The old gentleman from Providence

[Nesacat]

But I have no desire to run. After all these many years of gathering disciples for the Elder Gods, I'm reading for R'lyeh to rise from the waves. I would like to see that city with its angles that are not quite right and then there is the Wind Walker ...

Talking about Colour out of Space (one of my favourites), have you read Michael Shea's Colour Out Of Time?

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

But I have no desire to run. After all these many years of gathering disciples for the Elder Gods, I'm reading for R'lyeh to rise from the waves. I would like to see that city with its angles that are not quite right and then there is the Wind Walker ...

Talking about Colour out of Space (one of my favourites), have you read Michael Shea's Colour Out Of Time?

Speaking of non-Euclidean architecture rising up out of nowhere, if you wanted to see a preview of R'lyeh check out anything designed by architect Frank Gehry. (I've always suspected that Gehry was one of the annointed high priests of Dagon, preparing the way for the return of the Elder Gods. Watch out, we're onto you Frank! )

No, I haven't had the pleasure of reading the Shea volume, but now that you've piqued my curiousity I'm going to seek it out!

 

[Nesacat]

Have been looking at Frank Gehry's work and you are right Curt. He almost has to be an annointed high priest.

Shea's book is worth a read. He's managed to capture the same atmosphere and expand upon it. Actually makes the horror more frightening, if you can imagine that.

 

[kiwimac]

I really like Lovecraft. His "Mountains of Madness" is truly excellent. I also found the short story with the rats? in the walls truly scary (wish I could remember its name!)

Kiwimac

 

[Crisspin]

I really like Lovecraft. His "Mountains of Madness" is truly excellent. I also found the short story with the rats? in the walls truly scary (wish I could remember its name!)

Kiwimac

That would be The Rats in the Walls.

You also might be interested to know that the Showtime mini-series Masters of Horror contained an episode called Dreams in the the Witch House, which is a Lovecraft story.

 

[kiwimac]

Dang!

I should have guessed. Can you guess who feels a right twit now?

 

[Nesacat]

I've just been re-reading Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, and the very intriguing Captain Nemo aside, there's R'lyeh as well.

From the chapter where the Nautilus is over four leagues beneath the ocean:
"... those primordial rocks that have never seen the light of day; those massive blocks of granite, which form the powerful axis of the earth, lying in the lowest depths of the sea; those deep grottos, hollowed out among those rocky masses; as if painted by the brush of a great Flemish artist. Beyond, a landscape of mountains, an undulating line of shapes and shadows, sleek, black, polished heights, without a trace of moss, without a stain, moulded into a fantastiv vision and firmly resting on a carpet of sand..."

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

I've just been re-reading Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, and the very intriguing Captain Nemo aside, there's R'lyeh as well.

From the chapter where the Nautilus is over four leagues beneath the ocean:
"... those primordial rocks that have never seen the light of day; those massive blocks of granite, which form the powerful axis of the earth, lying in the lowest depths of the sea; those deep grottos, hollowed out among those rocky masses; as if painted by the brush of a great Flemish artist. Beyond, a landscape of mountains, an undulating line of shapes and shadows, sleek, black, polished heights, without a trace of moss, without a stain, moulded into a fantastiv vision and firmly resting on a carpet of sand..."

Now there's an ultra cool story idea: Captian Nemo versus the Deep Ones! Or perhaps just an aloof respect will do. Or maybe the good Captain and Mother Hydra have made an unholy alliance to obliterate all warfaring nations. Professor Arronax to the rescue! Where's James Mason or Herbert Lom or Gregory Peck when we need them the most?!

As Hollywood keeps rehashing the same trite, tired pablum and whining on about how there's no "fresh ideas", they completely overlook all the fine original material and new talent available to them. Typical.

 

[Nesacat]

Curt ... I suspect it would be along the lines of aloof respect though I could see a possible alliance to obliterate warmongerers. Nemo has an odd sense on morality, which may or may not fit in well with the Elder Gods. He went to the rescue of the whales but he also allowed his men to kill the penguins despite always speaking about man ravaging and plundering the earth. And while he has vowed to live apart from the world of men, he also comes to the aid of some.

I do miss Gregory Peck. Hollywood would take a good idea and turn it into run-of-the-mill tacky pap, unless someone else made a success out of it with a very low budget somewhere else. Then Hollywood's mimic masters could swing into action. It's almost better that they refrain from touching anything different and original.

On a totally different note, after several attempt to make by colleagues see that no-Euclidean architecture is so much more frightening than any horror that is clearly seen, I showed them Frank Gehry's work. I'm still failing to make anyone understand though I might have succeeded in further enhancing my oddness. Why is it so difficult to see?

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Curt ... I suspect it would be along the lines of aloof respect though I could see a possible alliance to obliterate warmongerers. Nemo has an odd sense on morality, which may or may not fit in well with the Elder Gods. He went to the rescue of the whales but he also allowed his men to kill the penguins despite always speaking about man ravaging and plundering the earth. And while he has vowed to live apart from the world of men, he also comes to the aid of some.

I do miss Gregory Peck. Hollywood would take a good idea and turn it into run-of-the-mill tacky pap, unless someone else made a success out of it with a very low budget somewhere else. Then Hollywood's mimic masters could swing into action. It's almost better that they refrain from touching anything different and original.

On a totally different note, after several attempt to make by colleagues see that no-Euclidean architecture is so much more frightening than any horror that is clearly seen, I showed them Frank Gehry's work. I'm still failing to make anyone understand though I might have succeeded in further enhancing my oddness. Why is it so difficult to see?

Yes, the good Captain's brain is a hive humming with tortured contradictions isn't it? A man dedicated to the end of warfare, the cessation of mass slaughter by . . . . killing more people. Brilliant man - scientifically speaking, but a trifle arbitrary on the ethical end of things for my tastes, thanks!

Peck was brilliant in everything he ever did, but for my money his assaying the role of Captain Ahab - Nemo's spiritual brother plowing the Seven Seas on a mission of madness and death - is an act of pure genius. By God, he is sorely missed!

Hollywood has literally sullied, squandered and corrupted 98% of everything it has ever laid it's greasy, clumsy, brutal talons on. And as a fillip, they seem to be incapable of learning from their past mistakes too. Hopefully the new digital technology will provide the tools necessary for our future visionaries to do an end run around Hollywood's creative constipation and Old Boy Country Club mentality.

Yup, I've been down that road too many times to count. Being able to see 10 things (each with possibilities to the 10th power) where some can only perceive nullity is intensely frustrating. And the damnable thing is that obtuse, glazed look - full of cold, dull hostility - they always give you when you say something clever, creative, whimsical or insightful, a look that, in essence, says: "You're defective. The fault lies in you, not in us, you freak. You ain't one of us, boy."

Know that you're not alone in seeing the mob for what it is, they're the "walking undead" being herded over the precipice by the Pied Pipers of pop culture, the pimps of dross. Just follow the tune in your own heart at all costs, stand aside from the wave marching past, sit back, pop some popcorn and enjoy the show . . . .

 

[Nesacat]

Moby Dick and Ahab ... that book along with Hemmingway's Old Man And The Sea are two of my favourites. Two very contrasting images of man versus nature. Nemo is quite something else altogether. Am going to re-read Moby Dick after I get back from the Centre Of The Earth.

I saw the 1956 version with Gregory Peck as Ahab and the 1998 one with Patrick Stewart as Ahab while Peck was Father Mapple. For me Gregory Peck will always be Atticus Finch. No one else is ever going to be able to even come close.

Herd mentality aside, you must admit that the mob is fascinating to watch and hardly anyone ever notices a watcher especially if she does not conform anyway.

Tell me what you think of Shea's book and you might wish to give Shadows Bend a try.

 

[GOLLUM]

Hey Curt, nice to see you back on the boards.

I'm enjoying the chat b/w yourself and Nesa, most interesting...

 

[Nesacat]

Meowrr GOLLUM, a pleasure as always. Now that both you and Curt are here you can ponder this one and tell me what you think.

All the years of reading Lovecraft and I've noticed something at least among those I know. They either love his work or they don't. I have not met any fence sitters. Those I know who are drawn to his work, go on to find other writings along the same lines.

I've always wondered about tainted blood or this call of the blood if you wish. If it is true that some of us have something that slumbers and wakes up in reponse to the right stimuli. You can feel it running through you veins and in the way you look at the world around you even. Perhaps it explains the 'oddness' that others perceive. Perhaps it's that different tune you hear.

As for my colleagues, they'll understand non-Euclidean architecture eventually and until then they can continue believing that I graduated from Miskatonic University's Law School.

 

[GOLLUM]

I got lazy but found an interesting article on this whole love/hate relationship people have with Lovecraft. Going on the title and opening comment looks like this person isn't much of a HPL fan or colud be playing Devil's advocate... Longish article, so I've not had time to read it through entirely.

http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2005/02/12/lovecraft/print.html

This article is sure to get some interesting reactions......

 

[williemeikle]

Check out Elder Signs Press... they're producing some great anthologies of Lovecraft-inspired stories by modern writers.... and for the aspiring writers among us, they're a great market.....



(I'll declare an interest...I've got a story in their latest one...)

Willie

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Hey Curt, nice to see you back on the boards.

I'm enjoying the chat b/w yourself and Nesa, most interesting...

Hey GOLLUM:

Great to be back! I've been incredibly lately and needed a vacation, soooo here I am.

 

[Nesacat]

By all the Elder Gods GOLLUM you're not allowed to be that lazy but thanks for the article nevertheless. I've skimmed through it and it's well written I'll admit and he's right about the thing which attracts some people to Lovecraft being the exact element which puts others off.

I'll read it properly later in the night when my ankle is being less recalcitrant and demanding of attention. Pain is a great distraction.

You needed a vacation Curt and you are here in the Chronicles ... there's something odd about that in all likelihood but then again I stay in here or the basement because it might be the sanest place around.

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Meowrr GOLLUM, a pleasure as always. Now that both you and Curt are here you can ponder this one and tell me what you think.

All the years of reading Lovecraft and I've noticed something at least among those I know. They either love his work or they don't. I have not met any fence sitters. Those I know who are drawn to his work, go on to find other writings along the same lines.

I've always wondered about tainted blood or this call of the blood if you wish. If it is true that some of us have something that slumbers and wakes up in reponse to the right stimuli. You can feel it running through you veins and in the way you look at the world around you even. Perhaps it explains the 'oddness' that others perceive. Perhaps it's that different tune you hear.

As for my colleagues, they'll understand non-Euclidean architecture eventually and until then they can continue believing that I graduated from Miskatonic University's Law School.

Hi Nesa:

Back again. Yup, I'm searching for Shea's book next weekend. Interesting that you should mention Shadow's Bend, the ultimate fanatsy encounter that never happened between old Two Gun Bob and Grandpa Theobald! I loved the idea more than the actual execution. Unfortunately, it just wasn't as satisfying as I expected it would be.

What you're speaking of is some kind of inherited latent aesthetic sensibility that's triggered by the right combination of stimuli, something that's hard-wired into the very circuitry of our personalities. Personally, I've always been extremely sensitive to music and atmospheric effects like the smell of ozone and the shifting barometric pressure before the onset of a storm, violent displays of lightning/thunder and fog/mist. Others have a special sensitivity to the world of scent, words, kinetic motion or the tactile universe.

Thanks for posting that link to Salon.com GOLLUM. I read that piece a while back, and although it was insightful in its own peculiar way, I couldn't help but to perceive that the author was just trying to be clever and superior to his subject by mocking HPL.

In my opinion, what's operating behind the divisiveness of HPL's work is little more than the difference between two opposing conceptual polarities: those who savour tradition, elegance and an aesthetic richness and those whose sensibilities are purely of the contemporary world, which is to say brutish, sterile and stripped barren of all rhetoric, eloquence and the grand gesture.

On another level altogether, there's a further unifying thread found between how HPL fans view the world . . . . which is - to put it mildly - best viewed through a glass darkly! (Hardcore optimists and pernicious Mouseketeers need not apply!)

Another aspect of this is a sense of religious awe placed solidly within a framework of nihlism, scientific materialism and cosmic objectivism. Naturally appealing to the more urbane reader, it allows us to "have our cake and eat it too" - that is, it allows us to indulge in our primitive need for a connection with the universe without offending our self image of being intellectual and sophisticated. That's why I think HPL will always remain hip and relevant to the discerning connoisseur and the discriminating cognoscenti.

 

[Nesacat]

Curt ... yes that is what I meant. That there is that which slumbers in the blood and psyches of some people and it awakens when offered the right stimuli. In my case it's storms, words, felines and some kinds of music. I'll discount touch because I have the worst eyesight and have always inclined towards touching and listening rather than just seeing.

The old Gent's works are rich and elegant. The prose belongs to a more whimsical many-faceted world where nothing is clearly defined with sharp lines and nothing hidden in the angles. As for looking through a glass darkly .... it's time the Mouseketeers paid a visit to the Mountains of Madness.