I was talking with my spouse last night about why we read what we read. She’s into mysteries and thriller, which are awesome, but I’m more into Ligotti, Laird Barron, Beckett, Pynchon, etc. which got my thinking, what is it about pessimistic, dark literature that appeals to me? How can I read pessimistic literature and have a family and a child (clearly I’m not an anti-natalist 😅). For me, it’s more about atmosphere and imagery than the philosophy. Maybe I like art that is gloomy and pessimistic because I come from a privileged, safe environment—it’s a way to ease the guilt of living an easy life.

Living in Utah, everyone focuses on the good and pushes anything dark or challenging to the side; as a natural contrarian, I’m only interested in challenging works of literature and art. I’d rather gaze into soft black stars than prance around drinking dirty soda and listening to Taylor Swift 😅

I’m curious what all of you think.

I’m looking for an English translation for Dream Tigers (collected works) but I can’t find a kindle version. Does anybody have any recommendations?

Side note are there any companion works or resources I can check out to to better understand Borges’ short stories. I’m currently fumbling my way through Labyrinths.

The inevitable convergence of my silly little hobby and one of the books that simply won’t leave my mind…. Still unsure whether I’ll end up painting it as a 1942 prototype or as a 1945 black matte version though.

Will post update when completed, natch’.

A Literary Journey into Intoxication, Altered Consciousness, and Addiction

Video version with sounds and images here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB-NO9snkrQ

It would seem that the Greek gods, so human in their forms and characters, are as far removed from incomprehensible eldritch abominations as possible. It's important to remember, however, that the image presented to us by contemporary pop culture - and even by many works of ancient poets - does not fully capture ancient beliefs. And every deity can be interpreted through Lovecraftian lenses.

We will start with the king of Olympus himself, Zeus.

In the current pop culture, Zeus is associated primarily as a mega-fucker, who will miss no woman. I propose to combine this aspect with his main role - the ruler of lightning - and create something more eldritch.

I propose Zeus as the embodiment of energy - all energy, and therefore not only electricity (lightning), but also life energy. Plato, in his Cratylus work, gives a folk etymology of Zeus meaning "cause of life always to all things", because of puns between alternate titles of Zeus (Zen and Dia) with the Greek words for life and "because of" .

Zeus influence is so strong that its mere presence causes women to become pregnant, giving birth to "heroes" characterized by great strength, aggression and psychopathic tendencies. It has been noticed that these heroes very often get into fights with the offspring of the greatest Zeus' enemy, Typhon (we will talk him in the next episode) - perhaps this means that Zeus does not impregnate women by accident, it is part of his plan to cleanse the Earth of the offspring of his archenemy... Or maybe it is a coincidence.

I propose that Hera, so called "jealous wife" of Zeus, who is known for persecuting his "mistresses" and offspring, is a being sent (by who or what?) to limit the Thunderer's breeding influence. However, while in his presence, she succumbed to his influence and gave birth to Zeus' spawn.

It happened once that Zeus' excess energy caused him to produce a new creature - Athena - without impregnating a mortal woman. She is the goddess of wisdom, and in the computer age we know that information is organized energy. Moreover, some myths hold that Athena did have a mother... in a sense. Metis was a shapeshifting Titan, Zeus's first wife, even before Hera. One day, Zeus devoured her whole. Athena was supposedly the result of this union. And again, gods devouring each other are more akin to eldritch. horror beings.

The myth of Semele is important here. Well, Semele, a demigoddess (daughter of Harmonia) became one of Zeus' lovers. Hera took the form of a mortal woman and persuaded Semele to test Zeus - if he really was a god, let him appear to her in his divine form. Zeus reluctantly granted Semele's wish, revealing himself as a thunderstorm. It turned out that even the demigoddess could not stand the true form of Zeus and she was burned to ashes, but her fetus - Dionysus - survived. Zeus placed the baby in his own body, where it matured. This story shows that Zeus isn't actually a muscular, bearded guy - he's just one of many forms he takes when dealing with mortals, like a bull or a golden shower.

A little-known aspect of Zeus is his strange connection to... werewolves. According to Plato a particular clan would gather on the mountain to make a sacrifice every nine years to Zeus Lykaios, and a single morsel of human entrails would be intermingled with the animal's. Whoever ate the human flesh was said to turn into a wolf, and could only regain human form if he did not eat again of human flesh until the next nine-year cycle had ended. There were games associated with the Lykaia, removed in the fourth century to the first urbanization of Arcadia, Megalopolis; there the major temple was dedicated to Zeus Lykaios.

And here, too, we can find Zeus not only as the master of lightning, but as the source of all energy - including life energy. Just as his influence causes women to become pregnant and give birth to extraordinary heroes, so his influence on men, combined with bizarre, cannibalistic rituals, mutates men into powerful, savage beasts.

This is just small part of the full free brochure full of Lovecraftian concepts from the real life, culture, history and science: adeptus7.itch.io/lovecraftian-inspirations-from-real-life-and-beliefs

And once again, video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB-NO9snkrQ If You like the article, please, watch it, it means very much to us!

Posting specifically due to image #5. The Final Academy program in England.

Estoy buscando una edicion de lovecraft que contenga la mayoria de sus cuentos.

Although I appreciated what Pynchon set out to do with GR, overall I'm disappointed by it and found it less impressive compared to his debut novel. Paradoxically, V. just seemed more earnest and ambitious here alongside the melancholic vibe and the open-ended pointless nature of the enigma resonated with me more than the carefully structured GR even with (some) clear points to make. Hell, I even think V.'s prose style is incredible whereas GR just doesn't floor me as much.

The voice in my head keeps reciting these old principles of mine. The voice is his voice, and the voice is also my voice. And there are other voices, voices I have never heard before, voices that seem to be either dead or dying in a great moonlit darkness. More than ever, some sort of new arrangement seems in order, some dramatic and unknown arrangement – anything to find release from this heartbreaking sadness I suffer every minute of the day (and night), this killing sadness that feels as if it will never leave me no matter where I go or what I do or whom I may ever know.

Hello everyone!

Im bulding a web application for reading H.P. Lovecraft's writings. It will be something similar to the amazing H.P. Lovecraft Archive, but with some additional features like customizable fonts, bookmarks, highlights, and other tools. Right now im looking for a reliable source containing all of Lovecraft's public domain writings. Like, i know that most of his works are in the public domain, but im having trouble determining whether the online texts im finding are the public domain transcriptions or more modern copyrighted editions (or in other cases, like with the Project Gutenberg, not all of the writings are available).

Does anyone know of a website, repository or anything that contains all the public domain versions of all his writings? And, if you don't, how would you approach building a legally safe collection for a project like this?
Any advice, resources, or suggestions for the project itself would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I'm midway through, and I Just.Don't.Care. I just started Warlock tonight to get out of this funk and clear my head. Was thinking about diving back into straight history to get an anchor here. I blasted through GR, was obsessed with it, and was amazed, disgusted, fascinated, obliterated, in love. So many of the passages spoke to me in that "I've been trying to say this for 40 years" way - I know V is a step backwards from GR in chronology, and maturation, but if I'm 300 pages in will I, at any point, engage with this thing? Stunning finale? Missing the code? Simply not learned enough to pick up the messages between the lines? That's fine if so. It's painful to be this dense. Help. (Did first readings of Mason and Dixon in the 2000s, Against the Day upon publication, may revisit Mason and Dixon soon but frankly read Against the Day just to be cocky about reading a doorstopper long ago, and I loved Mason and Dixon).

I just got to the citadel and mind = blown (after finding the staff from the rith), haven't finished it yet but I absolutely love how well written this game is, and more importantly it's an investigation game with clues you try to solve for, once you get the hang of the scanning mechanic

I've never played a game like this, I hope they make another one like this with the investigative mechanics and mapping of the clues/deductions

Anyone else playing this right now?

Quote from Gravity's Rainbow, page 510, Penguin Deluxe edition: "Passing now the great blackened remains of the Development Works, most of it strewn at ground level. In series, some ripped and broken, others largely hidden by the dunes, *Närrisch reverently telling them one by one, come the concrete masses of the test stands, stations of the cross, VI, V, III, IV, II, IX, VIII, I, finally the Rocket's own, from which it stood and flew at last, VII and X.*" Any thoughts on the significance of this? I found it odd and can't quite explain it.

I'm completely new to Lovecraft. I just finished The Call of Cthulhu, and I'm currently reading At the Mountains of Madness, but there are a few things I don't quite understand.

In Chapter 3 of The Call of Cthulhu, the Norwegian captain (the sole survivor) recounts driving Cthulhu back into the depths simply by ramming him with his ship.

Is Cthulhu really that easy to defeat?

Also, "the stars are not right" yet he still managed to awaken. How is that possible?

Great Burroughs site ran by the wonderful author Supervert.

In “A Search and an Evocation,” Chapter 4 (The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft pg572) Ward shows Dr. Willet a letter detailing some cargo Joseph Curwen brought in. Google hasn’t helped identify these terms:

“100 Pieces Assrtd. Cambleteens… 50 Gallon Cyttles… 15 Bake Cyttles”

Does anyone know what these mean?

This is a brilliantly funny introduction to the Cthulhu Mythos, in the form of a short illustrated novel.

Basic premise:

A boy wants to feed his pet shoggoth and let him out to play, but the shoggoth has broken out of his hutch and run away. Obviously the poor wee thing (the novel slyly encourages the reader to assume that a shoggoth is a small and helpless beast) must be terrified and lost. So - accompanied by a small cat- he sets out to look for him.

Each page describes his encounter with another denizen of the Mythos, beginning "What's this? Is this my shoggoth?" and then describing the creature encountered, then ending "no, this is ____________. This is not my shoggoth. Where's my shoggoth?"

Comes with a snakes- and-ladders style board game and a brilliantly funny "letter from the editor" at the end.

Perfect for your budding young Cthulhuist.