On this day one hundred and twenty five years ago, Howard Phillip Lovecraft came into the world. This is a tribute and more rambling thoughts on the man's work.
I'd like to say I first discovered the man's mythos in a dank New England library by the sea, where a wall eyed man thrust a bound and locked copy of the Necronomicon into my hands before muttering prayers to the Old Ones.
The truth is I didn't actually read anything of his until I was well into my twenties. I had seen the name, but mostly on video box titles in the local shops. Delving deeper into horror, it was hard to avoid references or praise to the man's work as everyone from King to Gaiman have made mentions of him.
The first two stories I properly read were something though, and they served a fine introduction to cosmic horror. "Rats in the Walls" and "the Call of Cthulhu" were both gripping yarns, although the rest of his work didn't light up my mind like Howard's did. Lovecraft's academic New England protagonists wore thin after a while, not to mention the racism.
Still; and one of this odd "I like the idea more than the work itself" things that bubbles up every now and then, I did grow to enjoy the Cthulhu Mythos. So crack open a tin of beans, scoop some vanilla ice cream afterwards, and enjoy a good book.
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