NP but Ursula Le Guin on the Unreadable HP Lovecraft.

[Mark Thibodeau]

Yes I did. And I enjoyed it for the fun horror flick it was meant to be.

However, for a more serious-minded treatment of the tale and themes, I
would recommend the 2010 adaptation from Germany, "Die Farbe", instead.

Jerky


On Tue, Jun 7, 2022 at 11:37 AM Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:

> Did you see the recent(ish) film adaptation?
>
> On Tuesday, June 7, 2022, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I can't believe I'm about to wade into this, but here goes...
>>
>> Lovecraft's writing? I'm a fan. I'm also a fan of Herman Melville,
>> Tolstoy,
>> Kafka, James Joyce, Dos Passos, William Burroughs, Bowles, Maugham, TS
>> Eliot, Ezra Pound, Beckett, Nabokov, Borges, Marquez, Ballard, Phillip K.
>> Dick, William Gass, Cormac McCarthy, Lee & Kirby, Alice Munro, Ramsey
>> Campbell, Don Delillo, Alan Moore, Houellebecq, George Saunders, Otessa
>> Mossfegh, and (of course) Thomas Pynchon, not to mention so many more that
>> I'm leaving out, either due to brain fog or time/space constraints.
>>
>> Because, you see, old HP was quite capable of producing lovely prose. See
>> "The Colour Out of Space" for probably his most superbly "literary"
>> creation... the opening paragraphs alone being magnificently evocative of
>> ancient and autumnal New England that one feels transported to the forests
>> primeval of Wordsworth's paradisiacal Acadia in "Evangeline". He was also
>> adept at evoking some truly effective moments of otherworldly fright. On
>> more than one occasion, his words have "got" me.
>>
>> Just as a for instance, read the LeGuinn "critique", then read the first
>> three paragraphs of Colour:
>>
>> ...
>>
>> West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods
>> that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees
>> slope
>> fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught
>> the glint of sunlight. On the gentler slopes there are farms, ancient and
>> rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old New
>> England secrets in the lee of great ledges; but these are all vacant now,
>> the wide chimneys crumbling and the shingled sides bulging perilously
>> beneath low gambrel roofs.
>> The old folk have gone away, and foreigners do not like to live there.
>> French-Canadians have tried it, Italians have tried it, and the Poles have
>> come and departed. It is not because of anything that can be seen or heard
>> or handled, but because of something that is imagined. The place is not
>> good for the imagination, and does not bring restful dreams at night. It
>> must be this which keeps the foreigners away, for old Ammi Pierce has
>> never
>> told them of anything he recalls from the strange days. Ammi, whose head
>> has been a little queer for years, is the only one who still remains, or
>> who ever talks of the strange days; and he dares to do this because his
>> house is so near the open fields and the travelled roads around Arkham.
>> There was once a road over the hills and through the valleys, that ran
>> straight where the blasted heath is now; but people ceased to use it and a
>> new road was laid curving far toward the south. Traces of the old one can
>> still be found amidst the weeds of a returning wilderness, and some of
>> them
>> will doubtless linger even when half the hollows are flooded for the new
>> reservoir. Then the dark woods will be cut down and the blasted heath will
>> slumber far below blue waters whose surface will mirror the sky and ripple
>> in the sun. And the secrets of the strange days will be one with the
>> deep’s
>> secrets; one with the hidden lore of old ocean, and all the mystery of
>> primal earth.
>>
>> ...
>>
>> Be honest now... Is that really the WORST writing you've ever read? Does
>> it
>> not draw you in, just the teensiest bit?
>>
>> Cheers!
>> yer old pal Jerky
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 7, 2022 at 8:44 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Obviously you must know you are asking us all to jump into a bottomless
>> > rabbit hole.
>> >
>> > Is “See Dick run!” good writing?
>> >
>> > David Morris
>> >
>> > On Tue, Jun 7, 2022 at 7:41 AM Darah Kehnemuyi via Pynchon-l <
>> > pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > >  I find this interesting. And so I'd like to ask, with a language as
>> > > malleable and fluid as English, and putting aside outright illiteracy,
>> > what
>> > > constitutes "good writing"?   Do you know it when you see it ?  Do
>> your
>> > > expectations bias your opinions?Aye, Twas brillig and the slithey
>> toves
>> > > ...                  D.
>> > >     On Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 05:54:34 AM EDT, Mark Kohut <
>> > > mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159779989456465&set=a.10150369514816465
>> > > --
>> > > 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
>>
>