H.P. Lovecraft
 

I've heard a lot of stuff about this guy. Or this story. I don't know if it's the author or the title of his novel(la).

In any event, there was a reference in the comic today (Was it today or yesterday? Must have been Tuesday.), and it is making me wonder whether I should look him up.

It's fantasy, right? There's not a lot of fantasy worth reading. Anybody got an opinion or information or anything of the sort?

Talk to me about this person/story.

H.P. Lovecraft wrote a bunch of horror/scifi short stories, and one novel. He is what Poe would have been had science fiction been a worthwhile endeavor in Poe's time.

I always thought that a version of Doctor Faustas in the Mythos would be interesting, but short. Kinda like this:

Faustas: *After saying that all worldly knowledge was boring* And thus, I summon Cthulu!
Cthulu: RAWR!
Faustas: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhh!

If the chance arises, read whatever of his works you can get your hands on. And if any religious nuts complain, you have my personal permission to spit on them and then ignore them.

Lovecraft basically wrote books where there are many sauron's but no gandalf, no ring, and no hope. He created a mythology of "elder gods," the most popular in modern culture being Cthulhu, the high priest of the elder gods. There was also Yog-Sothoth, the Eater of Souls, the original He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named (Azaerod, I think his real name was), Dagon, the father of the Deep, Hastur, and a bunch of other such entities. They exist in a universe coexistant to this one (except Cthulhu and Dagon, the former of which lives in an island and the latter at the bottom of the sea), and constantly are trying to enter into ours. Yog-Sothoth is powerful enough that he can alter reality in this universe from his own. Cthulhu sleeps, and is waiting for a mortal to wake him so he can open the gate between worlds and bring the Elder Gods once more to earth to teach their loyal followers new ways to inflict pain upon the rest of humanity. Not very nice people at all. Lovecraft's works were slightly more campy than poes, but he has a similar prose, and an equivolent method of causing your insides to squirm, and make you nervose of your own reflection.

And some of them have little or no relation to the Cthulhu Mythos which rock.

Like "The Colour Out of Space".
That story is about a meteor that hits a farm's land, and the strange-colour (which is basically an alien substance) infects living things and sucks the life out of it. The water becomes a funny colour, and cattle slowly disentegrate.

Well, H.P. Lovecraft was a man (his full name was Howard Phillips Lovecraft), not a story. He was a writer of "weird fiction". He wrote many strange and disturbing stories that blur the lines between science fiction and fantasy. Almost all of his writings would fit very nicely into the horror genre. If you want to find out more about Lovecraft, and his writings, I would suggest you go here:

http://www.hplovecraft.com/

The above link has everything you could ever want to know about the man and his creations, though it can be spoily.

If you want to read some of his writings, then go here:

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

If you want to know which story to read first, "The Call of Cthulhu" is a good place to start at. It is fairly short, and it introduces one of Lovecraft's most famous creations, Great Cthulhu.

If you like that, and you want to read more, all of his works can be found online. I would suggest buying an actual book, though, since it is more convenient, and doesn't violate so many copy write laws.

Anyway, I hope that I was helpful.

-AntiGnostic (Ia! Ia! R'lyeh! Cthulhu somethngh!...)

Penguin Classics makes a nice edition with all of his stories and annotations.

Also, there's a nice set of roleplaying games set in the Cthulu universe. I'd love to play them, but I've never found anyone to DM it.

I've got the full second edition boxed set from the early eighties. Yay me! But I find that I am not worthy of DMing it, because the evil that is the D20 system has atrophied my roleplaying skills. :(

Wasn't that the game where the biggest danger is becoming insane?

There's supposed to have a movie made from one of his stories, At the Mountains of Madness (my favourite), but I have doubts about the director.

I heard Guillermo del Toro was set to do it. Pro: The Devil's Backbone. Con: Blade II. I'm really conflicted.

yeah, and the only way to win is to not play. Really, I'd be interested in seeing it regardless.