Help with a New Dynasty - Would you Read It?

[Abe Sargent]

I am thinking about a new dynasty, here is what I would do:

I love the Cthulhu Mythos, and the scads of short stories. For those who are unaware, the Cthulthu Mythos is a group of hooror stires that all involve the same world view, philosophy, and some of the same background. The fictional city of Arkham, the fictional county of Essex Couty, Massachusetts, the fictional Miskatonic River or Miskatonic University, books like the Necronomicon, Des Vermiis Mysteris, and Unnaspraclichen Kulten and beings like Cthuluh, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurth and Tsathagguhoa.

These short stories are done by a wide collection of authors and revolve around the writings of H.P Lovecraft, who is generally regarded as the best American horror writter of the 20th century and by many academics as the second best American writer of all time after Poe.


My readings for the past eight years revolve around the Cthulhu Mythos, and it is the greatest shared world, in my experience, in literature. This is old school horror, nothing modern about it.

I have recently been wanting to go back and reread the old earlier Mythos stories, especially Lovecraft.

Here is what the dynasty would entail. I would begin by posting the next story I intend to read and a link to it online if there is one. I would then wait for a day or two and then post my review. This would give any readers a chance to read the story with me, and then see my synopsis and review. Luckily, in many cases, these stories are available online, and I would link to them when they are.

I can see this dynasty being useful for the following types of people:

1). Those who have read Lovecraft or Mythos stories and would like to revisit them along with me, and read my reviews and whatnot for nostalgia purposes.

2). Those who have always been interested in reading these stories and would like this as a primer to show what to expect, or where to start.

3). Those who are interested in a guide to the Mythos. Reading the Cthulhu Mythos can be dauting, because after the first story, there is no obvious place to go. This would provide a guide.

4). Those who like horror literatiure in general and just want to occasionally read review and have a erference in case they ever want to read the stories. The Mythos stories are key horror stories, and include among their number some of the most influential works in the entire horror short story genre.

5). Those who like to be well rounded individuals with a solid amount of knowledge about a lot of topics and looking for info on these stories.

6). Those who just like to read dynasties.

EDIT 7). Forgot this group: Those who have read Lovecraft, but want to see what else is out there in his Mythos.


This would be a fairly work intensive dynasty for me, so frankly, I don;t want to start if there's not much interest. If you would be interested in reading such a dynasty, I'd be pleased to present it to you. Just let me know in the pool above.

-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

There doesn;t seem to be any way to edit the poll so I just want to point out, before some fellow Cthulhu Mythos fan points it out to me, that the text of the third option sould correctly read

Ia! Trout F'htagn! Ia!


I mispelled the word after Trout. Sorry.

[Groundhog]

Count me in. I heart Lovecraft.

[Grammaticus]

Bring on the Ancient Ones!

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks GH!

I know some people may be wondering who this Lovecraft character is and why the Cthulhu Mythos is so special. This isn't some shared universe like Star Wars or Forgotten Realms where the writers are less than stellar.

The list of people who list Lovecraft as one of their primse influnces, or who have actually written in the Cthulhu Mythos includes peoples like Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, John Carpenter, and Robert Bloch. The top people in their fields acknowledge and recognize the contributions and influence of Lovecraft

[Grammaticus]

Originally Posted by Anxiety

Thanks GH!

I know some people may be wondering who this Lovecraft character is and why the Cthulhu Mythos is so special. This isn't some shared universe like Star Wars or Forgotten Realms where the writers are less than stellar.

The list of people who list Lovecraft as one of their primse influnces, or who have actually written in the Cthulhu Mythos includes peoples like Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, John Carpenter, and Robert Bloch. The top people in their fields acknowledge and recognize the contributions and influence of Lovecraft

Don't forget the originator of the fantasy genre, who corresponded with Lovecraft regularly

Robert E. Howard

You should try some of Howards Horror stories too.

[Abe Sargent]

Oh yeah, Howard too, and tons of others like Harlan Ellison and Roger Zelaznyand Brian Lumley and Clive Barker and Ramsey Campbell and Clark Ashton Smith and Frank Belknap Long and Alan Dean Foster and Lawrence Watt-Evans and Phillip Jose Farmer and much more.

[WVUFAN]

Originally Posted by Grammaticus

Don't forget the originator of the fantasy genre, who corresponded with Lovecraft regularly

Robert E. Howard

You should try some of Howards Horror stories too.

Did Howard ever write any shorts in the Lovecraftian worlds?

[Abe Sargent]

Absolutely, he's one of the key early authors. In detail, his stories revolve around Von Junzt and a work I mentioned above called Un. Kult. (Nameless Cults in German).

[Honolulu_Blue]

I'd be interested. I loves me some Lovecraft.

I went through a big Lovecraft phase back in 01-02 or so. I actually used to help run a "Call of Cthulhu" RPG tournament at GenCon for a few years.

Slightly off-topic, any fans of Lovecraft who enjoy boardgames, I would highly, very highly reccommend investing in the "Arkham Horror" boardgame by Fantasy Flight. It's an excellent boardgame, one of the best I've played.

It's pretty simple, each player is an "investigator" in Arkham and they are all working together to prevent one of the big bads from Cthulhu mythos from awaking. Solid pieces, great game play, and a ton of fun. It's nice because everyone is working together and the "monsters" pretty much run themselves.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/arkhamhorror.html

[TroyF]

Lovecraft rules.

[KWhit]

I've never read any Lovecraft but have always wanted to, so yes, I'd be down for this.

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks! Remember all, you wouldn't have to read the stories, you could read my review and synopsis. It would just be available for those interested.

[Abe Sargent]

Let's try it out for a bit and see how it goes, like a demo or a trial version of a game.


http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...01#post1223201

[KWhit]

I'd like to request that spoilers be clearly marked in some way, please. I want to start to read some of these and don't want them ruined.

Obviously, I'd avoid reading the synopsis of the story, but in other places it would be good to note the spoilers. Thanks!

[Abe Sargent]

Absolutely, absolutely. I had every intention of doing this, and I'd appreicate it if otehrs did the same