Peculiar worlds

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”

H. P. Lovecraft

I always loved reading science-fiction books. I am especially attracted to those writers that in their books have created a whole mythical universe. The mythical worlds can be worlds occupied by hobbits and dwarves, funny villains or people that travel in different dimensions. This is the reason that I love the Lord of the Rings, the Discworld and Stephen King’s odd places. But there was one writer that creates such an atmosphere in his books that enabled me to think that I am travelling in these peculiar worlds and meeting these peculiar creatures. His name is Howard Philip Lovecraft and his books have influenced many writers, musicians and the pop culture.

He was born in 1890 in Rhode Island. His father died when he was young and he was raised by his mother. He barely went to school as he had a fragile health. As a young boy he wrote a lot of poetry and his grandfather was the one that encouraged him to read fiction. He had many emotional difficulties as a child as his family poor financial state, the death of his grandfather and his mother admission to a mental hospital made him contemplate ending his life. Later one in his life he got married but shortly divorced. In the last decade of his life he was very productive as he wrote many stories that all have created a myth as many believed that he is unreal and peculiar. His stories are so powerful that people would believe that some creatures actually existed. He has mostly written short stories some of which are: The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow over Innsmouth and The Dunwich Horror.

I don’t think that Lovecraft is just another horror fiction writer. His books are not about the endless struggle between good and evil. He presents worlds that drive people insane, our inability to control our actions and describe peculiar gatherings. Unlike other writers he is inspired by dreams and nightmares and many of his stories resemble a travel to a symbolic unconscious. Ultimately maybe his stories were about his struggle within himself and those stories provided a window were he could travel away with his imagination to other worlds that he created scary but yet familiar.

(art by nighty)