There is a writer of horror fiction
who is wonderful, genius, outstanding
who got embraced by the pop culture
and today we have movies, TV series, comic books
and many other media
that tap into the wellspring of this guy
that is no less a person than
Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
One of my favorite writers
I have a long relationship
as a fan with Lovecraft
and I decided to do this vlog
to tell you a bit about his life
and why he is such a special guy
and a bit about the publication history
of his work here in Brazil.
I got to know Lovecraft through movies, actually
but I wasn't aware
that I was getting to know Lovecraft.
Back then in the 80's when I watched Re-Animator
From Beyond and other movies based on his work
I loved those movies
but I didn't have the slightest clue
that they were based on Lovecraft stories
and I was even less aware
that this guy was so influential
that there is the word LOVECRAFTIAN
meaning people that follow his line of work
what's the case of Stuart Gordon,
the director of these two movies
and others like Castle Freak,
a filmmaker I like a lot.
My first contact with Lovecraft himself
was through books from newsstands
that were published around the year 2000
by the publisher Campanário.
As far as I know Campanário
has published nine stories.
They kept publishing some of the
most well known Lovecraft stories
I read these two at that time and I loved them.
I can't remember exactly
why I didn't read the whole collection
but this was my contact with Lovecraft
and has been the only one for many years.
Years later I watched other movies
I was getting older
and I started being more aware who this guy was
many comic books began to come out
or his work was mentioned in comic books
and I kept searching...
With the rise of the internet
obtaining information got a bit more easier
and with time I could grasp
the importance Lovecraft had.
Besides, I'm a big fan of Robert Ervin Howard,
always have been
I learned that both were friends and exchanged
a large number of correspondence.
I found out that both of them published
in the same magazine, Weird Tales
and through Howard
I started getting more and more curious
about Lovecraft.
But only many years later I got the chance
to read more Lovecraft stories.
It was when the publisher Hedra
started publishing.
And Hedra did a really good job, folks.
I think it may still be easy
to find these editions.
First, they came out as pocket books
each book translated and organized
by Guilherme da Silva Braga
who in my opinion did a great job
he wrote the books' introductions
and his translation is very good
he's an expert on Lovecraft's work.
In the end of each book he always puts
some extra material
that may be letters written by Lovecraft
may be essays
anyway, the material is always related
to the book itself.
There is The Call Of Cthulhu for example,
and other short stories.
Cthulhu is a curious thing,
everybody says that it is unspeakable
but there is a text by Lovecraft
in which he teaches the pronunciation.
He says that it was meant to be unspeakable
because it is a language that isn't made
for the human throat to reproduce
but it's a spitted, almost vomited sound,
like CTHULHU or something like this.
So, there is The Call Of CTHULHU
- Bless you
The Call Of Cthulhu and other short stories
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Colour Out Of Space
one of the best science fiction
and horror stories ever written
that influenced a lot The Thing
and other stuff like this.
The Whisperer In Darkness, another masterpiece
and then, for some reason that I don't know
Hedra started publishing bigger-sized books
and here we have The Shadow Out Of Time
The Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath
The Dunwich Horror, another masterpiece
and one of the most popular ones,
At The Mountains Of Madness
perhaps you remember that for long years
Guillermo del Toro was in love with that story
wanting to transform it into a movie
but without success
allegedly the story is impossible to shoot
then there were rumors about a TV series,
but nothing confirmed
but At The Mountains Of Madness is just amazing.
With this publication by Hedra here,
this publication series
later Hedra released a big edition
with Lovecraft's complete work
I have never gotten hold of it,
everybody says it's wonderful
but these ones here are really nice
and more recently
DarkSide published
through its imprint "Medo Clássico"
that recovers Edgar Allan Poe and others
the first volume of Lovecraft short stories.
This edition is translated by Ramon Mapa
with a lot of appendices and a nice introduction
written by him
illustrated by Walter Pax, Brazilian
who does outstanding drawings
you're seeing some of them here
I think he captures very well
the essence of the Lovecraft's myths.
There are some texts, some extra material
very different, as it is DarkSide's style
with things handwritten by Lovecraft
there is some material written by Robert Bloch
and additional illustrations by Bloch
I'll already explain
his relation to Lovecraft.
It came out in two different editions here,
I got this one here
with this part here in green,
a really beautiful green
I love this cover as well, hard-cover
within the DarkSide quality standard.
I think it may be easier to find this edition
than all the others at this time
and the second volume probably comes out soon,
but I don't know exactly
but it's really worth your while to look for this.
What brings us to the author himself
why has Lovecraft become this myth
it's actually interesting to talk about
The Myth of Cthulhu
and Lovecraft himself becoming a myth.
Among the classic writers, he is - for me at least
he is at the same level of importance
as Edgar Allan Poe himself.
Because Lovecraft gave horror fiction
a character without equal up to then.
Let's understand this a bit better.
In order to understand Lovecraft as a writer
we need to know a little bit about his life.
Lovecraft came from
an extremely traditional family
his family tree can be followed back
about 400 years, people say.
They were a rich family
that lived in the city of Providence.
Lovecraft's father died, he got neurosyphilis
and he was admitted to an institution
when Lovecraft was still a child
for the boy this was very hard to deal with
and this had an impact on the mother
and the way she raised her son
and on Lovecraft himself.
At that time everything was very different
from how things are today.
Lovecraft was a sick child with poor health
he had nervous crises,
he didn't go to school very frequently
the obligation to go to school that exists today
didn't exist at that time,
so part of his education was done at home.
After the father's death
they moved to his grandfather's
who had an enormous library
so for many years Lovecraft
was reading these books
where he discovered horror fiction.
His mother, because of the early loss
of her husband perhaps
or because of any other reason,
it may have been her character
she became an overprotective mother
to an extend that came close to insanity.
In later letters and records
Lovecraft himself said
that his mother's upbringing had
a devastating effect on his psyche.
Besides, he confided it to the only wife he had
we will already talk about her.
The early loss of his father, the seclusion
the overprotective upbringing by his mother
and the contact with Gothic Horror fiction
inside his grandfather's library
had created a favorable atmosphere
for Lovecraft's imagination.
His mother died of syphilis
and the loss of his mother also caused traumas
in Lovecraft's psyche.
Lovecraft, coming from
this aristocratic family
having money while his father was still alive
and his mother being able to manage
quite well their finances
while she was still alive,
he had a very superior attitude
he never thought about working
or having a formal employment.
In the beginning he wrote a lot, as a hobby
in this aristocratic mind of his
he found that formal jobs where beneath him.
Yes, he was really like this.
After the mother died, he had to face a bankruptcy
what was very difficult for him.
He managed his resources that had already been
poor while the mother was alive
and they became even smaller after her death
so he administered these resources
along with the little money he made
selling stories as a ghostwriter.
He wrote a lot of stuff as a ghostwriter.
This was a time of experimentation for him.
His first big influence was Edgar Allan Poe
and he produced many texts within
the short story format created by Poe.
In later documents,
in letters written to other authors
he said that he had destroyed the major part
of these preliminary texts
because they were a sloppy copy
of the work Poe had developed.
He wasn't able to find himself in Poe's structure.
But this was good for his development
as an author.
Lovecraft's writing was criticized,
mainly by the academics.
There are two main criticisms
one about the excessive use of adjectives
in translations it isn't as apparent
as in the English language itself.
Sometimes Lovecraft chose a word
and he uses this word over and over again.
An author who does this as well is Howard
he does it very often
but there was a motivation behind
the excessive use of adjectives.
One of the nice things
about the Lovecraftian prose
is that he deals with creatures that
theoratically are beyond definition
beyond description.
The human eye is capable
of interpreting the unspeakable
it interprets an ancient, exterior God
the way it is able to
but actually there is no description
for something that is beyond words.
So Lovecraft sometimes lined up
6, 7, 10 adjectives in the same sentence
and these adjectives didn't mean anything.
This basically is the indescribable,
the unspeakable, the absurd.
This introduction here
even discusses this a little,
nice introduction.
This is a criticism of Lovecraftian prose
without fully understanding the purpose of it.
Lovecraft wasn't a great magician of words
like for example Mary Shelley,
the author of Frankenstein
but he was very skilled, no doubt.
And in his prose he is able to create an oddity
that is not for everybody.
It is quite an experience
reading a text by Lovecraft
in the original version and even in Portuguese.
Another criticism that Lovecraft receives
is the fact that he had found a formula
to write his prose, his short stories
and he stuck to it until the end.
The formula exist but up to then
Edgar Allan Poe had developed one himself
he did this with his short stories,
he basically invented
horror and thriller short stories
and is being imitated up to now, he did this,
and Lovecraft did the same
and some of the books by Hedra
even count with a text by Lovecraft himself
where he talks about what to him is
the perfect story structure
the story structure he had discovered
and he explains how to develop the story
so everything is structured,
there is no doubt about that.
And this isn't a problem,
he is a master within his own proposal
so he shouldn't be criticized because of this.
That's my opinion at least.
Great contemporary writers like Neil Gaiman
or Guillermo del Toro himself
who is like a son of Lovecraft
he says that he learned so much
studying Lovecraft's work.
The great filmmaker John Carpenter
was also an offspring of Lovecraft
he confirms openly that he is Lovecraftian,
an expert in the author's work.
Well, there are many guys
that follow and admire Lovecraft
and without this author
pop culture wouldn't be what it is today.
Without even mentioning horror fiction
Steven King, the greatest contemporary horror fiction writer
is a worshiper of Lovecraft.
Do I need to say more?
Ok, let's talk a little more about
the story of this writer.
From 1908 to 1917 Lovecraft was
a very reclusive guy
he hardly went out.
In the little town of Providence where he lived
that even became a mystical city because of him
each time he walked on the street he was seen as...
by the people of the neighborhood
and young people his age
he was seen as a strange, awkward person
without any relationships.
In some part due to his shyness
and his actual difficulty
to socialize with other people
what made the others bully him.
His own mother bullied him deliberately
talking about his face that was full of pimples
his chin that was disproportional.
Anyway, he had this kind of crazy and symbiotic
relationship with his mother
that reverberated further on
and turned him into the author he is today.
As I have already explained,
he had this aristocratic attitude
and this also contributed
to the xenophobic ideas he had.
He believed in the purity of his race.
He saw the USA at this time,
we're talking here about the 1910's, 1920's
especially after the end of World War 1
the USA experienced an actual invasion
of Asian people, Mexicans
many people coming from abroad
and Lovecraft who believed in the supremacy
of the white race
he saw his environment being invaded
and this aroused a lot of rebellion in him
that can be seen in several of his texts
but that surprisingly diminishes
throughout his life.
It reaches its highest point
when he moves to New York
and he moves to New York
because he meets his wife
his only wife, Sonia
who, believe it or not, was a jew.
So, he had prejudice, he was xenophobic
but winded up marrying a jew.
This may have been the first step
towards changing his mind.
Years later he moves to New York
and experiences a development there,
we will soon talk about this
but his life in New York doesn't work out
it seems that in 1924 his xenophobic paranoia
reaches its peak
and this has in impact on his health
and later he ends up returning to Providence
what leads to the end
of his relationship, his marriage.
Lovecraft ends up developing a style
of writing in the first person.
This is very interesting
because when stories are being told
in the first person
most of the times it's somebody writing a text
like, somebody is writing an entry
in their logbook
in a personal diary or an epistle.
Don't you know what an epistle is?
"A pistol" is like a rifle but smaller.
Whatever.
Even though it's being written there
Lovecraft is able to create
apotheotic endings for his stories
It's like...
the guy is writing and telling like this
I can hear the thing coming closer
I hear footsteps in the hallway
I seem them at the window
Aaahh!
Obviously, if this happened in real time
nobody would write it down.
Nobody would write this experience
in first person
of a thing that they see following them.
This is obvious.
There are those who criticize
that aspect of Lovecraft's work
but at the same time he creates
a wonderful experience for the reader
that no other writer in history was able to do.
Many tried to imitate him
but nobody is able to do what Lovecraft does.
This experience in first person
that you know isn't precise
you know that it is applied in a wrong way
that this record shouldn't be there
nevertheless this record affects you
as a reader
because it involves you in the story,
agonizes you.
I heard footsteps in the hallway,
the thing is coming
bam, bam
and suddenly the story ends
and you feel as if you had had a heart attack.
And you say, holy shit,
how did the guy do this with the story?
You need to get used to
the Lovecraftian way of writing.
And when you do so
it may take two or three short stories,
maybe a bit more
but when you do so you allow yourself
to dive in the universe he created
and I refer to the universe
in terms of speech as well
not just the universe of his myths.
When you allow it yourself
it will be a unique experience.
Well, the first text by Lovecraft
that he managed to publish
was in the magazine The Vagrant,
it's in this book here by DarkSide
and precisely it was Dagon
ou Dagón, as we say here in Brazil.
And it is such an amazing and terrifying story.
Dagon was published in 1919 in this magazine
later it also would be published in Weird Tales
almost everything that Lovecraft published
before Weird Tales was created
in 1923, if I'm not mistaken
almost everything was republished afterwards
in the 20's, 30's, 40's, even after his death.
Weird Tales published many things
in life Lovecraft obviously became
their biggest editorial case
and they also published things afterwards.
So Dagon came out later in Weird Tales.
Many elements of the Lovecratian myths
are already present at that point.
Lovecraft, he has a merit
and I think people don't get the dimension
of what he did.
Until his arrival in the 20's,
where most of his work was published
there was a predominance of Gothic horror.
Think of Frankenstein,
that I've already mentioned
Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
think of the ghost stories
of the stories by Lord Byron
think of this kind of
Gothic, noble, traditional horror.
This was the face of horror.
Lovecraft took it all, absorbed some things
but he threw it all out of the window and said:
Now I'm going to create a new kind of horror.
And forget biblical, spiritual or existential traces
forget heaven and hell
forget ghost or demons
forget mythological creatures
like vampires or mummies
forget this kind of stuff.
He creates these creepy, terrifying creatures
from other dimensions, from other realities.
He creates beings
that are able to destroy
our universe, our planet with a yawn.
Creatures so powerful, they cross the cosmos
without needing a spaceship,
they can cross the cosmos in speed of light.
He creates beings older than time itself,
than our time.
When our time was young
certain creatures already existed.
This mythology of his,
the so called Cosmic Horror that he develops
is something that may be
kind of a cliche nowadays
but it's a cliche that came from him
and that is brilliant.
Lovecraft's other big influence,
and he admits it in letters, too
was Lord Dunsany.
And because of Lord Dunsany
he has the idea to create a mythology.
He read the writings of Dunsany
and said: Holy shit,
this guy created a whole mythology
why don't I do something similar?
So after Poe, who had triggered his first impulse
Lord Dunsany is Lovecraft's
other great influence
for the creation of the myths.
In 1922 Lovecraft publishes Reanimator,
Herbert West - Reanimator
that became one of his most famous stories
even more because of the movie by Stuart Gordon
and a story that Lovecraft himself didn't like.
Reanimator was written from 1922 on
in a humor magazine,
look how interesting
Lovecraft's mother had died a year before, in 1921
and his finances, as I've already said,
were a bit tight.
And he brings out Reanimator
in this magazine called Home Brew
that was a more humorous magazine.
Having been published in parts,
each chapter of Reanimator
when you read them in sequence in an anthology
you notice that each chapter recovers
what happened in the previous chapter
it's a story
that is a bit different from the others
because Lovecraft had to
give it this character.
But it became later on one of the great
one of the first great zombie pieces ever done.
I think that Reanimator ist wonderful
it's very, very, very nice.
I love the movie by Stuart Gordon
and some of the sequels are great as well
it's worthwhile to read the story
and to watch at least the first movie.
Reanimator ended up becoming a classic
even more because until today zombies are popular
people love zombies
and Lovecraft's approach came before
the zombie of Walking Dead
that was eternalized by George Romero.
So it's nice to see his approach.
In 1923 Weird Tales is born.
and he sees that it is a magazine
of a better quality
than the other contemporary pulp publications.
So he contacts Weird Tales
and submits some of his material
and sells right away five short stories.
And from now on he publishes in Weird Tales
until the end of his life
Weird Tale became his big home
as it were home to other
fantastic writers of this time
like Robert Bloch, Fritz Lieber,
Robert Ervin Howard, the creator of Conan.
Lovecraft, unlike other pulp authors
was never able to do the transition
to great literature.
Agatha Christie started out
publishing pulps
Jack London, author of White Fang and
The Call of the Wild, published pulps
and later they were published in book form
becoming more respected authors
but Lovecraft never made it.
For the rest of his life his income
was enough to make a living
but he never got to earn much money as a writer.
People say that when he started to be successful
despite being worshiped by other authors
and having his portion of fans
in life he never got to be a boom
like Robert Howard.
It's curious, Howard was a Lovecraftian
he followed Lovecraft to the extend
that his stories take place
and Howard himself confirms it
the Hyborian Age takes place
within Lovecraft's world
to the extend that names of Lovecraftian gods
are quoted in Howard's stories
in Howard's horror stories the myths
created by Lovecraft are present
but Howard earned a lot of money as a writer
word is that he was the best paid author
at that time at Weird Tales.
And Lovecraft never got to enjoy
the same commercial success.
His biographers claim that if he had lived more
he died early in a precocious way
if he had lived more, his greatest writings
might have come further on
and his audience success
might have been twice more.
This will always be a hypothesis,
we will never have the answer
if there were alternative realities
perhaps in another reality there is a Lovecraft
who was more successful while he was still alive.
In our reality Lovecraft only became
this great master
with the rise of pop culture.
That doesn't change that he left
exceptional creations behind.
When he married Sonia,
what I've already mentioned, too
Sonia convinced him that he should be closer
to the big publishing houses
that's why he went to New York.
And his life in New York was anything but easy
for a xenophobic guy like him
there were many problems
being in a big metropolis.
He was a weird, reclusive and biased guy
who wasn't able to handle
the multicultural aspects of the metropolis.
And this affected his writing.
His prejudice started to reflect
in many ways in his writing.
And it affected his relationship
and they broke up.
At some point he was getting unbearable
he started to get sick,
being were he was, living that way
his health started to get affected
until he asked some aunts for help
who still lived in Providence
and went back there.
Nevertheless the time he lived in New York
turned out to be one of the most productive.
In this period he created no less than
the University of Miskatonic
that is of major importance
in several of his stories
the City of Arkham, also very important
in many of his stories
and Necronomicon,
the book written by the crazy Arab
there is a whole mythology
that spins around that book.
Lovecraft himself said that the idea
of having a cursed book
came from 1001 Nights.
And the mythology he created was so wonderful
that other authors who were
his contemporaries and friends
like August Derleth, Howard himself,
Fritz Lieber, Robert Bloch
they started to take Necronomicon
and use it in their texts.
And this contributed to the expansion
of the mythology of Necronomicon.
And of course, Lovecraft loved this.
This group of writers at Weird Tales,
they all lived in different places
but they corresponded with each other,
they had like a little club
they exchanged letters
and when I say letter,
it wasn't at all a little letter
their letters were 4, 5, 6 pages long
they sent texts to each other for evaluation
they talked about the country's situation
and so on
those were incredible letters,
to the extend that in the US
you'll find the complete correspondence
between Lovecraft and Howard
the complete correspondence
between Lovecraft and Robert Bloch
you'll find these all compiled,
so rich was their correspondence.
Lovecraft was the pinnacle, followed by
all the other contemporary authors.
When Lovecraft doesn't stand
living in New York anymore
he returns to Providence in 1926,
as I've already said
and he is devastated.
Once again his state of mind
reflects in his writing.
Although he was emotionally very rattled
in 1928 he creates no less than
The Call Of Cthulhu.
This is the third big moment of his career.
when he creates the ultimate focus
of his mythology.
Major part of the things I mentioned,
of this period of his life
is here in the book by DarkSide.
So, Dagon is here,
Herbert West - Reanimator is here
The Hound, that is one of the stories
that was largely influenced by Edgar Allan Poe,
is here as well
The Call Of Cthulhu is here,
At The Mountains Of Madness as well
these brilliant moments of Lovecraft
all of them are present in this first volume.
Other brilliant moments like
The Color Out Of Space
or The Whisperer in Darkness
will probably appear in the second volume.
I don't know if they will do two more volumes,
or put everything in volume 2
but for sure they will publish the rest
in this collection, "Medo Clássico".
This video got very long,
I talked more than I should have
but I have this huge passion for Lovecraft
after I rediscovered him,
I have never stopped reading.
This edition by DarkSide is very neat
and it's an opportunity to have
everything Lovecraft wrote
by now there is only the first volume,
but adding future volumes as well
and it is easy to find
and I also wanted to do this vlog
because we are in October
the month of the witches
and we haven't talked much about horror yet
and also because I'm thinking
we here at Pipoca are thinking about
inaugurating a new series
talking about the importance of pulp authors
we did a vlog about Clark Ashton Smith recently
we did a vlog about 2001: A Space Odyssey
well accepted by the subscribers,
and people were asking for more
about pulp authors
we talk so much about it
and I said, you know what, I'll do a vlog
focusing on Lovecraft and his importance.
If you liked this vlog
I offer to do two more vlogs
one about comics that adapt Lovecraft's work
and movies as well
I may do a whole program
about Lovecraft in pop culture
and you know what would be nice to do as well?
A vlog like this one, talking about
the biography of Howard himself.
In this vlog I mentioned several connections
between Howard and Lovecraft
and they were so close friends
that after Howard's suicide
Howard's father wrote a letter to Lovecraft
talking about the last moments of his son's life
telling the misfortune, talking about
his son's last moments
so close were they
it's possible to do a nice connection
not only between Howard and Lovecraft
as well as other established masters
of pulp literature.
So here it is, my commitment to you,
Pipoca's commitment
perhaps Bruno and Daniel
embrace this initiative
and we can talk about Howard
as a second vlog of this new series.
What do you think? Comment below
tell us if you liked it
if you want to see this kind of vlog
if you want to see this kind of content at Pipoca.
Don't forget to subscribe to the channel
look me up on Instagram as well,
@alexandrecallari
and as the topic is horror
don't miss our latest release,
a great horror story
called Blood: A Tale
a wonderful vampire story by
J.M. de Matteis and Kent Williams
a transcendent graphic novel
with amazingly painted pages,
there are only good reviews on the internet
we're so happy and we really want to close the deal
for another work of de Matteis,
namely Moonshadow
but we depend on the success of Blood.
If you haven't bought it, get it know
because we need your support here.
Thanks for watching, that's it for today,
kisses to you all!
Subtitles by Stefanie Herzog
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