Thursday, October 11, 2012

Good Story 044: H.P. Lovecraft

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories by H.P. Lovecraft


During today's podcast, Julie takes a few moments to explore a hole Scott found next to an ancient stone marker in a graveyard. Despite all that microphone cable, Scott lost contact with her near the end of the podcast... but he's sure she's fine. Episode 44 is about H.P. Lovecraft. Happy October!

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6 comments:

  1. Another good discussion. I hadn't been aware of Lovecraft's extreme poverty until Jimmy Akin had done some posts on him since he is also a fan. Kind of the Vincent Van Gogh of Literature in regards to being well known after death.

    Last I heard Guillermo Del Toro doing the At the Mountain of Madness was a dead project and they had been seeking Tom Cruise. I would so love a good movie made of this novel that could catch the serious other-worldness of it. It has such an alien feel to it so convincing.

    Whether Cambell was inspired by it is an interesting question. There are certainly some elements in The Thing that remind you of Lovecraft with other that come from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"

    Now as to you two having a Dune episode I vote yes, yes, yes! I have read this series more than any other book. I have even read all the books by his son and another writer - while certainly not the same league have explored this universe quite worthily. Though the Catholic tie-in is that Herbert created the Bene Gesserit is based on the Jesuits and a pun on the name according to his son.

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  2. Great discussion of Lovecraft! Since you brought up the movie adaptation of The Mist (which was basically King doing a riff on Lovecraft)... the movie was made by Frank Darabont, who also made The Shawshank Redemption. I've always held the notion that you have to view the two movies as bookends, with Shawshank exploring the necessity of always having hope and The Mist exploring the consequences of abandoning it. It's the only way I view the last scene of The Mist without wanting to punch Darabont in the face :)

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  3. Julie, I was struck by the part where you mentioned the light in Colour as being like the opposite of the light of the Holy Spirit. I re read Dracula (actually listened to the Librivox) and I was struck by the opposition of the Dracula myth to the life of Christ.
    A similarity is that Dracula must be invited into your home, just as you must allow Christ into your life, but after that it is all negative.
    Jesus gives eternal life, Dracula gives eternal undead.
    Dracula cannot cross water (in human form), Jesus walked on water.
    Dracula sleeps (is basically trapped by) in his grave. Jesus rose from his grave and never returned to it.
    There are other things also, but I think that turning "good" ideas on their heads is a motif of good horror-that mirror image of a comforting concept is so frightening--I'll never forget my Mom wearing a witch's mask once and how I couldn't handle her voice coming out of that mask! Love this podcast and Forgotten Classics--Genesis was absolutely fantastic!
    Jeff

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  4. Jeff, those are some great thoughts on Dracula. Heather Ordover covered some of them in the discussions when she did Dracula at Craftlit, but I never thought about being trapped in the grave versus rising from it; not crossing water versus walking on water. Love it! :-)

    So glad that you are enjoying both podcasts! :-)

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  5. I read a bunch of Lovecraft after this. He kept making me think of Paul Harvey. My favorites were re-animator and the one about the monkey idol.

    And since Dracula was brought up - that is one of the best books ever (when I taught High School lit at Good Shepherd I thought it with Sence and Sensibility.) I had considered naming one of my daughters after a character in the book but Winona Rider killed that for me. Though I still had Bram on the short list if they had been boys.

    Any way- this is my take http://questionentertainment.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/503/

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