Lost Carcosa

How does one find any joy in life after being completely cut off from their child? Or find any self worth when the child they love is being told that she is better off with out him in her life? How does one find the heart to carry on?

I guess thats three questions…

What would H.P. Lovecraft do? (WWHPLD?) Maybe he’s not the best of role models having been quite the racist misogynist. He’d probably say its best to just shut out the world.

How about Robert E. Howard?

Howard’s writings reveal that he planned to go out while young and in the prime of health. Friends recall him defending the act of suicide as a valid alternative as early as eighteen years old, while many of his stories and poems have a suicidal gloom and intensity that seem prescient in hindsight, describing such an end not as a tragedy but as a release from hell on earth. -Wikipedia-

hmm… maybe not. He took a .38 to his head.

Maybe Ambrose Bierce? Mr. Bierce decided that being a gringo in revolutionary Mexico was a great way to go as you can see to his last letter to his niece:

Good-bye — if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico — ah, that is euthanasia! -Ambrose Bierce- -Wikipedia-

Theres always Iraq. My only reason for not going is gone. I have no one here to worry over me, and no one to keep myself safe for. It sounds tempting, quite tempting actually… except for the heat… and I’d fall really far behind on my daily web comic reading over there. The bullets? meh…

So, what would Poe do? That one I’m pretty sure I can answer.

Bottoms up! Not a bad idea, but it tends to lower my scores on the Physical Fitness tests.

Arthur Machen seems to have the healthiest of answers. After the death of his wife, Machen, with the support of a friend, joined The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. While this didn’t last long, a sudden change of career to that of acting, and with it much traveling, led to a second happy marriage.

Sounds good, but I like Massachusetts too much to move, and I have too many bills to give up the salary of my computer career.

So whats a Joe gonna do? I have no idea. I guess that leaves scouring the web for more Lovecraft and friends news, info, and historical tidbits to post on LostCarcosa.net!

I like comics.  I also like Horror and Lovecraft.  In my scouring of the web, I happened to come across an article at Vanguard on Dark Horse artist Todd Herman and his thoughts on comics and it’s art.  Scanning this article I came across this line:

Currently, he just finished a work called On the Surf Tortured Shore, a short-form comic about Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft walking down a beach–very apropos to Herman’s taste and artistic style.

You can find Scott’s site at this link, and by clicking the “Lovecraft” menu item at the left, you’ll find a link to the “On the Surf Tortured Shore” at the bottom of the main screen.  Or you can click here.

Ectomo has found an excellent short video entitled “The Cat with Hands”; a story about a cat trying to become human.  Ectomo says E.A. Poe, but my first thought was Lovecraftian.  Either way, its definitely fits into the Weird tales genre.  I found the video to be creepy, dark, somewhat disturbing, and highly enjoyable.

Watch the video at Ectomo.

If for some reason, you are unable to find any Lovecraft in your local book stores, libraries, or are just unwilling to spend the money for the books, you can find Lovecraft’s writings online. Granted you won’t find all of them, nor are you likely to find insightful words from S.T. Joshi to accompany the stories you find, but you can a good amount of his stories published online.

One of those locations is AmericanLiterature.com (H.P. Lovecraft)

There, you will also find the works of :

• Ambrose Bierce, author of the “An Inhabitant of Carcosa”
• Algernon Blackwood, of whom Lovecraft wrote “He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere”, and considered Blackwood’s “The Willows” to be one of the best strange tales ever written.
• Edgar Allen Poe, famed horror master.
• Salem local, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• Rudyard Kipling, one of my favorite authors.
• And many, many more.

You’ll also find these authors at ProjectGutenberg.org. While you’re there, you can look up Arthur Machen, proclaimed to be one of the four “modern masters” of supernatural horror by H.P. Lovecraft.

Edgar Allan Poe, American short story writer and poet extraordinaire, was born this day, January 19, in 1809 in good ol’ Boston, Massachusetts!

Happy Birthday Poe!

Grim Reviews has found an animated version of E.A. Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Who says you’re too old for morning cartoons?  What better way to start a day, than with some animated suspense and horror?

Go watch it over at Grim Reviews.

I finally managed to get myself sitting long enough to watch one of the many movies on my shelves that I haven’t yet watched. (Hopefully I can do the same with the books…) This weekend, it was Stuart Gordon’s adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” for the Masters of Horror series.

First off, the visuals were great. They talk about the visuals in the “making of” featurette, cleverly titled, “The Tell-tale Cat”. The usage of old-fashioned washed-out colors with vibrant color to highlight bits looked great and did a great job setting the atmosphere. The scenes were shot well, and the special effects were not all that bad. The part with the eyeball was great.

Jeffrey Combs did an excellent job playing the deranged E.A. Poe, grandson of General David Poe, Hero of the Revolution. Not only does he look a good deal like Poe, but he oes a great job playing the part of a man going insane. Hi co-stars also did an excellent job playing their parts as well.

Where the film feels off is the way it flips back and forth between Poe and Virginia. Madness, sooth the girl, madness, sooth the girl. Its just a bit annoying at times.

Aside from that point, I highly recommend seeing it for the visuals, the excellent acting, and the entertaining quality of the movie. If I had half scores, I’d give it a 3.5. It was a good entertaining film with excellent visuals and acting, and a must have for the avid Gordon or Poe collector.

I can’t believe I’m a day late on this, but yesterday, Jan 19th, was Edgar Allan Poe’s 198th Birthday!

Fangoria Radio, hosted by Dee Snider, just did a little tribute the the late author, with an interview with Lovecraft fan and film maker Stuart Gordon, and many other horror movie related people. The show aired last night at 10pm - 1am, but will have a repeat show for those of you who happen to be able to listen to Sirius Satellite Radio or have subscribed to Fangoria Radio via the Internet.

Happy 198th, Mr. Poe!