Lovecraft Canon is a strange thing,

OT: Lovecraft-Universe derivative fiction by Gandalf the Beige on 2010-08-06 05:42:00 UTC Reply

http://www.elizabethbear.com/shoggoths.html

It really neat, kind of like Lovecraft without everyone going nuts in the face of the ancient mysteries. I found it in a thread about how the Authors extreme xenophobia and insularity influenced his characters.

Myself, I prefer to see it this way: we (and other species still stuck in their own star system) are the plankton of the ocean of Space. There are things that eat things like us... things that push us to the side without knowing we're there or caring... and (if we're lucky), there's something that takes a strange, almost autistic interest in little mites like us. We hope that it's friendly and then we nickname it God.

It ain't canon but it helps.

Hmm? by Eclectus on 2010-08-08 20:52:00 UTC Reply

I've only started on Lovecraft, but I rather like the inescapable OH MY GOD WTF IS THAT brain-breaking horror style.

...Basically, most horror is about something freaky, okay, yeah, but we can kill it. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, serial killers. Lovecraft horror very different: There are things out there that are much, much, MUCH bigger than we are. They can and will eat our souls for breakfast. Just learning of their existence is enough to drive logical, sane humans to madness and suicide--sometimes en masse. The only thing we can hope for is that these things never wake up, because they're sure never going to die, and our chances of survival if they ever do come back to take over the world are virtually nil. Anyone who does survive will do so entirely at the whim of these greater powers, who are stronger, older, and more terrifying than we could ever hope to comprehend.

That's what I like: it's not apocalyptic where a few people survive (The move 2012 is a prime example of this), and there's hope. It's also not removable-terror horror (Friday the 13th, Saw, every vampire horror novel since time began, etc.) where whatever it is is scary but defeatable. It's pre-apocalyptic horror with absolutely no hope whatsoever. There is no escape, and there is no hero to save the day; there is no way to hide until the horror ends. If these things come back, we. are. screwed.

Lovecraft is a smack upside the head to the human ego; one that's badly needed.

I see... by Gandalf the Beige on 2010-08-09 22:43:00 UTC Reply

I admit, I've... never actually read any of his work first-hand. I am familiar with a few concepts, a few Great old Ones for example. But also his description of Cathuria from "the White Ship" (1919)

But it does present an interesting quandry: the nature of the Human ego seems to far outstrip it's relative (non)importance in the greater cosmos... but why?

Is it a holdover from a time when it was a certainty that we were made in the image of paternal gods (who, if they do exist, probably spend their days in an asylum being fed the Blue Pills while they sit in the corner and stare at our dust-mote peice of the universe)? Or... in the face of our certain fate if we are on-world when Cthullhu awakens... do we merely decide to run while he still sleeps? To do what was unimaginable to a 1920s New Englander and flee to a place that might not have a giant, 13th dimensional squid-demon waiting to wake up. Sure, we may bump into something worse... but it's (like i said) something that helps.

But then again... trying to embrace the emptiness by going out there and doing things seems to beat merely staying put and awaiting destruction to a lot of people. Graffito-tagging the Universal wall with our little words instead of trying to read the runes of the greater beings.

I guess that's what I like: you'll never be able to beat these things, you're barely able to communicate with them without going nuts and, like I layed out, only their wierdoes actually take and interest in us... but it is still fascianting stuff (until the moment their multi-dimensional forms short out your vision centre, that is).

Embrace it accept it... and get out of their way.

I think I'll stick with the Elder Ones myself: a nice, homegrown pre-cambrian civilization of... things.

Lovecraft Canon is a strange thing, by Simon on 2010-08-06 09:52:00 UTC Reply

It's closer to a shared universe, similar to PPC. Various authors borrow and add bits as they will, sometimes it even works. I'm looking at you Lumley. Cthulhu's laser beam shooting brother indeed.

>> Lovecraft without everyone going nuts in the face of the ancient mysteries.

This is no Lovecraft story. Madness in the face of ancient horror is a core message of the Mythos.

Right, on to the story.

This man knows about Shoggoths. As does science in general I've read a lot of maddening fiction of the Mythos. But this one makes me mad in the more usual PPC way.