{"id":14667,"date":"2015-07-10T07:53:10","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T04:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tentaclii.wordpress.com\/?p=14667"},"modified":"2015-07-10T07:53:10","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T04:53:10","slug":"the-providence-journals-lovecraft-story-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2015\/07\/10\/the-providence-journals-lovecraft-story-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Providence Journal’s Lovecraft story competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The jet-pack rocketeers of the Rhode Island Science Fiction Club deliver the news that The Providence Journal<\/em> newspaper has a Lovecraft short-story competition<\/a>… “seeking original tales of terror” in the Lovecraftian style. 1,500 words, deadline: 26th July 2015. “The three winners will be published in The Journal<\/em>‘s Rhode Islander section in August 2015.” <\/p>\n

I’d imagine that having a light patina of local history and geography may please the judges. A couple of ideas that spring immediately to mind…<\/p>\n

* A story woven around Lovecraft’s job as a ticket seller<\/a> at a Providence cinema.<\/p>\n

* The ‘origin story’ of the boy Lovecraft’s aversion to sea-food, with the Providence dock-side warehouses as the setting. Have this episode illuminate Lovecraft’s 1929 letter to The Journal<\/em>, titled “Retain Historic ‘Old Brick Row'” \/ “The Old Brick Row”, in which he tried to prevent the demolition of the historic dockside warehouses.<\/p>\n

* After his return to Providence Lovecraft noted that he sometimes visited the city’s rougher dock-side cafes, since they were good places to get very cheap filling meals. Possibly he had also used them earlier, after a night of explorations around the harbour area. Could he have once met there the inspiration for the story “The Terrible Old Man” (1920)? Lovecraft imagines meeting a similar character on the docks in the year 2000, in his early poem “Providence in 2000 A.D.” (pub. Providence’s Evening Journal<\/em>, 4th March 1912)…<\/p>\n

  With terror struck, I sought the wharf once more,
\n  But as my steamboat’s whistle ‘gan to roar,
\n  A shrivell’d form, half crouching ‘twixt the freight,
\n  Seiz’d on my arm, and halted short my gait.
\n  “Who art thou, Sirrah?” I in wonder cry’d;
\n  “A monstrous prodigy,” the fellow sigh’d;
\n  “Last of my kind, a lone unhappy man, …”<\/p>\n

One might add some macabre link with the long-lived street cat named “Old Man”, a creature Lovecraft often met with while walking down toward the centre of Providence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The jet-pack rocketeers of the Rhode Island Science Fiction Club deliver the news that The Providence Journal newspaper has a …<\/p>\n

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