Why I like H P Lovecraft
I imagine my introduction to H P Lovecraft's work was similar to that of most people. I found "The Haunter in the Dark" in a collection of short horror stories. It stood out as one of the best and in searching other anthologies for more of the same I tripped over "The Thing on the Doorstep" and encountered "The Rats in the Walls". By then I was hooked and had to have all three of his anthologies.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft is one writer to whom I often return. I really like the idea of ancient towns such as Arkham being in such a modern nation as the USA and Miskatonic University is so obviously full of reading matter that ought to have been burnt due to insane and unworldly messages it contains that I want a reader's ticket.
He's a master at discreetly building tension. Some of his throw away lines are just dreadful - quite literally full of dread. His writing style is so fevered as to be quite over the top but it works beautifully and I find the ideas behind his cult of Cthulhu and geometry from beyond the stars quite awe inspiring.
I was talking to an old mate of mine, who I don't see very often, and was surprised and pleased to discover that Simon was an HP Lovecraft fan as well. We immediately began to quote story titles and tracts of text, mentioning the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred and the "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Simon reckons that HP Lovecraft was a Nazi I was disappointed to hear this theory because I admire his writing but now that I think about it I can spot an undercurrent of racism. The theme of moral and physical degradation is a recurring one in his work but, in my naivete, it never struck me as racist. It was more a device that enhanced the terror that I enjoyed. I didn't like the idea of a black cat called Niggerman and put this down as part of the age in which HP Lovecraft lived. After enthusing about his writing with Si, I revisited HP Lovecraft's stories and it is now easy to see the white supremacist tendencies that he had, perhaps because I had been looking for them, but I'm happy to say that it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of HP Lovecraft stories.
For me, the horrors he describes are not racially motivated. Maybe I am not very racially aware, despite my surname being Blackman. I think HP Lovecraft is more in the classical tradition. His monsters are hybrids, half man half something else, and all the more horrible because the something else is not of this world.
About a year ago, some neighbours of mine got married and at the reception for Sarah and Paul, Sarah said I would meet another of their friends who was a great reader and who was a particular fan of HP Lovecraft and the cult of Cthulhu. As it turned out, I dance the night away with various ladies (it was a good night!) and didn't meet this chap to talk to. But the idea of meeting a complete stranger and establishing a common enthusiasm always fascinates me, whatever the common interest. It often happens to me with cars and motorbikes and music but very rarely with books. I suppose you could infiltrate a circle of women talking of the party and say how much you enjoyed Jane Austen but this has never happened to. Nor is it likely to. This "almost" occurrence was the nearest literary occurrence to date.
It seems incredible to me that HP Lovecraft was a complete unknown during his lifetime. I can only assume that it is the sheer quality of his work that has enabled it to take on a life of its own after his death. Sporting HP Lovecraft references is almost 21st century parlour game. He's influenced Metallica, the script writers of Doctor Who, fantasy writer Neil Gaiman (who as far as I know is straight) and even had a psychedelic rock band named after him.
HP Lovecraft used simple words and made them deliciously terrible.
And with initials like that he probably had some unconscious influence on me when I came up with the idea of the HP Whisperer.
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