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Blogging With HPL: A Series

This series of articles is intended to be a personal log for my annotations and related study, as I read chronologically through the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Text for these read-throughs can be found at the following link (although I will likely quote and reference other sources where appropriate): H.P. Lovecraft Archive

General guidelines:

• I am not, nor do I claim to be, an expert or an academic. This writing is first and foremost to organize my own thought.
• Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this website does not necessarily endorse a belief in any of H.P. Lovecraft's views, ideas, or thought.
• I will not be a stringent completionist here; letters, as well as most juvenilia and poetry, are not considered to be part of the 'complete works' for my purposes. For my rapidly eroding sanity, I am sticking to fiction. I am using as my guideline the H.P. Lovecraft Archive's chronological listing of his fiction, linked above. For those who may prefer a book to read, I'd recommend Barnes and Noble's edition of H.P. Lovecraft's Complete Fiction, available here.
• I want to do my best to make everything on this site free and accessible, so I will find and post free links to reading where I can.
• This site is conducted in the spirit of Lovecraft's ceaseless curiosity and literary dedication, and an essential part of that is correspondence. My contact information is coming soon; if you have commentary on what I read and say, suggestions for the site, or if you just want to say hello, please let me know!

Goals for this series:

• "Cosmic horror" is a term fraught with debate on its proper definition, use, and boundaries. I hope to come to a systematic definition of the phrase through close examination of Lovecraft's themes as they develop throughout his fiction, supplanted when possible by his own voice. (Yes, I know there's a whole essay on what is, in effect, Lovecraft's definition, I will get to that, but that essay alone has not proven robust enough to exclude Marvel movies from being called "cosmic horror". I am sorry, gentle reader, but we need something stronger for our modern age.) I dream of a crystalline algorithm which will allow boundary-pushing experimental fiction to use this term honestly, but exclude such properties as The VVitch (if you know it is Satan the entire time, that's not it), The Evil Dead (if it fits every single preconceived cultural framework for demons, it's demons, and also... the tone...) and, yes, most things in the Marvel or DC cinematic universes. That is not to say that these things aren't enjoyable! They are, and I do not want to assign overweening moral weight to my pedantry. I don't want to ruin anybody's good time - I love all of these things, and I hope you do, too. However. They are not cosmic horror, and calling them cosmic horror is a disservice to Lovecraft's singular vision. "Cosmic horror" has been used as a trendy marketing term for anything that is not a slasher movie, a rewarmed Stephen King premise, or a shot-for-shot remake of The Conjuring. This trend must stop.
• I wish to track the development of H.P. Lovecraft's literary sensibility with events throughout his life, and in so doing trace his attitudes, often (sometimes unfairly) labeled as misanthropic, to their likely sources. For this I will be using quotes from S.T. Joshi's invaluable I Am Providence , but other sources will come into play as I can use them.
• Where appropriate, I want to intersperse reading Lovecraft's works with the works that inspired them, the works derived from their creative inspiration by his contemporaries, and other supplementary texts.
• I want to juxtapose the two views of Lovecraft's life and work found in Joshi's I Am Providence (linked above) and Houellebecq's Against the World, Against Life . I've read Joshi's work in the past, and was blown away by the quality of the scholarship therein (although admittedly, I am an amateur and therefore easy to impress). I have not yet read Houellebecq's work, but I know they pose very different views of Lovecraft's life which I find valuable to compare.
• Last but certainly not least, I want to have fun, and I want you to have fun, too. If I am not enjoying myself with one tack, I will change until it suits me. I have goals which I've chosen as the most interesting lens I see through which to analyze Lovecraft's work as of now, but if those goals cease to work for any reason, I have no choice but to change. The same goes for you - my contact information is listed above for suggestions, and I would love to hear what you would like to read on this site.

1. The Little Glass Bottle (1897)
2. The Secret Cave or John Lees Adventure (1898)
3. The Mystery of the Grave-Yard (1898)
4. The Mysterious Ship (1902)
5. The Beast in the Cave (1905)
6. The Alchemist (1908)
7. The Tomb (1917)
8. Dagon (1917)