The Lovecraft Geek Podcast 19-002

The Lovecraft Geek

Do you think that Lovecraft might have returned to straight science writing had he lived longer? Do you think a story can have a strong dose of humor in it and still be Lovecraftian? Wasn’t HPL’s grandfather quite wealthy? How did Lovecraft wind up dying of malnutrition because he couldn't afford the basic necessities of life? I'm contemplating writing an dramatic staged musical adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu. What aspects of the story do you think most ought to be explored, especially ones that might be done well though music or song such as in an opera? And is there anything about this story in particular that you think many people seem to miss? I am looking for your recommendation on how to accomplish my goal of reading the entire mythos in the proper chronological order. Besides Robert Bloch, what other writers did HPL directly influence/tutor? What are your thoughts on authors weaving The Mythos into a larger “continuity” of real or imagined philosophies and religions in a historical context? Have you come across Japanese cartoon movies on Lovecraftian themes? Like "Mysteries of the Necronomicon"? In Charles Dexter Ward is supposed to be somehow embodied in the painting, or inhabiting it, until his resurrection? It seems the calling up of Curwen could well take place without it (Charles has the remains; the text implies that he reduces them to ‘saltes’ and then calls Curwen up from them). I’ve heard you discuss a narrative discrepancy in ‘The Shadow over Innsmouth’ – the narrator’s clear horror and loathing of Innsmouth and the Deep Ones, against the fact that by the end of the tale, he’s pretty much rejoicing in becoming a Deep One himself! I have never seen this as a problem... It’s only in the final two paragraphs that the narrator’s view changes, and it’s quite a drastic shift. I think it’s intentional. I hope you might consider making a Robert E. Howard Geek-podcast or just a podcast about anything related to Weird Tales in general. Could you elaborate a bit on the relationship between HPL and REH? Who contacted who first? What did they talk about? What was their common ground? For how long did they correspond and so on. You mentioned once that even though S.T. Joshi and Lin Carter were friendly, they were also kinda opposites. Can you elaborate a bit on this?