Researchers have uncovered the horror of a long forgotten skeleton at the bottom of an ancient well in Cyprus. It seems that humans learned the paralyzing and fatal terror of the abyss early in their history. However this skeleton arrived at the bottom of the well, it just confirms an inconvenient matter of fact: death and darkness blend together, even across time.
Miskatonic River Press, publisher of Cthulhu Mythos fiction and Lovecraftian Role Playing Game material, is allegedly on the verge of re-animating itself. Internet rumors have crept up lately about the publisher, particularly in the alt.horror.cthulhu discussion group, suggesting it will re-awaken in the near future after the unfortunate death of its founder, Keith Herber. Miskatonic River is best known in literary quarters for publishing an exceeding high quality book of Cthulhu Mythos stories called Dead But Dreaming. The original edition quickly disappeared, and was re-issued last year in a new paperback form.
According to one rumor on alt.horror.cthulhu, Miskatonic River editors are looking at assembling a second anthology of Dead But Dreaming. If true, this could result in the appearance of another Lovecraftian anthology from well received writers in the near future. Keep watching this publisher for the emergence of new Cthulhuvian wares as it gets back up to production.
-Grim Blogger
Thanks to AtlasObscura.com (via BoingBoing) for documenting several less noted Lovecraftian places. Danvers State Hospital, Salem's Witch House, and the Atlantic Avenue tunnel in Brooklyn do not always hop through the head with H.P. Lovecraft in hand. However, all of these places hold more than a tenuous tie to the weird writer, as AtlasObscura notes. Of them, Danvers is probably the best known in the wider world, long admired for its bizarre history as a psychiatric ward and beautiful architecture. In Lovecraftiana, it likely served as the inspiration for HPL's Arkham Asylum.
Visit the link above for some riveting travelogues documenting these places in greater detail, as well as their connections to Lovecraft.
-Grim Blogger
The enterprising small press Ex Occidente has announced another Reggie Oliver book to be published late this year, not too far on the heels of their last publication by Oliver, Madder Mysteries. The new book is a real divergence for the author: a full length novel rather than a short story collection. The story will be released under the title Virtue in Danger, and will be released in a terribly limited printing of only 230 copies.
Ex Occidente has posted an outline of the book's intricate course of events: It is July 1963. At its headquarters, a former luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps, crisis is facing the Moral Regeneration Movement, a powerful modern, quasi-religious cult. Its founder and leader, Arnold Breitman is dying. Questions are already being asked about who is to succeed him.
There are a number of likely candidates. They include a former tennis champion, a Swiss industrialist, a trade unionist and a doctor. But each of them hides a guilty secret.
Into this troubled situation comes a world-weary professional actor, Ivor Smith who, quite by accident, finds himself at the very epicentre of the crisis, playing an unexpectedly influential role.
The cast of characters also includes an exiled Balkan King, his ambitious queen, his twin daughters, a gay policeman, an assassin, a gossip columnist, a Lutheran Pastor with an obsession about goats and a host of others.
Terrible secrets are revealed, uncontrollable passions are unleashed. The pace is furious. Comedy is rarely absent, but underneath runs a serious subtext. Questions about the nature of morality and the motivations of those who set themselves up as moral leaders are asked. All these elements are bound together into a terrific climax on a mountain top, followed by a joyous ending that might be described as "fairy tale" if it were not laced with mordant wit.
Details are somewhat sketchy, but the storyline described coupled with Reggie Oliver's previous literary themes suggests it will be a lengthy foray into new strange territory. For Oliver, this represents an interesting expansion of his talents into long form, hopefully maintaining the strange atmosphere and imagery cultivated in his earlier stories. A cautionary note might be added over the fact that many observers consider weird fiction novels to be weaker and somehow "less weird" than short stories. However, this isn't always the case, and perhaps Reggie Oliver's contribution to the thin library of weird novels will boost their reputation. We will all know when this book begins shipping out in Fall, 2009.
-Grim Blogger
An Italian horror film called "Colour from the Dark" has been making the rounds at various film festivals for a couple months now. Produced by Ivan Zuccon, it's intently based on the nearly eponymous story by H.P. Lovecraft: "The Colour Out of Space." So far, the movie has obtained some very positive reviews and will hopefully make appearances later this year at other international film festivals and near a widespread release of some sort--theatrical or DVD based.
I can't judge it well myself, since I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing it. However, it looks well worth monitoring and viewing, if you're lucky enough, based on this trailer.
-Grim Blogger
If an effort were made to trace H.P. Lovecraft's steadily rising influence into pop culture, two contemporary means of his burgeoning popularity come to mind: the internet and video games. In video games, the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) has arguably neared the top of the industry's pyramid in terms of gaming expansiveness, popularity, and lucrative profits for entertainment developers. Examples of this genre include video games like Everquest, Second Life, and World of Warcraft. It's the latter game by the company Blizzard which has incorporated some notable Lovecraftian features.
The H.P. Lovecraft references noted thus far in this game have been referenced by this blog post on "Tanking for Dummies" and this post on "Warcraft and Other Hooha." What these articles make clear is an interesting trend: the Lovecraftian content embedded in World of Warcraft appears to be generated by both users and software engineers within Blizzard. While it seems somewhat natural that fans of science fiction and fantasy would have a substantial number of individuals in their ranks who know about and appreciate Lovecraft's work, it's another matter to see Lovecraftian symbols creep up regularly in such a popular past time.
Moreover, it's likely the names, creatures, and places borrowed from Lovecraft will only spawn further interest about the Providence writer among the game's predominantly young demographic. The looming explosion of Lovecraft in the digital age is rapidly driving us toward the day when he will no longer be seen as an obscure figure in a niche genre of literature, but as a colonizer of strangeness, perhaps one day infusing inspiration into as many types of media as Poe is renowned for doing.
-Grim Blogger
Weird fiction aficionados pondering over why so many great ghost stories and the writers behind them emerge in Britain may have one more point to mull over: the presence of places where obscene numbers of spectral incidents have been recorded. The County of Hampshire is one of these regions. So seemingly haunted, in fact, that it can now claim a specialized ghost hunting society and a book specifically about Hampshire's troubles to its name. Whether or not there are strange places in this world attracting ghosts like a magnet--or at least reports of them--is a nearly unanswerable question. Judging how weird fiction might draw on inspiration from particularly possessed locales, however, is another matter.
The Parody Files website has uploaded a transcription of an alleged letter authored by H.P. Lovecraft to "Penthouse" Magazine. Never mind Lovecraft's well mannered, gentlemanly habits, nor the fact that "Penthouse" appeared decades after HPL's tragic demise. It's all in good fun, after all. Though the fun would be all the better if they had maintained the courage to go through with a full blown Lovecraft parody, rather than the shallow snippet provided. Nevertheless, the ridiculous paragraph does an ample job of mimicking Lovecraft's reserved persona and the notoriously lengthy, stilted prose observed at Cyclopean proportions in some of his prose.
The idea of Lovecraft hammering off a message to a gentleman's magazine is pretty hilarious in of itself. Never mind the disturbing and strange encounters that would prompt said letter, as this parody implies. You've got to feel bad for this sort of humor in a way, though, despite HPL being long dead. Were he alive, the old fellow would probably redden with ire or embarrassment at having his unknowable sexuality trotted out in circles of literary scrutiny and humor.
-Grim Blogger
Morgan Scorpion, a Lovecraftian and frequenter of Thomas Ligotti Online, has uploaded several readings of H.P. Lovecraft tales for all to enjoy. Her narration is pleasing enough, and fills a natural place in the world of Lovecraft. The Providence writer's works have been public domain for awhile now, and audio readings of his stories are not terribly common or free. Thanks to this post on the blog "Unfilmable," Ms. Scorpion has rectified the grievous scarcity of Lovecraft's fiction in spoken form.
Interesting, his classic tales take on a somewhat new edge when entering the mind through the ears instead of the eyes. The reader of his words is also giving a performance, albeit a subtle one, casting a whole new dimension of atmosphere and mood upon an otherwise internal literary process. Morgan's recordings to date include "The Festival," "The Hound," "Pickman's Model," "The Lurking Fear," and "Dreams in the Witch House." She has also pitched the idea of recording similar readings of Thomas Ligotti's stories, though it's unclear if this is possible given the question of copyrights and authorial consent that isn't a factor in Lovecraft's case. Visit the above linked Unfilmable site for links to download or stream these HPL recordings.
-Grim Blogger
Youtube's presently holding quite a nice lineup of M.R. James film adaptations. One of these is a handsome version of the classic story "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad." This ghost tale is widely considered one of M.R. James' finest efforts, and the movie version featured here with Michael Horden does the old Etonian scholar-writer justice. This movie, as well as other James adaptations, are probably well known to British visitors. However, seeing it may be a first for many American admirers of weird horror, as James is (regrettably) less familiar in the States.
-Grim Blogger
Late last week, D.F. Lewis unleashed upon the world the ninth volume of his longstanding Nemonymous series of anthologies: Cern Zoo. As the title implies, the inspiration and presentation of this anthology owes something to the international scientific organization CERN, responsible for activating the world's most powerful particle collider (the Large Hadron Collider) this past year. And, as with most D.F. Lewis literary ventures, it owes a lot to the weird as well.
Previous editions of Nemonymous have been well received in small press quarters of supernatural literature. It's most famous for keeping the identities of each short story's writer secret until months after publication. This is to remove any bias readers might express due to the traditional divide between "big name" and lesser known writers, allowing the weird tales to stand on their own merits. Even so, previous Nemonymous books have hosted some rising stars of weird fiction such as Jeff Vandermeer, Reggie Oliver, Mark Valentine, and Ekaterina Sedia, among others.
In the interests of full disclosure, I will not be reviewing this publication any time soon because I myself landed a piece of fiction in it. However, I can recommend picking up a copy from D.F. Lewis' website--not merely to read my story (if you can guess the Grim Blogger's identity and correctly match up his tale to the name)--but to enjoy some truly innovative weird yarns and to acquire a curious megazanthus assembled by a talented troupe of weirdmongers.
-Grim Blogger
A sign from the outer blackness surrounding idiot planets or just a signal that earthly pranksters are becoming more sophisticated? This ominous jellyfish like crop circle that recently adorned a British field is rather Lovecraftian. Somehow, the sleekness and oddity possessed by this thing almost calls for more Lovecraftian crop circles. These possess a cosmic air about them rarely seen in other strange phenomena, even if there aren't truly any aliens lurking behind their creation.
-Grim Blogger
If you're looking for copies of Reggie Oliver's first two short story collections, both of which were printed in extremely limited numbers and attracted strong praise, then you're going to have to pay a little more. Volumes of The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini and The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler do crop up online in sporadic appearances, and each time with seemingly heftier price tags. Now, there are two copies of Hitler Symphonies available via Bookfinder.com, and each retails for more than a piggy bank busting $750. This represents quite an inflationary explosion for Oliver's second short story collection, especially considering copies of this book sold for less than half their current price on Ebay throughout late 2008 and early 2009. Cardinal Vittorini previously hovered in this price range in recent history, though it has mostly vanished from recent online markets, and may command a truly towering cost when it materializes again.
One conclusion becomes clear from all this: the value of Reggie Oliver's highly regarded early works hasn't yet peaked, incredible as it may be. If anything, the appearance of his newer and considerably cheaper collections of ghostly stories--Masques of Satan and Madder Mysteries--have only whetted the appetite for Oliver's work while increasing his name recognition among connoisseurs of weird horror. It's also possible the rare copies of Oliver's first two books have fallen victim to a small, but crafty sect of book hustlers who are willing to hoard the books and then release them at double the price (or more) they were purchased for. Unfortunately, this would not be the first time select editions of weird fiction from rising writers have fallen victim to money mongers.
Fortunately, the rising demand for Reggie Oliver's writings and his brisk output of new strange tales suggests the pieces hidden in the almost mythic tomes of his early career will not remain occult forever. All signs from the writer in the last couple years point to an energetic community of Oliver lovers emerging in concert with new story collections. Moreover, widening world-of-mouth acclaim for Oliver's horrors means sales of his newer material ought to rise as well, making the latest two books as rare as their predecessors before two long. Luckily, this also raises the possibility of a Reggie Oliver omnibus one day, containing stories from The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini and The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler. Until then, aficionados of the modern weird will have only their dreams of a day when admission to Mr. Oliver's aged frights is easily affordable.
-Grim Blogger
Jerome's blog hosts schematics for two different H.P. Lovecraft inspired paper creations I previously missed posting. As with most other examples of Lovecraftian origami, both are Cthulhu representations. Now, however, everyone's favorite emissary of Azathoth comes in two colors: neon green and demonic red. The two models even include blocky cultists down in the lower right corners of each. It's about about time too. After all, what's a near-omniscient extraterrestrial without worshipers?
-Grim Blogger
This terribly scarce deluxe edition of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" caught my eye on Horrormall.com. Originally published by Bloodletting Books several years ago, it's one of the most luxurious Lovecraftian books bound in recent years--and perhaps the rarest containing "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" since the original limited edition publication of this story in Lovecraft's own lifetime. The 125 copy print run of this book includes several bonus features as well:
The total edition is 125 copies, 150 pp, small octavo (5 x 7.5 inches). The book features a fold-out map of Innsmouth, drawn from Lovecraft's detailed descriptions of the town. The text is set in Centaur and Arrighi, with Gill Shadow for display. The pages were printed letterpress, in two colors, from polymer plates at David Clifford's Black Stone Press in Vancouver, B.C.
This BATRACHIAN issue comprises 125 numbered (1 - 125) copies printed on Mohawk Superfine (an archival, acid-free paper), sewn & cased by hand in full black cloth with an image gold-stamped on the front board. This issue also features specially printed endpapers.
"R'lyeh" is a creepy short of French origin utilizing hyper-realistic digital animation to good effect. It's the story of an old fisherman who falls deep into his own dreams after discovering a mysterious trunk in the ocean. He also has a fateful encounter at the impressively depicted gates of sunken R'lyeh itself. The abode of dread Cthulhu has seldom looked better than in the tantalizing glimpse given of it in this video.
-Grim Blogger
Local news outlets in Anderson, South Carolina are musing over a possible specter picked up by surveillance cameras in their Municipal Business Center. While the ambiguous white shape moving amid the frames leaves as much uncertainty as most spectral media does, it raises an interesting and potentially frightening question. Why and how on earth would one's spirit get trapped meandering through a boring office for years upon years? Corporate horror indeed.
Simon Strantzas is not a very well known author of weird fiction right now, but that should soon be changing. Before the year is out, his second collection of short fiction entitled Cold to the Touch will hit the shelves and virtual book stands, bound by the skilled hands of Tartarus Press, providing aficionados of the weird the chance to examine his work. His first collection, Beneath the Surface, gained excellent reviews from fans of established "New Weird" leaders like Thomas Ligotti. Peers in the field of weird literature also responded favorably, as in this more notable review of his first collection by longtime spinner of strange strange stories, D.F. Lewis.
Despite reading a couple tales by Strantzas, I made the rare blunder of not buying Beneath the Surface before its limited print run was exhausted. As the years to come will likely prove, this was a serious mistake, but one I'll be making amends for by purchasing Stantzas' new collection as well as a copy of Beneath the Surface when it...surfaces.
His is a stark new voice in the black chambers of the weird underground that ought to make followers of Ligotti, Aickman, and Lovecraft bolt up and take notice. It's clear that Strantzas is a student of the rich atmosphere and the bizarre subtleties of the dark scribes mentioned. The author's insightful blog, featuring information about his own work as well as other weird artists, may be viewed here.
-Grim Blogger
An amusing anecdote from "Eight-Stone Press" talks of demons circling the graveyard vicinity of Edgar Allan Poe. What are these monsters? Tow trucks, apparently. It seems the ceaseless quest of the state for more revenue and pristine streets is unfazed by waking the dead in the nearby Baltimore cemetery, which includes a headstone to one of weird literature's masters. The Eight-Stone blog has this to say:
Around 3:55 p.m. every week day, the tow trucks begin circling the cars unwittingly parked in the "NO PARKING 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m." zone in the vicinity surrounding Poe's grave, in Westminster Burying Ground, on Baltimore's west side. Sometimes, when the clock strikes four, they'll follow behind the meter-maid, tag-teaming the sorry bastards and hauling them away two at a time until such time as their cash-only ransom is paid in full. My coworkers, accordingly, have dubbed them "Edgar Allan Tow."
Buzz has developed the last couple days about the potential for an animated biography of H.P. Lovecraft's life. The project is reportedly already in the works, under the guidance of Chris Landreth, an award winning animator. Details of the film are sketchy, and it apparently hasn't been green lighted yet by any major production studio. However, Landreth still gave some basic details:
If this animated feature can get off the ground, then it could prove very interesting for the world of Lovecraftiana. There's even a chance that an animated movie based on Lovecraft's life could appear relatively close to Guillermo del Toro's prospective "At the Mountains of Madness" movie. If so, then it would certainly be a double punch possibly constituting a breakthrough for Lovecraft in popular culture."It's a film called 'Lovecraft,' based on the writer H.P. Lovecraft," said Landreth, referring to the master horror fiction writer who died in 1937. "We're doing a fictionalized animated biography picture of him."
"We have a script and we are working towards seeing if we can make this work."
The "RPG Examiner" has an encapsulated history of H.P. Lovecraft's potent influence on the Role Playing Game industry. The article contends that his themes have been so powerful, in fact, that Lovecraft's works played a savior role in propping up the Role Playing Game. If this is the case--and it's easy to see a lot of truth to it--then the relationship between HPL and RPGs appears to be a mutually beneficial one. Lovecraftian horror has spawned a large and lucrative RPG line in the popular Call of Cthulhu RPG scenarios. Similarly, it's reasonable to assume exposure to Lovecraftian themes through gaming has opened up countless gamers to H.P. Lovecraft's writings, and perhaps the broader field of weird fiction.
For the record: I'm not really an RPG gamer, but I do find the phenomena very interesting when it's intermingled with the weird. Articles like the one from "RPG Examiner" should have wide appeal to all sorts of Lovecraftians. After all, this is a major component of H.P. Lovecraft's extra-literary existence today, particularly among younger readers.
-Grim Blogger
Another prime specimen of Cutethulhu Lovecraftiana recently materialized on Youtube. The clip below mixes a few selections from an old episode of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" with cartoon Cthulhus, anime, and Japanese pop music. It really brings to mind the Dance Dance Revolution video game so popular today. And yes, there is an added scene at the end if you play it all the way through.
-Grim Blogger
There's a great deal of strangeness in the lately resurrected Lituus. Its scientific resurrection after centuries of oblivion, the haunting sounds it produces, and the imaginative power of envisioning this long horn piping out its melodies in a Medieval cathedral or amongst the imperial throngs of the Caesars are all weird aspects. Though unlike most discoveries and historic resurrections with a somewhat macabre overtone, the return of the legendary Lituus is really quite remarkable and beautiful. Lovers of classic music will rejoice at the BBC link below, as the article contains a clip featuring the instrument in action.
That's not to say it has no darker applications. It's not difficult to imagine the trumpet-like shafts lining the strangest Boschian visions, or blaring in the background of Azathoth's cosmic idiot chorus.
Benjamin David Steele's intriguing blog once again mentions some interesting thoughts on Thomas Ligotti, this time by evaluating the impressions left on the author by William S. Burroughs in comparison with similar impressions made on Philip K. Dick. Steele delves into a thought provoking analysis concerning the sharply contrasting responses he sees in Ligotti and Dick to Burrough's literary power. The blogger's article almost makes one think of Burrough's surrealist prose as a sort of disease that's produced two very different immune responses in the minds of the speculative fiction writers in question.
While I think Steele's belief that Ligotti has reached a literary and philosophical "dead end" is disagreeable and premature--especially seeing as how Ligotti's The Conspiracy Against the Human Race isn't released yet, nor is it clear what further projects he may pursue after this publication--there is a good deal of careful observations to mentally digest in this brief post. It's even regrettable these points aren't explored further in a more serious form than an informal blog post. With some elaboration, this is the type of analysis that would do well online or in print to help revive the curiously stifled field of weird scholarship the past few years.
Insightful explorations of weird writers like Ligotti in connection with more "mainstream" literary sources (or semi-separated genres like the science fiction realm Philip K. Dick hails from) is also sorely needed. This would provide good grounds for plenty of new scholarship, and perhaps gain weird literature higher respect in academic circles. In the meantime, it appears we'll all have to content ourselves with occasional shards of wisdom pouring through the blogosphere like this post by Steele.
-Grim Blogger
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