Friday 20 August 2021

Time for Lovecraft

I mention it on this blog every year: today is the birthday of H.P. Lovecraft. Maybe THE most important horror writer of the last century. For me, his birthday marks one important date in the countdown to the countdown to Halloween. I try to read at least one of his stories before my favourite holiday, generally around his birthday. Lovecraft also wrote great horror to read during summertime, not sure why but this is how I feel reading it. This year, I am not sure if I will read one of his original stories, but I am currently reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff. Which I bought at £6.66.When I have finished this book, I will hopefully find time to watch the whole TV series adaptation, maybe even in time for Halloween. But I digress. One good thing about Lovecraft is that, in spite of his many flaws, among them his gross racism, antisemitism and homophobia, he nevertheless influenced a lot of writers, some of them capable of writing great horror based on the mythos he created.

1 comment:

Sue Bursztynski said...

I read that book last year. It was, despite the title, great fun! I loved the fact that the villain was more irritating to the other characters than menacing. Interesting that one of the(African American) characters who knew about the racism still loved his work, which he made good use of!

I haven’t seen the TV series yet, but from what I read about the show, it was a lot grimmer than the book. Let us know how it goes.