Eternal Lovecraft: The Persistence of HPL in Popular Culture by Jim Turner

Eternal Lovecraft: The Persistence of HPL in Popular Culture Reviews

• 
  Mir

  From the title, I was expecting this to be a nonfiction work examining the continuing influence of Lovecraft in horror. It's not. It's just another collection of Mythos-inspired short stories. So you know.
  
  "Her Misbegotten Son" by Alan Rodgers is set in Arkham and references several Lovecraft stories, including direct borrowing of characters from
  The Dreams in the Witch House. Although I don't think I've ever come across a significant child character in HPL? And the overall feels end up being not very Lovecraftian or, frankly, very interesting. To me, anyway; I can see this appealing to fans of those 70s and 80s horrors with evil seed offspring or violent demons and evisceration. I'm afraid it reminded me of what a recent editor called "Lovecraft Bingo" rather than engaging innovatively with the Mythos. And it was too long. 2 I-was-bored stars
  
  "Daoine Domhain" by Peter Tremayne combines Lovecraft's Deep Ones with Celtic Mythology in an epistolary story-within-a-story. It also captured the Lovecraftian feeling of inevitable doom; once the eldritch forces have touched your life the chances of saving yourself are slim and require determined action. 4 stars
  
  To Mars and Providence [War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches] (1996) by Don Webb is a sort of mash-up with War of the Worlds, a juvenile Lovecraft the main character. Cute, although the best elements were mostly lifted directly from HPL or Wells. Also, I found it oddly forgettable, perhaps because it is written as a sort of fever-dream (like actual dreams, I tend to find this fictional approach striking while reading, but hard to retain.) 3 stars
  
  Weird Tales (1984) by Fred Chappell. Lovecraft, Hart Crane, Samuel Loveman, Sterling Croydon, et al real personages feature in what at first seems like a fairly descriptive account of a milieu. Then it shifts into a story reminiscent of Lovecraft's
  From Beyond featuring Croydon as Tillinghast and Loveman as Unnamed Narrator. Then an account of Crane voyaging to Mexico by sea and killing himself on the way. I don't know how to rate this one because I don't know what Chappell was trying to do and I don't know enough detail of the lives of these poets to be sure which parts were fact and which made up. I tend to find using real people's alcohol problems, suicide, career failures etc in fiction disrespectful.
  
  The Land of the Reflected Ones (1995) by Nancy A. Collins. We all know from Lovecraft that messing around with eldritch tomes such as the Necronomicon is a consistently bad idea. Apparently the badness manifests even faster if you steal the book. I also liked how Collins gently mocked Lovecraft's snobbiness about Old, Important Families. Less bragging about genealogy, more careful reading of your magic books, would-be sorcerers! 4 stars.
  
  "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" by Thomas Ligotti is a strange, increasingly creepy folk-horror short story about a black stalk, an unfillable hole, the inhabitants of a small town strangely influenced... By the end I found it effective horror, but I have to force myself to keep reading because I found the ponderous prose style unappealing. 3 stars
  
  Harlan Ellison's "Sensible City" is almost inverse of Lovecraftian horror: people do the most horrible things, and sometimes there is retribution. (If the inescapable highway stop was a specific reference, I didn't get). 3.5 stars
  
  Ian R. MacLeod's novella set in ancient Roman Imperial Egypt was highly original and I appreciated how he clearly did lots of research and thought hard about how to fit it into the Mythos. It's a slow build to horror, and I admit I got a little bored before the end, but I still thought it one of the stronger stories. 4 stars
  
  Ron Goulart pens a sort of "mockumentary" biographic sketch of Lovecraft as be his secretary. High on quirk, low on equivalence. Not sure what the squirrels were about. 2 stars
  
  Stephen King's "Crouch End" is quite creepy and scary, although there was something about the horror that felt distinctly non-Lovecraftian to me.
  
  Typically Lupoff: Interesting concepts, wandering narration, no resolution. Needlessly long for something in which neither of the plot devices ends in any explanation. 3 stars
  
  Paula Volsky's "Giant Rat of Sumatra" is a Sherlock Holmes + Necronomicon story (why are there so many of these?!). Decent homage, but points off for promising a giant rat and not delivering it.
  3 stars.
  
  "Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole" (1977) by Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley is labelled "Frankenstein Universe" -- I'm not too familiar with these authors so I don't know if that's a larger project that this fits into. If so, it might be better for those who had read prior installments. I didn't find it bad, per se, but I felt... not engaged? And like the structure or pacing were off. 2.5 stars
  
  "The Other Dead Man" (1988) by Gene Wolfe is a not very Lovecraftian sci-fi story about a power struggle on a space ship. The ending is [spoiler if you've read "The Outsider"] directly lifted from a Lovecraft story but in a way that felt almost like a joke? I'm not sure why this story was in this volume...
  
  "The Events at Poroth Farm" (1972) by T. E. D. Klein was pretty Lovecraftian with it's backwards inbred rural people and New England intellectual protagonist researching in solitude and gradual perversion of nature. Although I don't think ailurophile HP would describe such nasty violence to cats on page -- even Ulthar is pretty indirect. I thought this was well done, although it dragged on rather too long. 4 stars, bumped up because it has the bonus of a reading list.
  
  "The Ocean and All Its Devices" (1994) by William Browning Spencer was a creepy, sad story. It reminded me of all those old poems and songs where someone makes a deal with the devil et al supernatural to get back a dead loved one. I thought the choice of narrating through a bystander who becomes involved was a good technique for withholding information. The bits with the innkeeper'd daughter led me to expect some additional horror that never manifested, so I don't know what that was included for, but still 3.5 stars.
  
  "A Bit of the Dark World" (1962) by Fritz Leiber is set in the rocky terrain of Southern California. [Personal aside: I've never understood why people, especially rich ones, wanted to live in inconveniently isolated locales where even getting groceries is hours of driving. What if you have a medical emergency or power outage or invasion by mysterious interdimensional beings?]
  Very interesting concepts. 4 stars
  There was a crack in [his] head and a little bit of the Dark World came through and pressed him to death. -- Kipling
  
  "The Perseids" (1995) by Robert Charles Wilson. A divorced man meets a young woman while buying a telescope. She dares not look through telescopes. She is also involved with some Bohemian types who bs about philosophy while experimenting with drugs. No one is likable, and things end badly. Obviously, because things always end bad in Lovecraftland. Some interesting ideas.
  Maybe our neighbors had already arrived, not in silver ships but in metaphysics, informing the very construction and representation of our lives... their intangible grammar--maybe this is the evidence they left us, a ruined archaeology of cognition, invisible because pervasive, inescapable: they are both here, in other words, and not here; they are us and not-us.
  I'd read this one before, although I don't recall where. 3.5 stars
• 
  John

  While browsing through the stacks of the local branch library, I stumbled upon this book. Between being a fan of the Lovecraft Mythos and wanting to read some short stories, I checked and out and began to read the book.
  
  The introduction was an interesting analysis of Lovecraft's fight against time and the evolution of the story "The Shadow Out of Time." Turner takes aspects of Lovecraft's life and applies it to the evolution of his work. Insightful and an intriguing read.
  
  I have broken down my review by short story, since each has its own flavor and stands well on their own. Together, they are a good representation of Lovecraftian fiction.
  
  **There may be spoilers below. Beware**
  
  I. Lovecraft Country
  
  "Her Misbegotten Son" by Alan Rodgers - The story definitely has a Lovecraftian feel to it. Set in Arkham and telling the story of a boy since we has given to county services, the story meanders yet has a creepy feel to it. The antagonists are threatening, but in the end, they are ultimately thwarted. At a great expense, but the story is actually more up beat than I may expect from this vein.
  
  "Daoine Domhain" by Peter Tremayne - Though this story is still set in New England, it also takes place in Ireland and gives it more of an isolated mystique to it. My favorite of the stories in the first section, the story is excellently told and helps display the inevitability of a Lovecraftian tale. Portents and legends have a life here you cannot stop.
  
  "To Mars and Providence" by Don Webb - My least favorite of the first set, I was immediately set off by H.P. Lovecraft as the main character of this story. Described as an awkward boy with an unhinged aunt, he finds himself in the middle of a Martian invasion and empathizing with the Martians. He is believed to be one of them, and they try to restore him to his rightful form.
  
  The story did not draw me in, and I did not feel particularly awed of horrified by it. They story did have an interesting twist, and it was just enough to pull me through the story. Do not despair and quit reading the book though. There is much more good stuff further on.
  
  II. Eldritch Influences
  
  "Weird Tales" by Fred Chappell - A mock biography of the visionary poet, Hart Crane, this story does involve H.P. Lovecraft as well. However, he is a peripheral character to help establish the possible reality of the story. Quirky and off, they story approaches the nature of space and time, and the characters are lead into oblivion. Nice piece.
  
  "The Land of the Reflected Ones" by Nancy A. Collins - A common joke among Lovecraft's readers is it is safer not to read any of the books in his Mythos. In this story, the lesson is once again enforced when a greedy man seeking the power of a long forgotten book is trapped in what he desires. A good twist for the end.
  
  "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" by Thomas Ligotti - Though suspenseful, the story fell flat for me near the end. Set in a rural town, they find that something has invaded their town making the seasons go out of wack. They keep to themselves about it, and in the end, it ends with the death of the person that accepted it the easiest. The story is still unexplained and leaves you wondering they why of it (also why it ended as well). Not a bad story. Just not well concluded.
  
  "Sensible City" by Harlan Ellison - How do I describe this story? You have two public officials who torture people, are tried for their crimes and go on the lamb. While they are running, they run into a town that moves about and devours people. Though creepy and definitely an appropriate fate for the characters, it is also very much out of left field for the setting (if not the for the book I was reading, it would more of a surprise). The characters are well done. They story well executed. The end just does not join as well with the beginning as I would have liked.
  
  "The Golden Keeper" by Ian R. MacLeod - I was surprised to find a story set in Roman Egypt in this anthology, but the narration kept me engaged and drew me in. Lucius Fabius has inherited his family estate only discover that his family was severely in debt. He manages to have the Empire send him to Egypt where he hopes to find some relic to deal with the creditors he left in Rome. In the process, he discovers ancient mysteries that predate the Egyptians. Through the course of the story, he becomes much like his father - corrupted and nihilistic.
  
  "Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir" by Ron Goulart - A mock biography about a writer named Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge, also referred to as RWH, I had the distinct feeling I was reading a parody biography of H.P. Lovecraft. It is definitely amusing and a nice change from the series notions of the other stories. Beware of the squirrels.
  
  "Crouch End" by Stephen King- Now, I have never read any Stephen King. Yeah, I know kind of strange nowadays, but I never felt the compulsion. However, I was not disappointed with this story. I was drawn into the setting and the characters. He was able to evoke empathy with a variety of characters and make you feel that there was definitely something wrong.
  
  "The Turret" by Richard A. Lupoff - I was immediately drawn in by this tale. The narrator is rather conversational, it is obvious that something is going on and is wrong with the area he is visiting. I was disappointed with the ending though. Yeah, it is common for characters to die at the end of these tales, but there were hooks left that left me wanting to know more about what was going on. Otherwise, the story was very engaging.
  
  "The Giant Rat of Sumatra" by Paula Volsky - A Sherlock Holmes tale, Volsky does a good job at maintaining the feeling of Holmes' deductive style and Dr. Watson's narrative style. The story is left at a reasonable conclusion, and it maintains enough suspense to keep one guessing. It is a nice addition to the anthology.
  
  "Black as the Pit, From Pole to Pole" by Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop -My usual tastes would have me dislike this story, but I found myself drawn into the it and following it closely throughout. Organized into ten parts, it starts each section citing incidents that are both fictional and real, blending the two together to make one hard to distinguish from the other. The second part follows the course of Frankenstein's monster after Victor Frankenstein dies. The piece combines facets of Lovecraft, Doyle and Verne into a seamless work. Well done!
  
  "The Other Dead Man" by Gene Wolfe - This story takes place in deep space, providing a much more science fiction feel to the story, which makes me think of HAL in 2001. However, it follows through well and keeps the reader involved. The end has a good twist to it as well. Though not my favorite story, it is strong in its own right.
  
  III. Cosmic Realms
  
  "The Events at Poroth Farm" by T. E. D. Klein -The story does well to capture many of the usual conventions of Lovecraftian fiction. The main character is an academic who is trying to retire to the countryside for the summer to devote himself to his reading. Through the course of the summer, an other possesses first the cat and then his hosts. The story is disturbing at points and helps promote an atmosphere of suspense. Definitely a good read.
  
  "The Ocean and All Its Devices" by William Browning Spencer - With a strong voice, the story tells of a hotel owner and the yearly visitations of the Franklins at their establishment. You are drawn into the story quickly, and you wonder what is up with the sea. The story examines how far you will go for those you love, and it does it rather well. A strong story all the way through.
  
  "A Bit of the Dark World" by Fritz Leiber - Though not a bad story, the long dialogues did not hold my attention as well in this story. There was a lot of discussion about the nature of reality and perception. The end was not very satisfying either. Though I understand someone dying at the end, I wonder why everyone did not die.
  
  "The Perseid" by Robert Charles Wilson - The story has a definite sense of Other to it, but I felt that the story diverged more from the Lovecraftian feel than the other stories. However, I am not saying it was a bad story. It is excellent wrought with well through out characters that develop with the story. The exploration of the theme is well done. It is an excellent story.
  
  Overall, I would recommend the Eternal Lovecraft to anyone interested in reading stories about the strange and otherworldly entities. There are many excellent stories in this anthology. Well done!
• 
  Dan

  Probably could have been five stars except the lead-off story by Rogers was so terribly written that I gave it up after about 15 pages. Not quite sure what Jim Turner had in mind when he compiled this collection, because with some of the stories it's a big stretch to see any specific relationship to Lovecraft. But some of them -- the Leiber, the Klein, the Wolfe, the MacLeod -- are each worth the price of admission.
• 
  Bryan Whitehead

  In his introduction – or at least the part of the introduction that actually introduces the book rather than musing pointlessly about “The Shadow Out of Time” – Jim Turner indicates that this will be the last time he helms an anthology of Lovecraftiana. I hope he keeps his promise. In the anthologies he edits – notably the Cthulhu 2000 anthology for Arkham House, though the trend clearly continues here – Turner makes it abundantly clear that he appreciates H.P. Lovecraft almost exclusively for his science fiction elements. The scorn he heaps on pastiches and homages to other aspects of Lovecraft’s work is more than evident in his deliberate selection of stories that at best deliberately mock the standard “Yog Sothery” and at worst serve as earnest but exceptionally poor examples thereof. This bias may be particularly keenly noted in the second section of this tome, which features all too many awkward combinations of Lovecraftian themes with more widely-known cultural clichés – ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Frankenstein’s monster – that go together with a distinct you-got-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate flavor. Thus the only part of the book where Turner may be taken in earnest is in the final four stories. And even here I have to wonder if I would have liked “The Perseids” a little less if I wasn’t an astronomy buff or enjoyed “The Events at Poroth Farm” a bit more if T.E.D. Klein as an author didn’t always seem to find a way to get on my last damn nerve (though to be fair he's a gifted editor). Though fans will be entertained by at least some of the HPL-influenced work included herein, this isn’t exactly a must-have volume for collectors of the sub-genre.
• 
  Williwaw

  I'm setting this at one star because I have only read the intro and the first story. If I get around to reading more, I'll add to this review.
  
  The introduction sets forth some of Lovecraft's own principles of story-telling and raises The Shadow Out of Time as the paradigmatic example of such principles.
  
  But the first story ("Her Misbegotten Son", by Alan Rodgers) utterly violates those principles. It is wretched and pulpy, with guns blazing and blood spraying everywhere. Oh, and we've got some Holy Water in the mix! I can't fathom what motivated the editor to include this nearly comical (and arguably disrespectful) rip-off of Lovecraftian tropes. It's especially puzzling, because this is the first entry, which should set the tone for what's to come.
• 
  Mouse

  Some good stories, but mostly bad ones...
  honestly, it just feels sort of uninspired and muted. It’s a shame, I really want to like this, but it’s hard to get into.
  It’s a weird format for a book too as it seems it’s not sure what it is...
• 
  Doug

  After awhile, you learn the shape and taste of these collections, you wear the scars of them, you tell war stories about the nadirs and peaks of them, these "nearly the kitchen-sink" style anthologies of tales Lovecraftian, quasi-Weird, and sometimes only a bit odd. The relative twist in this tale being that Eternal Lovecraft comes from the late-90s, now halcyon days when a smattering of devotees on alt.horror.cthulhu could actually keep up with all such collections, and being, as it were, of a different time, it offers some strange insights into what might be called Lovecraftian-then, versus the Lovecraftian-now.
  
  I read this collection in the wrong order, by which I mean that I read the stories I knew to be good, first, and then the rest after, and, gentle reader, one should not do this. Jim Turner, also of Cthulhu 2000 fame, has chosen the wise path of padding the poor with the delightful, which I spoiled in my non-euclidean ways. Apologies to him, and apologies to me because it meant I had to slog through the latter half of the book, which was a mix of the former half and sundry between.
  
  First, though, the great. Alan Rodgers (recently passed) has "Her Misbegotten Son", something like an 80s over-the-top action movie sequel to "Dreams in the Witchhouse". You can just feel the Stan Winston effects. Thomas Ligotti's "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" is a well-mooded piece that is available, used, here cheaper than probably anywhere else (even cheaper than the ebook). Ron Goulart's "Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir" is silly in a way I appreciated while Robert Charles Wilson's "The Perseids" has an intriguing philosophy. Perhaps the two shining highlights of the book are T.E.D. Klein's "The Events of Poroth Farm" and Fritz Leiber's "A Bit of the Dark World", both snuggled into the last quarter of the book.
  
  On the next notch down you have Stephen King's "Crouch End", Nancy A. Collins' "The Land of the Reflected Ones", and William Browning Spencer's "The Ocean and All Its Devices". And then the rest. From a-little-too-pastiche to passionless to a bit weirdly structured—Harlan Ellison's "Sensible City" feels like a teleologically driven rush to a dream-like sequence while Gene Wolfe's "The Other Dead Man" has language prone to weird starts and stops and struggles to hit a rhythm—and sometimes all three. Not all is crap, less than half is actually, truly poor, but many left me cold.
  
  I am a little confused by the absence of Ramsey Campbell in a book that includes Stephen King's "Crouch End" (despite the Lovecraft name-drops, a perfectly Campbellian pastiche) and a story from a collection of Campbell inspired stories. I am also confused, and maybe more so, that a book trying to demonstrate the "persistence of HPL in popular culture" did not swing a bit wider in scope. Many of the included are in the auspice of the "post-Lovecraftian". I suppose it might have wrecked what structured mood there is to have tried wider, but perhaps a missed opportunity.
• 
  Megan

  Lukewarm at best-- only a couple of stories actually worth reading, poor editing, and a random essay on one of Lovecraft's stories in place of an introduction. The worthwhile pieces in this can be found in other, better collections. Skip this one.
• 
  Tena

  A great anthology. Not all of these are particularly Lovecraftian, but they are all good. Also, most of them are not ideal for reading just before bed.
• 
  Mark

  Stellar collection proves Lovecraft influence over horror writers in 20th century. Eldritch horrors shamble onwards!
• 
  Jon

  Subtler than most of these collections.