Other Writers Doing Lovecraftian Mythos stories

[w h pugmire esq]

And, for those who may not be aware of it at this point:

http://darkrenaissance.com/product/in-the-gulfs-of-dream-other-lovecraftian-tales

Ordered it the day I got the notice they were accepting them....

Many thanks, J. D. It's rather inconvenient that the book did not come out sooner, because Hippocampus will be releasing my next book next month or early August. I'm excited about the new book because it contains my revised/expanded Some Unknown Gulf of Night. David and I are now writing a wee novel set entirely in Lovecraft's dreamlands. It's weird, I thought maybe with advanced age I wou'd grow weary of writing in the Lovecraft tradition--and just the opposite is happening, I find myself more and more enchanted with producing this work. There is no end in sight.

 

[BAYLOR]

Mysteries of the Worm All The Cuthulhu Mythos Stories of Robert Bloch edited by Lin Carter and there was an afterword by Robert Bloch . I read this one about 30 years ago , read it on the train going to college,. It had some pretty good stories. There was mention of another book by Rober Bloch Strange Eons of which I've never seen a copy of the latter book. Has anyone read it ?

 

[j d worthington]

Mysteries of the Worm All The Cuthulhu Mythos Stories of Robert Bloch edited by Lin Carter and there was an afterword by Robert Bloch . I read this one about 30 years ago , read it on the train going to college,. It had some pretty good stories. There was mention of another book by Rober Bloch Strange Eons of which I've never seen a copy of the latter book. Has anyone read it ?

Mysteries of the Worm in its original form has since been superseded by the expanded Chaosium edition edited by Robert M. Price (which also contains some fascinating introductory notes, both general and specific to each story). Yes, there are some very good pieces in there; even with the earlier stories there is often something which makes them stand above so much of the slavishly imitative Lovecraftian works, and the later stories were often quite polished and finely crafted.

As for Strange Eons... yes, I have. I quite liked it. I don't think it's Bloch's best, but as an entertaining, and often effective, hommage to HPL, I recommend looking it up. Bloch takes different Lovecraft stories as launching points for updating the Mythos, as if these tales were only lightly fictionalized bits of real history of which these latter days see the culmination.

EDIT: Holy....!!!! I just looked it up on Amazon, and I had absolutely no idea this thing was commanding such prices! Eeee-ouch!

 

[j d worthington]

Many thanks, J. D. It's rather inconvenient that the book did not come out sooner, because Hippocampus will be releasing my next book next month or early August. I'm excited about the new book because it contains my revised/expanded Some Unknown Gulf of Night. David and I are now writing a wee novel set entirely in Lovecraft's dreamlands. It's weird, I thought maybe with advanced age I wou'd grow weary of writing in the Lovecraft tradition--and just the opposite is happening, I find myself more and more enchanted with producing this work. There is no end in sight.

You are more than welcome, Wilum. As you know, I find your own work in the field fascinating and unique, and consider you one of the most notable of a surprisingly good crop of writers working in the Lovecraftian tradition -- not slavishly, as earlier generations all too often did (though not always; I think immediately of Fritz Leiber, Ramsey Campbell, and James Wade, for instance), but taking what the Old Gent offered and using it to inform their work while adapting it to their own unique artistic vision.

Derleth wrote, in Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: "for certainly the Mythos as source of inspiration for new fiction is hardly likely to afford readers with enough that is new and sufficiently different in concept and execution to create a continuing and growing demand". This was simply because Derleth insisted on seeing the trimmings for the substance of Lovecraft's work (hence his endless reiterations of catalogues of Mythos names of books, places, and deities)* and thereby condemning it for several decades to an increasingly insular and incestuous blind alley such as had historically befallen the Gothic novel of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Once one sees past that to the core of what Lovecraft was doing, the Mythos actually becomes almost endlessly malleable and productive of new works, providing a broad spectrum rather than a single narrow ray.

*which makes me think of a couple of lines from Lovecraft's The Poe-et's Nightmare: "Such long-drawn lists the hasty reader skips, / Like Homer's well-known catalogue of ships" (ll. 47-48)

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

Ligotti,Campbell,in no particular order of importance

 

[Unmentionable]

Unholy Dimensions by Jeffrey Thomas is a good one.

 

[BAYLOR]

Mysteries of the Worm in its original form has since been superseded by the expanded Chaosium edition edited by Robert M. Price (which also contains some fascinating introductory notes, both general and specific to each story). Yes, there are some very good pieces in there; even with the earlier stories there is often something which makes them stand above so much of the slavishly imitative Lovecraftian works, and the later stories were often quite polished and finely crafted.

As for Strange Eons... yes, I have. I quite liked it. I don't think it's Bloch's best, but as an entertaining, and often effective, hommage to HPL, I recommend looking it up. Bloch takes different Lovecraft stories as launching points for updating the Mythos, as if these tales were only lightly fictionalized bits of real history of which these latter days see the culmination.

EDIT: Holy....!!!! I just looked it up on Amazon, and I had absolutely no idea this thing was commanding such prices! Eeee-ouch!

Do you think Strange Eons will come back into print with a new edition ?

 

[j d worthington]

Do you think Strange Eons will come back into print with a new edition ?

I honestly don't have a clue. I have no idea who owns the rights to Bloch's stuff, but I don't recall seeing any new editions of his work for quite a while now. If enough interest gets going, it's possible. But for the time being, I think I'd try to get a copy through the library or interlibrary loan services....

 

[w h pugmire esq]

Titan Books has asked S. T. to come up with ideas for potential books, and a new edition of Bloch's finest tales, including moft of his Mythos tales, wou'd be one possibility. I shall suggest it to him when he returns from holiday. I see, however, that Amazon has a number of copies for under $10.00.

 

[j d worthington]

Titan Books has asked S. T. to come up with ideas for potential books, and a new edition of Bloch's finest tales, including moft of his Mythos tales, wou'd be one possibility. I shall suggest it to him when he returns from holiday. I see, however, that Amazon has a number of copies for under $10.00.

That's odd. The lowest I see on Strange Eons is for $15.00, and it quickly goes up from there, to $50 and above. However, if you find a more reasonable price, Baylor, I strongly urge you to go for it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

[w h pugmire esq]

Ah--I was looking at MYSTERIES OF THE WORM. $15 for ye paperback edition of STRANGE EONS does not seem bad at all.

 

[BAYLOR]

Cold Print Ramsey Campbell

 

[j d worthington]

Cold Print Ramsey Campbell

Or, if you can land a copy, his first book, The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants. Definitely the work of a very young writer, yet there's substance there, as well as an original voice at work. Combining them (some stories in common, of course) gives one a fairly good look at Campbell's involvement with the Mythos from its beginnings to a much more recent period.

I've just received word that In the Gulfs of Dream (numbered & signed) is now in stock, so should be shipping soon. As a result, I pulled out my copy of The Revenant of Rebecca Pascal to refresh my memory, and am finding it as entrancing as originally. The atmosphere woven is that delightful blend of realism and dream so beloved of Lovecraft, and so much a part of Wilum's oeuvre, and the use of things from not only Lovecraft's own Mythos works, but reference to others (Campbell included, with the reference to Franklyn) works very well to enhance that effect. (I mean no disrespect to his partner on this one; it is simply that I am not that familiar with his work -- something I intend to rectify -- whereas I have read a fair proportion of Wilum's....)

 

[w h pugmire esq]

I've just order'd a new book that is scheduled to be publish'd next month by PS Publishing: THE DULWICH HORROR AND OTHERS, by British author David Hambling. "Inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft, this stylish new collection of adventure stories fizzes with wit and invention. They can be enjoyed separately, but read them in one sitting and the pieces fit horribly together into a larger and more terrible nightmare." That term "adventure stories" gave me pause--it made me think of Mythos pirate stories or some such thing. What clinched it for me is that, in the email newsletter I got this morning from PS Publishing, they quote the Introduction by S. T. Joshi--and he makes this book sound magnificent.

"A well-known journalist who has written for the Guardian the the Economist, Hambling has produced...some of the most distinctive and intellectually challenging neo-Lovecraftian stories in recent decades. In a sense, Hambling fuses the best elements of his British predecessors--Campbell's deep knowledge of Lovecraft, Lumley's thrilling narrative pace [!!!!!!!!!!!!], Wilson's philosophical depth. Along the way, Hambling makes more than a few tips of the hat to such other writers as Arthur Machen, Raymond Chandler, T. S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, Bertrand Russell, and a number of others." And at ye Intrduction's conclusion:
"These tales constitute David Hambling's initial foray into the realm of Lovecraftian fiction. The fertility of imagination, the crisp character delineations, and the smooth-flowing prose that we find in these seven tales leaves us wishing for more of the same, and Hambling will no doubt oblige in the coming years. For now, we can sit back and relish a brace of stories that not only evoke the shae of the dreamer from Providence, but which that dreamer himself would have enjoyed to the full."

Page count is 337, and ye beautiful eerie jacket art is by Ben Baldwin, and he is a superb artist.

But--my gawd S. T.--"Lumley's thrilling narrative pace"??? From you? Too absurd....

 

[j d worthington]

But--my gawd S. T.--"Lumley's thrilling narrative pace"??? From you? Too absurd....

Now that line did make me grin. Yes, this is a sentiment I would have never expected to see from S. T. J. -- I'd sooner have expected Harlan Ellison to sing the praises of Jacqueline Susann....*

At any rate: yes, this sounds very intriguing. I'm going to have to look this one up and see if I can get my hands on it.....

*which is not to say I haven't enjoyed some of Lumley's work, even to the point where I have a considerable fondness for certain pieces. But, given Joshi's long-standing comments on the subject....

 

[j d worthington]

Received my copy of In the Gulfs of Dream today -- now, that was almost frighteningly fast, given that I only got notice it was in stock about three days ago! At any rate... oh, this is a beautiful thing, Wilum! An exquisite piece just to look at, and I look forward to reading it over the next several days.....

 

[w h pugmire esq]

I got my copy yesterday and have shew'd it on a new YouTube video. The book is so handsomely made, and its Contents is a good mix, I think, with very short vignettes and super-long tales. The cool thing about collaboration is that your writing partner can lead you down those fictive paths you wou'd never traverse on your own. Lovecraft inspires different writers in different ways, which is one reason Cthulhu Mythos fiction will never grow old and die. There are always new ways to approach it. You can write something completely inspir'd by HPL himself, or you can follow Derleth's path, or Lumley's. Or you can work to try and create something absolutely your own. Because of ye approaching celebration of Lovecraft's 125th birthday, there are gobs of Cthulhu anthologies coming out this summer. I'll be interested to see if this trend continues in ye next few years.

 

[BAYLOR]

Anyone read the anthology The Acolytes of Cthulhu Short Stories Inspired by H P Lovecraft ?

 

[j d worthington]

Anyone read the anthology The Acolytes of Cthulhu Short Stories Inspired by H P Lovecraft ?

Yes, though it has been some years ago (about ten, if memory serves). I found most of the work there to be enjoyable; some more, some less so. But on the whole Robert M. Price's anthologies are entertaining, and often quite informative as well....

 

[Randy M.]

Can't top J.D.'s reply for thoroughness. My own favorites, when they write in Lovecraftian mode, would be Ligotti, Kiernan, Campbell, C. A. Smith. Poppy Z. Brite and Leiber.

Other writers interest me, like Laird Barron, whose "Old Virginia" is a terrific, powerful story, but reading him can be brutal. A couple of stories at a time is about all I can take before depression kicks in. What I've read of Fred Chappell's short work in homage to HPL, like "The Adder," is terrific, but I bogged down on his novel Dagon. I haven't gotten to Charles Stross' Laundry novels yet, but "A Colder War" is as powerful as what I've read by Barron. Lastly, The Bone Key and Other Stories by Sarah Monette is an attempt to fuse M. R. James and HPL. I think you could argue Fritz Leiber had done that to an extent already, but the Monette stories possess a kind of charm and awareness of both pulp tradition and the Jamesian ghost story that make them charming reading, if not always horror.

Anyway, what intrigues me about those writers is that they skip the superficial symptoms of Lovecraftian writings, like the lists of dieties/critters and the "Ia, Ia Laz Vegaz!" chants and get to the core of what HPL was aiming at, the opening up and peering into a different reality ruled by different laws of physics and of nature. And I really need to read more by all of them.


Randy M.