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143 lines
6.3 KiB
143 lines
6.3 KiB
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me"><h1>Julio Biason .Me 4.3</h1></a> |
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<p class="lead">Old school dev living in a 2.0 dev world</p> |
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<h1 class="post-title">The Complete Collection - H.P. Lovecraft</h1> |
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<span class="post-date"> |
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2014-11-29 |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/books/">#books</a> |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/h-p-lovecraft/">#h.p. lovecraft</a> |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/reviews/">#reviews</a> |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/horror/">#horror</a> |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/stars-1/">#stars:1</a> |
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/published-2002/">#published:2002</a> |
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<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50029451-h-p-lovecraft">GoodReads Summary</a>: |
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The weird fiction short stories of H.P. Lovecraft from 1917-1935. Excludes |
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collaborations.</p> |
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<p>The eBook’s table of contents is listed below. It includes the year each story |
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was written.</p> |
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<span id="continue-reading"></span><div> |
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★☆☆☆☆ |
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<p>I'll spoil my impressions of this book with two phrases, which will surely |
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make some Lovecraft fans really angry:</p> |
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<p>Lovecraft loved to write, but not tell stories.</p> |
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</li> |
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<p>Lovecraft got paid by the word, and he really liked the money.</p> |
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</ol> |
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<p>But before you come with pitchforks and torches to get me, let me explain the |
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whole affair.</p> |
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<p>First off, the first story of the book is "At the Mountains of Madness" |
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(because all stories are in their alphabetical order) and it really rubbed me |
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in the wrong way: It does a good job setting the ambient for the story but |
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when it reaches its crux, it starts to dragging down and the story pace goes |
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really <em>really</em> slow, because at this point, Lovecraft decides that almost all |
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-- if not all -- substantives must have a proper adjective. This doesn't help |
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the pace at all. It's like a murder scene, when the murderer appears behind |
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the poor girl and slowly walks towards her, except he's on the other side of |
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the house and the whole thing is in slow motion. At the end, you start to hope |
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that the murderer runs and kills the girl already, because the suspense is |
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already over and the thing is already dragging itself out.</p> |
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<p>"But that's just ONE story!" you may cry. I agree with you in that, except the |
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pattern appears everywhere. "Nameless sound", "sinister with latent horror", |
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"clock's abnormal ticking". It goes on and on and on, apparently trying to |
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scare you with adjectives instead of the story itself. There are so many of |
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those dragging the pace down that I felt asleep more than once reading the |
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book. Yes, you read it right: A book about horror stories put me to sleep. |
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Also, it was the first time in my whole life that I got tired of reading; no, |
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I didn't got mentally exhausted, I didn't get physically tired; I got <em>tired |
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of reading</em>. It was the opposite of what I felt when I finished reading "Lord |
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of the Rings": When the story ended, I wanted to read more; with Lovecraft, I |
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wanted to read <em>less</em>.</p> |
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<p>Also, in general, Lovecraft managed to create his own little universe where |
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his stories float around. Most authors would get this universe and expand it |
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further and further, but Lovecraft manages to make the incredible feature of |
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never expanding the universe, to the point that more stories actually |
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<em>diminish</em> the universe instead of expanding it.</p> |
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<p>Not only the stories are not superb, but the editing leaves a lot to be |
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desired. There are two or three stories written by Lovecraft in his |
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childhood/early teens, which seem to be added to tell that Lovecraft loved to |
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write since the early ages, but they are put without any editing or even |
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grammatical checking, which does more harm to the author than help him.</p> |
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<p>Not that all stories are bad, some are good. But they are drowned in the world |
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of stories that go nowhere that they are the exception instead of the rule.</p> |
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<p>In the end, you can think of this: You have heard about "Necronomicon", you |
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probably heard about "Cthulu", you may have heard about the "Old Ones" -- and |
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that's probably it. Of about 2000 pages of stories and a lot more words, only |
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4 got beyond Lovecraft stories.</p> |
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