Lovecraft (was: Pynchon, the normal guy)

Thu Dec 12 11:56:55 UTC 2019

The second part of "Against the Day" starts with a - not so funny & much 
too long - parody of "At the Mountains of Madness", one of Lovecraft's 
best stories respectively novellas.

I have read only one text about Lovecraft but that one is excellent. 
It's by the French novelist Michel Houellebecq and I can recommend it 
wholeheartedly. Same for the essay on Schopenhauer he published in 2017 
(not translated into English yet).

+ Michel Houellebecq is the ultra-hip author of fashionably 
deconstructive modern French novels, so what interest would he have in a 
dead American writer consigned by many to the despised category of pulp? 
It turns out that Houellebecq is a big fan of American horror; among the 
writers he cites in this excellent short book are Richard Matheson and 
Robert Bloch, two disciples of Lovecraft. H.P. Lovecraft: Against the 
World, Against Life is a very satisfying read. Houellebecq escapes the 
jargon and theory of most modern literary criticism and simply delivers 
the goods: a passionate explication of Lovecraft's life and work which 
makes sense and gives you a new appreciation for the Bard of Unnameable 
Terror. Its fitting that Stephen King provides the introduction, because 
this book is very much in the spirit of his own landmark book Stephen 
King's Danse Macabre. Houellebecq asserts that Lovecraft's kindly, 
reclusive, poverty-stricken life was exemplary because it was integral 
to the vision of his work. That is, he wrote as a protest against life 
as we live it, the old human condition. Someone once said the negative, 
by contrast, suggests the other and Lovecraft's dark mythology is a 
satire of, and pessimistic comment on the mythologies we live by. 
Included in this volume are two of Lovecraft's more mind-blowing 
stories; The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer In Darkness. If the cult 
of Cthulhu was a twisted opposite of, and challenge to Christianity, 
then reading these stories makes you rethink exactly what it is you 
believe in and why. Lovecraft shouted No! to the seeming cruelty of the 
cosmos, and as King argues, gave space for attentive young readers to 
lick their wounds before engaging once again in the next battle of life. 
Houellebecq deals with Lovecraft's racism and Antisemitism, revealed in 
his letters published after his early death, by comparing him to 
Louis-Ferdinand Celine, the great French black comedy novelist who was 
also guilty of bigotry. Houellebecq demonstrates that fear was at the 
heart of their similar world views, not merely fascism,and that fear 
sharpened their work. Those who love life don't read books or see movies 
is a questionable statement by Houellebecq, but it contains a grain of 
truth. We read in part to take us out of this world and into alternative 
ones. Lovecraft is tremendously influential; the movie Alien is mostly 
an elaboration on his themes and method of attack. Houellebecq's little, 
readable book is a welcome addition to the small list of really 
enjoyable contemporary literary criticism. +

https://bryantxonu.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/h-p-lovecraft-against-the-world-against-life.pdf

Am 12.12.19 um 03:29 schrieb John Bailey:
> Lovecraft pioneered a vision of the universe which is full of unimaginably
> vast and terrible horrors that humanity is blind to. We're like ants
> blissfully ignorant of the true nature of things, which is total abject
> monstrosity. His protagonists get a glimpse of what's really out there and
> generally lose their minds completely.
> 'Lovecraftian' (also 'cosmic horror') tends to refer to a) work that
> similarly presents the secret reality of the universe as being total horror
> or b) TENTACLES TENTACLES EVERYWHERE
>
> On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 10:04 AM David Morris<fqmorris at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> Never read Lovecraft, but know about Chullu and hidden plans and such.  I
>> generally hate conspiracy fiction, unless it is very refined.  Even so, I
>> think it cheap.  So "Lovecraftian" fiction isn't a term I can easily try to
>> understand w/o prejudice.
>>
>> That said, care to elaborate?
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 4:44 PM Mark Thibodeau<jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> How is the Joshi?
>>>
>>> I've been following Joshi's career and reading his Black Wings of Cthulhu
>>> collections, representing the best of contemporary Lovecraftian short
>>> fiction (of multiple different types... and featuring some wonderful
>> stuff,
>>> as well as some mediocrities, unfortunately), and was thinking of picking
>>> up his more academically grounded work.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 9:36 AM rich<richard.romeo at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>>> i doubt I would even talk about his work if I ever got the chance to
>> meet
>>>> Mr Pynchon. Probably Godzilla or favorite beer.
>>>> He strikes me as a normal guy in that sense.
>>>> I mean he's not HP Lovecraft (finally reading Joshi's exhaustive
>>> biography
>>>> thereof.)
>>>>
>>>> rich
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 6:32 AM Mark Kohut<mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>>> I am conversationally friendly with a NYC writer online named
>>>>> Margo Howard. She wrote something about not showing up for the
>>>>> Nobel Prize and I did my bit---that is what the Swedish Academy most
>>>> fears
>>>>> as I've said here and why no Pynchon win, etc.
>>>>>
>>>>> She then riffed on TRP's reclusiveness, asking me about it, etc, esp
>>> with
>>>>> his wife, his agent, etc.
>>>>> Then she said that a young man who was her assistant on a recent book
>>> did
>>>>> get to meet Mr. Pynchon. Pronounced him "normal" to her.
>>>>>
>>>>> That's all I got, folks. And it ain't much, I know.
>>>>> --
>>>>> Pynchon-L:https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Pynchon-L:https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>>
>>> --
>>> Pynchon-L:https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>
>> --
>> Pynchon-L:https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
> --
> Pynchon-L:https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> .
>