Thanks for all the interesting replies! Given the response, I decided to make a whole community around this, hope you’ll consider joining!

If you liked this thread, you might like: !likethismaylike@lemm.ee

Remember, if you’re on a different instance you may have to search the url first: https://lemm.ee/c/likethismaylike

  • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    HP Lovecraft’s way of conveying old and decrepit settings, threaded with veins of natural beauty that encompass the horrors lurking within them. He had a particular knack for inspiring imagery that is both vividly moving and unsettling. For a specific example, scope out the first few paragraphs of A Color Out of Space

    The first couple of paragraphs of The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath serves as a testiment to the sense of majesty he could impart to the reader, but it was also (in my opinion) the last of his older, flowery, and overly-poetic style of writing before he hit a home run and found a new rhythm with A Colour Out of Space and everything thereafter. I personally was not a huge fan of The Dream Quest, but he certainly knew how to describe a triumphant city.

    NOTE: I recently watched the new Color Out of Space film immediately after finishing the short story, and in my opinion the short story is infinitely better. It’s more subtle, much creepier, far more detailed, and takes place 150 years earlier (1880s). It has an entirely different vibe that I found to be far more isolating and less obnoxious than the film.