DUNGEONEER’S GUILD Books for Nerds I have been reading (re-reading in some cases) fantasy and fantasy-related books to get a better understanding of the origins the genre. These often long-forgotten books are good inspirational material for gamers. For those non-gamers, they are still good reads. Now I will share with you my latest read. H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life by Michel Houellebecq, forward by Stephen King French writer and novelist, Michel Houellebecq, states that horror writers “reactionaries…because they are particularly…aware of the existence of Evil.” And H.P. Lovecraft this the undisputed king of this principle. Houellebecq’s book is an essay that attempts to divine how HPL’s attitude toward life and his fellow influenced, even strengthened, his best writings. (Despite Stephen King’s leeriness toward academic analysis of literature — he calls them “chichenshit academics” and says that they are “spies in the house of literature — I believe that some germ of truth can be extracted from deconstructing writing.) Houellebecq looks at HPL’s misanthropy, cynicism, xenophobia, racism, classism, ultra-conservatism, atheism, love of architecture, and scientific his mind as the primary forces that give the Cthulhu mythos works their power and ability to transcend across time. (He is not an apologist for HPL’s worst traits, however.) As he points out, HPL was a misfit had no place in his time, too weird for his own good, and a loner of the highest caliber. He also believed that nothing mankind made amounted to anything since time will eventually grind it to dust. Recommendation: I highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in studying the wizard behind the curtain. Not simply a fanboy raving for an author he loves, Houellebecq puts the formation of the Mythos stories in context of its creator. For Gamers: The author breaks down the themes HPL used in his stories to their basic components. This is very useful for those players of the Call of Cthulhu game in understanding what it is that makes for a good horror story. The book also mentions HPL’s “Commonplace Book”, a list of story seeds that he added to over the years — a trove of good ideas for any horror RPG.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 00:13:45 +0000
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