HP Lovecraft and His Work

[krakenten]

The film is very,very good.

[Una Persson]

And one of the few films that have a sequel that is as good as, if not even better. Pity they didn't make a third one like was planned.

[krakenten]

Imagine Hellboy without CGI?

The rich texture of the film, the acting and a very good script combined to produce a wonderful film.

But without the complex CGI it would have fallen flat.

[Octo Seven]

I watched Whisperer last night. Brilliant! Bravo to those guys.

[Jack Of Shadows]

I watched Whisperer last night. Brilliant! Bravo to those guys.

Check out their other masterpiece The Call Of Cthulhu if you haven't yet. It's equally amazing!

[krakenten]

Both Whisperer in Darkness and Call of Cthulhu are great films, and very true to the time period they are set in, attention to detail and production values are first-class.

The changes to Whisperer really enhance the story, the creatures are plenty scary-seen on late night TV it might easily be mistaken for a Universal monster flick.

I hope they do another one!

[Whistler]

I saw it, and thought it an amazing rendition of The Call of Cthulhu, in that silent, 1920's style of film. They did an incredible job, given their budget. Those guys need a grant!

[krakenten]

I see(today) that the dark spot on Pluto may be officially named Cthulhu, instead of 'the whale'.

Lovecraft was an astronomy buff, I'm sure this would please him greatly.

I'm kinda tickled myself. I've always suspected that the fictional planet Yuggoth was Pluto, then newly discovered.

[SeeDoubleYou]

Still assailing my complete works and just finished The Quest of Iranon.

The one with the guy who is immortally young and longs to sing songs for people who would hear them of a place he was once prince of, Aira, but that it turns out he merely imagined the place as a kid but it is what kept him young and, when this is revealed to him, he grows old and wanders into quicksand.

Torturously beautiful tragic romance.

[SeeDoubleYou]

I get the feeling Howie suffered from what Taoists say about Buddhists and purport to having to heal them of.
That, in a kinda take-no-prisoners pursuit of enlightenment, they end up breaking their bodies and etheric architecture. So, in the best case scenario, they get enlightened, but it's like a racecar reduced to the speed and power of a go-kart. Worse case, I imagine, is a cardboard box crayoned to look like a racecar, where, said cardboard box, used to be a human body (or at least a go-kart;-).
Yes sir-ee Bob, Howie done broke he self.

[Octo Seven]

I hope you guts are reading Providence because it's pretty fuckin sweet.

[SeeDoubleYou]

I'm a bashful comic book fella (never really get around to the stuff), but I can't help but always feel like I'm reading Howie through Alan's eyes.
Reading the Battle That Ended the Century, I was amazed at how much it was like Mike's End of Time stuff (true HP coauthored it, but, wow!); really hilarious.
And the multi-penned Challenge from Beyond was a real eye opener; REH proved and proves as the ultimate antidote to HPL and his miasma; no wonder Mike avoids Howie like the plague and is such a fan of Bobby, the juxtaposition is so obvious and beautiful in this story.
Yet, haven't you guys said that REH and HPL were good friends and pen pals?
To me, after reading the Challenge, that just seems like an instance of keep your friends close but your enemies closer and dueling-machismo, a fascination with increasing power and fame; I can't think of anybody more anathema to HPL than REH, also likewise, considering that Bobby proved such a potent deflater of Howie's delusions.
The metaphysical conspiracy theorist in me puts down REH's suicide and HPL's cancer to this rivalry; HPL the cause for REH's suicide due to the latter taking away the former's eldritch-bottle, and vice versa, as revenge.

[SeeDoubleYou]

Been watching the El Rey Network (the tv channel created by director Robert Rodriguez) and I'd love to see them do some original-programming of HPL's stuff; HPL Theatre, with miniseries and one-offs of Howie's shorter short-stories. And maybe they'd have the good-sense of being unafraid of doing multiple, consecutive interpretations of the same work or story. Also using said-theatre/show as a jumping off point for likewise presentations of works by his fellows, like REH. Conan miniseries, anyone? and, similarly, with lots of different actors playing Conan in different stories.
...(sigh); to dare to dream...

[Octo Seven]

REH had a huge amount of respect for HPL and seemed to view him as a kind of mentor and a big inspiration even though REH was in many ways a superior writer. I think the romance of HPL's archaic language coupled with his undeniably wild imagination really impressed his peers.

[SeeDoubleYou]

REH had a huge amount of respect for HPL and seemed to view him as a kind of mentor and a big inspiration even though REH was in many ways a superior writer. I think the romance of HPL's archaic language coupled with his undeniably wild imagination really impressed his peers.

I agree...I also believe that they would have naturally considered Howie a blowhard.
I can imagine a kind of cunning, too, that made REH look up to HPL not out of any, as you said, superiority in writing but by sheer-ego alone on Phil's part.

It's not unnatural, and very often quite natural, to consider someone exceptional and talented at something and yet still an asshole.
To me, REH saw this and, in order to garner that air of impressiveness, Howie preyed upon it and engendered this mentor relationship.

I think Howie/Phil wielded great power for which he paid a great price (i.e. the broken-Buddha) and did a great deal to create this aforementioned air of impressiveness. When one wields that kind of suggestive power it's pretty easy to convince someone like REH that they should look up to them if only because they represent a threat to them.
But, this is again with my metaphysical conspiracy theorist hat on.

With that hat still on, I think HP's not as good as he's cracked up to be if only because of his ego.
As his being starts to temper that ego, in whatever incarnation he is currently inhabiting, I think we'll begin to see his career become more mainstream as Alan aspires for.
I think HP, wherever he may be, is still obsessed with fucking with people/beings. To me, a truly successful artist is greater parts benevolently touching rather than molesting and assaulting. Artists' careers that become truly successful, I'd venture, posthumously, probably coincide with a spiritual-development of their being wherever they may be.
It's not like we suddenly realize a previous lack of worth, it's that they (in real time) become worthwhile.
In this vein, Van Gogh was probably an intolerable asshole, no doubt, but he made some kind of progress as a person in his death and beingship beyond this world that affected his art's worth.
...now, with that hat off, this all sounds like bullshit.