I switched on the TV today with the intention to listen to music through the PS3 while I did some editing. The TV had other plans and switched onto a normal TV channel first rather than straight to the HDMI input the PS3 runs through. Normally this is annoying because then I search for ten minutes looking for where Xander hid the TV remote, but today it was a blessing because on the channel the TV was on was a documentary about HP Lovecraft.
I didn’t know it was about Lovecraft immediately. At first I stopped my search for the remote because there was a familiar face on the screen.
“Wait a sec, that guy looks a hell of a lot like Neil Gaiman.” I say to myself, then look properly. Yep, that’s either Neil Gaiman – one of my idols – or his evil twin. I sit down to listen to what Neil has to say (because I always listen to what Neil has to say) and realise he’s talking about Lovecraft.
Then the show cuts to Guillermo Del Toro talking about Lovecraft. I throw any thoughts of working on editing “Short Circuit” on the back burner and proceed to sit down and watch the show, occasionally facebooking how excited I am (because I’m sad like that I guess).
The documentary was Lovecraft: Fear of The Unknown and it was great to hear such amazing writers talking about stories I loved and a few I haven’t read yet (got to get my hands on “The Dunwich Horror”).
It might seem odd for someone generally not into horror to be a fan of HP Lovecraft, but there’s something magnetic about his writing.
I think reading Lovecraft it was made me so fond of chimeric beasts. If you’ve ever read his description of Cthulu then you can see why so many of even the everyday creatures that populate the world of my latest novel (working title Keys, Clocks, Quests) are chimeric in nature. Some are cute, others just odd and of course some horrific. I dream of having the talent to be able to sketch their images straight out of my brain.
Neil also mentioned a story he wrote in the Cthulu-verse, “Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar” which I now HAVE to track down because how can I not want a combination of Lovecraft and Gaiman?
I also need to get a hold of the whole documentary since I came in about halfway through.
Oh to be wealthy enough to just buy all of this stuff now.
Now added to wishlist:
- Documentary Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown
- The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories (contains The Dunwich Horror and will match my existing ‘Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories’ book)
- And oh my god as I’ve gone to find a link to how I can buy Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar I found a voice recording of Neil himself reading it out, as if I’m not already on the verge of passing out from repeated writerly nerdgasms ;p Still going to find a legitimate way to purchase it, but I’ll just listen to this first and float in pure bliss for a while.
Is there an unusual author you’re driven to distraction by? Whose writing is magnetic for you? Are you completely horrified by my crazy outburst of fangirl full-frontal nerdity(I’m surprised I’ve kept it hidden this long)?
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