Any tips for getting into H.P Lovecraft?
I struggle with his looonggg sentences sometimes. Usually when there is a descriptive word I don’t know, then I have to stop and google it.
I really love his worldbuilding, but his writing style is a little tricky. I love reading, but primarily Manga. So I am a little rough on actually reading words again. But I want to get back into it.
Lovecraft is just interesting.
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Lovecraft is a throw back to old style sci-fi and horror. Lots of dark, lots of threats to the soul, very little actual gore or scares (that come up usually right at the end of the stories). Implied terror that helps increase the tension. But he can be wordy and he does get into some vocabulary exercises. I think you have to plow ahead and keep a dictionary close by.
Oh, good question. Start reading some of the smaller stories like “The Outsider” “Pickman’s Model” then “From Beyond” and then progress to tales like “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” “The Doom That Came to Sarnath” and “The Dreams in the Witch House” By then, you start to see the interconnected lore and the hook will be properly set.
I love Lovecraftian horror but I find Lovecraft himself a bit offputting. I mostly connect with the genre through graphic novels and other writers who take the ideas and run with them. However, the genre is one of my favorite kinds of horror. As @seawulf575 said, no gore but lots of implied terror. But if you really want to explore, I suggest a podcast called The Drabblecast where he does a lot of Lovecraft. It’s fabulous.
If you have got out of the reading habit you will find H P Lovecraft a bit daunting. You could start with one of his short stories, such as “Polaris” and read it twice, the first time to familiarise yourself with the vocabulary the second time to linger in the strange world of Lovecraft’s imagination.
Settle into a quiet space. Take you time. It is like learning a new language.
I also love his style.
Some good suggestions above, but I wouldn’t put “Pickman’s Model” in the first tier. I see it as one of a kind and would suggest that you save it—and savor it—when you know Lovecraft a little better.
I love his erudite vocabulary. I don’t know of any other author who can touch him for that, although Michael Chabon does make me look up some words. One word you’ll find in a Lovecraft story more often than not is blasphemous.
A paperback anthology would be as good a place to start as any.
I started reading Lovecraft at about age 13, probably as an extension of my love of Poe. A few years ago I got, cheap or maybe free, his complete works for Kindle. Started at the beginning and just kept going. Some of the stories could have been left in the drafts pile and not been missed, but I read ‘em anyway.
One word of warning: Lovecraft harbored some extremely fierce prejudices and exposed them in his fiction. Modern generations are apt to feel compelled to look away when they show up; they are hard to read. But I would not abandon his works because of that. I’d just be prepared.
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