The Lovecraft Geek

"The Temple" by H.P. Lovecraft Read by Robert M. Price

"Dagon" by H.P. Lovecraft Read by Robert M. Price

Might the success of “The Colour out of Space” both as one of my favorite stories and as one of the most popular could be due to its relative independence from the other stories, which it barely references, unburdened by the whole mythos? Do you feel that the horror genre is too formulaic? Or does this help the audience play along and enjoy it more? Please tell us about the first time you read the Dream Quest stories and what your initial thoughts were. Would you mind discussing your Necronomicon chapter of your Holy Fable volume IV, what led to your drafting it, and your thoughts on it in general? When did Lovecraft's influence upon English authors begin? Did Lovecraft know French and German, or any foreign languages? Latin , perhaps ? To what extent do you think the death of his father, grandfather, and mother informed his ideas about cosmic indifference and a universe that does not respect human ideas of natural order? In “The Shadow over Innsmouth” why is the Esoteric Order of Dagon dedicated to "Dagon", and not some other fish-man god? Or to one of Lovecraft's unpronounceable invented alien names? After the hero escaped Innsmouth and told the authorities, why did they believe his story? Why not just dismiss him as a nut? After the fish people contacted him later, inviting him to join them, promising immortality and no punishment for all the trouble he'd caused why did he believe them? The most famous quote from the Necronomicon is, of course, "that is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die." Do you have an idea of what a more literal translation of the Necronomicon might have said?

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is also one of my favorite tales, but I am confused about its ending. While exploring Curwen's underground laboratory, Dr. Willet inadvertently calls up a being that was in jar 118. Who or what was that? Also, he makes a discovery in Charles' room, and then calls for wood for a fire. My guess is that he found Charles' body, and then cremated it to obtain its ‘essential saltes.' He then raised it to find out how to defeat Curwen. Is this correct? Also, Willet mentions to Curwen that his European partners in crime, Orne and Hutchinson, were destroyed or dealt with somehow. Did he call something up to do this? In Robert E. Howard's writings and worlds how much of the Mythos creeps in? Are there elder gods and unknown horrors at the edges of the worlds of Conan, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, etc? Do any of these sword and sorcery types ever run up against them? How well do you think REH's horror compares? Did he get cosmic horror? Isn't it sort of silly that Wilbur Whately, a nine-foot-tall prodigy who stalks about in public with a pistol at the ready, is done in by a dog?

In Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy, Graham Harman argues that Lovecraft's description of the Elder Things is intended to be nearly impossible to visualize. But hasn't it been done by various artists? Do you know if H.P. ever said something explicit about Poe's influence on him? Perhaps a "Nodens Cycle" book is impossible due to the lack of material, but I wondered if you could help me flesh out his development as a Mythos entity and as a product of Lovecraft's thought-process. Of all ocean gods in human mythology, why would Lovecraft emphasize Nodens in two stories? Was Lovecraft merely honoring Machen by using that name? And why do you suppose Nodens is connected with the Night-gaunts? Two arguments for using Antarctica as the setting for a film version of At the Mountains of Madness. I was wondering if you could discuss John Carpenter's 1982 film "The Thing"? What are your overall thoughts on it, and can you comment on the Lovecraftian elements of the plot, setting, ending etc. Also, what are your thoughts on the prequel film (if you've seen it), also titled "The Thing" (2011).   If HPL lived today, after the discovery of extra-solar habitable planets, would he have changed his belief that there are no alien races out there? Why did HPL, once a fan of Burroughs, turn away from him? Have you ever had a chance to read through HPL's letters? If so did you ever find anything in them that surprised you or altered your basic assumptions and views of the man?

Considering the current political climate, have you ever experienced a professional backlash for not being political correct enough? Where in Lovecraft's letters does he mention “the Black Seal of Iraan”? Did Lovecraft struggle with depression or anxiety? Was HPL insane? If so, did it affect his writing? In first part of The Lurker at the Threshold, Ambrose Dewart visits the round tower and notes that there is one entrance, which has been bricked shut. He returns later and walks right in! Huh? Did I miss something? Reading “Winged Death” reminded me of a short nonfiction book, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, composed one letter at a time by a person with shut-in syndrome who was completely paralyzed except for one eye that he could blink. His nurse realized he could blink, and used her recitation of the alphabet combined with his blinking on the letter of his choosing to compose the book.  Describe a Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast. What is your view of annotated editions of HPL? Was Lovecraft heavily influenced by Poe?

Do you think that Lovecraft might have returned to straight science writing had he lived longer? Do you think a story can have a strong dose of humor in it and still be Lovecraftian? Wasn't HPL's grandfather quite wealthy? How did Lovecraft wind up dying of malnutrition because he couldn't afford the basic necessities of life? I'm contemplating writing an dramatic staged musical adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu. What aspects of the story do you think most ought to be explored, especially ones that might be done well though music or song such as in an opera? And is there anything about this story in particular that you think many people seem to miss? I am looking for your recommendation on how to accomplish my goal of reading the entire mythos in the proper chronological order. Besides Robert Bloch, what other writers did HPL directly influence/tutor? What are your thoughts on authors weaving The Mythos into a larger “continuity” of real or imagined philosophies and religions in a historical context? Have you come across Japanese cartoon movies on Lovecraftian themes? Like "Mysteries of the Necronomicon"?  In Charles Dexter Ward is supposed to be somehow embodied in the painting, or inhabiting it, until his resurrection? It seems the calling up of Curwen could well take place without it (Charles has the remains; the text implies that he reduces them to ‘saltes' and then calls Curwen up from them).   I've heard you discuss a narrative discrepancy in ‘The Shadow over Innsmouth' – the narrator's clear horror and loathing of Innsmouth and the Deep Ones, against the fact that by the end of the tale, he's pretty much rejoicing in becoming a Deep One himself! I have never seen this as a problem... It's only in the final two paragraphs that the narrator's view changes, and it's quite a drastic shift. I think it's intentional. I hope you might consider making a Robert E. Howard Geek-podcast or just a podcast about anything related to Weird Tales in general. Could you elaborate a bit on the relationship between HPL and REH? Who contacted who first? What did they talk about? What was their common ground? For how long did they correspond and so on. You mentioned once that even though  S.T. Joshi and Lin Carter were friendly, they were also kinda opposites. Can you elaborate a bit on this?

If we consider the progression of Lovecraft's work over time, how do you think his writing would have evolved? Is the elder sign's resemblance to a masonic cross purely coincidence? What is your personal Lovecraft action figure wishlist? What are your thoughts on “The Dunwich Horror” radio adaptation from the Suspense radio program in 1945? Do you think John Dixon Carr had anything to do with the production? What was your experience with the “Trap Door Spiders” literary society like? What is your opinion on the ending of the 2007 film Cthulhu? If you could read only one book for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? Are you familiar with the 2009 film The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu?

If we consider the progression of Lovecraft's work over time, how do you think his writing would have evolved? Is the elder sign's resemblance to a masonic cross purely coincidence? What is your personal Lovecraft action figure wishlist? What are your thoughts on “The Dunwich Horror” radio adaptation from the Suspense radio program in 1945? Do you think John Dixon Carr had anything to do with the production? What was your experience with the “Trap Door Spiders” literary society like? What is your opinion on the ending of the 2007 film Cthulhu? If you could read only one book for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? Are you familiar with the 2009 film The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu?

Suppose that a Foundation type civilization encounters some non-Euclidean geometry from which enter Lovecraft's monstrous pantheon. Would such an advanced civilization be affected on the same basic level of sanity as one of Lovecraft's 1920-era protagonists?  Do you feel that the excuse that Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" essentially tackled the same style of story is a sufficient reason not to make Del Toro's "Mountains of Madness" adaptation? Iâ??m curious if you are aware of a Mexican 1959 horror film by Mario Bava entitled Caltiki, the Immortal Monster, I think that is about as Lovecraftian as any non-Lovecraft movie Iâ??ve ever seen. Has anyone figured out and listed which of Nicholas Roerich's paintings, which are so frequently mentioned in "At the Mountains of Madness", were accessible to HPL? Are we to believe the assertions of Satanist Winter Laake that when a young boy Lovecraft encountered a 'spirit guide' and that he denied this for fear of being labeled mentally ill like his father, and that Lovecraft met Aleister Crowley in New York City?   Is there a generally accepted Lovecraft canon?    Is there a concise document or website that effectively lists all the works tied to the Cthulhu Mythos?   Do you know if Lovecraft pioneered the horror trope of people unexpectedly wandering into a cursed town in the Shadow Over Innsmouth?

What would you say the most underrated Lovecraft story is?  What is your opinion of the "unmentionables" where it seems Lovecraft keeps things intentionally vague? What do you think finally happened to the Rue d-Auseil and to Erich Zann himself! Do you feel that Lovecraft's work is in a renaissance of sorts?  What is your favorite way to consume Lovecraft's works? A leather chair by the fireplace during a crisp New England fall air? How prevalent, in your opinion, should a magical element be in lovecraftian fiction? What adaptation of the works of HPL would you like to have seen Christopher Lee in? Do you find it better when filmmakers attempt direct versions of the canon, or a more nebulous influence, like In the Mouth of Madness, Possession, or more recently, The Void? What edition of the letters do you recommend to readers most strongly? Why does S.T. Joshi have such a low opinion of Robert E. Howardâ??s writing?  Do you have any knowledge on Isaac Asimov's views of H.P. Lovecraft?  What are your favorite Lovecraftian-inspired films that are decidedly *not* set in the mythos or based on (however loosely) Lovecraft's works? Have you ever played the Lovecraft board game "Cthulhu Tales"? What is your opinion of the Del Rey "Shadows Over Baker Street"?

What was HPLâ??s opinion of Great Britain and its culture? Of the Empire? Or World War 1? Was he an advocate of America joining the war against Germany, or was he of a more isolationist tendency? Any comments on Stephen Kingâ??s very Lovecraftian story â??Nâ??? What did Lovecraft himself regard as his best works of fiction, and his worst? Arenâ??t there enough parallels between the Cthulhu Mythos and Godzilla films to consider the latter a species of the former? Check out the short films on YouTube by "bluworm", especially his adaptation of â??Tthe Shadow Out of Time.â?? What is your opinion on the fiction universe of Warhammer 40k and the very Lovecraftian Chaos Deities? A tour guide on Providenceâ??s HPL walking tour stopped us at a yellow and black building with strange aquatic carvings on it, and told us that one of the creatures carved in it was Lovecraftâ??s inspiration for Cthulhu. Is that so? Any opinion on Donald Tysonâ??s novel Alhazred? Later this year there is a Call of Cthulhu game coming out for the playstation 4 and xbox. See the trailer on youtube if only to see the visuals and atmosphere. Isnâ??t the Necronomiconâ??s cosmology & word-view very similar to Epicureanism? A defense of L. Sprague de Campâ??s pioneering bio of Lovecraft. And â??Have you seen the new bio, In the Mountains of Madness, by W. Scott Poole? Not bad!)â?? Did Lovecraft know any languages besides English?  Have you ever thought of starting a Patreon for The Lovecraft Geek? More episodes? I'd even be down with The Lovecraft Geek riffing on the work of other weird, horror, or sword and sorcery authors, etc., e.g., Lin Carter. Could you talk a little (or a lot!) about your thoughts on Arkham House, your favorite titles, the ones you own, the ones you'd like to own, etc? In "The Dunwich Horror," we read about "decayed" and "undecayed" branches of families in Dunwich. Does this actually have any meaning besides those who, like HPL, kept up a pathetic pretense of remaining "gentry" and those who no longer went to the trouble? Have you ever heard the adaptation of â??The Dunwich Horrorâ?? on the famed radio program "Suspense," featuring the great Ronald Coleman as Prof. Henry Armitage, who in this adaptation becomes the narrator. It can be heard at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRTsJnsrS_M

Do you think that the Necronomicon, a holy book known as the "Dead Name Image," is meant to be an homage/parody of Jesus as â??the Wordâ?? who bears the â??Nameâ?? that is above every name? Is the racist name of Delaporeâ??s black cat perhaps intended to hint at the manâ??s slave-holding heritage from Virginia and before that Exham Priory? Could you direct me to scholarly works discussing the possible origins of HPLâ??s creations? Could you recommend other lexicons, dictionaries, timeline texts to help me as a new writer in the Mythos?  What is the relationship between Cthulhu and Dagon? What genre was Lovecraft writing in--and what genre (or genres) did he help spawn?

Why is â??Herbert West Re-animatorâ?? held in such low esteem? Should I feel guilty for enjoying Lovecraftâ??s fiction, since he was a racist? How come Lovecraft seems to have such a big following in Spain? Possible Hebrew roots of the name â??Shub-Niggurath.â?? Octavia E. Butler is now the face of the World Fantasy Award in place of that of the Rotten Old Racist from Providence. But sheâ??s not a fantasy writer! Rather SF. The Lovecraft influence in Andrea Pearsonâ??s novels.

Iâ??ve heard you mention that you've spent some time visiting different parts of Lovecraft's New England and was wondering what kind of experiences or comments you had relating to the settings.. What are some of the things you can gain, or miss out on, by experiencing HPL through audiobooks? Am I the only person who has noticed that L. Sprague de Camp's Al Azif is 4 pages of Syriac text, turned upside down, and repeated? I haven't tried to identify the text, but the New Testament seems a good guess. It's definitely the Serto or "Jacobite" script of the Syriac alphabet. and not the Arabic alphabet, as some say. I recently re-read 'At The Mountains Of Madness' but found some difficulty accepting how much Dyer and Danforth accomplish in a short time.  We're told they're away for 16 hours. They leave at 09.00 and land at the city at 12.30.  Being generous and saying the return trip is one and a half hours, because they know where they are going, that leaves them 10 hours.  I find it hard to accept you could put together such a story, spanning hundreds of thousands of years, from wall relief carvings.  How would you determine the sequence of such images?  Where would you get the confidence to decide which is the classical style of an alien culture and what is the debased style?  I am compelled to ask you to elaborate on your falling out with the Lovecraft eZine. What are your thoughts on the World Fantasy Award abandoning the Lovecraft bust as their official award statue? Do you think the Lovecraftian community can survive political correctness if their constant bashing of our beloved Uncle Howard continues? In your February 15th Lovecraft Geek cephalopodcast, you talked about Bible-inspired Lovecraft stories.  One that you did not mention is "The Doom That Came to Sarnath."  I think this is clearly a parody of the tale of the lost ark in 1 Samuel 4-6.  Both stories have the same plot elements presented in the same order.  There is the massacre, the capture as a prize of war, the tussle in the temple, the curse, and the miraculous return.  The difference between the two is that in the Bible story the aquatic idol (Dagon) is vanquished, whereas in Lovecraft's story the aquatic idol (Bokrug) is victorious. Exodus 33:18-23 must have been the source for the climax of Robert E. Howard's story "The Fire of Assurbanipal, right?

Is there any way to get ahold of your old Crypt of Cthulhu stuff, and/or has any of it been reproduced elsewhere? Have you considered self-publishing your annotated Lovecraft set? Zadok Allen seems to be a known drunk and babbler. The folks at innsmouth appear to have no trouble scaring out or killing any other outsider or insider that threatens their dangerous game.  Why would they bother to let him live?  I'd be interested to hear some of your thoughts on Lovecraft in comics, maybe broken into several categories, such as direct adaptations, strong influence ('Hellboy' by Mignola and 'Zenith' by Morrison would be examples) and  personal appearances, such as in 'Providence' by Alan Moore or 'Necronauts' by George Rennie and Frazer Irving. Do you think Kipling's tales had any influence on weird pulp fiction? I don't believe you mentioned the Hay Necronomicon in your Necronomicon collection, though I admit I was looking for Colin Wilson, since I'd misremembered him as the author of the entire work. You did briefly on an earlier episode, but only to dismiss it, if I recall correctly. Could you give us a little background on this work? Is it worth re-reading? What are the problems with it? In talking about Burroughs, I got the impression you thought that evolution, as it improves life forms, would tend to create life forms that were similar enough to be sexually compatible on different world's.  I don't think that would be the case, although I'm only basing that on my reading of Steven Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins, not any deep study. Most HPL-based movies fall short of the mark. Could this be due to the fact that HPL's reliance on atmosphere makes his work difficult to translate into a plot based medium? Does his lack of female characters mean that screenwriters have to take liberties with the story in order to inject the obligatory love interest? Is Hollywood just too commercial and "Square" to "Get" what Lovecraft meant?

What is the mysterious Sign of Koth? Regarding the recently found Lovecraft text "The Cancer of Superstition," is the manuscript for public consumption, or because it was never published the collector has no obligation to disclose the tale? With the new troves of Lovecraftian writers joining the scene in the past decade, are there also new critics on the scene who review Lovecraftâ??s works in a new light? Besides Lovecraftâ??s parody of the Nativity in â??The Dunwich Horror,â?? are there other elements of Biblical lore in any of Lovecraftâ??s other works? Might â??The Color Out of Spaceâ?? be a modern retelling of the story of Job? Did Lovecraft have any specific favorite story from the Bible? Are there any obscure fictional universes that are non-fantastical that could pose metaphysical questions? Do you think Lovecraft (in â??The Horror at Red Hookâ??) actually knew about Yazidis in Brooklyn or simply took note of their reputation as devil worshipers in other pulp stories?

"How do you understand 'blasphemies' in a Lovecraftian context?"

What you think is the most satisfying Lovecraftian crossover work with an established franchise character? Is there any link to or mention in Lovecraft to Arthur Conan Doyle's work? What about with Burroughs or Howard? What is your opinion of the Sherlock Holmes stories? If one were to pick one of the ancient Christian-offshoot cults to use as the basis for a Cthulhu Mythos cult, which cult would you pick and why? What entity would the cult be dedicated to? I recently watched John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, which is clearly an homage to HPL but while the movie uses several of the tropes you find in HPL stories it just isn't effective in communicating the existential cosmic horror that I feel is the hallmark of Lovecraft's work. Do you think that this type of storytelling, this type of horror can only be effectively done in the printed word? Are there any movies that have been able to convey the alien-ness that we find in HPL's works? Do you feel that HPL's type of horror is dead? Is anyone doing work that is as different and new as HPL's was back when he was originally writing? Do you see the same type of fan involvement, organizing, and speculation in the fandomâ??s of the Sword and Sorcery genre and comic books or is it unique to HPL? Evil deities are common in horror fiction, and in fantasy literature. Has there ever been a real world example of a evil deity that is worshipped? Besides Bride of Frankenstein what other Universal Monster movies do you particularly enjoy? I ponder; if there was an unknown metaphor in Lovecraft's time that he was afraid of politically?

Episode 23 - Murder House

Episode 22 - Coven

Episode 21 - Asylum

Which among the non-direct literary descendants of Lovecraft do you feel matches his work most closely? Have you tried your hand at completing one of HPLâ??s fragments or Commonplace Book ideas? What is your favorite Lovecraft story and why? Can you share some anecdotes and remembrances of the greats youâ??ve met, like Lin Carter & DeCamp & Lumley & Bloch? Do you believe that Lovecraftâ??s stories are gaining in popularity because they provide a religious framework for a scientific view of the world? Is Lovecraftâ??s fictional view of the world religious? Do the Deep Ones eat the humans who are sacrificed to Dagon and Hydra? Isnâ??t "The Shadow over Innsmouth," like "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Call of Cthulhu," a parody of Christianity, in whole or in part? Have you seen the Justice League Animated series episode(s) "the Terror Beyond"? Very Lovecraftian. Youâ??ve suggested old Wizard Whately was motivated to bring about the end of humanity by a desire for gold. But what possible use Whately could have for gold, living the way he did? In Shadow Over Innsmouth, why isn't EVERYONE pointing out that the narrator has the "Innsmouth look"? In The Call of Cthulhu, why is the narrator even collecting the information he wants no one to see? How is it that August Derleth missed the point about cosmicism and tried to shoehorn the mythos into a good/evil paradigm? With the news that Guillermo del Toro plans to adapt At the Mountains of Madness to the big screen, what form might that film take? A direct translation, retaining the setting and time frame? Or a move into a more modern, or even futuristic venue?

I would really enjoy hearing your opinion on what makes a good anthology or, for that matter, a good anthologist. Are you familiar with Caitlin Kiernan's work and how do you as a Lovecraft scholar feel it compares? Also, in that vein, who do you recommend to bulk out my modern author collection? Can you speak to how you assign a voice to a character? For example, when you read as Lovecraft, what do you base his voice on? Do you know of any stories by Lovecraft, his contemporaries or his devotees set in or around Hawaii? If my fictional protagonist actively hunts down and kills nightgaunts, the mi-go, gugs and the like, how far from Lovecraft am I going? Am I writing more like Robert E. Howard? When will your annotated Lovecraft be available at Chaosium? Do you find that your obsession with Lovecraft mythology and Christian mythology are related? Do you believe that having such explicit use of cosmic horror in such a high profile game as Bloodborne will draw new fans to the genera and maybe even inspire other games to draw on these themes as a way to tell new stories?

What purpose do the child sacrifices serve in The Dreams in the Witch-House? If Lovecraft did not provide a reason, did August Derleth find a place for it in his Christian-Cthulhu mythos?

By popular demand, The Lovecraft Geek RSS feed and iTunes podcast of Dr. Robert M. Price, The Lovecraft Geek, is back on the Internet. Make sure to listen via the Lovecraft eZine Website: http://lovecraftzine.com/the-lovecraft-geek-robert-m-price-podcast/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LovecraftZine

If I wanted to introduce someone to the works of Lovecraft, which stories would you recommend? I was thinking "Call of Cthulhu" might be a good one. What are your thoughts on electronic and audio books? Which other authors that write Mythos stories would you recommend? What are your thoughts on Lovecraft's racism and ethnocentrism? What do you think the end of the world would be like when the stars do get right? Like a Godzilla movie? Do you think, had Lovecraft lived longer, he would have ventured into other genres? Do you think Lovecraft, or, more broadly, the weird tail, influence Noir? How do you feel about authors who enjoy the "stepping stones" of a captive, cult audience (the Mythos fans) when learning their craft, who in future after mainstream success, go on to deride Lovecraft fans? When I was reading Tim Ferris' "Seeing in the Dark" I found that a Native American sacrifice had been documented! The passage described the capture of a young girl by the Skidi Pawnee, her imprisonment and eventual sacrifice upon the arrival of Venus as a morning sky object. I'm sure Lovecraft would have read about it during his astronomy days. Might this have lent material to scenes in "Call of Cthulhu" describing degenerate Eskimo cults? In "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" Curwen means to say "Metatron" yet Lovecraft uses the name "Metraton." Do you agree with Joshi's preservation of this inadvertent error or do you think that had Lovecraft known the right name he would have used it and we should change Metraton to Metatron? Didn't Lovecraft regularly reuse themes and plot lines? Is it fair to see "At the Mountains of Madness" as a retelling of "The Nameless City" and "The Shadow over Innsmouth" as a retelling of "Dagon," "The Nameless City," and "The Horror at Red Hook"? Do you think that Lovecraft would have been successful as an astronomer if he had been able to master the mathematics involved? I am confused as to who wrote "The Loved Dead." Was the author C. M. Eddy or our Eldritch Howard? Are you aware of the Japanese anime/manga series Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, (translation: Crawl Up! Nyarko!)? It purports to be a combination of the Dreamquest cycle and the Cthulhu Mythos; and if you are do, do you have any opinions on it? In "The Shadow out of Time" we learn that the Yithians have "titan airships," "gigantic submarine vessel[s] with searchlights," and "huge boat-like atomic-engined vehicles which traversed the great roads" (cars, in other words). Wouldn't the Socialistic beings like the Great Race have invented public transit? Pleaslee mentions seeing "unspied and unknown monsters [that] spouted mountainous columns of foam into the vaporous sky" and, while underwater, "living horrors of awesome magnitude." Ought we to identify these with the Cthulhu spawn and/or the Deep Ones? Which Clark Ashton Smith story do you like best?

Mark Rainey on HPL influence on the Dark Shadows "Leviathans" story arc. Is the Creature from the Black Lagoon a Deep One and are the Daleks just canned Yithians? Are there any other examples of 'esque-niverse' Lovecraftian monsters in pop culture I've missed? And do you think that King Kong is actually a retelling of "The Call of Cthulhu"? What do you think it really means when we say something is "Lovecraftian?" Gary Myers on the two Lovecraft biographies. The second part of Shub-Niggurath's epithet "Black Goat of the Woods With a Thousand Young" implies some kind of blasphemous fertility goddess whose children multiply like Tribbles and cause famine and ecological collapse. Could it be a reference to the theories of Thomas Malthus? What can "Black Goat of the Woods" mean? Could it refer to the Leviticus 16 scapegoat ritual? Have you seen any other TV shows or movies that botched HPL as badly as the "Let It Bleed" episode of the "Supernatural" TV show? How many copies of "Call of Cthulhu" do you think you have? In SALAMBO by Gustave Flaubert, the high priestess of the goddess Tanith curses the mercenary hero by calling upon various ancient gods including "the Other â?? he who may not be named." Could this passage be the inspiration for Lovecraft's references to Him Who Is Not be Named in "The Whisperer in the Darkness" and the Not-to-be-Named One in "The Mound?" Have any fake letters or stories of Lovecraft appeared on the market? There was talk back in the 80s of an original HPL manuscript in the hands of a collector in Australia, possibly Haunter of the Dark. Do we know what happened to it? Apparently one of the Providence news papers back in the 20s had a picture of HPL wearing a tricorn hat. Has this news item ever been rediscovered? There have been rumours of a lost HPL story of a haunted hotel; do you know anything about it? Your Mythos tale "The Incubus of Atlantis" concluded with the soul of Klarkash-Ton being transformed into wine. Is this supposed to be the same wine consumed by pirates in Clark Ashton Smith's "A Vintage from Atlantis"?

Do you have a favorite invocation of Lovecraftian horror? Jason Colavito seems to have successfully traced many of the ideas that appear in UFO and ancient alien claims back to HP Lovecraft and other Weird Tale writers! Your thoughts? I'd like your thoughts on Thomas Ligotti's work. In "The Shadow out of Time" we see a future where mankind disappears from galactic history and Cthulhu seems absent as well. The beetles that inherit the Earth from humans do not seem to have been troubled by Cthulhu and his ilk. Might this be because humanity is assumed to have evolved defenses against Cthulhu but was destroyed in the process? There doesn't seem to be any good solution to the Arkham / Salem dichotomy, but what if Salem and Arkham were originally sister towns which were growing larger and eventually overlapped? A few decades after the witchcraft trials and because of the "bad press" Salem got from them, the people of the now abutting towns of Salem and Arkham agreed to incorporate as a single city named Arkham. Since then, some people still refer to historical Salem as "Salem" but that is no longer the name of the unified city. What made Lovecraft dislike Plato? What's up with Lovecraft and architecture? In many stories he uses the architecture of a culture or society as a metaphor for the society itself. Might the fly in "The Winged Death" have been inspired by Don Marquis' Archy, the poet cockroach? He too had to jump from key to key to type his messages. Criticism of L. Sprague de Camp's biographies of Lovecraft and Howard. Re "The Statement of Randolph Carter," was there any indication in future stories as to WHAT was down in the burial chamber? Did the Night Gaunts ever resurface in future stories? Do you think the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" could have been influenced by H. P. Lovecraft? I question your explanation that Lovecraft had to write his narrators as weak-willed sidekicks to their domineering best friends because readers wouldn't be able to sympathize with the mad scientists or demented occultists. Lovecraft was no stranger to unsympathetic --and, dare I say it, perverted -- narrators. I think there's more to the trope of intense male bonding in Lovecraft's fiction than just a narrative convenience. All the evidence, in my opinion, points to HPL being an asexual man who liked men. Do you feel that Lovecraft's true genius lies not just in his unique literary style, his aggrandizement of antiquarianism, his depiction of cosmic indifference or even in his inventive use of morphology, but his re-defining of the Greek Tragedy? I am curious if the cuttlefish might have had an influence in the image and name of Cthulhu? Might the magical conception of Wilbur Whateley be a satirical parallel to that of Jesus in the gospels? I have frequently encountered the phrase "That Which Should Not Be." Should not be what, exactly? Can you recommend any other weird fiction with an obvious Gnostic influence? And are there any other real historical religious sects, cults or movements like the Gnostics that strike you as being particularly Lovecraftian in their beliefs?

Is Joshi's Lovecraft biography really much superior to L. Sprague de Camp's Lovecraft biography? Or is it just more deferential to Lovecraft? What do you think of de Camp's Howard biography? The Wikipedia article on Lin Carter indicates that there was a falling out between Carter and de Camp towards the end of Carter's life. Can you provide any details? What do you know of Lovecraft's sexuality? I'm aware of his marriage and some of its issues. Was he generally disinterested in sex or romance? Old fashioned? Conservative? Repressed? There are very few significant female characters in his work, and they are often fearful or loathsome creatures, with the possible exception of Charles Dexter Ward's heartbroken mother, whose only desire was the safety of her child. On the flipside, many of Lovecraft's stories do focus on homosocial, male relationships. In typical pairs, one is more dominant and engaged in supernatural doings, which may bring about their grizzly demise, and one is more submissive and may or may not go insane at the end. The narrator and stand-in for Lovecraft tends to be the latter. Example stories include The Statement of Randolph Carter, Herbert West: Reanimator, and Pickman's Model. My question pertains to the ongoing theme of piping cracked flutes such as the ones surrounding Azathoth, the masked and indescribable priest in yellow silk, and the lunar frog beasts. When I first read about them I envisioned the meandering flute or oboe melodies from Arabic musicians. My partner has a different take on the flute playing, interpreting it as radio static. Did HPL ever comment on this in his letters? Discovering HPL via a joke in a Ray Bradbury story. What would you characterize as the specific traits, tropes, characteristics, etc., of the "weird fiction" genre? What makes weird fiction distinct/separate from the gothic? Or, would you say it is more accurate to classify weird fiction as a sub-genre of the gothic? Would you characterize Lovecraft as a Romantic writer? Or would it be more accurate to think of him as a really pessimistic Enlightenment thinker?. Can you discuss the place of poetry in the writing of Lovecraft (and perhaps Clark Ashton Smith)? Can you recommend other "weird fiction" and/or Lovecraftian/Chambersian poetry collections or authors, whether contemporary or "classic"? What does "Lovecraftian" Horror mean to his geekiness?

On the correct pronunciation(s) of "Cthulhu." Have there ever been action figures based on Lovecraft characters? Is there any Lovecraft inspired music that you're particularly keen on? Can you recommend any Lovecraft Mythos inspired music? How about good music to read Mythos tales by? Do we have a personal bibliography of what books and materials Lovecraft read and owned? How would you describe the "moral" of Oedipus Rex? What do you think of the theory of Dr. Johan Carlson, an archaeo-astronomer in Maryland, who believes that Lovecraft's image of Cthulhu came from viewing some Precolumbian art of monstrous, clawed Mesoamerican gods squatting on stone blocks, which would have been displayed in New York City while HPL lived there? And since there are no Mesoamerican gods with the head of an octopus, where do you think the image of Cthulhu's head came from? I think that HPL might have borrowed the image of H. G. Wells Martians. In Algernon Blackwood's "Ancient Sorceries" a traveler stops at a village in France and slowly discovers that he has a strange and sinister link to the weird inhabitants of the town, despite the fact that, to his knowledge, he has never been there before. How much was Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth" inspired by Blackwood's story? And who inspired Blackwood? Please talk about The Yellow King, Lovecraft's relationship with this book, and how you feel Chambers compares and contrasts with the Old Gent? Has anyone expanded on or referenced the dream/letter 'The Very Old Folk'? I've found a few Sword and Sandal Mythos tales, chief among them the works of Richard Tierney. Do you have any other leads to authors who mix tentacles and togas?

Has anybody drawn a correlation between the worm creatures in "Challenge from Beyond" and the worm-like creature in "Haunter of the Dark"? Both seem to have some sort of relationship to an artifact that activates when stared into. Lovecraft's narration of the history of the Old Ones in "At the Mountains of Madness" seems to parallel his view of the history of the American colonies. The Shoggoths might stand for African slaves, then "unsavory" immigrants, etc. Is this racist subtext really present in "At The Mountains of Madness," or am I, myself, mad? Are you familiar with the Lovecraftian tales of Stephen King ("Jerusalem's Lot," "Crouch End," THE MIST? And what are your thoughts on them? How about Alan Moore's Lovecraftian work? Could you discuss how Lovecraft came to ghostwrite "The Mound" and how much Zealia Bishop contributed to it? I was wondering if you knew of any completed Sci-Fi/Lovecraftian crossover stories, if you have any familiarity with Lovecraftian comics, and if there were any favorites you could share. Are you familiar with the great adaptations of "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Whisperer in Darkness" by the HP Lovecraft historical society? What do you think of other HPL movie adaptations? Do you think Lovecraft could have done well as a comedy writer? In "At the Mountains of Madness," it is revealed that the Elder Things created the Shoggoths as a slave race. It is also revealed that the Elder Things had a great war with the Deep Ones eons ago. However, in the story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" the Deep Ones are said to have Shoggoths as well. Is there any explanation as to the change of ownership? Did I hear you correctly when you stated on a recent Lovecraft Geek that the protagonist of the "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" was named "Olmstead"? Has it been remarked that this name reminds us of the Olm, the European cave dwelling amphibian that retains gills all its life and is wholly aquatic? Might Robert E. Howard's Conan have been influenced by the barbarian hero Ursus in Henryk Sienkiewicz's 1896 novel "QUO VADIS"?

When a cold, indifferent and uncaring universe of forces beyond your capacity for comprehension tosses you lemons, it's already too late. This podcast's questions may help hasten you on your journey. Various works of Poe appear in elementary and high school literature texts. Which work(s) of Lovecraft do you think would be suitable or most likely to appear in school text books? A listener says: It was a real treat to be on the Lovecraft Geek and I liked the answer.... The movie that became my introduction to Lovecraftian storytelling was, surprisingly, Ghostbusters. I was disappointed that the sequel film abandoned the initial movie's form of universe building. What are your thoughts on Ghostbusters as a gateway Lovecraft introduction? Of the chaosium fiction compilations, is there one that you are most proud of? If you could adapt any Lovecraft story into a feature film, which story, which director, and who plays the lead?

What are your thoughts about the relation of Ridley Scotts' "Prometheus" to Lovecraft and "At the Mountains of Madness"? What was HPL's attitude to prohibition? I was wondering who you would cast as pivotal characters in any film adaption of HPL's stories if you had the power of casting director. Do you picture an actor's face when you read any stories? What did that poor girl find at the end of Machen's The White People and what happened to her? What the heck is a Voorish Dome? or Voor for that matter? There are quite a few hard-to-pronounce names and places in Lovecraft's work. How many of these alien sounds did Lovecraft actually specify in his letters or other works? Although HPL always talked about our cosmic insignificance, what is with the preponderance of cosmic entities, alien races, etc., on Earth?

Which Lovecraft story (or stories) would you suggest to a new reader and why? I have heard you speak of the canon and canonicity in the past and would like to hear you introduce the idea vis-a-vis the works of Master Lovecraft. How would you go about defining what is and is not in the Cthluhu canon? Crypt of Cthulhu is coming out as a series of books. Do you believe that the promise of Hell in Abrahamic religions is more horrifying on a cosmic scale, compared to the fate of Lovecraftian protagonists? Does an equivalent of "afterlife" exist in Lovecraftian canon, for example in Dreamlands, or is it strictly defined in materialistic terms (death = the end of suffering)? Do you see so-called Outer Gods as literal deities or metaphors for the unknowableness of Cosmos. Do you see a parallel between Sutter Cane (In the Mouth of Madness) and Nyarlathotep from the story of the same name? Both involve a psychological contagion, transmitted by an obvious but ineffable and incomprehensible vector, and both Cane and Nyarlathotep seem only the smallest appendage of a larger threat, like the glowing lure of an anglerfish. Can the Geek provide any insight? Are there any Lovecraft pieces that you think are unjustly overlooked in favor of the big ones? If so what are they and what brings you back to them? Do you think contemporary Lovecraftian writers have enlarged upon any of the themes or subtexts in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward? Would HPL like the cooperative rather than competitive modern Mythos games? What is your interpretation of the ending to the Lovecraft story "The Picture in the House"? In the October 20th episode you mentioned an article in which you explore the faces of evil in Lovecraft. Do you know where we can find it? Also do you think that Lovecraft's cosmicism might have been influenced by the relatively recent discoveries of the age of Earth and the fossils of dinosaurs, or would it be safer to suppose that Lovecraft's immense knowledge of Astronomy would have been sufficient? Favorite Lovecraft stories.

What killed the horror atop Sentinel Hill? Is the series 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Lovecraftian in your opinion? In "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" who is No. 118, the mysterious shade inadvertently raised up by Dr. Willett who warns him about Curwen and eventually deals with Orne and Hutchinson? Would a 'pure' Cthulhu movie really have any impact when we just saw one this summer with multi-dimensioned monsters coming out of the Pacific? And wasn't the '82 The Thing the apex of Antarctic horror? You have juxtaposed Nietzsche's Madman with Old Man Whateley from â??The Dunwich Horror.â?? I'd like to hear you compare these characters. And have you observed any other homages to philosophy in Howard's writings? In Episode 3 you talked briefly about how you thought Lovecraft would view the world up through WWII. What might he have thought of the modern world? Why are Lovecraft's amateur works largely ignored? What are your thoughts, likes, and dislikes re the Dream Cycle stories? What about "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath"? Do you think that H.P.L. mapped out a consistent timeline for his stories of various un-earthly visitors and conflicts between races? Are there any unanswered questions in Lovecraft's stories that you'd love to see answered? Lovecraft seems to anticipate recent political trends, where reality is stranger than (if it's possible ) Lovecraft's fiction. What does this mean?

Another Lovecraft Geek podcast to carve by â?? whatever it is you usually carve â?? for our countdown to the high holiday of Halloween. Do you see a divide between those who read the original Lovecraft texts and focus more on the fun to be had celebrating the mythos, and those who focus more on narrative themes and pathos? Do you feel like the expansionists of Lovecraftian tales are more attempting to play in the sandbox of his mythos or to actually attempt to mimic the tragic pathos of his original work? What makes a work of fiction Lovecraftian? What are the best film adaptations of Lovecraft's writings, in your opinion? And, were he around today, how do you think H.P.L would have felt about his work being reinvented in cinema? Are you familiar with Robert Bloch's STRANGE EONS, and if so what do you think of it? Should the Cthulhu Mythos best read as a cohesive universe? How did Lovecraft manage to stay so current on the science of his day? When did HPL get the idea of the Necronomicon? Just how much do you think Lord Dunsany inspired HPL? At what point did he start reading Dunsany's work? I have always wondered if Lovecraft had lived through World War 2, how would the horrors of the nuclear age, death camps, etc. have moulded his further writings? Do you have any plans to gift us with another reading of a Lovecraft story? Which is your favorite mythos deity? Which deity's followers have the best chants andor prayers? Do you have a favorite Lovecraft themed board game? Are there any collections of August Derleth's own stories, not his so-called "collaborations" with Lovecraft, that you can recommend? As a writer of strange fiction, do you ever find yourself torn between the creation of a completely original story (even if influenced by HLP) and writing one that is part of the mythos (invoking the names of the Ancient Ones, etc)? Do you think there is any disadvantage to authors including Lovecraft references in their work? Is there any stigma among the big publishers, etc., when it comes to "borrowing" from other authors, like Lovecraft? What is your favorite Lovecraftian film? Not an actual work based on HLP, but the film that most evoked that eldritch feeling inside of you? Jason Colavito in his book "The House of the Octopus" raises the worship of the Octopus God "Tutulau" of Samoa, Fiji and Tonga as a possible source of H.P.L.'s inspiration for C'thulhu. Did Lovecraft know anything about this stuff?

Audio by John Felix.

Thanks to Mike Davis and The Lovecraft eZine at http://lovecraftzine.com/ for hosting The Lovecraft Geek page: http://lovecraftzine.com/the-lovecraft-geek-robert-m-price-podcast/. Send your questions to Dr. Price at: criticus@aol.com. How would you place HLP in the context of his times and literary peers (in terms of his work and also his beliefs and attitudes)? Another question I never get tired of is any reflection on why his legacy is so vast? Do you believe that HPL's political/racial views hinder the ability to turn his stories into major Hollywood productions? What exactly happens to De La Poer at the end of "The Rats in the Walls"? Is he mad? Possessed? Controlled by external beings? Regressing through the "genetic memories" of his Delapore ancestors in some way? Do you have an opinion of those who are originalists or purists, as concerns Lovecraft? If so, what are your thoughts as to why these two camps exist? Did Lovecraft have a source from which he drew inspiration for Cthulhu, or did he somehow manage to invent this creature from whole cloth? Do you have any ideas about the source of these two references in the works of Brian Lumley: 1) "The Second Wish" cites an Englishman named John Kingsley Brown, an apparent contemporary of Lovecraft's Charles Dexter Ward and Robert E. Howard's Justin Geoffrey, and 2) "The House of the Temple" mentions "the red, hairy slime used by Julian Scortz." Did Lovecraft start out to create a mythos for his stories, or did it just grow over time and as he wrote? S.T. Joshi believes that Wilbur Whateley's biological father is also his grandfather, Old Wizard Whateley, because how could Yog-Sothoth engender a child on a human woman? My own reading is different, that as a parody of the Christian tradition of the birth of Christ that Wilbur and his brother were parthenogenically conceived and that Lavinia was a virgin. What is the Geek's opinion on the matter?

Thanks to The Lovecraft eZine at http://lovecraftzine.com/ for hosting The Lovecraft Geek page: http://lovecraftzine.com/the-lovecraft-geek-robert-m-price-podcast/. Questions for this podcast: When did Lovecraft's writings start gaining popularity? Do you think there is any validity to the claim - made famous in Shea and Wilson's Illuminatus Trilogy! - that the "Great Old Ones" are somehow derived from the secret lore of Illuminati Cultists? What do you think the film makers may have missed in Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown? It might be fun/interesting to discuss the sudden appearance of the Azathoth monument in Oklahoma. How old were you when you started reading Lovecraft? What is your favorite Lovecraft story? What is your favorite Lovecraftian story not written by Lovecraft? Will Lovecraft ever achieve his rightful place in the ranks of America's literary greats? What Anthology has The Shambler from the Stars, The Haunter of the Dark, and The Shadow from the Steeple? Do you agree with the thesis that von Daniken, et al, owe their inspiration to HPL, or to other literary or fictional, or primarily non-fictional, sources, and not at all to Lovecraft? I was wondering if you'd expand on your "Teenage fundamentalist" years and how you discovered Lovecraft, and how you reconciled the Cthulu Mythos with your Christian beliefs?