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A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #122 (December, 2006).
From 2006 through 2012 I was the "Off the Shelf" columnist for Knights of the Dinner Table, a magazine and comic book devoted to tabletop fantasy role paying games. I reviewed classic and modern fantasy, horror, and science fiction novels. Every October I tried to review a work of classic horror in honor of Halloween. I am trying to continue that tradition with my blog. You can find previous Halloween Reviews here.
After Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft is the most influential American horror author. A master of the short story form and one of Weird Tales most successful authors, his fiction heavily shaped the horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres. This influence is so pervasive and widespread that it often goes unremarked; few are aware, for example, of his correspondence with Robert Bloch, the author of Psycho. In fact, Stephen King wrote in Danse Macabre that Lovecraft's influence "overlies almost all of the important horror fiction that has come since."
Lovecraft was himself heavily influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, and Lord Dunsany, as well as Bulfinch’s Mythology and The Arabian Nights. Critical of his own work, Lovecraft considered much of his writing to be a simple pastiche of either Poe or Dunsany, though many reviewers would disagree. He shared their talent for atmosphere and other-worldliness, yet his prose has a distinct, decayed quality that one could never mistake for Poe’s genteel gothic manner or Dunsany’s formal fairy tale mode.
He was the center of an extensive circle of correspondents who read each others stories, suggested improvements, and even story ideas to each other. The group’s membership is a virtual whose who of early American science fiction and fantasy: Robert E. Howard (Conan), Fritz Lieber (Lankhmar), Robert Bloch (Psycho), August Derleth (founder of Arkham House), Clark Ashton Smith (the Averoigne stories), Frank Belknap Long (‘The Hounds of Tindalos’), and many others. Though his personal advice and insight was no doubt important, simply acting as the catalyst and center of this group, and thus bringing about a sort of critical mass of intellectual stimulation, would alone leave us in Lovecraft’s debt.
Lovecraft’s impact on role-playing games was early and extensive. Sahuagin and mind flayers were clearly inspired by Lovecraft, and the Cthulhu mythos was a much loved section in the original Deities and Demigods. Lovecraft’s direct influence is noted in his inclusion in the famous ‘inspiration’ list of the 1st edition Dungeon Master’s Guide, as well as being obvious in Gygax’s faux-archaic writing style. More directly, Lovecraft’s stories and concepts are clearly visible in the design of the ‘Chapel of Chaos’ found in B2 Keep on the Borderlands and the temple of WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. Most of the mythology Gygax built up around Tharizdun is Lovecraftian in concept. In deed, it is difficult to find an early AD&D module that doesn’t owe something to Lovecraft in tone, plot, or style. His influence extended beyond D&D into later role-playing games, the ‘Wyrm’ of White Wolf’s Werewolf: The Apocalypse game owes a great deal to Lovecraft.
Of course, while Lovecraft’s writing did more than inspire game designers, an entire game system was created to draw players into his uniquely horrifying visions. Call of Cthulhu, published in 1981 by Chaosium is considered a truly classic role-playing game, perhaps the best horror genre role-playing game ever. Its primary distinction is that player characters are as likely to go insane as they are to die, a touch unique to the game, and very true to Lovecraft’s themes and motifs.
Lovecraft’s stories are at once dream-like, horrifying and miasmic. He filled his prose with obscure, often difficult words and odd stylizations. In another writer this would be simple distraction, but for Lovecraft it serves to highlight the atmosphere of foreboding alienation that he believed was at the heart of all ‘weird’ fiction. Lovecraft’s central theme is that mankind’s role in the universe is so tiny, so ultimately irrelevant, that most would go insane simply to view his truth. The ultimate Lovecraftian horror is the perception of a vast, uncaring universe.
His protagonists are generally ignorant of the true nature of the horrors they face, and frequently fail to either end or escape the danger. His antagonists are nearly always other worldly, but if one looks close, they are seldom evil in any traditional or meaningful sense. They quite often destroy their victim without ever noticing that the victim is present.
Lovecraft’s his work cannot be truly classified as science fiction, as so much of it is based on philosophical and scientific nonsense. Moreover, he was very much a man of his time: his overt racism and sexism stains many of his stories so that even the protagonist is unpalatable to the modern reader. But his mastery of atmosphere and exploration of nihilism makes his work a profitable, sometimes enjoyable, and always eerie read nonetheless.
Black Seas of Infinity, published by the Science Fiction Book Club in September 2001, presents Lovecraft’s best stories, and the reader should not miss gems such as “The Mound”, “The Call of Cthulhu”, “The Shadow of Innsmouth”, or “At the Mountains of Madness.” Any of these provide wonderful ideas for the gamemaster and an hour or more of disturbed pleasure for the general reader, but the back of the book contains great value as well, in the appendices. Lovecraft’s “History of the Necronomicon” is a wonderful template for any powerful magical book, and the essays on his life and how to write fiction provide excellent advice for writers and gamemasters.
Despite his flaws Lovecraft is a founding father of modern fantasy and science fiction. If you haven’t yet read his works, find a nice, bright public spot with happy music and then sink into his prose.
