Youtube's directors have offered up many strange tributes to H.P. Lovecraft over the years. Most videos, however, are really an appeal to those who are already into his fiction. If you've ever wanted to find a video that amounts to Lovecraftian propaganda, then this is it. By splicing together clips from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's 2005 Call of Cthulhu, Stuart Gordon's Dagon, and others, a visual summary of Lovecraftian themes has been created.
As digital media's tendrils lengthen, this is just the type of video that can be used for reaching new audiences. Soon, Lovecraft and other weird writers may owe more to well crafted Youtube videos than to literary journals, rave reviews, or social networking.
Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre is a new illustrated collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories set to appear later this year. Longtime horror anthology editor Stephen Jones is behind it, and Les Edwards is providing the artwork. The book is actually a followup to 2008's Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft. This title gave Lovecraftian devotees and newcomers a handsome bundle of his best known stories.
The new volume promises to pick up where Necronomicon left off. It's due to offer an affordable set of Lovecraft's lesser known tales, miscellaneous writings, and poetry selections, such as the "Fungi from Yuggoth" sonnets in their entirety. These contents make it the cheapest way for Lovecraft completists to get their hands on the more obscure works. Eldritch Tales will hit retailers as a hardcover, oversize paperback, and e-book for the Kindle. Look for it around Fall, 2011.
Many admirers and scholars correctly point out that H.P. Lovecraft's life is one of the best preserved of any figure in the 20th century. His voluminous letters, essays, and manuscripts have left general impressions about his life at any given stage, if not specific details about where he was and what he was doing on specific dates. This has allowed Lovecraft students like S.T. Joshi to write a book like I am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft, a biography as thick and detailed as one about any President or adventurer. However, besides being a literary mummy, H.P. Lovecraft is one of the finest illustrations that the dead have no right to privacy.
But why should they have this liberty? It seems a constant throughout the West, conscious or otherwise, that the dead forfeit all right to conceal their old lives. We allow them the privilege of having their moldering bodies tucked away from public view, but that's more for our benefit than their own. Like walking time capsules, it seems everything about us will be uncorked after the brainwaves cease, and even the obscure fame enjoyed by someone like Lovecraft at the time of his death means every word will be preserved as a precious relic.
Books like Lord of a Visible World and the Selected Letters series from Arkham House shed enormous light on Lovecraft's worldview, literary opinions, writing habits, reactions to events in his day, and diet. Other sources have commented on his sickly constitution, racism, and sexuality, all of which are recorded and available for ongoing awkward discussions until the last Lovecraft aficionado joins the author in the great beyond. With so much known about his life, it's actually remarkable that his biography and fiction remains as debatable as it is.
Lovecraft's posthumous record also stands as a cautionary tale to living authors, particularly those in the weird horror community, who think (or hope) they will inspire a cult following beyond the grave: burn every unsavory detail you would rather consign to the secrets of eternity, or it will come out. Unless writers and artists start censoring their lives beforehand, or entrust a family member or friend to do it upon death, then literary agents, auctioneers, and fans will come looking for the juicy stuff. Of course, disappearing the life of tomorrow's great writers would be a loss to scholars and admirers, but it's still within the rights of the living. There are times when mystery instead of concrete knowledge is just as fascinating as well.
Last week, the upstanding Chomu Press and Mark Samuels gifted the weird fiction community with a lingering mystery. Chomu recently held a contest that challenged observers to uncover the hidden meaning within the cover art for The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales. Blogger Brendan Moody was declared the winner, due to his especially herculean effort at unraveling the cover's message, and the strange aftershocks it left him.
Still, the mystery remains. Is it possible that Chomu, Samuels, and the cover artist have conspired to give weird fiction one of its most intriguing meta-fictional quests in recent times? I hope so! If this is the case, it's brilliant marketing - exactly the kind that should be appreciated in a genre that often overlooks strange mechanics operating outside the horror stories.
While the book cover will never approach the notoriety of something like the infamous Voynich Manuscript, it's nevertheless a fittingly Samuels-esque bonus to an excellent collection. Care to take a stab at the cryptogram yourself? Read my review from earlier this year, and then consider picking up The Man Who Collected Machen.
If you have a spare $65,000 sitting around, you can now purchase over two hundred rare letters written by Robert Aickman to his literary associates. The horde reveals some startling details about Aickman's career from around 1967 to 1981. For instance, at one point, Aickman toyed with the idea of having a story collection issued by August Derleth's famous Arkham House, but ultimately decided the publisher was unable to provide the compensation he sought. Here's a few gems from the official description:
It starts in 1967 with a gracious reply from RA to a fan letter from KM (American literary agent Kirby McCauley), whose combination of warm praise and critical acuity represented ‘the exact amalgam that every artist wants, needs, and, lacking, dies …’ (30 Sep 1967) Their friendship grew slowly and patiently over the next few years before there was any discussion of business between them. The early letters in particular document the discovery of each other’s taste in literature, film, politics, etc. and they are richly detailed. Aickman’s own skill as a critic emerges clearly.
As he points out, he had worked as a film and theater critic, as well as editor of the first eight volumes of the annual Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. Aickman belongs in the same tradition of author-critic (before these roles bifurcated in modern times) that includes Johnson, Coleridge and T.S. Eliot, and he strikes one as very well-read indeed, especially in regard to continental writers. Among 20th century author-critics of supernatural fiction, Aickman was probably the most cultured and critically acute. What’s almost more impressive is the apparent ease with which KM followed suit.
These letters show no trace of condescension from RA. His judgments are always interesting and often surprising. Graham Greene is ‘the confused product of a hysterical and decadent epoch.’ (25 Oct 1971) The much-touted 1968 film ‘Belle du Jour’ was ‘quite simply, one of the worst films I have ever seen.’ (21 May 1968) He admired Bierce for his authentically American voice. He cites Thomas Mann as a major influence on his style, as well as E.T.A. Hoffman and many others (though curiously had not read Gustave Meyrink). He loathed the tendency towards sadistic violence in modern horror literature. And, while hating her politics, admired the artistry of Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Of August Strindberg in particular, and of ground-breaking artists in general, he made the remark, ‘Often it seems to me that life needs the individual heretic but seldom the ensuing heresy.’ (6 May 1969)
Like many Brits his knowledge of American writers was somewhat parochial. KM keeps trying out Lovecraft Circle authors on him -- with little success generally. On the other hand, he scored a direct hit with Russell Kirk, whose collection, THE SURLY SULLEN BELL, was, in Aickman’s words, ‘quite simply, the best collection of new stories by a single writer that I have read for at least twenty years, and perhaps much more.’ (10 June 1969) Aickman and McCauley (and Kirk, too, for that matter) shared a political and cultural conservatism, with Aickman confessing more than once that he was not very fond of the present age. He was skeptical about democracy. ‘I think that television and the automobile and the flying machine are all worse dangers to man than the atomic bomb.’ (8 July 1967) (In many of his views, he reminds one of H.P. Lovecraft, who was probably his stylistic opposite when it came to writing weird tales.)
In the course of their getting to know and trust each other, it became apparent that the American representative of Herbert van Thal (RA’s English agent, whom he liked very much) was not up to his task, and in the early 1970s, Kirby began making some modest sales for RA in the US magazine market. Soon there were negotiations with August Derleth for an Arkham House collection. After this point much of the correspondence is taken up with details of literary agency, showing us another side of Aickman as a careful and prudent businessman. Aickman acknowledged Kirby’s salesmanship skills as graciously as he acknowledged his critical acumen. He finally turned down Derleth’s offer. ‘I can well believe that Derleth is in no position to pay more, but that of course does but further reduce the attractions of being linked with him commercially.’ (19 April 1971)
KM eventually landed better deals with Scribners. But the next ten years’ worth of letters are still loaded with nuggets of substantive literary interest and tidbits of gossip. Of L. P. Hartley, Aickman writes, ‘His literary talent is of a high order. It is just that he has a rather nasty mind.’ (27 Jan 1969) He tells how famous editor Max Perkins made Elizabeth Jane Howard (Aickman’s collaborator in his first collection, WE ARE FOR THE DARK) re-write the ending to her novel (THE BEAUTIFUL VISIT), ‘revising the enigmatic British conclusion (not completely successful, perhaps, as I acknowledge) into an entirely conventional, and entirely unconvincing, ‘happy ending’; with the ironical consequence that the book was reviewed merely as a conventional romance, which it is far from being, and hardly sold at all.’ (9 April 1973) Aickman’s critical observations cover dozens of writers, film directors and actors, composers, styles and movements.
Wherever these letters end up, one hopes it will be in the hands of a seasoned scholar. They offer rare insights about Aickman's literary advancement, as well as interesting connections across the Atlantic between weird fiction representatives and agencies in the late 20th century. Those on a limited budget just discovering Aickman should check out Dark Entries and Sub Rosa, two handsome hardcover collections recently reissued by Tartarus Press. Older editions of Cold Hand in Mine and Painted Devils are still affordable too.
Affluent buyers can head over to the L.W. Currey listing and pick up the letters, if desired. While a golden library like this harbors priceless content, I wouldn't be surprised to see the collection broken up or lowered in price to turn a quicker sale.
Billed as World War II monuments built decades ago, these structures built by Josip Broz Tito throughout Yugoslavia look far more sinister than mere war memorials. Today, these avant-garde abominations scattered across Serbia and other former Yugoslav republics proudly sport their non-Euclidean geometries. The oddest of the pack look like sample homes from Lovecraft's Dreamlands, or perhaps relics from the King in Yellow's rotting Carcosa.
I have collected the stranger pics here, but the full series of over a dozen futuristic monuments is worth a glance over at the Crack Two blog.
Thomas Ligotti's forceful case against life, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, has recently re-launched in paperback, thanks to high demand and a decision from Hippocampus Press. After darkening the minds of countless readers and disappearing off the shelves, the hardcover book remained elusive and out-of-print for several months. Look for the affordable new edition to pop up in oppressive coffeehouses and ride along in mysterious backpacks.
Whether you see the glass as half full, or vacant and encrusted with mud, Conspiracy is a thought provoking read from an author who continues to command a serious following in contemporary weird fiction. If the odd copy ever makes it into a second hand bookstore, I suspect it will form one of the strangest philosophic Trojan Horses that an unsuspecting reader could ever encounter.
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's long awaited film adaptation of "The Whisperer in Darkness" is finally beginning to see screenings in the United States. One notable viewing is due later this week at Los Angeles' Bigfoot Crest theater. After successfully launching The Call of Cthulhu back in 2005, The Whisperer in Darkness is set to be a major Lovecraftian undertaking that outshines its 1920s style predecessor. The movie may also bolster morale among Lovecraft fans eager for a major motion picture, after Guillermo del Toro scrapped the Mountains of Madness project earlier this year.
The screening is set to begin May 19, 2011 around 9:00 PM. Here's a rundown of other details:
Bigfoot Crest Theater
1262 Westwood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90024-4801
(just south of Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood)
Box Office Phone: (310) 474-7824
Recorded Program Info: (310) 474-7866
Ticket Prices:
$11 General Admission
$8 Seniors and Students with valid student I.D.
California residents should seize the moment and enjoy this latest foray into putting Lovecraft on the big screen.
-Grim Blogger
The Whisperer in Darkness Movie Set for Los Angeles
Self-conscious structures have been recurring figures in horror and science fiction alike. The famous haunted house often seems creepier when it's possessed by its own alien intelligence, rather than deceased spirits. Now, a leaky Massachussets house has dialed police in a voiceless call that helped authorities undercover its decrepit condition.
I'm also reminded of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves. Anyone who has battled their way through this unconventional novel knows the bizarre house exhibits an uncanny sentience. Perhaps something like a real world Navidson Record isn't far off.
Poe and Phillips is a recent graphic novel by Jaime Collado and Miguel Cedillo from Arcana Studios that throws Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft into the midst of a horror-adventure quest. Don't expect an authentic drama with highly refined weird fiction elements. Instead, you'll see improbable fun and heroic slayers coursing through this tale. Who cares if Poe and Lovecraft didn't murder a thief, let alone a supernatural being? They've never looked tougher with heavy arms.
Space-time constraints are kicked to the curb as well, allowing this unlikely pair to link up and dust monsters. Here's what Acrcana's Poe and Phillips summary has to say:
Edgar Allen Poe and Howard Phillips Lovecraft were born and raised in different eras. But during each of their times they were both investigators of paranormal affairs and once had a case where they worked together. Searching for the power of a mysterious coin, the unlikely duo find themselves against an ancient emperor who wants to use the coins to conquer the world... throughout all times!
Expect alternate history horror fantasies like Poe and Phillips to spawn more variants in the coming years. As works by Lovecraft and other weird fiction masters enjoy a renaissance, their tie to digital media means the authors themselves are due to become mythologized more than they already are. Besides, seeing artists like H.P. Lovecraft and E.A. Poe as hardened killers is a lot more interesting than the sensitive, troubled personas they truly exhibited while alive.
-Grim Blogger
Poe and Phillips Lovecraft Team Up in Graphic Novel
If you've got about a million dollars to spare for real estate, then consider haunting the historic Providence home that largely inspired Lovecraft's tale, "The Shunned House." The house at Benefit Street on the city's east side is currently on the market for a cool $925,000. It seems Providence hasn't suffered as much under the collapsing bubble as other areas, but it still sounds like a bargain.
Especially when compared with the Halsey house, which inspired "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," and was priced at nearly three million in 2007. Besides, how often do shunned houses really make the rounds on the market?
Donald Grant catalogued many of these outstanding Lovecraftian sites in his book, Lovecraft's Providence and Adjacent Parts. Perhaps a weird realty guide should be written as a follow up. Whatever else might be said about him, Lovecraft had a keen eye for luxurious homes. The Benefit Street home is no less imposing today than it was in his era. Visit the house's realty page, while it's still up.
Though Thom Little's Sundance Film Festival short has made the rounds elsewhere online, it seems remiss if it wasn't shared here. "Late Bloomer" is a well made, humorous, and tense exploration of human sexuality through Lovecraftian horror.
The film is an obvious jab at HPL's own puritanical habits. Media like this runs the risk of encouraging too much probing into Lovecraft's personal life for insight into his fiction, overshadowing far more important factors like the ideological principles he embodied. With that said, the film's overtone, if not viewed humorously (I know - it's not easy), highlights the strangeness of biology. Perhaps Lovecraft's own odd habits, best documented by S.T. Joshi in I am Providence: The Life and Times of HP Lovecraft, were more justified than they initially seem, unveiling the terrible grip of nature that's inescapable for most of us.
Infernal House is due to release Laird Barron's first ultra-luxurious book, The Light is the Darkness, before the end of June. This illustrated hardcover follows the horrific trek of a modern gladiator seeking his missing sister. If it's anything like Barron's past efforts, then readers can expect a thrilling tour through underworld terror with richly imaginative prose and a mildly Lovecraftian, but original seasoning.
The Light is the Darkness continues Barron's ascent as a major force in the literary horror genre. The novel also indicates that he has generated enough demand for upscale limited editions, as well as paperbacks. At $175 and a 174 copy print run, it's set to appeal most to longtime Barron followers and collectors.
However, those with lower budgets have nothing to fear. Word is that the unconventional author is hard at work on another novel, The Croning, as well as a third short story collection. If you've been under a rock, then pick up his first two affordable books, The Imago Sequence and Occultation, immediately. Even newcomers might find themselves rushing to purchase The Light is the Darkness shortly after reading these previous collections. After all, an exposure with Laird Barron's fiction is unforgettable and highly addicting.
In an age where electronic text holds dominion, the art of handwriting is slipping away. Still, practically everyone uses a written signature, and can appreciate this lingering inky calling card in others. Montague Rhodes James' unique autograph is no exception.
This faint impression attached to a photo records a shard from the man nearly eight decades after his death. Like James, it appears reserved, studious, and outwardly unassuming. But look closer. Is there something more?
Everyone will see a different Jamesian hallmark in the same signature. Literary horror is always delivered through one's own inimitable mental topography. The spectral tales within Ghost Stories of an Antiquary may be the same in every volume, but not in every mind. This inescapable subjective net extends to perceptions of the weird authors themselves. Much like James' novel horrors, it's the uncertainty filling our heads that creates the mystique.
Single layers of degeneracy and strangeness are familiar in weird fiction. Just enough to satisfy one's appetite for weirdness, but not so decadent that readers can't walk away relatively unscathed. This isn't the case with Brendan Connell's new collection from Chomu Press, The Life of Polycrates and Other Stories for Antiquated Children. Connell's recipe draws together elements that are all certified with strangeness of the highest grade. Bizarre plots, legendary characters, and experimental narrative structures compose a towering wedding cake that joins the unconventional in unholy matrimony.
At one level, the book may be enjoyed as eleven demented histories and legends. The most authentically historic piece is the titular story, “The Life of Polycrates,” which retells the life of Samos' tyrant with rich details making it impossible to see where history ends and fiction begins. Polycrates' elegant court, unlikely triumphs, and torturous death are related in a format very similar to classical literature. “Brother of the Holy Ghost” effectively discloses another terrible downfall, this time of a mystic and one-time Pope in the Middle Ages who is defeated by his own faith and outside conspiratorial machinations. A colorful and mildly unsettling tale awaits in “The Search for Savino,” where a late 19th century artist who paints eyelids is uncovered in several haunting documents. Meanwhile, “The Chymical Wedding of Des Esseintes” turns Joris-Karl Huysmans' decadent aesthetic upside down, in a nearly Aickmanesque horror tale sure to enthrall lovers of decadent literature.
While Connell is often successful in establishing atmospheric conditions in his stories that are eerie, unusual, and (by some infernal logic) believable, his outrageous and frequently damaged characters are a greater success. The Life of Polycrates features an offbeat cast so mentally deformed and curious that few authors would be capable of matching it. “The Life of Captain Gareth Caernarvon” takes the pompous, globe trekking hunter of the last century and builds him into something more: a brutal caricature groomed for a demonic role in hell itself.
“Maledict Michela” and “Collapsing Claude” are compatriot stories allowing us to see the awkward sexual depravity of the story's eponymous characters. Michela surrenders herself in middle age to a bloated beast of a man, while Claude submits to a domineering and repulsive woman who embodies an inverse attractiveness. Connell balances heavy unease with just enough fascinating voyeurism to keep readers from slamming the book shut out of embarrassment. These tales also represent recurring self-destructive tendencies usually stemming from erotic habits.
The Life of Polycrates'abundant self-immolation continues in stories like “The Slug,” when a fairly comfortable young man decides to relinquish his easy life and utterly destroy himself. This meat grinder alteration in identity isn't always clear in each story, but does become easier to speculate about when the collection as a whole is digested. “Molten Rage” shows us the slow motion destruction of a blue collar worker after he is led astray by a radical left-wing pied piper. Brendan Connell grants no reprieve in “The Dancing Billionaire” and “Peter Payne” either. Here, an exceedingly wealthy gentleman and a biker dare devil are imprisoned, just on the verge of suffocating, by their past as much as their present. The author incorporates fate's heavy fist in these pieces, as their demise is predictable, but nonetheless interesting enough to see it through, as though the book's self-fulfilling prophecy traps readers as well.
Connell fires many of his stories off with a vast, diverse arsenal of experimental techniques. Though his boldness and talented craftsmanship must be admired, the effect is not always successful. For instance, “Brother of the Holy Ghost” flits between a traditional structure and stream-of-consciousness at uneven intervals to the point where it becomes difficult to recognize what is going on. “The Life of Polycrates,” though wonderful in its imagery and historic realism, is perhaps too successful in imitating antiquated narrative forms. In a world where few readers receive a classical education, the finer points of Connell's tragedy may be lost on many.
However, these rare imperfections should not dissuade readers from picking up The Life of Polycrates and Other Stories for Antiquated Children. Brendan Connell is a rare mind who can confidently mold unique narrative styles into forceful distillates of the surreal and the strange. One day, his unhinged themes and experimental methods may enjoy much wider recognition in the weird literary community and beyond.
