H.P. Lovecraft – Against the World, Against Life (2004) [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

H.P. Lovecraft – Against the World, Against Life (2004) [pdf]

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Strong rec: if you've ever wondered about H. P. Lovecraft but lacked the time to read your way through his writings (and all six volumes of his letters), this is Houellebecq giving you the Cliff's Notes version. (Lovecraft is considered a major literary figure in France, hence the interest among academics.)

(Disclaimer: I might have written the odd piece of Lovecraft-influenced fiction in the past ...)

Absolutely agree. Haven't read the english translation, but the original version was one of my favourite read last year. It is a short book (about 150pages I believe) and very skillfully written. It is very clinical, but in the same way Lovecraft is clinical in his descriptions of the the unnameable. It ends up giving a chilly insight on a deeply tormented man, who had trouble adjusting to modern society in all its horror and prurience!

>(Lovecraft is considered a major literary figure in France, hence the interest among academics.)

Lovecraft is not really considered "a major literary figure in France" and Houellebecq is not an academic (except in the sense that he studied at a university like half of French, but he's not working in academia or anything like that).

Perhaps you meant Houellebecq? He indeed is considered a "major literary figure" (if somewhat controversial).

"somewhat controversial"? That's a little bit of an understatement. Most of his books have created long and reverberating flamewars all over Europe.

From Zola to Celine, Cocteau, Queneau, Bataille, Duras and onwards to Houellebecq (and others), the French relish and celebrate controversiality.

If a French literary author is not controversial, they have failed.

It's nothing much, and nothing like the "career stopper" that this can be in the anglo-saxon world -- they'll still get top honors at the Académie française (the very core of the establishment) eventually.

I'm not sure if you are counting Houellebecq among academics, but he has a agricultural engineering degree and worked in IT for more than a decade before becoming a full-time writer.

This is one reasons why I love his books (esp. the first ones), I think you can tell he has a scientific mind from his writing.

There's a chapter in an early book where the IT consultant protagonist is leafing through a technical report from some government bureaucracy full with buzz-speak about how they require "flexible system architectures" and "object oriented databases" or something or the other. The consultant finds it amusing and says something along the lines of "as long as they're paying me". Reminded me a little of Brett Easton Ellis, there's a similar kind of cynicism and detachment, with regards to white collar work.

There's also Graham Harman's take on Lovecraft as the patron saint of his object-oriented ontology, in Weird Realism.

Laundry files?

I thought he was referring to "A Colder War," which to me replicates perfectly the cold dread I felt when reading Lovecraft's stories about the Colour out of Space, Irem of the Pillars, et al---more so than any of the works by Lovecraft's other fans (including Derleth, whose work I didn't enjoy).

Yup.

Odd coincidence that I literally just finished reading The Atrocity Archives about ten minutes ago. Great book, loved it. Thought the series might have been the inspiration for the movie Cabin in the Woods, but seems not.

I've always been disappointed in the lack of recognition Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath gets. Several years ago, I read all of Lovecraft's works in a stretch, and while I enjoyed them all, Dream Quest really stood about. By the end my heart was racing and I was reading as fast as I could to find out what happened next. It's very rare for me to have any reaction to a story beyond the pleasure of reading or the appreciation of good prose.

But Dream Quest is consistently absent from lists of favorites or of Lovecraft's best writings. Maybe I just have bad taste. :) To be fair, it is a little different in theme than Lovecraft's later writings: less scientific horror and more fantastical horror.

Aye, Kadath is a perfect example of what Houellebecq notes about Lovecraft's drawing inspiration from his dreams. The whole story basically reads like a stitching together of bits from a dream diary- or maybe even a single one of those long, winding dreams you manage to recall after a full night's sleep, the kind you only get in the holidays and so on.

I guess it's just grouped together with others of his early, non-Mythos stories, like The Cats of Ulthar and The Music of Erich Zann, that were alright but nothing special.

Anyway if you liked Kadath, you should check out Lord Dunsany (if you haven't).

Dream Quest felt really different from the rest, but I really liked it as well. I was reading a collection of all his short stories at the time and it's pretty cool to see little stories that tie in to this storie's dreamverse from time to time.

I feel Kadath would be an excellent television series for boys aged 10-12. It has bravery and adventure and imagination and virtue, and horror but not blindingly so.

That or a video game. Could easily be a mix of adventure / puzzle with some action thrown in (Places like the forest, the moon, the underdream and kadath)

I'm a bit shocked to read about the extent of Lovecraft's racism. I had noticed it in his writings, but I thought it was the voice of his characters.

I never think much about the creators of the stories or the music I enjoy, exactly because I'm worried I might find something unpleasant, like Lovecraft's racism. Frex, I'm happy I don't understand a word of what many of the bands I listen to sing, otherwise I'm pretty sure I'd never listen to them again. [1] I was lucky not to know all this about Lovecraft, as I didn't know stuff about other writers I enjoyed when I was younger, otherwise I don't think I'd have managed to enjoy them in the same way.

And I was really, really into Lovecraft's stuff as a teenager. I think I've read pretty much everything he's published, plus a whole lot of his disciples' stories. A couple of shorts have escaped me, by happy coincidence (The Colour out of Space and The Shadow out of Time) and I'm keeping them for a special moment.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvGPAVTYfXI

This is an interesting companion piece to ST Joshi's 2-volume biography of Lovecraft: I am Providence.

Joshi, while somewhat controversial due to his alleged whitewashing of Lovecraft's racial views (as well as some obvious editorializing in IaP), is currently THE Lovecraft authority. I am Providence is the best resource out there right now for insight into HPL views, life, and publishing history.

I've read one of his books (Call of Chtulu) for the 1st time recently. I had not been warned about the high amount of racism that is to be found in his writing. It felt awkward until the last page!

The only time I have been that disturbed by a book, it was novel from Houellebecq...

Yes, once you realize stories like Shadow over Innsmouth are really about the horrors of race-mixing, it can become a bit uncomfortable to read. He was a man of his time, unfortunately.

Which one?

"Whatever" (in French :"L'extension du domaine de la lutte")

It's weird that I had not read about it on HN, given the wikipedia description: "The novel tells the story of a depressed and isolated man stuck in a tedious but well-paying programming job."

I can't find this on archive.org. I want the epub download (if available), does anyone have it?

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