Who is H.P. Lovecraft?

Question

I watched the movie "Dagon" that came on the Sci Fi channel, it was one of the most suprisingly original and different scifi/horror movie I've ever seen. It says it was based on the writings of H.P Lovecraft. Who is he, where did he get the inspiration for the movie, and is there anymore like this?

Answer 1

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of fantasy, horror and science fiction, noted for combining these three genres within single narratives. Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, but his works have become very important and influential among writers and fans of modern horror fiction. He has become a cult figure in the horror genre and is noted as creator of the Cthulhu Mythos as well as the famed Necronomicon.

Lovecraft's fiction has been grouped into three categories by some critics. While Lovecraft did not refer to these categories himself, he did once write, "There are my 'Poe' pieces and my 'Dunsany pieces' — but alas — where are my Lovecraft pieces?"

Macabre stories (approximately 1905–1920)
Dream Cycle stories (approximately 1920–1927)
Cthulhu Mythos/Lovecraft Mythos stories (approximately 1925–1935)
Some critics see little difference between the Dream Cycle and the Mythos, often pointing to the recurring Necronomicon and subsequent "gods". A frequently given explanation is that the Dream Cycle belongs more to the genre of fantasy, while the Mythos is science fiction.

Much of Lovecraft's work was directly inspired by his nightmares, and it is perhaps this direct insight into the unconscious and its symbolism that helps to account for their continuing resonance and popularity. All these interests naturally led to his deep affection for the works of Edgar Allan Poe, who heavily influenced his earliest macabre stories and writing style. Lovecraft's discovery of the stories of Lord Dunsany moved his writing in a new direction, resulting in a series of imitative fantasies in a "Dreamlands" setting. It was probably the influence of Arthur Machen, with his carefully constructed tales concerning the survival of ancient evil, and his mystic beliefs in hidden mysteries which lay behind reality, that finally helped inspire Lovecraft to find his own voice from 1923 onwards.

This took on a dark tone with the creation of what is today often called the Cthulhu Mythos, a pantheon of alien extra-dimensional deities and horrors which predate humanity, and which are hinted at in aeon-old myths and legends. The term "Cthulhu Mythos" was coined by Lovecraft's correspondent and fellow author, August Derleth, after Lovecraft's death; Lovecraft jocularly referred to his artificial mythology as "Yog-Sothothery".

His stories created one of the most influential plot devices in all of horror: the Necronomicon, the secret grimoire written by the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. The resonance and strength of the Mythos concept have led some to incorrectly conclude that Lovecraft had based it on pre-existing myths or occult beliefs. Faux editions of the Necronomicon have also been published over the years.

His prose is somewhat antiquarian. Often he employed archaic vocabulary or spelling which had already by his time been replaced by contemporary coinages; examples including electric torch (flashlight), Esquimau, and Comanchian. He was fond of heavy use of unfamiliar adjectives such as "eldritch", "rugose", "noisome", "squamous", and "cyclopean", and of attempts to transcribe dialect speech which have been criticized as inaccurate. His works also featured British English (he was an admitted Anglophile), and he sometimes made use of anachronistic spellings, such as "compleat/complete" and "lanthorn/lantern".

Lovecraft was a prolific letter writer, inscribing multiple pages to his group of correspondents in small longhand. He sometimes dated his letters 200 years before the current date, which would have put the writing back in U.S. colonial times, before the American Revolution that offended his Anglophilia. He explained that he thought that the 18th and 20th centuries were the best; the former being a period of noble grace, and the latter a century of science. In his view, the 19th century, particularly the Victorian era, was a "mistake.

Answer 2

H.P. Lovecraft was a horror-fiction writer of the early twentieth century. He wrote his first story at the age of seven in 1897 and it was called The Noble Evesdropper. Lovecraft is best known for the Cthulhu Mythos a collection of stories that deal with a race of beings called the Old Ones.Lovecraft was born in Providence R.I. in 1890 and died in 1936 at the age of 46. Dagon was an idea he probably got from the semitic legend of Dagan a Sumerian fish-god. There are two other Lovecraft movies called Herbert West - Reanimator and From beyond. There is also another one called The Dunwich Horror.

Answer 3

H. P. Lovecraft was an American gothic/sci-fi author best known for his Cthulu mythos. He was born in 1890 and died in 1937.

Lovecraft specialized in the supernatural side of both fantasy and science fiction, and his stories often deal in the arcane and dark arts.

Wikipedia has a good writeup.

Answer 4

Ridley Scott also loosely based his cult classic Alien on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft

Answer 5

Try doing a search! H.P. Lovecraft was an author who died in 1937.

Answer 6

guy, i don't be attentive to the place human beings come from, comparing Stephanie Meyer with Anne Rice, Lovecraft and different classic authors. it extremely is not even a contest, using fact Meyer could be slaughtered. it extremely is resembling asking wheter Shakespeare or JK Rowling is the final author.

Answer 7

Call of the Ktulu.maybe this will help.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Lovecraft