Blast Magazine: Losing at Lovecraft

Ray Huling of the "Blast Magazine Blog" has written a fairly extensive commentary on the board game Arkham Horror and his personal involvement with the author's fiction. Huling's article is an exemplary breakdown of Lovecraftian themes and symbols, especially in the context of the game he analyzes. Further, it's an observant foray into looking at a complex relationship long held between Lovecraft and games of all types: namely, how well Lovecraft's stories translate to gaming, or even whether they should translate that well. Huling also scratches the surface of feedback into the Lovecraftian genre through his literary transformation into gaming and back again.

Besides being a quality read on the immediate subject matter, I think it represents a good example of where Lovecraft scholarship has yet to tread. There are still towers of lines to be typed about how popular culture has affected Lovecraft the literary phenomena, but at least the foundation is being laid in insightful blog posts like Huling's contribution.

-Grim Blogger