H.P. Lovecraft's Universe of the Elder Gods | Worlds of Speculative Fiction (lecture 19)
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2017
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This is the nineteenth session in a new series of monthly lectures and discussions, featuring Dr. Gregory Sadler, and hosted by the Brookfield Public Library. The series focuses on philosophical themes in the works and world of selected classic and contemporary fantasy, science fiction, horror, and other speculative fiction genre authors.
We continue the series by focusing in this session on the classic horror, fantasy, and weird fiction writer, H.P. Lovecraft, looking at many of his short stories and novellas
The suggested reading for this video is The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, which contains the stories discussed in this session. You can get it here - amzn.to/2r41mk3
Authors we have covered in the series so far are J.R..R. Tolkein, A.E. Van Vogt, C.S. Lewis, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Roger Zelazny, Ursula K. Leguin, Michael Moorcock, Philip K. Dick, Mervyn Peake, George R.R. Martin, Philip Jose Farmer, Madeline L'Engle, Douglas Adams, Anne McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card, Iain Banks, H.P. Lovecraft, William Gibson, C.L. Moore, Octavia Butler, Jorge Luis Borges, Fritz Leiber, Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, Andre Norton, Arthur Clarke, Robert Howard, Gene Wolfe, C. J. Cherryh, Jack Vance, Edgar Allan Poe, G.K. Chesterton, Lewis Carroll, Tanith Lee, Gordon Dickson, August Derleth, Karl Edward Wagner, Aldous Huxley, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, China Mieville, Walter Miller, Cordwainer Smith, Liu Cixin, R. Scott Bakker, Stanislaw Lem, Neal Stephenson's, Philip Pullman, Olaf Stapledon, Veronica Roth, J.G. Ballard, Dan Simmons, Andrzej Sapkowski, Kim Stanley Robinson, N. K. Jemisin, Terry Pratchett, and Steven Erickson
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#Philosophy #Worldbuilding #SpeculativeFiction #Literature #Analysis #Books
This video made me subscribe. I was so worried about how you were going to handle Lovecraft, because so many people have mishandled him, due in great part to modern politics, but this video handled everything perfectly.
I now have faith in Gregory B. Sadler's philosophical and artistic-analytical integrity. I watched a couple videos before, but this one convinces me that Sadler is someone worth listening to.
I think "philosophical and artistic-analytical integrity" is probably something you shouldn't have faith in after just one video
@@GregoryBSadler That's very true. I got a bit excited. I did a little more than one video beforehand, probably still too little for THAT kind of comment. I really liked your videos on Moorcock and Zelazny as well, and so far I'm enjoying the Hebdo video. I'm just excited to see videos that aren't politically charged, that way I can sit down and learn something about craft, philosophy, and history through as clear a lens as possible. It's very hard to find videos like that today, on any side, because if I find an intelligent video (variable 1) then I'd have to see if the video is ulterior or not to just explaining the subject (variable 2). This is all regardless of if the video is entertaining (variable 3).
I wasn't using strict language; I just wanted to put my two-cents worth of endorcement because, so far, I like your programs and I wanted to metaphorically "vote with my dollar," likes, favourites, and subscribes being UA-cam's currency. As well as comments, since the majority of people don't comment on a thing, indicating that every comment weighs so much as far as representing the audience.
To sum up, got excited with a find and wanted to say it had value, even if it could be flawed later on. If you find a rock cluster of crystals and sediment, you still have the crystals.
Totally agreed. I’m so tired of clicking Lovecraft videos or articles and ALL they harp about is his racism, especially when they start off with it. It’s like dude way to pick the low hanging fruit literally everyone who knows about him agrees upon
An excellent overview of a classic author's Cyclopen body of work!
Thanks!
James Haney, Spelling Police here. Please send $20 to this site's Patreon account. Cylopean is the preferred spelling.
Been waiting for this!!! Thank you!!
You're very welcome!
You should cover Clark Ashton Smith or Jack Vance
I agree wholeheartedly. On a side note, I often think of Jack Vance as picking up where CAS left off.
I'll put out a open call for who I ought to do in the next year's series sometime in December - you'll find that in my social media
Awesome! Very eager to hear your thoughts on Lovecraft. You do a great job.
Thanks!
Yes!
Yessssss, than you this is amazing.
Glad you enjoyed it
I draw most of my inspiration from the mountain he used to vacation on in New Hampshire; Mount Shaw can be seen from Mount Sentinel, and is said to have a sacrificial table of volcanic rock that was buried when lightning struck the mountain to fire in 1955. To excavate the thing is dangerous for the timber rattlers, as if Yig was guarding access to Yog-Sothoth. "The 23rd Current" is what some sorcerers call it. Some stare deep into Abzu and Abdul Alhazred stares back, grinning with ghoulish glee as he is occasionally finds himself corralled by the heavy hand of Nyarlathotep. Some would call this fixation insanity, but results are results.
Simon. Tyson. The Necronomicon is a shortcut in the human psyche to "the real thing" . . . for certain psychological temperaments I suppose lol
This is great!
Glad you enjoyed it
How does one become a 'public' philosopher, as opposed to an academic one? I assume firstly be more educated than I. Also great video as always, I love your channel! UA-cam has started recommending your newest videos first on my home screen even before the recommended section.
By choosing to engage the public, and actually being able to do so, as a philosopher.
I think, something important to point out that you missed at the beginning, is that he was very passionate about astronomy as a kid and that astronomy influenced his perception of the cosmos, meaning that probably the Cosmic Horror itself comes from his notion of this vast universe that 99,99999% we know absolutely nothing about. And i can't imagine at the time. And if you take in account the fact that his childhood was very traumatizing, pampered by his mother and attached to his insecurities, in the end all of his writing make sense and you can easily read his psychology in his writings.
Everybody's got something to add, I suppose
There was a Lovecraft/Baker Street short story anthology talking about how Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft's stories were in philosophical opposition. Holmes used logic to solve problems and Lovecraft said no logic could solve problems. You talked about a similar concept at 48:00 in I think.
Sounds interesting
Neil Gaiman has a story called a "Study in Emerald" which combines the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft to interesting results. Might be a fun read if you ever plan on doing a Neil Gaiman Discussion. www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf
A Pilgrim I tend to think of Scooby Doo as an inversion of Lovecraft
Im eager to listen your recorded session. But before that, I have one question: Is there any lost novel, book, short story written by Lovecraft? Is there any legend surrounding it? Thank you again for your tremendous effort!!
Not that I know of
The closest thing I can think of is an unfinished non-fiction work named The Cancer of Superstition, which was comissioned by none other than Harry Houdini. Lovecraft had previuosly ghostwritten a story for Houdini, and after that they planned to publish this essay denouncing superstitious beliefs, which would be written by Lovecraft and C.M. Eddy Jr. After Houdini died, his widow cancelled the project. I think the unfinished draft was discovered pretty recently, in 2016.
Sorry for the multiple comments (and one question) I’m about to dump but your video got me thinking.
You mentioned that you didn’t read much of Lovecraft’s poetry. I would usually agree to avoid it. But I recently read his “Fungi from Yuggoth” poetry cycle, which I found to be fantastic! The poetic voice and technique were surprisingly balanced and executed well. For me, Lovecraft’s oeuvre is far more complex and multi-faceted than I initially believed. There is so much to be explored in terms of life and death, fear and drives, the mind and the unthinkable. For this reason, do you see any value in reading HPL’s work psychoanalytically?
To add to this, would it illuminate Lovecraft’s work to see his “unknowable” as an inversion of the Sublime from Kantian philosophy? That is, nature cannot be overpowered by our reason, which creates emotions of anxiety or fear.
There are some out there who interpret his works that way
AwesOmme
Thanks!
Great stuff but minor correction Dead Alive is New Zealand not Australia, Peter Jackson also did LOTR there later in his life :)
Yes, you're right
Some constructive criticism: I find this series of yours a little bit too laid-back and unfocused at times, especially compared to other lectures you did (the one on What is Metaphysics? comes to mind for example). Oftentimes i would wish for more philosphical substance. The discussion about Song of Ice & Fire i found especially bad in that regard. Nonetheless: you do great work with your channel and i like it very much. Grettings from germany.
Well, this is a very different kind of talk, for a different local audience.
If you'd like to support the work I do, here's my Patreon page - www.patreon.com/sadler
Allright, it's your decision of course.
I will look into it. I seldom support youtube-channels. You certainly deserve it more than the average content creator on youtube.
Thanks!
I think I just came. . .
WTF with the brightness xD ?
I'm sure you can get past that, if you're interested in the content
Gregory B. Sadler yeah, for sure the content it's fantasric, but ot was funny when I noticed the changes in brightness
I'm using a small, unobtrusive flip-cam for these lectures
I'm going to disagree vigorously on one point. Lovecraft at his best is (usually) very funny! The joke he reworks with marvelous variety is playing the utterly outrageous with a completely straight face! I'd bet he was grinning ear-to-ear while he wrote much of his stuff!
Well, that's quite an imaginative interpretation
@@GregoryBSadler I know I'm all alone on this, but consider how hard the main characters (often) work to come up with absolutely any explanation except the one that every scrap of evidence point to unfailingly. And consider just how ludicrous the scenarios of most of the "Mythos" stories are.
I've just stumbled on these SF talk and find them terrific. Thanks!
@@roberthasse7862 Glad you enjoy them!
Btw graham harman has a book on lovecraft where he devotes a lot of it to how hilarious lovecraft is and I actually laughed out loud plenty at both the excerpts and at harmans take on them so if ur interested in pursuing that interpretation check that out
@@khalilpineda6035 Yes, I've met and interacted with Harman.