Deep Time
December 19, 2011 4:21 PM   Subscribe

 
I read about Lovecraft's interest in science in Joshi's Lovecraft: A Life. (A reference in the Master's paper I presented just today!) HPL had a chemistry set, was an amateur astronomer, and read avidly in the sciences. And he printed his own science journal as a kid.

He had hopes of attending Brown University, but his family's decline in fortunes made that impossible to his despair. He had such a promising childhood, only to have so many of his dreams dashed. I like to think the fact we're all talking about him 70 years after his death would please him.
posted by JHarris at 4:57 PM on December 19, 2011 [1 favorite]


Where does he get these wonderful links?
posted by tumid dahlia at 5:01 PM on December 19, 2011 [2 favorites]


From dreams of cyclopedia cities beneath the ocean, next question.
posted by JHarris at 5:04 PM on December 19, 2011 [4 favorites]


He follows the same Twitter feeds that I do and then posts them before I get home from the bar.
posted by The Whelk at 5:05 PM on December 19, 2011 [8 favorites]


Cyclopean, dammit.
posted by JHarris at 5:05 PM on December 19, 2011


Yes but what about shoggoths?
posted by New England Cultist at 5:15 PM on December 19, 2011


What twitter feeds are those? Seriously, my nanowrimo project had Lovecraft as a character, and stuff like this is just what I'm looking for.
posted by gauche at 5:18 PM on December 19, 2011 [1 favorite]


It's the right time of year for The Carol of the Old Ones
posted by Monkeymoo at 5:42 PM on December 19, 2011 [2 favorites]


I like to think the fact we're all talking about him 70 years after his death would please him.

I daresay he is better known today, and will be better known for a very long time, than any of the people he might have graduated with had he "realized his dream."
posted by localroger at 6:07 PM on December 19, 2011 [2 favorites]


my nanowrimo project had Lovecraft as a character

Aiming high there. Very high. Or maybe low.
posted by localroger at 6:09 PM on December 19, 2011 [1 favorite]


Aiming high there. Very high. Or maybe low.

How long before someone mentions...
posted by New England Cultist at 6:35 PM on December 19, 2011


Houellebecq argued, fairly persuasively, that it was his failures in life that made Lovecraft's fiction so compelling. The nightmare cities, alien monstrosities and doom hanging over all human endeavor are the real world, described as experienced by old Howard.
posted by Grimgrin at 6:42 PM on December 19, 2011 [2 favorites]


Houellebecq argued, fairly persuasively, that it was his failures in life that made Lovecraft's fiction so compelling. The nightmare cities, alien monstrosities and doom hanging over all human endeavor are the real world, described as experienced by old Howard.

Not too sure I agree with that. If Lovecraft's fiction was found in a cave 12 000 years from now, without any knowledge of Lovecraft himself, I'm sure it would be compelling regardless.

As for Houellebecq in general (with regard to his conjectures on Lovecraft) - his "biography" on Lovecraft ranks pretty low on the list when it comes to any definitive account of HPL and his writing.
posted by New England Cultist at 10:21 PM on December 19, 2011


Didn't someone post a Cthulhu Mythos Christmas Carol youtube playlist recently?
posted by jeffburdges at 10:58 PM on December 19, 2011


How long before someone mentions...

Tcho-tcho...we don't do that here anymore.
posted by ryoshu at 12:28 AM on December 20, 2011 [1 favorite]


Cthulhu Mythos Christmas Carols youtube playlist. It found me!
posted by jeffburdges at 11:29 AM on December 20, 2011


"Not too sure I agree with that. If Lovecraft's fiction was found in a cave 12 000 years from now, without any knowledge of Lovecraft himself, I'm sure it would be compelling regardless."

I think what Gg meant is that the things in the fiction that make it compelling are due to HP's luck in life. Think on it; prevailing majority achiever humbled by forces greater than himself. Watch out, White America and Western Civilization (and indeed, all of humanity). Especially with AtMoM (as the article mentions), a central theme was the humbling of humanity. As HP was humbled, so should we remember to be humble. Our time is coming, when the stars are right.
posted by Eideteker at 1:22 PM on December 22, 2011


I'm getting a distinct Mountains of Madness in Space vibe from this.

"They went looking for our beginning. What they found could be our end."
posted by Artw at 1:24 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


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