Tag: H. P. Lovecraft Mentioned

[LOVECRAFT] Dagon

On By Cullen M. M. WatersIn Stories2 Comments

Spoilers for a short story that is over a hundred years old. Why haven’t you read it yet? It’s free on the internet!

Dagon is one of the first stories H. P. Lovecraft wrote as an adult. It is both typical and atypical of his Horror work. Typical in that its protagonist goes where he shouldn’t and is driven to suicidal madness. Atypical because the protagonist is he really doesn’t deserve his fate, as he doesn’t seek out what he finds.

Quick summary:

It’s World War I and the Germans have captured the main character’s boat. Not wanting to be a prisoner of war he escapes in a life boat. After floating aimlessly for some time an underseas eruption hurls what passes for an island up from the ocean floor. This imprisons his boat, forcing him to explore his environment. In this exploration he not only discovers that there are titanic fish people in the world but also get to see one up close. His escape from the situation leaves him mad, and, believing himself pursued by the fish man, writes his tale down before the fish man comes for him and he’s forced to kill himself.

All of this, is told in the first person from our protagonist’s perspective. There is a very slight chance we can interpret the whole thing as the ravings of a mad man. The ending helps in this regard, as it’s hard to believe that a desperate man would keep writing as a titanic fish person fumbles open his apartment door.

Outside of the ending and the reoccurring problem that Lovecraft thinks his readers are as well read as he is, the story is pretty good. I’ve seen it compared a lot to Call of Cthulhu, but in fairness it’s not trying to lift the same weights Call is going for. It does it’s job. It may not be one of his bests, but it sure isn’t one of his worst. Especially worth considering is how early it is in his career.

Not a favorite, but I reread it now and then.

[Month of Horror] Rood/Eldritch Code

On By Cullen M. M. WatersIn A Month of Horror, Short FilmLeave a comment

I don’t have a lot of luck with Short Horror films. They tend to be basic, built around a single moment or scare. When they’re good, they’re very good. When they’re not… they tend to be a waste of time.

But an under an hour waste of time. So it’s hard to complain.

ROOD

Rood tells the story about a man trying to summon a writer through a door. That’s… it. It was an award winning flick, and it’s not badly made. Acting’s fine, it might be a wee bit over directed.

Where we get into problems is with the story. Outside of a book of Lovecraft stories shown in passing, we have no real idea what’s going on. The man has a camera set up, so he wants to record something, but what he hopes to achieve we don’t know. It all wraps up with a jump scare that really doesn’t work.

This isn’t the first time I’ve come across an award winning Horror flick that failed to move me. Wonder what I’m missing.

I’m going to say a low good (1.5) because outside the story its not terrible or anything. Personally, though, I kind of just didn’t care (1.0).

2.5 out of 4

ELDRITCH CODE

An IT guy tries to stop a virus from infecting his company’s computers. A virus named Cthulhu, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Eldritch Code works far better than Rood. It has more characters, a plot that makes a degree of sense, and while not earthshakingly directed really not bad.

It wears its roots on its sleeves, and while I don’t think it meshes with what Lovecraft wrote, it feels more like a Lovecraft story than Rood did. It’s ending also is less than satisfying, but not, I think, enough to ruin things.

Another low good (1.5), but I liked it a little more (1.5). It’s a part of an anthology series on You Tube called Dust and it made me curious enough to subscribe to see what else they come up with.

So job well done.

3 out of 4

[Site] Blathering As Writing Practice

On By Cullen M. M. WatersIn Site InformationLeave a comment

Every week I need to post something.

It’s to encourage me to write. To make time in my “busy schedule” to write.

There are two problems with this.

Problem number one is that I don’t always think of something to write about. It happens.

I also sometimes think “This would be a good post” while at work, then when I come home wonder what I was thinking. Or the key to what I want to write is gone. Or I no longer have enough time to work on the project.

On the one hand you can’t force something into being. On the other hand, that’s just an excuse not to write.

Instead of doing what I was thinking of, I could write something I hadn’t. Do a stream of conscious thing. Let the words flow. The important thing is that I’m writing, and that the writing flows more or less logically from one point to the next.

That’s what this post is an attempt at doing. Super effective so far.

Problem number two really isn’t a problem. I actually am writing. I’m working on novel notes. Character work, world work, story work. Stuff I should have done years ago. Stuff I’ve been fiddling with for the past two years.

This, however, does nothing for the blog. And I am now paying good money for this blog.

Same holds true for the review site. For over a year I’ve been paying for it, and not once have I posted a review.

Put that aside for now.

All of this is a long winded way of saying I need to do something about it A bit of writing that interests me that I can post on site that I don’t force myself to do. Yet I actually force myself to do. If you can dig it.

An idea I’ve been toying with is doing a sort of review of The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft. Not of the collection, though, but the stories therein, starting with Dagon. They might not be long reviews. They might not be thoughtful. I might even skip some or all of the other tales. But I’ve had some thoughts rereading Old Providence, and maybe that would be worth fiddling with.

Connected to this thought (seriously, there is a link) I’ve been mulling over talking about a revelation I’ve had dealing with The Cask of Amontillado. Over the years this has become one of my favorite of Poe’s works, and I have a thing or two to say about it. Maybe not the most original of things. A fact that has stopped no writer from blathering before.

I have also figured out just why Godzilla keeps coming to shore at Japan. And there’s my little Anime Theory of Godzilla that simply must be aired.

I could, of course, mention the worst short story I’ve ever written. Seriously, knowing it’s existence is such a weight off my chest. Everything after it has been so much better because of it. The only problem here is that to do it justice (ha!) I have to reread it. A task I’m not certain I’m up to.

Oh dear God, is it bad.

As I’m restarting the site, I could revamp or rework some old school series. The Hell… ?! comes to mind on that, though I’ve not hit too many bizarre situations that warrant that title.

Well, except for the plagiarist who, in the process of apologizing for her theft, plagiarized an essay about plagiarism from I believe a magazine dealing with plagiarism. Something that is… Well it’s kinda… The Hell… ?!

And so on and so forth. The ideas are there. And next week I hope to do one of them.

Of course, I could again rattle on as I’m doing now. To be honest this stream of thought experiment hasn’t been a bad thing, all things considered. It just has to be on a subject that isn’t what I might be writing about.

That leaves potential things I might draw as fair game. Or not.

Anyways, see you next Friday. Or sooner. Or later. Whenever I plant myself here and write.