My brother got me a copy of Alan Moore's Lovecraft inspired comic Providence.
So far there are journal entries, references to the King in Yellow, a handsome gay protagonist, a handsome possibly gay Irish police detective and a scary glowing skull-headed naked lady screaming HOO HOO HOOHOOHOO
I remember some Alan Moore-penned Lovecraft-styled thing making me really, super angry but I can't remember what it was called. Maybe it was Providence. I can't remember, surely he didn't write that many
Does Providence have a lot of super racist white people who love Lovecraft's work way too unreservedly
I was kinda ambivalent about Alan Moore and then I read Neonomicon and then I thought whelp, I guess I'm done reading Alan Moore forever.
IT WAS NEONOMICON
God damn I hated Neonomicon
Wyborn on
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Neonomicon is megagarbage, yeah
Overall the shine has come off the Alan Moore apple in a big way for me, and I often find myself questioning if I ever really actually liked any of his stuff, or if I just recognized that it was Good and Important because I had been told that it was Good and Important
yeah I always think of Lovecraft as more ...conceptually interesting, than an actually compelling writer. The best Lovecraft books are always lovecraft homages by better authors.
The ones who laundered out the racism, for example.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
I can apparently rent audibooks digitally from my library and they have a full cast Dune for rent.
The majority of libraries have digital audiobooks these days! Even the smaller libraries tend to be part of digital consortia that can build up more impressive collections than some pretty large library systems. You can usually download them over wifi straight to your phone, or listen to them in your browser on your computer.
Every time I go to my library I find some new thing you can borrow or use there. They have a professional grade die cutter that you can use to make some really neat stuff with. I've been asking them to get a 3D printer; they don't think there's enough demand for it but I haven't given up.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Yes! My eight years of building this account so I can astroturf for Big Library are finally paying off!
Yeah, Lovecraft absolutely is not for everyone. If you want to keep trying, my recommended stories would be as follows:
The Rats in the Walls
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Pickman's Model
The Hound
Herbert West: Re-Animator (note: this is the schlockiest pulp bullshit, but that's why I love it)
Okay, so I've started reading these in order
The Rats in the Walls was pretty good! It genuinely kind of got me!
Yeah, Lovecraft absolutely is not for everyone. If you want to keep trying, my recommended stories would be as follows:
The Rats in the Walls
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Pickman's Model
The Hound
Herbert West: Re-Animator (note: this is the schlockiest pulp bullshit, but that's why I love it)
Okay, so I've started reading these in order
The Rats in the Walls was pretty good! It genuinely kind of got me!
Yeah, it's definitely my favorite
Of course, it's kind of off the charts on the ol' racism meter, but that's mostly just that one unfortunately named cat
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
Yeah, Lovecraft absolutely is not for everyone. If you want to keep trying, my recommended stories would be as follows:
The Rats in the Walls
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Pickman's Model
The Hound
Herbert West: Re-Animator (note: this is the schlockiest pulp bullshit, but that's why I love it)
Okay, so I've started reading these in order
The Rats in the Walls was pretty good! It genuinely kind of got me!
Yeah, it's definitely my favorite
Of course, it's kind of off the charts on the ol' racism meter, but that's mostly just that one unfortunately named cat
Yeah the cat name felt like a bad joke about how racist Lovecraft was
As for the story, I think I got it?
The Rats never existed, it was just the narrator losing his mind because the house was built on cursed ground, or something?
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Yeah, Lovecraft absolutely is not for everyone. If you want to keep trying, my recommended stories would be as follows:
The Rats in the Walls
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Pickman's Model
The Hound
Herbert West: Re-Animator (note: this is the schlockiest pulp bullshit, but that's why I love it)
Okay, so I've started reading these in order
The Rats in the Walls was pretty good! It genuinely kind of got me!
Yeah, it's definitely my favorite
Of course, it's kind of off the charts on the ol' racism meter, but that's mostly just that one unfortunately named cat
Yeah the cat name felt like a bad joke about how racist Lovecraft was
As for the story, I think I got it?
The Rats never existed, it was just the narrator losing his mind because the house was built on cursed ground, or something?
Essentially, yeah.
The curse is more the fact that the de la Poer's were somewhere between very bad people and cultists who raised humans as sacrificial cattle. How much of that is actually true is arguable, but there are mentions of several mythos figures in the story, most significantly Nyarlathotep at the end.
It plays into a bunch of significant Lovecraft themes about blood purity and bloodlines. Delapore has impure blood, because of the family he comes from. You'll see some similar ideas in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, writ a bit more clearly. Obviously there's the hugely racist component to blood purity, and it was clearly something that troubled Lovecraft - the idea that his ancestors could be the sort of people who affect who he is.
If you wanted to take an extremely generous reading of it, you could actually argue that this is one of his least racist works, as the blood purity issue that plagues Delapore is cultists who were raising human beings for slaughter, or, in essence, slavers. At that point the name of the cat becomes more of an indication that maybe not everything is doing so hot with Delapore's racial stance from the beginning, especially as he doesn't see any issue with the cat name. But there's too much other crazy fucking racist Lovecraft stuff for that to actually be a valid interpretation - it's just a kind of crazy idea that gets thrown around.
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
It's dope but not intuitive. I am its king, PM me if you have any questions (and don't want to ask the many qualified professionals at your local library who could also help you).
Guys guys it's fine, he's a school librarian, I'm a public librarian, totally different things.
Now it if he were a public librarian then we would actually have to meet and touch weens and see who disappeared in a cloud of fire and smoke, that is true, but this isn't one of those times.
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
It is super awkward because most branch libraries have two or three actual librarians.
It depends on the size of the library. I work for a pretty small to midsize system and one of our branches has no actual librarian. Just a branch manager. Heck at our HQ branch the Director and I (Technology Librarian aka glorified IT guy who would love to get back to working with the collection and the public again) are the only certified Librarians.
Also I've worked with Overdrive a good bit too and would be glad to help if anyone needs.
And before you ask its jsut coincidince that there are 2 librarians on here with spork in their name. :biggrin:
Posts
but I shouldn't make it because I've read one book
I remember some Alan Moore-penned Lovecraft-styled thing making me really, super angry but I can't remember what it was called. Maybe it was Providence. I can't remember, surely he didn't write that many
Does Providence have a lot of super racist white people who love Lovecraft's work way too unreservedly
Edit:
IT WAS NEONOMICON
God damn I hated Neonomicon
Overall the shine has come off the Alan Moore apple in a big way for me, and I often find myself questioning if I ever really actually liked any of his stuff, or if I just recognized that it was Good and Important because I had been told that it was Good and Important
The ones who laundered out the racism, for example.
The majority of libraries have digital audiobooks these days! Even the smaller libraries tend to be part of digital consortia that can build up more impressive collections than some pretty large library systems. You can usually download them over wifi straight to your phone, or listen to them in your browser on your computer.
Visit your local library today!
Mine has the partly cloudy patriot the only Sarah Vowell book I haven't gotten yet. Imma start using this dang library card I guess!
There is a thing for local library funding up on the ballot this year.
I'm definitely voting to give them more funding.
I don't know what any of it meant! Or what any of the slang meant!
You'll learn.
or you'll erase your map trying
actually, don't tell me, I want to see if I can suss it out for myself
(this way lies madness, I know, but I have to try)
Okay, so I've started reading these in order
The Rats in the Walls was pretty good! It genuinely kind of got me!
Yeah, it's definitely my favorite
Of course, it's kind of off the charts on the ol' racism meter, but that's mostly just that one unfortunately named cat
Translations
"Eating cheese" aka "being a rat" aka snitching
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
I always pictured Kevin Corrigan.
yeah it's the role he was meant to play
You can come and astroturf my library immediately, getting them to cut the grass around here is kind of a pain.
Also everyone go to your library immediately, it's better than you realize!
maybe Abbadon's Gate comes close but wow, Nemesis Games was the peak of their writing and plotting so far, IMO
Yeah the cat name felt like a bad joke about how racist Lovecraft was
As for the story, I think I got it?
Essentially, yeah.
It plays into a bunch of significant Lovecraft themes about blood purity and bloodlines. Delapore has impure blood, because of the family he comes from. You'll see some similar ideas in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, writ a bit more clearly. Obviously there's the hugely racist component to blood purity, and it was clearly something that troubled Lovecraft - the idea that his ancestors could be the sort of people who affect who he is.
If you wanted to take an extremely generous reading of it, you could actually argue that this is one of his least racist works, as the blood purity issue that plagues Delapore is cultists who were raising human beings for slaughter, or, in essence, slavers. At that point the name of the cat becomes more of an indication that maybe not everything is doing so hot with Delapore's racial stance from the beginning, especially as he doesn't see any issue with the cat name. But there's too much other crazy fucking racist Lovecraft stuff for that to actually be a valid interpretation - it's just a kind of crazy idea that gets thrown around.
Huff huff. Did someone say libraries?!?!?
No
Oh... Okay...
My library uses something called overdrive to let folks borrow digital stuff.
It seems cool.
I gotta figure it out though.
Also librarian is a really cool job title btw
Just all the rad librarians.
Sorry, but much like in the Highlander, there can be only one
Now it if he were a public librarian then we would actually have to meet and touch weens and see who disappeared in a cloud of fire and smoke, that is true, but this isn't one of those times.
Also I've worked with Overdrive a good bit too and would be glad to help if anyone needs.
And before you ask its jsut coincidince that there are 2 librarians on here with spork in their name. :biggrin: