tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post9130179607663546677..comments2023-10-25T05:30:54.507-04:00Comments on Oh Get A Grip!: "I Am Providence"Ashe Barkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03390519279886657608noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-84477451244591927162014-09-24T14:07:56.674-04:002014-09-24T14:07:56.674-04:00Indeed! And they're also taking submissions ri...Indeed! And they're also taking submissions right now for Resonator: New Lovecraftian Tales from Beyond, deadline Nov 15: http://martianmigrainepress.com/Whats-In-YOUR-ResonatorAnnabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-8961331710509754982014-09-24T14:06:07.102-04:002014-09-24T14:06:07.102-04:00Beautiful! That's my city! Thank you!Beautiful! That's my city! Thank you!Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-26614803735390960342014-09-24T14:05:37.405-04:002014-09-24T14:05:37.405-04:00Hope you enjoy the trip!Hope you enjoy the trip!Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-69688839755626624392014-09-24T14:05:26.708-04:002014-09-24T14:05:26.708-04:00Thanks so much for the detailed comment, and it...Thanks so much for the detailed comment, and it's all the more reason to read your book!<br /><br />The writer versus the fiction is a longstanding debate. I'm interested in the sort of commentary and analysis you point to, very much so, and I would never give up reading Lovecraft. That said, it's not easy or possible for me to handwave about the man. Despite my fascination with him, I feel the attitudes he held in life have to be confronted and mentioned. Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-46798831423246661942014-09-24T14:02:16.847-04:002014-09-24T14:02:16.847-04:00Hooray for a fellow fan!
And I think there's ...Hooray for a fellow fan!<br /><br />And I think there's something to the idea of a displaced reaction against sexuality. Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-71743643427591398502014-09-24T14:01:17.486-04:002014-09-24T14:01:17.486-04:00Completely agree on your first paragraph, Jean, an...Completely agree on your first paragraph, Jean, and I share your interest in what exactly was seen as insanity. Joshi may have addressed that somewhere in his body of work--I confess I haven't read it all. Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-86907293695011113502014-09-24T14:00:17.423-04:002014-09-24T14:00:17.423-04:00Hope you like the book! Glad you took a chance!Hope you like the book! Glad you took a chance!Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-68954378219948094782014-09-24T14:00:03.402-04:002014-09-24T14:00:03.402-04:00I agree that his commitment to writing despite fin...I agree that his commitment to writing despite financial trouble is inspiring--though Lovecraft also seemed to shoot himself in the foot at times. He gave up on stories pretty easily, and sometimes didn't respond to requests for his work. <br /><br />Also, as far as I know, he didn't commit suicide. He was diagnosed with cancer, and later died of malnutrition. It seems more accurate to say he died of poverty. Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-55543049895923558402014-09-24T13:55:42.285-04:002014-09-24T13:55:42.285-04:00I would totally love to receive tentacle Cthulhu s...I would totally love to receive tentacle Cthulhu slippers--makes sense to me!<br /><br />And your comments about place and migration make sense to me too.Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-61641359394226140692014-09-24T13:54:49.526-04:002014-09-24T13:54:49.526-04:00Worth it, I think!Worth it, I think!Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-10840419306185878912014-09-24T13:54:40.494-04:002014-09-24T13:54:40.494-04:00I'm glad you got interested!I'm glad you got interested!Annabeth Leonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07455191827664110878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-25225596944587234122014-09-13T13:08:10.620-04:002014-09-13T13:08:10.620-04:00Oh, that reminds me for anyone interested, this gr...Oh, that reminds me for anyone interested, this group is always looking for submissions: http://martianmigrainepress.com/NECRONOMICUM-The-Magazine-of-Weird-Eroticagreyirishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08613850313903205301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-5262537359907529822014-09-13T07:14:26.575-04:002014-09-13T07:14:26.575-04:00Annabeth - thought you might like this poem.
Twil...Annabeth - thought you might like this poem.<br /><br />Twilight Ride <br />by Lisabet Sarai <br /><br />(Providence, July 1974)<br /><br />some of the streets <br />will only come out<br />after supper<br />in summer,<br />only untwine<br />as I ride them,<br />rusty <br />with dusk and<br />a muggy night yawning<br />and grumbling<br />ahead.<br /> Red<br />behind me,<br />a final spurt<br />of sunset gushing<br />over the brink<br />of prospect street,<br />on the granite feet<br />of roger williams<br />splashing; but<br />my roads <br />are cobbled with dark,<br />spun out of shadows<br />and history<br />just as I'm rounding<br />the corner; sometimes<br />they barely arrive<br />before I find them.<br /><br />the green-grown hollows,<br />the rose-starred brambles<br />glimpsed through the slats<br />of picketed gates<br />are indistinct,<br />almost unfinished -<br />wells of mist<br />gathered and meshed<br />in intricate wrought iron<br />arabesques.<br /><br />the windows: <br />a treasure <br />of diamond panes,<br />leaded or faceted,<br />jalousied, shuttered,<br />bowed or clasped<br />by balcony curves -<br />tower windows,<br />cupolas peering<br />down on my city<br />floating toward dark;<br />the startling gold<br />of a parallel world<br />shimmering veiled<br />by curtain lace.<br /><br />obscure little lanes<br />lined with wind-eaten shingle,<br />gingerbread carving,<br />sandpaper stucco<br />swallowed in ivy -<br /> architectures<br />I've sketched through years<br />of reading and dreaming -<br />wink into being<br />in time with my pedalling<br />clambering up<br />along with me, <br />breathless, into the evening,<br />melt with my echoing<br />wheeling away.<br /><br />Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-35043890499018476772014-09-12T21:50:48.946-04:002014-09-12T21:50:48.946-04:00Thanks for that, Annabeth- I've never gotten i...Thanks for that, Annabeth- I've never gotten into Lovecraft. Maybe that'll change now.Daddy Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12927663248424944119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-26776625029945393232014-09-12T11:42:50.967-04:002014-09-12T11:42:50.967-04:00Hey, I'm Bobby Derie, author of "Sex &...Hey, I'm Bobby Derie, author of "Sex & the Cthulhu Mythos." I address some of these things in depth in the book, but it's worth talking about it...well, wherever there's a forum for it.<br /><br />I think what a lot of people fail to grasp about Lovecraft's fiction is that horror and weird fiction is fundamentally transgressive in nature. You can't achieve the sense of the unreal, fright, or disgust without pushing against those things that make people uncomfortable, and that means horror writers make use of taboo - whether sexual or sacrilegious or philosophical or whatever. People that talk about there being no sex in Lovecraft generally mean there was no explicit depiction of coitus (which is true enough) or no romance (more or less, it wasn't absent from all his works, but it wasn't lovey-dovey either) - but you still have an author that wrote about necrophilia ("The Loved Dead"), incest ("The Lurking Fear"), bestiality ("Arthur Jermyn," "The Unspeakable"), miscegenation ("The Shadow over Innsmouth," "The Dunwich Horror"), polygamy ("The Mound"), and other very taboo sexual topics - not to titillate an audience, but still there, right in the heart of his fiction.<br /><br />For Lovecraft himself, I think the myth of the man has in part eclipsed the reality - what he felt, why he felt the way he did, and how he acted. He was prejudiced, and xenophobic - worse than some people of his time, not as bad as others. Lovecraft was not, I think, the asexual that contemporary scholars like to paint him as - I think that's a bit of a cop-out. But I don't want to get bogged down with explanations or sink into apologetics; let me break this down to bare bones.<br /><br />Lovecraft is not his fiction. While the study of his life and letters has given us great insight on his fiction, as a body of work it stands separate from the author, open to interpretation and reflection - and what reflection there has been! Critics have analyzed "The Outsider" as a woman and as a homosexual, they have looked at "The Shadow over Innsmouth" as a fable of miscegenation or "coming out," they have reflected on the sexual symbolism of every piece from "The Rats in the Walls" to the genderbending "The Thing on the Doorstep" - all of which is separate from anything Lovecraft wrote or any aspect of his life, but which nevertheless are valid criticisms and interpretations. How Lovecraft was during his life does not diminish the importance of his fiction today, nor should it color our appreciation of it - only to serve and deepen our understanding of the stories, one more data point to reflect on.greyirishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08613850313903205301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-52190528006108040612014-09-11T23:09:50.775-04:002014-09-11T23:09:50.775-04:00I'm another Lovecraft fan, Annabeth, as well a...I'm another Lovecraft fan, Annabeth, as well as a fan of Providence. Lovecraft's work was a major bond between my dad and me. He bought me a nicely bound volume of selected short stories as one of his last Christmas presents. (And my husband has what purports to be a copy of the dread Necronomicon, won as a door prize at a San Francisco birthday party for Aleister Crowley!)<br /><br />I invite you (and everyone else) to read my Lovecraft parody, "The Shadow Over Desmoines" (<a href="http://www.lisabetsarai.com/desmoines.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.lisabetsarai.com/desmoines.html</a>). Although I wrote it to be funny, as part of an ERWA theme challenge years ago, I feel like it does a pretty good job capturing Lovecraft's style. Meanwhile, this story vis a vis your post make me wonder if perhaps the sense of deep dread and disgust in Lovecraft's work is actually a displaced reaction against sexuality. What could be more sexually tinged than grasping tentacles? What leads us to lose ourselves (in a kind of madness) as easily as sex?<br /><br /> Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-67111199689772316792014-09-11T19:29:46.121-04:002014-09-11T19:29:46.121-04:00Annabeth, this is interesting, and it points to so...Annabeth, this is interesting, and it points to something that I think a lot of women and "people of colour" struggle with: it's possible to admire some aspects of a famous writer (who, in English-speaking culture, was usually a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male) without admiring all his prejudices or the fans who share them. Now I want to read your Lovecraftian erotica.<br /><br />By all accounts, Lovecraft was a tortured soul. I've often wondered exactly what "insane" meant in the time when both his parents were diagnosed that way. (I can't forget that not that long ago, masturbation was seen as a sign of insanity.) Garce, thank you for the link! <br />This looks useful.Jean Robertahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08805088081675965859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-81405537583721720622014-09-11T18:52:14.365-04:002014-09-11T18:52:14.365-04:00Oh - one more thing.
Your post intrigued me enoug...Oh - one more thing.<br /><br />Your post intrigued me enough to run out to Amazon and push the button on a copy of "Whispers in Darkness: Lovecraftian Erotica anthology" for Kindle.<br /><br />This better be good,<br /><br />GarceGarceushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11160407485298015371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-52196084380707000352014-09-11T18:46:40.881-04:002014-09-11T18:46:40.881-04:00This definitely caught my eye, because I've be...This definitely caught my eye, because I've been snacking a lot on Lovecraft lately. I'm currently rereading "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". He does improve with being read out loud, his baroque prose style is kind of hard to muddle through sometimes. Stephen King is a huge Lovecraft fan and has a lot to say about him in "Danse Macabre". He says that what Lovecraft mainly pioneered is the premise of cosmic horror of things so huge "they could destroy the universe if they grunted in their sleep . . " <br /><br />What's notable about Lovecraft also is that he was in his time a failure as a writer. He didn't make any money. Nobody read his stuff. His interior weirdness and disappointment finally claimed him and he committed suicide. Then after his death he became a big celebrity.<br /><br />Kind of gives the rest of us here some hope.<br /><br />Anyone who wants to read his entire body of work for free as an epub - and who doesn't - can pick it up here at the Australian Project Gutenberg:<br /><br />http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#letterL<br /><br /><br /><br />Garce Garceushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11160407485298015371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-86315314007770598542014-09-11T18:04:00.347-04:002014-09-11T18:04:00.347-04:00Sense of place is an important part of sense of se...Sense of place is an important part of sense of self, I think, and I wonder how we modern humans are affected by our migratory habits. Being rooted too firmly in one area can have the downside of promoting an us/them, known-folks /strangers dichotomy, but there's also something to be said for knowing a place well and feeling part of it. I've been shuttling back and forth lately between where I grew up (and my declining father still lives) and where I've lived for forty years, not really all that far apart, and the shift tends to be disorienting, but I also lived long enough in a couple of other places like the SanFrancisco Bay area to retain a sense of the place, or rather of the place as it was back then. You don't have to live somewhere very long to search out its charms and quirks and personality.<br /><br />I haven't read any Lovecraft, but my older son, a computer technician in an academic setting, is such a Lovecraft geek that tentacled Cthulu slippers went over well as Christmas present. His lawyer wife is as big a fan as he is. I doubt that his eight-year-old daughter has read any of the actual canon yet, but she's a voracious reader and has grown up hearing about it, so she may get to it. Or not, because what pre-teen wants to read what their parents like? <br /><br /> Sacchi Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10801164916418570059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-57647603618854207262014-09-11T14:55:55.750-04:002014-09-11T14:55:55.750-04:00Barnes and Noble sell his complete works in a leat...Barnes and Noble sell his complete works in a leather bound tome which I keep meaning to buy and never get around to - now I'll have to!JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10305127219838784688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9156334464585894857.post-47371362136682928642014-09-11T09:35:31.240-04:002014-09-11T09:35:31.240-04:00I had no idea. In fact, I've never read Lovecr...I had no idea. In fact, I've never read Lovecraft. Your fascination has infected me. I 've got it on my list. Thank you for sharing.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15484640447109164744noreply@blogger.com