HP Lovecraft and Tales of Unspeakble Horror

I love to read and, here and there, I will mention books and authors who are great entertainment. Recently, I went through a spell where I kept reading the great stories of HP Lovecraft. Lovecraft wrote great horror tales, bone chilling, if occasionally a wee but gross.

Was he a great writer? No, but the stories are wonderful and, in his own way, he was the perfect writer for them. He wrote an old fashioned, elaborate prose, given to emotion and over description. Nothing was ever horrible; it was 'unspeakably horrible'. No one was ever terrified; they were 'on the brink of madness.'

Lovecraft created his own Universe, filled with the Elder Gods and the Old Ones. those who had ruled the Earth before man and who were worshipped by various cults who practiced 'dreadful rites' in hopes of rousing the great Cthulhu and other monstrosities who would reward them by teaching them new, horrific ways to live.

HP was a Rhode Island native and comfortable in the grand days of  old America and even older Europe. He loathed modern life and this loathing colored his writings. He was a might racist and showed it in his stories and also felt unease with the remote people of the American countryside, who he always portrayed as simple and degenerate. He was not a fun guy.

But, he could spin a yarn. Still I am surprised at how many take his nonsense seriously. Today, on many a web site, you will find fairly serious writers who believe he was onto some vast occult secrets. Nonsense. Like many a scholarly fellow of his day, he no doubt knew mythology and had at least been exposed to the trend of that day, Theosophy. He took that bit of knowledge and ran with it. I believe that at least in part, his tales were a tongue-in-cheek poke at the foolishness of the day.

Without HP, there would be no modern horror, Steven King, Peter Straub and the lot. He not only wrote, he encouraged his fellow writers to take his ideas and expand on them. If nothing else, read The Dunwich Horror and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. They are fine tales of suspense and terror. My Favorite is A Door Beyond Sleep, an odd tale. It  starts as a horror story  then, part way through, morphs into a swet and beautiful story of glory and heroism. This story is beautifully written and makes me wonder what Lovecraft could have done with more conventional stories. All in all, Lovecraft's tales are a fine way to spend a few hours on a rainy afternoon.