Monthly Archives: September 2011

Domestic Lovecraft

07 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Unnamable

≈ Leave a comment

Apex has a full online copy of the new survey/opinion article “The Improbable, Inevitable Domestication of the Great Old Ones: HP Lovecraft’s Iconic Influence on 21st-Century Fantastic Literature and Culture“, which is part of Apex Magazine’s September 2011 issue — available by in PDF/ePub/Kindle/Nook.

“In the passage of time, the promiscuous appropriation of his creations and now Lovecraft’s canonization into the American literary firmament, some of the weirdness and danger is culturally softened. Becoming an icon, a representation that can be used to create not just likeness but signify qualities beyond the image, has taken some of the horror out of Lovecraft.”

Lovecraft in the New York Public Library

06 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Historical context, New discoveries

≈ Leave a comment

From my new book, a photo of the Local History & Genealogy room in the New York Public Library, a room where Lovecraft spent many evenings reading a reference-only book on the history of Providence.


Above: Local History and Genealogy room (No. 328) of the New York Public Library. Picture: Handbook of The New York Public Library, 1916. Public Domain.

Possibly this is the sort of “small genealogical reading-room” that Lovecraft had in mind when writing “The Dunwich Horror” just a few years later in 1928…

“The building was full of a frightful stench which Dr Armitage knew too well, and the three men rushed across the hall to the small genealogical reading-room whence the low whining came. For a second nobody dared to turn on the light, then Armitage summoned up his courage and snapped the switch. One of the three — it is not certain which — shrieked aloud at what sprawled before them among disordered tables and overturned chairs. […] The thing that lay half-bent on its side in a foetid pool of greenish-yellow ichor and tarry stickiness was almost nine feet tall, and the dog had torn off all the clothing and some of the skin. It was not quite dead, but twitched silently and spasmodically while its chest heaved in monstrous unison with the mad piping of the expectant whippoorwills outside. Bits of shoe-leather and fragments of apparel were scattered about the room…” — “The Dunwich Horror”.

One wonders if the nature of this creature’s depiction was perhaps even Lovecraft’s literary revenge on some particularly annoying phlegmy and wheezing old cougher, such as he might have once had to endure in the room at the New York Public Library?

Here’s another picture, unused in the book, which depicts another typical scene from the New York Public Library in the early years of the 20th century…


Picture: New York Public Library Flickr Commons stream.

This is what the exterior/entrance looked like, as painted by Tavik Frantisek Simon in 1927…

Nicholas Roerich Museum

05 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by in Historical context

≈ 6 Comments

Skeleton Pete reports on a visit to The Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City. More photos on Flickr. Lovecraft knew Roerich’s work and something of his ideas, and presumably met other Theosophists in New York, although he was never a believer. Indeed, he seems to have lumped most of the theosophists in with charlatan quackery like spiritualism. In a letter to Willis Conover, Lovecraft wrote of… “The crap of the theosophists, which falls into the class of conscious fakery”. His use of whacky ideas from Theosophy is explored in Robert M. Price’s 1982 article “HPL and HPB: Lovecraft’s Use of Theosophy” (available online). He did have good words to say about Roerich however…

“Possibly I have mentioned to you at various times my admiration for the work of Nicholas Roerich — the mystical Russian artist who has devoted his life to the study & portrayal of the unknown uplands of Central Asia, with their vague suggestions of cosmic wonder & terror … surely Roerich is one of those rare fantastic souls who have glimpsed the grotesque, terrible secrets outside space & beyond time, & who have retained some ability to hint at the marvels they have seen.” — 21st/22nd May 1930 to Lillian D. Clark.

“…old Nicholas Roerich, the Russian painter whose weird Thibetan landscapes I have so long admired” — Selected Letters: 1932-1934.

“…good old Nick Roerich, whose joint at Riverside Drive and 103rd Street is one of my shrines in the pest zone [New York City]” — letter to James F. Morton, March 1937.

Roerich lived to 1947, so the date on the latter letter suggests Lovecraft may have known him well in the mid 1930s, when he often visited New York just after Christmas. “Good old” was usually a Lovecraft-ism used for things like cinemas or old men or old cats, meaning they were “reliable” in their warm welcome and hospitality.


Above: Nicholas Roerich, “Armageddon, 1936”.

Crysis mod: The Worry of Newport

04 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

≈ Leave a comment

The Worry of Newport is a new Lovecraftian Crysis mod. Ok, let’s translate that into English for those who don’t play videogames. CryEngine 3 is a wonderful cutting-edge game engine, the thing that puts the visuals and audio and game mechanics on the screen. The Crysis games are some of the biggest games out there, although not to my taste. Now there’s a new free mod (i.e.: a free fan-made modification or ‘makeover’) for the game. You buy the game, you apply the mod, you get a new game. All part of the crazy remix culture, m’lud.

The naff choice of fonts for the trailer, and the title (“The Worry…”?) are both initially very discouraging. But the game is getting taken seriously by the genuine and respected reviewers, such as Rock, Paper, Shotgun which writes…

“Although it’s small and imperfectly formed, The Worry of Newport is as authentic a Lovecraft experience as I’ve ever played. That’s not to say it’s the best Lovecraft-inspired game I’ve ever had my hands on, it’s just the most true to the man himself. […] it’s slow, wordy and takes itself very seriously indeed. However, it’s also atmospheric, creepy and mysterious.”

Here’s the creator’s description of the mod/game…

“The Worry of Newport is a two part horror/mystery mod for Crysis built around immersion and story telling, rather than combat or action. Both parts span a story arc that concerns a nameless protagonist awakening in the ocean outside of the island of Newport, a fictional [island] colony in the Atlantic. Upon exploring the port nearby and uncovering a little bit of the backstory, it is on his (and your, the players) shoulders to pursue the truths behind the dark secrets on the island.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgKDb-jYsSg&w=640&h=390]