-1922) History of the Necronomicon (1927) The Hound (1922) The Nameless City (January 1921) Nyarlathotep (1920) The Other Gods (1921) The Outsider (1921) Pickman's Model (1926) The Picture in the House (1920) Polaris (1918) The Quest of Iranon (1921) The Rats in the Walls (1923) The Shadow Out of Time (1934-1935) The Shadow Over Innsmouth(1931) The Silver Key (1926) The Statement of Randolph Carter (1919) The Strange High House in the Mist (1926) The Terrible Old Man (28 January 1920) The Thing on the Doorstep (1933) The Unnamable (1923) The Whisperer in Darkness (1930) The White Ship (1919) - The Messenger (1929) Fungi from Yuggoth (1929-1930)
He’s still the kind of person I would want to have a conversation with. The life story of Lovecraft is just as fascinating as the stories he wrote. He did have many inner demons but I feel that makes him even more fascinating as an individual. He was a very flawed individual and [aside from Edger Allan Poe] was the epitome of what we call the tortured poet. I even think the bigotry of his characters even ironically enhances his commentary that none of that matters in the face of the vast unfeeling cosmos.
@ArkhamReporter well, it's a great flic. You really can't go wrong with Kubrick but, after repeated viewings it gradually dawned on me that the Monolith makers were Eldritch. They clearly, vastly predate man.
King is more Bradbury than HP Lovecraft. He is more into Americana Lost and evil comes to Our Town than Cosmitism or Aetheist Space People. He dabs in HPL, Stand by Me and Dr Sleep are October Country and Sonething Wicked.... IMHO. Leo
I've been convinced he is popular because his mythos has been co-opted by actual cults such as the Typhonian OTO, The Temple of Set, and the Church of Satan during the Aquino era (he wrote the Lovecraft section in The Satanic Rituals book).
1:59 What about THE GREAT GOD PAN as an early inspiration for HP Lovecraft? 12:40 I think you give Lovecraft too much credit. The obsession with his material is because it has been actively pushed on us by the popular media, whom seem intent on creating a personality cult around this guy just like they are doing with Nicola Tesla.
I didn't mention the Pan story in name but I did mention Machen. For sure pop culture helped him. More people know who Cthulhu is than who Lovecraft is. But I'm sweet on Lovecraft (no homo) so I give him too much credit.
I think he had a terrific imagination but I only find a minority of his work to be totally convincing. My main gripe is an almost total lack of convincing background and/or motivation for his characters, the result of their experiences for me becomes the equivalent of watching someone bumping into a pole or tree rather than a feeling of horror. I loved 'The Music of Erich Zann' but some of his more popular stories have some powerful passages but the suspension of disbelief ultimately fails me. I think his reputation hangs on the sheer bulk of his wildly imaginative writing whereas more subtle and capable authors are either less timely, less prolific, less consistent or too diverse for their own good.
Could part of the reason be because Lovecraft took his atheist worldview seriously and followed it down to its conclusion, even it that conclusion was only by inference?
I love more reading about Lovecraft's concepts, or watching movies based on his work. I honestly tried reading his stories. His stories are too wordy for me. Like Mark Twain or even the Bible. I tried " At the Mountains of Madness", couldn't make it to the end. He spent so much time just describing the ship & the expedition I lost interest. Rats in the Walls was good though. A movie of Mountains would work for me though, I think...
I hate how you can walk into a book store and find more volumes of Lovecraft than anyone needs or wants, but you have to look extra hard to find anything from R. E. Howard, Clarke Ashton Smith, or Fritz Leiber.
While the name Lovecraft may not be familiar his themes are. Steven King is probably the most famous example of a writer who emulates the Lovecraft genre.
I did actually create something discussing this... that Lovecraft is popular but not THAT popular, not really a household name like other horror authors. I cut it from this video because I felt my video was getting too long and that part was the least necessary of all the other parts. While Lovecraft is NOT popular with the average person on the street he is popular (enough, or at least known) with avid readers I would say. May I ask what books your friends read? If they seclude themselves to young adult and Oprah's book club recommendations then I'm not surprised.
I don't know. I don't think his writing prose is very good. It's cumbersome and irritating. (I find Asimov dry and irritating too, so, but not the same way as Lovecraft). Lovecraft's personal beliefs (racist for example) paint a picture of an asshole of a man in many ways. But the *ideas* in his stories... unprecedented. Genius.
@H.P. Lovecraft Yes, he is the creator of Lovecraftian, or Cosmic Horror. That does not mean he is the best in terms of craft, prose, story-telling, etc. Why is that difficult to understand?
Thank you for giving HPL the love, respect and protection he deserves. I get tired, defending him alone against true cultists. And I am sickened at the way those who try to tear him down, are right there to benefit from him. Howard was a mess. But, it was because of fear, not hate. He feared everything and everyone. That fear also kept him trapped and unable to have life experiences that may have helped him.
Yes, these leeches are horrible. They actually have the balls to use terms like "reclaim the Mythos" at times. I will go against what you said somewhat. His fears of what would happen in society can be seen in certain tales, but hate can be apart of that too. One will hate to see something happen for example which, to quote Yoda, turns to anger. I think he was justified frankly. His life was rough but I think the only thing that really hurt him in his lifestyle was the health issue. He was broke as hell and neglected his nutrition and medical treatments over this.
@@ArkhamReporter - I agree. He was a frail, weak, unhealthy man. The vermin try to make him out to be some racist, activist ogre. Yet, they are madly in love with his talent, mind and soul. It drives them insane. Unfortunately, it takes pain, bitterness, sorrow and a lot of other negative emotions to create what HPL created. It came at a very high price.
Indeed. He deserves his growing reputation.
“I am Providence.”
Howard Phillips Lovecraft
The other reason he's popular is that he constantly encouraged young writers, which endeared his memory to them after his unexpected death and turned them into evangelists for HPL and his writing and characters for decades to come. Had he not done so, he probably would have been forgotten.
Good point. I missed that.
For sure
Yes
Since i was 13 i loved dark souls and while watching a bloodborne lore video in like 2017 i heard the inspiration came from an author called H.P. Lovecraft so I checked him out since i loved the concepts in bloodborne so much
Strangely enough i grew fond of Lovecraft in a very early age - i must've been 11-13 or something around that. It mattered not that i couldn't quite fully grasp the full ramifications of his themes and mythos, but something in his stories was so deeply enthralling that i couldn't help but search for more stories in my local library (we didn't have internet back then). Unfortunately the librarry didn't have many stories of his, but that i think proved to be a belssing in disguise as, with the time moving on and me finally getting an internet connection - could finally find a steady supply of his stories as i grew. Thus, as i am now 26 and believe i've read all his stories, can finally appreciate their meaning in full scope.
Also thank you very much for your videos, they are very interesting and give some additional information about Lovecraft and his mythos in general, even for such a fan as me.
I believe you should be more popular.
Haha well thanks. I can't argue with that. Nobody on youtube has a channel like mine. But I'm almost at 1K subscribers and my latest video got 1.5k views in 2 days so... maybe I will get more popular soon?
Theoretical actually there is a couple other great UA-cam channels out there, while there's only a few like this that are completely dedicated to everything Lovecraft, there are a couple great ones that have videos on Lovecraft n his mythos. Check out this UA-cam playlist that I made:H.P. Lovecraft, all hail!: ua-cam.com/play/PLBzP_MhNm_IJ3TfG-9cUyLVZE26H2Ruhn.html
Theoretical believe me! He will!
Reasons why I love Lovecraft.
1.) He has a talent for painting a picture with words.
2.) His brand of horror is a breath of fresh air. ( I feel funny saying that all things considered.)
3. ) He's kinda hard to pin down. ( To any and all SJW types who can only shriek racism. Name one classic author that wasn't, or just blow it out your ass.)
4.) He had no problem when it came to letting other authors add to his work.
5.) Without Lovecraft there would be no Necronomicon, no Necronomicon means no Evil Dead, no Evil Dead means no Bruce Campbell,. A world without those things, is a world I don't want to live in.
1) Agreed. Very comfy to read when he starts going on about architecture and his fictional towns.
2) Was back then, still is today, will be tomorrow.
3) My favourite part is how he triggers them so much. I love that salt.
4) Yeah, this is unironically awesome. He wasn't greedy or selfish. He had a goal he wanted all to aim for.
5) Groovy!
Evil Dead drew inspiration from such non-Lovecraftian sources House on the Haunted Hill, The Amityville Horror, Night of the Living Dead, and The Exorcist as well. So yeah, it would still exist without Lovecraft, only there would be no Necronomicon and less of a cosmic horror vibe.
A breath of fresh air?
Surely you mean a fetid blast of noisome emanations through blasphemously ancient cyclopean corridors
Too true
I first heard of Lovecraft from the movie Re-Animator when I was in my early teens. At the time I haven't read any of his works yet. I first read his work when I was 17-18 like that, and it was 'The Statement of Randolph Carter'. I remember after I finished reading it, I re-read it again because it was so good! I'm 23 now, and I've only scratched the surface of Lovecraft's long back catalog (I've read only 5-6 of his works so far). No other author or writer has ever done that to me, not even Stephen King.
lol Stephen King is a joke compared to HPL so I'm not surprised you said that. Welcome to the Lovecraft Cult!
King uses so many Lovecraftian tropes yet not really that well.
haha, yes, true.
BearCat くまネコ Steven King EAT'S IT!
First, simply to get something out of the way: About the comments about King... It had been about 30 years (more or less) since I read more than an occasional short piece by King. Last year, somedamnthing got me to going back to his work from the earliest on... and I've gained a renewed respect for the man and his work. However... I do NOT consider him, save on occasion, a horror writer, but rather a suspense writer who sometimes does horror (sometimes science fiction, sometimes strictly nonsupernatural terror or horror, sometimes straight-out weird tales), so perhaps for that reason I don't think a comparison is particularly valid. And second... to the OP: I rather envy you having all that ahead of you. I first read HPL when I was about 11 ("The Colour Out of Space"), and then came across the pb (Beagle) edition of TALES OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS a year or so later... and was hooked. Read everything I could by the man, even the "posthumous collaborations" Derleth did. I had contracted the infection... and it's not something that can be cured (at least in my case). These days, I find myself reading a tremendous lot of things from a Lovecraftian perspective, including numerous writers who influenced him (the Georgians, going through all the suggestions in his "Supernatural Horror in Literature", reading various philosophical, historical, etc. books, and so on), as well as rereading Lovecraft himself (most recently the variorum edition and such tomes as MARGINALIA, SOMETHING ABOUT CATS, etc.)... and doing some critical essays on his work, from a variety of approaches. I think that, for me as for Robert Bloch, "Lovecraft was my university"; he opened the world for me in so many ways, and I owe him a tremendous debt. And, the older I get, the more experience I have, and the more literary works I read, the more levels I find in his own work as well. But there's never anything quite like that first discovery, when (as Ramsey Campbell has said), it seems as if what you are reading is almost something forbidden, something a good deal more than a story, but rather something with the power to change reality -- or at least one's understanding of it. So I envy you. You've one hell of a ride ahead of you. Enjoy!
He's popular mostly for the wrong reasons. Based on the popularity of works that rip off his ideas (badly) or names referenced in unrelated works. Sad that today when the word Arkham is brought up people think Batman.
I know what you mean. Arkham for example. Googling it only shows up the Batman asylum. Nonetheless I named my channel after the city : )
He's a classical American author now. Funny, been a huge fan of Batman, I never thought of the name of the Asylum for the Criminally insane. Arkham City was other matter. After that I was like "Arkham Asylum is named after Arkham City!" The films, ironically despised by Lovecraft, keep the memory of his works alive
@@MultiLaughingMan How could Lovecraft have despised them, he died before Batman even existed
@@marinhoeh3406 I meant films in general
Great review. Lovecraft makes you feel insignificant and question reality. The idea of not being important enough for Cthulhu to not give two shits about us is awesome. Humanity's mark in space/time is like a squashed cockroach.....
Thanks a lot!
Extraordinary! Thank you, for all your work and craft in presenting Lovecraft!
As you noted, the "grey area copyright" was and is very important. Anybody can put out a Lovecraft adaptation, product, or book reprint without paying royalties to an estate. No heir or corporation controls his work (which stifles a lot of creativity and often smothers the creator's ideas). Anybody can join in. The really cool thing is we know that this is exactly what Lovecraft himself would have wanted, since he encouraged other writers to use his characters and themes in their own work. That was/is highly unusual. Most creators are fiercely protective of their characters and ideas.
I know. I really love that aspect of him. Him encouraging like-minded writers to freely borrow and as you said his encouragement of them and helping them without any thought of reward. He truly was a good person.
Another reason why Lovecraft has become so famous is because even non horror books and games and movies have a little bit of HP Lovecraft in them a good example would be the Doctor Strange comics (especially the older ones) the Hellboy comics and the Elder Scrolls game series all of which have quite a lot of Lovecraftian elements and even entities and creatures that look like they came from the mind of Howard himself, for Hellboy it's the Seven Gods of Chaos for Doctor Strange it's Shuma Gorath and for Elder Scrolls it's the Daedra Haemaus Mora (I think I butchered his name) these things are directly inspired by creatures and elements from the Cthulhu Mythos and when people see these things they'll go "oh I wonder how they came up with that" and that'll take them straight to HP Lovecraft
I discovered Lovecraft from an online wrestling club. Somebody suggested that my gimmick use the song "The Thing That Should Not Be" as a theme; and everything snowballed from there.
There's something insidious about his best work. It just gets into your head, makes you feel like you're going mad your self.
see this is why i have more respect for the way Lovecraft treated his genre vs per say the SCP foundation, in order to make an SCP they require all kinds of bullshit just to publish a decent ghost story or unique monster, but cant due to how the SCP owners take away any creativity, thats why i quit on them to do my own stuff. Lovecraft encouraged people to borrow his ideas and creations to make something new from your own point of view.
This was a very well put together video with good information, I enjoyed it, thanks!
I would say that the other horror writers you listed were not so much stereotypical as much as they created the settings, tropes, and clichés that would become the sterotype. Small point, but important I feel.
I know him for his great horror stories
its basically
"gonna nope the fuck outta here"
also i find Azathoth and Cthulhu the scariest parts of it,
because it gives me the feeling that we could cease to exist at any moment and that my friend, is very fucking horrifying.
Might you consider doing a video about other key aspects of Lovecraft (which seem mostly ignored), such as his notions of the beauty of historical places and structures, his love of language and its uses? To what extent did he write about astronomical phenomena?----his appreciation, apart from horror---of the spectacles of the universe. I read many many of his published letters back in the 70's, but have forgotten a lot about these themes. His entire life wasn't about horror and dour endings, and it may be a chance to open up the discussion of HPL to other topics, to fill his life in a larger sense. Thanks for the video. Cheers..
Hi there, a solid idea and appealing to me too. I also want to learn these things. There is a book collection, 5 volumes of which I own 1, which focus on these exact things you've mentioned. However they are somewhat pricey altogether and are also the best sources of information to make such videos. I will get them eventually. There are websites but they don't provide enough info I feel.
I think he's the best writer for the english language thus far, even ousting the likes of Shakespeare.
Certainly more interesting and I say this unironically.
When I discovered Lovecraft, there was no Google - but I came across his name in a Microprose game XCOM: Terror From The Deep. Very much influenced by Lovecraft. Then it was Call of Cthulhu RPG and I got hooked
Profane! No other author has such a love for the word "profane" as has H.P Lovecraft.... that and "cyclopean" and "blasphemous".
He knew what he liked. Gotta respect that.
And "blasted"
But what about eldritch? He practically made that word his. Eldritch is used now mostly has a synonym to Lovecraftian.
Eddie G Also "mouldering", "gambrel roofs" and "noisome/noxious".
“Non-Euclidean” came up quite a few times in Lovecraft’s stories too.
i love this channnel! lovecraft is so much more than an author! he is my hero.....
That's great to hear. Hope you enjoy my videos and perhaps subscribe.
Cause his work is brilliant
Clark Ashton Smith is one of my favorites, I really enjoyed his weird tales on Mars. I got really into Edgar Rice Burroughs, so Smiths Martian tales were right up my alley.
Also, dude your content is very rewatchable.
That's good to hear. He is one of the tops in weird fiction no doubt. And yes, sometimes I even watch my old videos.
I learn screen writer at the moment, and as a lovecraft fan, it's obvious that i will try my best to write some lovecraftian screen books.
Great work amigo...
Gracias señor.
Is that a Bathory poster in the background
for me, it was the sense of loneliness, utter dread and being an outsider at a young age. especially since my first story was, oddly enough, "The Outsider", plus I'm an only child from a fucked up broken "home". I'm also like my daughter says, "nowadays being a Lovecraft fan is kind of a hipster thing, you know, like knowing the name Cthulhu, yet having no idea what Azathoth or a Deep One is. ".
I think there are 2 layers in the Lovecraft fandom. There are those who like Lovecraft's contributions on a superficial level... they appreciate the mythos for its aesthetics, lore, fantasy, etc. Then you get those who go deeper and realize what Lovecraft was actually getting at and then relating to it strongly. The latter type are the minority.
Arkham Reporter imagine if lovecraft got his inspiration from a dream and or vision or maybe something else
"I have frequently wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally
titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong." - Beyond the Wall of Sleep.
I've had some pretty odd dreams, nothing like the ones described in Lovecraft, but there's just something about some of them that begs narration in a book, which I am trying to currently write.
I've read a few of Lovecraft's work years ago, and have since forgotten a lot of it. But I am listening to the audiobooks here recently and have found great inspiration.
HP Lovecraft:
"That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange eons, even death may die."
@@ArkhamReporter I think I'm somewhere in the middle.
IDK, why is heavy - extreme - metal so popular? In the 1980s when only a handful of dysfunctional dropout types were into it, everyone was so sure it would go away. And oh how they hoped it would. But it did quite the opposite. It flourishes just like these dark tales. It is a darkening world we live in. Why is that? These are all very good philosophical questions. Worth exploring...
Definitely so. And the extreme metal genre is a very welcome presence in life. Do you have a favourite subgenre of metal?
@@ArkhamReporter I'll try to give a straight answer to that. It's complicated for me at 52. I'd be lying if I said I still listen much. But back in the day: Thrash. Once a Slayer fan, always...
And now: BlackMetal. Mostly Burzum, some Gorgoroth. I've been more of a singer/song writer than a connoisseur all my life.
I could tell stories for days, but I'm not into reliving the past that way. It's more about the principles of it all. For example: I was on my way to band practice in '94 when I saw Varg on the news, being sentenced. I remember thinking wow, those Norway dudes look like us. And here this guy just got a 21 year sentence. How fkng tragic is that... So when I discovered YT in 2010 I looked him up and wow he's free and it seems prison in Norway doesn't destroy a person like it would here in the states. I think it's amazing he made it out the other side of that.
Wow, August Derleth is some kind of hulking powerlifter. Not typical of a writer. I had no idea.
Robert E. Howard was also big into physical training. Also William Hope Hodgson. And me too.
@@ArkhamReporter Yeah man, you remind me of myself at 25. I was into body building after work and forming a hardcore band. Howard and Lovecraft are my favorite writers. I never heard of Hodgson but I will check it out if you point me in the right direction with his work.
@lionhartd138 slightly off topic but, Henry Rollins was juicing, wasn't he?
Where are you originally from? Your accent sounds like a combination of Australian and Dutch to me.
Not completely off. I'm from South Africa.
@@ArkhamReporter Oh, actually that does explain it, THANKS! While I have your attention, what's that 1920's sounding music that plays at the beginning of your videos? I really like how it sounds and I want to know if I can listen to it by itself.
@@OleandyrTheGreatDragonGod Sure. Just search on youtube for "Lovecraft jazz". It should be the top result. There are 4 parts.
Does anyone know that song that plays around 2:22?
It's from the band Seal of Rlyeh. I can't remember which exact track it is but all their stuff is good to listen to.
@@ArkhamReporter thank you
“Such madness can never be tame of horror and insanity!”
Because it is written, and I like it. There is also another reason, some of it is relevant to truth. But mostly because I like it in a way to convey hidden truths one must write fictions with strange and unusual events to describe real strange and unusual events. I will be writing a Story / Book to explain this to you in the future. Pay attention when the shadowminders show up.
IM SO HAPPY!!! I GOT 40 LIKES IN TOTAL FOR THE STORIES I WROTE AND PUBLISHED ON AN APP!!!!
H.P. Lovecraft was always my inspiration...
Thank you.
What is the music used in the intro????
Search youtube for "lovecraft jazz". It's one of the top results.
King's praise is also a reason
Awesome videos
I still don't understand how the canon works. And what books did he write aside of "The Call of Cthulhu".
Hi there.
1) Canon: don't think of it as a strict canon like you have in Lord of the Rings or Marvel Comics. He never set out to make a canonical world with rules and official characters, etc. He used some characters regularly (Randolph Carter), some places regularly (Arkham), but that was not an attempt at making canon. He used characters from other writers and vice versa. He didn't mind others using his works, even for profit. It is more like a loose, overlapping narrative.
2) Books: He never wrote books. He was a short story writer and wrote a few novellas. Never books. He was mostly published in pulp magazines and I believe the only story which made it into a book in his lifetime was "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".
I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me here again if there is any more issue.
Cheers!
@@ArkhamReporter But by searching and investigating. I found that this list is the most complete one? Is It right?
At the Mountains of Madness (1931)
Azathoth (1922)
The Call of Cthulhu (1926)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927)
The Cats of Ulthar (1920)
Celephaïs (1920)
The Colour Out of Space (1927)
Dagon (1917)
The Descendant (1926?)
The Doom That Came to Sarnath (1919)
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926-1927)
The Dreams in the Witch-House (1932)
The Dunwich Horror (1928)
The Festival (1923)
From Beyond (1920)
The Haunter of the Dark (1935)
Herbert West--Reanimator (1921-1922)
History of the Necronomicon (1927)
The Hound (1922)
The Nameless City (January 1921)
Nyarlathotep (1920)
The Other Gods (1921)
The Outsider (1921)
Pickman's Model (1926)
The Picture in the House (1920)
Polaris (1918)
The Quest of Iranon (1921)
The Rats in the Walls (1923)
The Shadow Out of Time (1934-1935)
The Shadow Over Innsmouth(1931)
The Silver Key (1926)
The Statement of Randolph Carter (1919)
The Strange High House in the Mist (1926)
The Terrible Old Man (28 January 1920)
The Thing on the Doorstep (1933)
The Unnamable (1923)
The Whisperer in Darkness (1930)
The White Ship (1919)
-
The Messenger (1929)
Fungi from Yuggoth (1929-1930)
@@pasalasaga Complete in which respect?
@@ArkhamReporter Don't know.
Reading Lovecraft if your English is not good is a challenge. I spend half the time googling what the F*** words mean.
read a translation maybe?
Good reasons.
He’s still the kind of person I would want to have a conversation with. The life story of Lovecraft is just as fascinating as the stories he wrote. He did have many inner demons but I feel that makes him even more fascinating as an individual. He was a very flawed individual and [aside from Edger Allan Poe] was the epitome of what we call the tortured poet. I even think the bigotry of his characters even ironically enhances his commentary that none of that matters in the face of the vast unfeeling cosmos.
He uses cool, old English words in his prose. Eldritch, for instance.
Lovecraft deserved better
good video
Not too hackneyed for you?
In "2001: A Space Odyssey", couldn't the Monolith-makers be described as 'Eldritch'...?
Don't break my balls too hard but... I never watched it.
@@ArkhamReporter WHAT?!
@@robzilla730 Many films out there. Space sci-fi stuff isn't really my thing. Am I missing out on something massive?
@ArkhamReporter well, it's a great flic. You really can't go wrong with Kubrick but, after repeated viewings it gradually dawned on me that the Monolith makers were Eldritch. They clearly, vastly predate man.
King is more Bradbury than HP Lovecraft. He is more into Americana Lost and evil comes to Our Town than Cosmitism or Aetheist Space People. He dabs in HPL, Stand by Me and Dr Sleep are October Country and Sonething Wicked.... IMHO.
Leo
AR-15
PPS-43
South African
Gandalf Mithrandir born and raised in Cape Town
Arkham Reporter I knew it. Have cousins there same street as Mandela, and I myself am half SA from Jo burg.
I've been convinced he is popular because his mythos has been co-opted by actual cults such as the Typhonian OTO, The Temple of Set, and the Church of Satan during the Aquino era (he wrote the Lovecraft section in The Satanic Rituals book).
1:59 What about THE GREAT GOD PAN as an early inspiration for HP Lovecraft?
12:40 I think you give Lovecraft too much credit. The obsession with his material is because it has been actively pushed on us by the popular media, whom seem intent on creating a personality cult around this guy just like they are doing with Nicola Tesla.
I didn't mention the Pan story in name but I did mention Machen.
For sure pop culture helped him. More people know who Cthulhu is than who Lovecraft is. But I'm sweet on Lovecraft (no homo) so I give him too much credit.
I think he had a terrific imagination but I only find a minority of his work to be totally convincing. My main gripe is an almost total lack of convincing background and/or motivation for his characters, the result of their experiences for me becomes the equivalent of watching someone bumping into a pole or tree rather than a feeling of horror. I loved 'The Music of Erich Zann' but some of his more popular stories have some powerful passages but the suspension of disbelief ultimately fails me. I think his reputation hangs on the sheer bulk of his wildly imaginative writing whereas more subtle and capable authors are either less timely, less prolific, less consistent or too diverse for their own good.
Could part of the reason be because Lovecraft took his atheist worldview seriously and followed it down to its conclusion, even it that conclusion was only by inference?
I love more reading about Lovecraft's concepts, or watching movies based on his work. I honestly tried reading his stories. His stories are too wordy for me. Like Mark Twain or even the Bible. I tried " At the Mountains of Madness", couldn't make it to the end. He spent so much time just describing the ship & the expedition I lost interest. Rats in the Walls was good though. A movie of Mountains would work for me though, I think...
Popular? Not as much as Poe, Bram Stroker or Steven King. But, still a bit I guess.
True enough. Though I think Stoker was a bit of a one-hit wonder. Anyway, the video was a request from a viewer.
Yeah. Erll, good vid either way.
I hate how you can walk into a book store and find more volumes of Lovecraft than anyone needs or wants, but you have to look extra hard to find anything from R. E. Howard, Clarke Ashton Smith, or Fritz Leiber.
are you sure lovecraft is popular? because to my friends who like to read books, the name Lovecraft doesn't ring a bell..
While the name Lovecraft may not be familiar his themes are. Steven King is probably the most famous example of a writer who emulates the Lovecraft genre.
I did actually create something discussing this... that Lovecraft is popular but not THAT popular, not really a household name like other horror authors. I cut it from this video because I felt my video was getting too long and that part was the least necessary of all the other parts. While Lovecraft is NOT popular with the average person on the street he is popular (enough, or at least known) with avid readers I would say.
May I ask what books your friends read? If they seclude themselves to young adult and Oprah's book club recommendations then I'm not surprised.
Your friends are simple minded fools.
It depends what his/her answer is. If they tell me that they're connoisseurs of the works of J.K. Rowling I might feel a little nauseated.
He's been a clue on Jeopardy.....
I don't know.
I don't think his writing prose is very good. It's cumbersome and irritating.
(I find Asimov dry and irritating too, so, but not the same way as Lovecraft).
Lovecraft's personal beliefs (racist for example) paint a picture of an asshole of a man in many ways.
But the *ideas* in his stories... unprecedented. Genius.
He's overrated. He hasn't written one good novel.
Well perhaps that's because he was a poet and short story writer who, now stay with me here, DIDN'T WRITE NOVELS.
Howard, Bloch, King, Barker, Smith, and Ligotti all wrote better Lovecraftian horror stories than Lovecraft himself did.
@H.P. Lovecraft Yes, he is the creator of Lovecraftian, or Cosmic Horror. That does not mean he is the best in terms of craft, prose, story-telling, etc. Why is that difficult to understand?
This is the wrong channel to be unraveling a garden hose filled with excrement and putting the nozzle on "shower" mode and spraying it everywhere.
@@Thagomizer nope
Thank you for giving HPL the love, respect and protection he deserves. I get tired, defending him alone against true cultists.
And I am sickened at the way those who try to tear him down, are right there to benefit from him.
Howard was a mess. But, it was because of fear, not hate.
He feared everything and everyone. That fear also kept him trapped and unable to have life experiences that may have helped him.
Yes, these leeches are horrible. They actually have the balls to use terms like "reclaim the Mythos" at times.
I will go against what you said somewhat. His fears of what would happen in society can be seen in certain tales, but hate can be apart of that too. One will hate to see something happen for example which, to quote Yoda, turns to anger. I think he was justified frankly. His life was rough but I think the only thing that really hurt him in his lifestyle was the health issue. He was broke as hell and neglected his nutrition and medical treatments over this.
@@ArkhamReporter - I agree. He was a frail, weak, unhealthy man. The vermin try to make him out to be some racist, activist ogre. Yet, they are madly in love with his talent, mind and soul. It drives them insane.
Unfortunately, it takes pain, bitterness, sorrow and a lot of other negative emotions to create what HPL created. It came at a very high price.
What's that song at the start of the video
Search for "lovecraft jazz" on youtube. There is a 4 part video series, should be part 1. The first song. I don't know its name though.