Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

The novel that Colin Wilson wrote is not in the gothic Lovecraft style, neither is it set in some murky American past, but it is a wonderful book in it's own right; Wilson's best novel imo, and a fascinating exploration of the possibilities of human consciousness. So, don't expect anything very Lovecraftian, read it with an open mind, and see if you don't agree with me - that Colin Wilson met the challenge and wrote something more exciting, more gripping than most of Lovecraft's stories.

Originally Posted by Chula Vista

Bump for this.

http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Canto...ds=dan+simmons

Regarded as Sci Fi but definitely little bits of shades of Lovecraft style horror IMO.

One of only two books I've read 3 times.

Originally Posted by LoathsomePete

The Penguin Books publication of The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories has my favorite collection of his works and some very good explanatory notes from S. T. Joshi. It also starts you off easy with stories like "Dagon" and "The Statement of Randolph Carter" so you can adapt to Lovecraft's syntax and diction, which is probably the biggest barrier to entry. It also has stores like the titular "Call of Cthulhu" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" but also his less adapted stories like "The Rats In the Wall" and "The Picture In The House" (which probably has the most dialogue of any Lovecraft story).

Originally Posted by eraser.time206

If you can't deal with the fact that there are 6+ billion people in the world and none of them think exactly the same that's not my problem. Just deal with it yourself or make actual conversation. This isn't a court and I'm not some poet or prophet that needs everything I say to be analytically critiqued.

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Ah, the Shrike! Love those books! Did you read "Carrion comfort"?

Originally Posted by grindy

I read the book now and enjoyed the hell out of it.
Thanks for the rec.
I love his somewhat scientific, logical approach and there are a lot of themes and topics there I'm generally very interested in.
And it's amazing how he takes the opposite route of Lovecraft, replacing obscurantism with analytical, systematic explanations and still manages to convey a lovecraftian sense of awe.
If you know other, similar books, I'd be happy to read them as well.

Originally Posted by grindy

I'd say "Mountains Of Madness" is his best.
If you'd prefer something shorter, check out "The Colour Out Of Space" or "The Dunwich Horror".

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

..........................................Colin Wilson - The Philosopher´s Stone



Sorry, Grindy! I have only just come across your post. I´m really happy that you enjoyed the book. Welcome to the very small club of people who have followed up on my recommendation (the other members being my brother and my best friend).

Yes, as you say the book has a scientific, logical approach, but is none-the-less what is known as "a page-turner". Lots of interesting ideas, and the way it links in with Lovecraft is particularly satisfying, isn´t it?

Colin Wilson was a busy guy, and wrote eighty or ninety books, but this is easily his best novel. After being disappointed by a couple of his other novels, I moved over to his non-fiction stuff: his biog of Rasputín is good, also his philosophical books; The Outsider, The Age of Defeat, The Strength to Dream. Being philosophy, they aren´t to everybody´s taste of course. But one reviewer wrote of Colin Wilson, " He has a style that makes the pursuit of an intellectual idea as exciting as a detective story", and I think that stands as good description of his books in general.

Originally Posted by LoathsomePete

I haven't really found another author that really captures the essence of Lovecraft other than Clive Barker, M.R. James, Neil Gaiman, Thomas Ligotti, Robert W. Chambers, Edgar Allan Poe and Laird Barron. As for movies... that's a bit of a mixed bag. All of them have short stories collections which is probably the best way to go but here's my recommendations.

Clive Barker - Books of Blood Vol. 1 - 6

M.R. James - Collected Ghost Stories (he's more inspired by Victorian era ghost stories, but has a similar writing style)

Laird Barron - The Imago Sequence and Other Stories

Neil Gaiman - The Sandman (this one's a graphic novel, but very well done)

Thomas Ligotti - The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror (this is actually a work of non-fiction that was a major inspiration for Rust Chole's pessimistic world view in True Detective)

Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow (another piece of work that was very inspirational for True Detective. He was kind of in the same boat as Lovecraft, writing Weird fiction for magazines, although it's been said that Lovecraft didn't really care for him too much, even though his work influenced Lovecraft).

Poe - Pretty much anything, I'd recommend just getting a collection for your local book store for like $10


I don't think there's ever been a truly accurate adaptation of one of his stories outside of the 2005 black and white silent film The Call of Cthluhu. The 2001 Stuart Gordon movie Dagon is a good movie heavily inspired by The Shadow Over Innsmouth but does have some of the same problems his other modern Lovecraft movie, Re-Animator had where it couldn't decide on a tone. The 1995 John Carpenter film In the Mouth of Madness is pretty Lovecraftian as well, but like the others, doesn't really commit to just one tone and is kind of tongue-in-cheek. Ironically, one of the films that best exemplifies Lovecraft is probably the 2007 film The Mist which easily has one of the most soul crushing endings, and the monsters seem to be very Lovecraft inspired, not that it's that surprising as Stephen King was hugely influenced by Lovecraft.

Video games have probably had the best success with that kind of thing, but I think that's also due to the fact that the medium is so well suited for horror. The 2005 game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a technically an original work but contains elements of "Dagon" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", including the hotel escape. The 2010 game Amnesia: The Dark Descent is very Lovecraft inspired as you're being haunted by an unknowable darkness accidentally unleashed on a trip to Africa. The 2001 Gamecube game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem also contains A LOT of Lovecraft references thoughout the course of the game.