H.P. Lovecraft (I'm not loving him)

I know this may sound like blasphemy to most who enjoy horror fiction, but I've got to say it. I don't care that much for the work of H.P. Lovecraft.

During the course of some reading I was doing today on Wikipedia I came across some entries referring to Lovecraft and how his work is so revered by many horror fans. And I was thinking, "Am I the only one who isn't in to this guy?"

Mainly what I've read of Lovecraft is from compilations of his short stories, and some of them have been good; at least one darn near made my hair stand up when I got to the end. But most of the stuff is just this "He dreamed of creatures whose countenance was so unspeakable that of the untold eons it slept waiting for the chance to reenter the universe." How many different ways can you say how ugly something is?

Maybe I just don't have that strong of an imagination anymore, but this stuff just doesn't do it for me. Or am I looking at it all wrong?

I've never read him before. I was thinking about it, and I guess I'll still give him a try. One of my friends is darn near obsessed with him.

There is a handfull of his stuff that I think is great and probably just as much that I didn't like. I guess the core of his stuff regarding "the Old Ones" or strange ancient cosmic alien being The Call of Cthulhu wich I did enjoy. The Whisperer in Darkness seemed mostly average but was saved by a great ending. I also liked the Herber West stories. At The Mountains of Madness was kind o dry because it was written in the perspective of characters that were scientists but I enjoyed some parts of it.

I just vaguely remember Nyarlathotep. Just didn't get anything out of it. The Shadow Over Innsmouth was kind of okay I guess.

Sometimes it takes a while to get used to how he writes to. He seems to like inventing a lot of names of weird creatures and towns with the "th" sound in the name like Cthulhu, The Cats of Ulthar, The Doom That Came to Sarnath, or the Shogoths.

I never had the urge to read anything by him. Although I got a paperback collection a few years ago when club members at the university were giving away their books, I never did read it so I gave it to a church rummage sale last year to free up space on my book shelves for the titles that I do read.

Lovecraft is aquired taste, however, it's not so much how you read him, but how you think about what you read. Think Salvador Dali when you read him.

Lovecraft certainly had a way with words. Even if the stories didn't make any sense, I enjoyed his style of writing.

Anamnesis said:

Lovecraft certainly had a way with words. Even if the stories didn't make any sense, I enjoyed his style of writing.

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Good point, that's what I was trying to say. One shouldn't pay attention to the story, just how it's told. That's why so many horror authors love him.