#if you like me have not seen it or read any lovecraft

[gibbearish]

i still have yet to see the new hbomb but for anyone who's watched it now and wants more this is not the first time he's covered this kind of thing, "here's three stories about youtube plagiarism" is from 6 years ago on the same subject and is still very good

[cara-dreamer]

TikTok has found IHNMAIMS. I do have a mouth and I am about to scream if they don’t stop with the worst takes I’ve ever seen in my life. I know Tumblr isn’t known for its media literacy but it’s gotta be better than this. I don’t know how to add the keep reading so uh long post incoming.

Some woman: I just feel absolutely awful for Ellen. She didn’t deserve any of that.

Some man: Um ackchually the guys didn’t deserve any of that either!

I AM SHAKING YOU BY THE SHOULDERS THAT IS THE POINT! None of them deserve what they’re going through!

We also have the babygirlification of AM but like beyond what’s normal. (I will say I’m not a completely innocent bystander there. I love pathetic little meow meows.) However, I have been a fan of the story for years and years and recognize that he’s still an irredeemable monster. I am not having a good time seeing people trying to justify why they like him by minimizing that. Just post the “hear me out” and move on. Your taste in fiction says nothing about your moral leanings, but defending it and arguing to justify it does. It forces you to make up a moral stance, usually a bad one.

I’m not including the person that drew AM as a Tumblr sexyman with the intent of pissing people off. That’s just funny.

Another is these people forgetting what an unreliable narrator is. There was someone who commented on a video talking about it, “So you think you know their experience better than them?” YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEYARE SAYING!

They can’t handle a narrator that doesn’t always tell the truth and doesn’t have perfect morals or perfectly accurate information on events.

And then there’s the talk about the author. Maybe just chill out. You’re not a bad person for enjoying fiction by bad people, especially since he’s been dead for a while now. Talking about and critically analyzing his cool short story isn’t showing support. I enjoy the works of Lovecraft, but I’m not a fan of the racism. That’s where the “critical” part comes into play. Just enjoy the story for what it is.

The only people I have some patience and grace for are the ones that are pointing out genuine questions raised. They at least had their brain on while reading. Seeing “Did you know the title probably refers to both the protagonist and antagonist?” or “Is AM still limited in his power to only be a tool of destruction, even now?” gives me some hope. Also the crack ship of AM and the Qu. That’s the kind of dumb content we should be getting out of it.

[mifhortunach]

Horror Short Films You Can Watch For Free - Right Now!

Just a 'small' post collecting some less well known horror short films that you can find mostly on youtube & vimeo! All worth a look!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUNGAZER 9min, 2020 (You'll have to log in to vimeo to watch this one!) "A short, wordless horror film about the terrors lurking just beyond the veil of reality." - Or, a man waits, and performs a ritual. Wicked atmospheric, manages to really paint a world despite the run-time. Looks great as well. [TW: flashing lights, body horror, harsh noise]

The Color Out of Space 5min, 2017 "A meteorite, strange vegetation, a colour: an experimental take on H.P. Lovecraft's spiral into madness, shot with a vintage camera on truly unique LomoChrome 16mm film." <- All accurate! Eerie little film.

My House Walk-through: 12min, 2016

Short, sweet, and unnerving!! The person who made this has done a tonne of other (more classical) 'internet horror' shorts, but this is a really wonderful & understated piece. Visually it feels very PT inspired, but its even more about atmosphere and repetition. Worth checking out the making of as well, pretty much the whole thing was done practically!! [TW: unsanitary conditions, blood]

Possibly in Michigan 12min, 1983

Cecilia Condit mostly does weird, dreamy short films. They have a kind of cake with a worm inside feeling, if you get me; things are rotting inside. This one is a cannibal musical! [TW: cannibalism, unreality, insects, murder, animal death]

The Black Tower 23min, 1987

More unsettling than scary. A man finds himself followed by a mysterious building. I really love how this one gets built up visually. The most like a tma episode out of all of these, or something out of Blue Jam. You can read more stuff about it here! [TW: unreality, talk of mental institutions, disordered eating]

Heck 29min, 2020 If you've seen any of these, I think it'll probably be this one. Its the short that originally inspired Skinamarink. I personally kind of prefer this. Digitally gritty and mean. [TW: Same warnings as skinamarink for the most part, there's a kid in danger, a little body horror].

Juliet in Paris 18min, 1967

Juliet moves to Paris for college, is lonely, and keeps losing blood. Kind of a vampire thing? But also not a vampire thing. Vibes and vignette heavy.

[TW: blood, animal death, self harm]

Dawn of an Evil Millennium 20min, 1988 (in 3 parts!)

A palette cleanser! Getting a honourary nomination through me hearing about it on a found footage podcast (lol). A trailer for an 18hr movie that doesn't exist; staring demons, 'olds mobiles', space-travel and cops. Deeply 80s, kind of ooey-gooey, pretty fun! [TW: some vomiting, a lot of fake blood gets splashed about]

Thanks for reading!

[dreadfuldevotee]

Thank you for this last post. The discourse on this fandom can often be so annoying. I hate it when people are like "this is a Gothic horror, let them be toxic and problematic!!!!11!!!1" because it's not take they think it is? At the end of the day, they still want us to root for these characters and relationships, right? So how can we do that if they're stereotyped vampires, who is dark, cold, just hurt each other and don't have an ounce of growth, development, empathy and humanity? And this is such a dismissive opinion of the show and even the books, because their conflict with humanity and vampirism is a central aspect of the plot. That said, if you reduce them to the abuse alone, you're also missing the point of the story? I mean, you can totally have your opinion, you can see them as unforgivable even on this fictional universe, you can hate and root against them... But this show isn't about punitivism, it is about them navigating immortality. There are consequences for their actions, as there should be, but the goal is for them to find a way to make this work. You don't need to agree (idgaf about the British monarchy and still watched a few episodes of The Crown for the acting, for example), but if you expect otherwise, you're just playing yourself? But this fandom seems to have a problem with finding a good balance. Not to mention the hypocrisy of never forgiving certain characters and reducing them to their problematic actions, but treating their faves very different lol. And I'm like, okay, you don't need to love everyone, it's okay to have a favorite, but at least don't be contradictory? Your fave does the exact same thing or worse? Anyways. Thanks again for putting it so well. It's refreshing to see posts like that here.

Thank you! I'm glad that other people get anything out of my ranting and raving, as I am a chronic yapper and really only talk for my own health LOL.

But yeah, there is a lot of selective hearing in any fandom, really; but it pisses me off a lot here because of all the "Gothic Horror" handwaving going on. Interacting with the fandom, reading the books and seeing clips & bits of personal writings from Anne Rice, the image it paints for me is a profound unwillingness to engage with contents of the story if they're not fun and sexy. Shit, even my own odyssey into the books is spurred on in one part, to be able to form my own opinion and critique on the writing and secondly, realizing that book readers were straight up lying at times about how things went down.

And there is this persistent idea I've seen on here and twitter of "If you have issue with XYZ then this series isn't for you" and like, okay if you don't wanna see gay people who have everything-but-the-bagel of mental illnesses then, yeah, sure. But when someone goes "Hey there is like,,, a ton of casual pedophilia and CSA in these stories that is framed as cute n' casual and/or deeply romantic, I wonder what that's all about" and then people crawl out the woodwork trying to convince you its not weird or that you're weird or weak for think its kinda fucked up- then at that point, I think maybe there is actually a different issue occurring here, you know?

Anyway, I think where I'm going with this is- TVC is a cultural phenomenon and has a tangible impact on Vampire and Gothic Horror canon and that's good and fun. But if we can recognize something like H.P Lovecraft's racism/classism/general fear of change having a profound effect on his writing and the spark of the entire Cosmic Horror Genre, then I think we can interrogate how AR as a Rich White Woman who grew up in mid-21st century New Orleans has an effect on the kind of stories she writes and how she does it.

[theloud]

My prediction: any moment now, people will start saying that Neil Gaiman’s books suck. Many will say they could always tell that Gaiman was a bad person, just from the ample clues in his books. They hated him before it was cool.

I’ll go first. In Good Omens, Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell says awfully racist things, and doesn’t get punished in the narrative for it, or even learn the error of his ways and atone for his sins. Instead Gaiman rewards the totally unrepentant Shadwell by giving him a happy ending, including a relationship with Madame Tracy. This proves that Gaiman approves of all the awful racist ideas that Shadwell spouts, according to the laws of literary criticism I can deduce from the discussions of fiction I see online. If Gaiman weren’t racist, he’d have punished this fictional character for his racism, because a novel writer’s job is to reward good characters and punish bad characters, according to the consensus I see on the internet. Since Gaiman didn’t punish Shadwell, that proves either than Gaiman is a racist who thinks Shadwell is right, or Gaiman is a bad writer who failed at his job to punish bad characters. You just can’t argue with that logic. Believe me, I’ve tried.

Therefore, instead of reading Gaiman’s books, which suck, readers should read books by… I don’t know, whichever writer hasn’t come out as a bad person yet. I’m pretty sure that a lot of people advocating this switch will be the same ones who recommended Gaiman a few years ago as the unproblematic alternative to J.K. Rowling (whose books suck for similar reasons.)

So far, I’ve seen Douglas Adams recommended as an unproblematic alternative. His books are great, and he has the advantage of being dead, thus unlikely to get in the news for assaulting any nannies. You’d think it’s safest to stick with dead authors in general, but the problem is, the longer they’ve been dead, the more likely they are to have opinions that don’t meet modern standards. I was happily reading a book by P.G. Wodehouse and then boom, fatphobia. And don’t even talk about H. P. Lovecraft.

Terry Pratchett still seems safe, but I’m nervous about typing that since I don’t want to jinx it.

Enjoy your novels. They’re such a fun escape from reality, aren’t they?

[velvetvexations]

RE: Lovecraft's racism

I don't have anything meaningful to add, just some personal anecdotes.

I started reading Lovecraft from some selected works books, and I didn't see any issue for most of it. I didn't know his reputation, and also I am European so race is not something that I am actively aware about (because POC here are extremely rare and mostly are rich tourists and exchange students rather than minorities). Up until he described Inuits as "dwarfish creatures who call themselves Eskimos".

Later I have read complete collections of his works and saw some absolutely horrific racist sentiments, and also now that I am tumblr-level socialist I can see all problematic innuendos in selected works as well, so it's in no way defense of Lovecraft. Just my addition.

P.S.: I also think that people calling Lovecraft exceptionally racist just didn't read a lot of popular USAmerican fiction of the time. Burroughs is IMO worse, or at least more obvious about it.

P.P.S.: There was a popular joke some time ago like "Lovecraft would go insane if he met me" that was made by white neurodivergent queer people, and I feel that it's weirdly tone deaf. We don't know Lovecraft's opinion on homosexuality or transgenderism, at all. He probably was at least somewhat homophobic considering times, but we just can't prove that he wouldn't have changed his mind if presented with science-based arguments, and autism is definitely not what he considered scary mental illnesses. His entire deal was being racist, not just generally bad person.

P.P.P.S. (wow): Also, not enough people talk about him describing political system of Great Race of Yig (or whatever they are called) as "a mix of socialism and fascism"

Actually, we DO know how he felt about queer people!

From a letter to J. Vernon Shea:

I guess it is true that homosexuality is a rare theme for novels—partly because public attention was seldom called to it (except briefly during the Wilde period) until a decade ago, & partly because any literary use of it always incurs the peril of legal censorship. As a matter of fact—although of course I always knew that paederasty was a disgusting custom of many ancient nations—I never heard of homosexuality as an actual instinct till I was over thirty…which beats your record! It is possible, I think that this perversion occurs more frequently in some periods than in others—owing to obscure biological & psychological causes. Decadent ages—when psychology is unsettled—seem to favour it. Of course—in ancient times the extent of the practice of paederasty (as a custom which most simply accepted blindly, without any special inclination) cannot be taken as any measure of the extent of actual psychological perversion. Another thing—many nowadays overlook the fact that there are always distinctly effeminate types which are most distinctly not homosexual. I don’t know how psychology explains them, but we all know the sort of damned sissy who plays with girls & who—when he grows up—is a chronic “cake-eater”, hanging around girls, doting on dances, acquiring certain feminine mannerisms, intonations, & tastes, & yet never having even the slightest perversion of erotic inclinations.

Even worse, from a letter to James F. Morton:

Have you seen that precious sissy that I met in Cleveland? Belknap says he’s hit the big town, and that he’s had some conversation with him. When I saw that marcelled what is it I don’t know whether to kiss it or kill it! It used to sit cross-legged on the floor at Elgin’s and gaze soulfully upward. It didn’t like me and Galpin—too horrid, rough and mannish for it!

The idea that this fucking dweep saw himself as the alpha male in the room is dadgum hilarious.

And yet, R. H. Barlow and Samuel Loveman (again) were gay. Did Lovecraft know? He met the aforementioned "precious sissy" at a gathering Loveman had taken him to. R. H. Barlow wrote a story lost to us called "I Hate Queers" which Lovecraft read that certainly sounds psychologically revealing, but his brief commentary on it really tells us nothing about the content and if it made Barlow's closet more transparent or not.

Derleth said Lovecraft "seemed" to be unaware they were gay, but what the fuck does that asshole know? Lovecraft personally explained the ideas behind his stories to him and he still fucked up the Mythos for decades with his bullshit. On the other hand, Derleth was bisexual himself, and I don't know how Lovecraft couldn't have picked up on it from this letter he sent him:

I can understand your detestation of sex irregularities in life as violations of harmony and I here fully agree with you. I had previously misunderstood you to mean protestation from a basis of morals, and on this basis I would have stood squarely opposed to you. I have known and still know many people who are sexually irregular, both homosexual men and women, and except for three cases out of perhaps 21, I have always found these people highly intellectual, fully aware of what they were doing, and in all cases quite helpless. Speaking perspectively and in the abstract, I could as easily conceive myself entering upon a monogamous homosexual relation as a heterosexual one—though perhaps practice would change that point of view. To quibble about mere words, I should not say that perverts necessarily lived inartistically.

As to if Lovecraft would have accepted scientific evidence in favor of queer validity, maybe. He was becoming a full-blown Actual Communist towards the very end of his life and his racial views, while still preferring to keep cultures separate, had gotten to the point where he believed a Chinese baby raised by White parents would be essentially the same as a White person, which is, uh, technically progress?

[jasper-tarot-reader]

This is wholly my opinion, naturally, since you came to my blog for my opinion, but-

Decks I think did a good job being a divination tool and a representative of their original media:

the Cthulhu's Vault tarot deck (does a great job bringing in the written aspect of Lovecraft's works)

the Magic The Gathering oracle deck (already said good things about it here)

the Neopets tarot deck (already said good things about it here)

Decks I think missed on either the divination tool and/or representation of original media angle:

the Dark Grimoire tarot deck

the Dungeons and Dragons tarot deck

the Skyrim tarot deck

The Dark Grimoire Tarot is more of like...if someone within the universe of Lovecraft's mythos made a tarot deck and then half-assed it. It's a Lo Scarabeo deck, so you get a bunch of languages and almost no depth at all in the guidebook. It is, however, incredibly Lovecraftian. It references many of his stories across different cards, though they aren't all in the same suits as each other.

The Dungeons and Dragons Tarot is so fucking hard to understand. It's pretty, but there's no telling what the hell is on any card or if you're supposed to recognize any of the characters. Renaming the suits to four of the six stats without any mention of the other two stats was hard, and there's no telling from looking at the card which suit the characters are actually supposed to be part of, so you end up looking in the guidebook just to find out what you're looking at. And the guidebook isn't exactly thorough. Would have been better as an oracle deck split into six suits for each stat...and with clearer labelling. Though they figured out what worked and what didn't before they put out the MTG oracle deck.

The Skyrim Tarot has a ridiculous number of characters who are not actually depicted in Skyrim on the cards. And it being marketed specifically as a Skyrim deck is a huge thing because of that. I don't actually mind that it's a pip deck, but the reason behind putting some characters on cards over others are utterly inscrutable to me. A friend of mine and I sat in VC when I got it and went into elaborate detail about how we would redo this deck in any number of directions.

Not that any of these decks are bad! I can still read with them, and I do a damn fine job of it, as y'all have probably seen. They're still pretty. One of my favorite cards ever is the 3 of Pentacles from the Dark Grimoire Tarot:

This image is genuinely the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. Also, I keep misreading "Oros" as "Oreos", so you can imagine my joy whenever I get to pull this baby out.

Anywho, yeah, this post is just me spreading my bad opinions everywhere. Thank y'all for your time.

[keyishacolecat]

do you have any book recommendations? pls i need lots 💙💙

this is such a loaded question friend. but lucky for u, i am procrastinating assignments, my take out has yet to arrive, and i just finished another book!

horror fic has been my choice for the last several books

the centre by ayesha manazir siddiqi is about a young Pakistani woman living in the UK. she's a translator for Urduru films. language and translation are central to this book. people are becoming fluent in a matter of weeks in complex languages.... the centre is gorgeous if not entirely mysterious, magical even. but whats the catch?? beautifully written. vivid details. anisa is a flawed, honest, and genuine feeling mc, as are the people in her life. i just finished it a couple hours ago n i miss my girls.

slewfoot by brom is set in 17th century Connecticut. our protag, Abitha, is not from this town but she does he best to adhere to the Puritan standards, if not for her well being, than that of her husband's. something stirs in the outskirts of the village, in the forest and beyond. she finds help from an unlikely source while also fostering a deep inner power of her own. these characters felt so well thought out, the writing is magnetic and the action is well paced. it puts so many preconceived notions right on their head. i loved this book and can't wait to read brom's other novel, the child thief, a retelling of peter pan and the lost boys!

sister, maiden, monster by lucy a. synder was oh so gay and oh so cosmically horrendous. this is like h.p. lovecraft wasn't a weird racist. this is like if biblically accurate angels were once just women in love. this is horrifying, visceral, and relevant to our COVID world. i was gawking at so many of the details. there are so many monster themes actually, it's perfect. the story is told through 3 povs of 3 different women. and we love women! and horror! i didn't expect to pick this one up but I'm so glad i did.

mary: an awakening of terror by nat cassidy do u know what it's like to be virtually invisible? forgotten? disaffected? do u know the pure joy of having a precious collection, adding to it over time, and it being almost ur only reason for living anymore?? then you're a lot like mary. and mary is a lot like plenty of women who get the chance to live beyond adolescence, who are cast out by society-- deemed invaluable. mary is utterly lost at a time in her life she feels she should have it all figured out. she goes back to her hometown, an ambiguous small town in the middle of the desert, and some unlikely characters help her piece things back together. i finished this book feeling so close to mary. we are friends now. there is mystique, horror, fables, myths, bad guys, mysterious architecture, and well mary is not the most reliable narrator. loved this one too.

the last house on needless street by catriona ward i had no idea where this book was going and i loved piecing the narrative together through several characters and their povs. it forces u to confront ur own biases regarding mental health. u are sympathetic to the characters in the most painful, heart wrenching ways. there is murder. there is mystery. there is missing children. there are cats. this book surprised me and it was fun to have to find a couple reddit threads to be sure i was understanding the story correctly. i felt like i read this kind of fast! which is always fun too.

brother by ania ahlborn this one pissed me off a bit. but in a good way because i was so deeply invested. this one is set in Appalachia. i'm not one for stereotypes, especially bc i think Appalachians have a bad rep and it's of no fault of their own. that being said, the insular feel of the book and the absolute claustrophobia those mountains create in this story were like a character in it of itself. our protag, michael, knows there's something beyond. he's seen them on colorful postcards. but his own mind and his own heart seem utterly trapped here. this one is heartbreaking. it's horrifying. and it'll make u dizzy from the amount of times u change ur mind. excited to read her other novel, Seed, because this one stuck with me so much!

a couple honorable mentions that fit the theme:

the vegetarian by han kang korean food. infidelity. art. nightmares. inexplicable mindfucks! this story was scary because it felt very.. possible? no monsters this time. no spells. just... the mind deteriorating. could happen to any of us.

a certain hunger by chelsea g. summers what if girlbossing is just a quick pivot from sociopathy?? what if the crimes are so much more gratifying than say, fame or fortune or even love?? women can be sociopaths too, you know!! this one is fun bc the protag is crazy and it's fun to slip into these characters. cathartic even. omg did i mention, she's a foodie too! just like me :-)

[note-boom]

After reading that Dead Apple Post and all the posts within it, I had commentary and theories and random points to make....but I couldn't really put in into a cohesive post, so instead just have them as bullet points in the form of questions

So, obvious one first. What in the world is up with Atsushi's ability? The thing is. It's him that's described as a guidepost to the Book rather than his ability and when he looks at that blue cube, he calls it himself. And yet his ability is supposedly the one who can guide people to what they most desire, as well as his ability being described as something that can basically devour other abilities

On that note...it's interesting to me that it's been pointed out how Akutagawa's ability can cut through any physical structure (matter) and even space itself (so Akutagawa has a space-matter ability) while Atsushi can cut through and basically unalive any ability (tiger devouring prey imagery anyone?). And then we have Dazai who is able to nullify abilities for a brief period of time, not obliterate them just cancel them out. Which is very interesting to me when we have this whole imagery of Dazai represented by sunset, the ADA represented by twilight, the PM by the night, the Special Division by the day, and Atsushi by the moon. The moon is within the night and it's what sort of...cancels out the power of the night. Meanwhile, twilight (ADA) is the time between sunset (Dazai) and dusk (apparently, it goes like sunset -> twilight -> dusk), and it just sits interestingly to me that the ADA people are framed as those "in between" two great forces (day and night), and Dazai the nullifier as sunset sits in between Atsushi the ability devourer represented by the moon...and perhaps something represented by the sun. And the question culminating out of all that: was Shibusawa (the chaos of "ability" itself) the sun to Atsushi's moon or have we not seen that yet? Or is Akutagawa, also represented with draconic imagery, supposed to be that sun or is he really the night that "backgrounds" Atsushi's moon, as we seen in their fights?

Thirdly, something to be said about shapeshifting abilities. All I can remember off the top of my head right now is Lovecraft's Great Old Ones, Shibusawa's Draconica's final form, Bram's vampire ability, and Atsushi's Beast Beneath the Moonlight. (And from the theory linked in the dead apple post that talks about a possible Fyodor ability being the ability to copy himself makes him a kind of...form-shifter as well?). That said, in all these four, the carrier of that ability doesn't just use their ability, they become their ability. That sort of distinction clearly sets them apart from other ability users, I think...it makes them something....other (it also brings up Tanizaki as a rather interesting point, not as someone who can shapeshift or cause shapeshifting but as someone who can pretend to do so through illusions). And Dazai has all this angst about him not being human, but the real question is how human are those shapeshifters? Lovecraft clearly isn't human, Bram's vampires definitely aren't, and Shibusawa was an ability that survived its user (we've seen some other abilities do that, but none of them are sentient). I definitely think Atsushi's 100% human, and I think his lack of initial control over his ability is a testament to that....but I do wonder if he has the ability to be a little bit other-than-human like the other shapeshifters seem to be.

Continuing the Atsushi thread...we've already established that his ability can reject wounds/regenerate wounds. And while I do think we have evidence that he's recovered from normal gunshot wounds and such things, there's also the thing about him having orphanage scars and how most of the times he regrows limbs etc. etc. it's because an ability wounded him. Do you think that Atsushi might possibly have the ability to recover faster from non-ability based wounds (and thus get scars out of it) but an actual power to "reject" ability-inflicted pain (so no scars)?

Also, the whole thing about singularities is interesting to me, especially considering Chuuya and his...instability. I wonder if there's a difference between curated and manmade singularities like Chuuya's and Oda/Gide's...or if Chuuya's (and Verlaine's) whole singularity experiment was an attempt to recreate something the scientists had already seen...namely, a singularity that could survive within a person without actually harming them. And could Atsushi be one of those people who contain a natural singularity within himself?

[chronicbeans]

Candle Cove Headcanons (3)

How the show works, in a sense. Who could see it, and why some people remember it being different than others. Most people within the community have not put these pieces together, yet, but some have their suspicions.

TW: Neglect, Children getting into Dark Media for their age

📺 The show only showed itself to neglected children during the early 70's. As such, a lot of people in the community make joke posts saying "Candle Cove was there for me when my parents weren't." Unfortunately, they don't realize how literal that statement was. The show appeared to give those kids something to do. Something to distract themselves with. To give them characters to play with, even if they're terrifying. It became addictive, in a way, but only because those kids often had nothing else to do, or were too stressed by their situations to do anything but sit in front of the screen.

📺 The first half of Candle Cove is the same for everyone who watched it. It's all about Pirate Percy and Janice fighting the Skintaker and Horace. However, while the main plot beats of the second half are the same, many have very different recollections of what exactly each episode was like. Many say the differences begin once Percy begins growing more paranoid. This is because the show, in a way, personalizes itself to the viewer watching it. It does it in a very specific way, however.

📺 Children left to their own devices often find things they shouldn't. Children left to their own devices, bored out of their minds and desperate for any form of entertainment might find media they shouldn't, like gruesome movies or books. Children love the taboo, so even though they might know they shouldn't read something so dark, or watch something so violent, chances are they'll take a peek. Candle Cove personalizes itself based on other media the child has seen. So, based on what sort of things the child has gotten into, recently, they might begin seeing it in Candle Cove. However, it's always done in such a way that it can fit the vibe of a particularly dark children's show. Maybe not one that's suitable for their target demographic of 5 to 9, and would be much better for 13 and over, but still a children's show. And weirdly enough, it's only horror media that affects it, probably because any adult media would instantly take it out of the children's age rating.

📺 Have you gotten into some Lovecraft stories your father left out? Well, now Percy is offhandedly mentioning something sleeping beneath the sea, or talking about a nearby town of Innsmouth. Watch a few slashers? The Skintaker has been more gruesome than normal, and they've even begun including red food dye. Did you see any psychological horror media? You better hope not. You don't even want to know what happens.

📺 And yet, throughout all of that, the most basic parts of the second half of the plot stay the same. Percy gets progressively more paranoid, Percy fears Janice will betray him, Percy attacks Janice at the cave he uses to calm down, and Horace confronts him about it. No matter what changes were made through the personalization, that stays the same.

📺 Other things the show takes into account while personalizing itself to the viewer is life events happening. If the viewer or a family member of them is severely sick, it might show episodes about sickness more often. If they are dealing with parents fighting often in their household, it might show episodes that can teach them how to deal with it. Maybe they are dealing with a death in the family, so the show turns on an episode dealing with death.

📺 No one in the fandom has figured this out. Instead, they either believe people just saw different episodes because they watched at different times, and that they missed the episodes they didn't see. Others think it's a Mandela Effect, because some episodes could be exactly the same with one or two minute differences.

[centrally-unplanned]

do you know what the writers had in mind as models or influences when coming up with the second impact? I'm wondering if there's a link to "At the Mountains of Madness", either as a direct acknowledged influence, or maybe at one step removed, an influence of an influence.

A good question! So my first-order response to the Lovecraft element is going to be "no", for two reasons, but with the caveat that I have never seen any document specifically stating it one way or the other. The first is that (to answer the other part of the question) the Second Impact is not something that there is a lot of "behind the scenes" documents on. As its backstory its not a topic that comes up in interviews a ton, its not mentioned beyond its establishing facts in the Evangelion Proposal or (from what I have seen) production notes, etc. It lacks that elevated importance for us to get real answers on why its designed the way it is. So I don't have any real sources on, for example, "Why Antartica".

The second is that Hideaki Anno did not read or overly like western sci/fi & fantasy authors. Given Eva's positioning in the sci-fi genre he was asked, very frequently, things like "oh how much did Arthur C Clarke influence you or what do you think of Cordwainer Smith" and his response is usually "I don't read any of that shit lol". His influences are other anime & things like tokusatsu. So if I made a bet on "why Antarctica" for example, I would point to the ice planets in classic space anime, or even Anno's work on Nadia which has episodes in Antarctica. Or just a convenient way to flood the earth and get the apocalypse vibe. Lovecraft is not an influence I have seen the core team cite.

But as for Lovecraft being "in the water", that is a very different story. Lovecraft was very popular in Japan - even in the pre-Cthulhu boom days. And just like in the US, Sandy Peterson’s Call of Cthulhu RPG launched a boom in Lovecratian interest in Japan upon its translation & release in 1986. Manga adaptations, direct inspirations, references in other works, and so on are present in Otaku-adjacent media in the 80's & 90's. Chiaki Konaka (writer for Serial Experiments Lain) was a big Lovecraft fan and definitely drew from that for the work he did on tokusatsu series Ultraman, which Hideaki Anno loves enough to direct a film entry for last year.

And At The Mountains of Madness as definitely available in Japan, having been translated more than once into Japanese by 1990. It even has a full manga adaptation in the 2010's, if that appeals! So while I doubt you will ever be able to prove anything, the idea of Antartica having a touch of the horror vibe via serving as a tomb for dead gods being a culturally current idea, influenced in part by Lovecraft's works, seems as valid a guess as any to me.

As always, there 100% could be an interview out there I haven't seen that directly addresses this, would love to hear other's thoughts!

[literaryspinster]

Do you have any fantasy or sci-fi book recs that are tonally and thematically similar to Gen V? And/or have a couple that give the same dynamic as MarieJordan? :3

I think part of the reason I like Jordan and Marie so much is because I really haven't seen a couple quite like them in any medium before. By that I mean the fact that Jordan can change gender and that causes Marie to reflect on her capacity for attraction. That's a really unique concept to me. They did something kind of similar on Lovecraft Country but that storyline gave me the ick so I wouldn't recommend it for that. I hear the show Misfits had a character who could change genders as well but I heard that their powers manifested differently and I'm not sure if that character was involved in a romance. I think I mentioned before that Jordan and Marie's personalities and dynamic give me Paris and Rory vibes, but they were never a couple on Gilmore Girls. As far as books with similar themes, I would perhaps suggest The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman, it's about a group of students at a magical university and it's a pretty fun read, A Blade So Black by LL Mckinney is a YA take on Alice in wonderland with a queer Black girl protagonist, so it has the whole element of being thrust into a dangerous new world thing going for it. And it's not Fantasy, but Tiny Pretty Things (the book, not the show) has the elements of fierce competition and intrigue. Hope that helps somewhat.

[c0rpsedemon]

ppl, mainly white lgbt ppl, have a longggg history of liking lovecraft work but not knowing how to address his bigotry and there are two main strategies i see irt this:

1) the most common one is the "it's abt me now" which is when they like to go off abt how awful lovecraft was as if he's a cartoon villain (and yes lovecraft was bad but in the grand scheme of things he didn't rlly take it out on anyone else and he at least seemed to become less bigoted as time went on so like. as far as racist historical authors go it's strange how ppl decide that This is the one that's treated like he's the fucking boogeyman or smthing) but the emphasis all comes down to "actually i'm spiting lovecraft by jacking his shit bc he would hate me bc i'm gay/trans" when like. lovecraft didn't give a shit abt gay/trans ppl. he probs didn't even Know they existed. the only evidence for him having negative views of gay/trans ppl is a severe misreading of the thing at the doorstep which comes from hearing a summary and not actually reading the thing, or going in in bad faith (the horror isn't 'gasp! edward thought he married a woman but she's rlly a man!' it's 'gasp! poor asenath lost her own mind and became her father... literally!' . like lovecraft was Very scared of inheritted mental issues asenath is a borderline self insert for him). lovecraft was racist, classist, and antisemetic . he was not homophobic or transphobic . it's not abt you. and hey he rlly would like you jacking his shit actually . he loved when ppl did that. (honestly he might even be ok w it if you Were in one of the groups he was worked up abt. like he Rlly wasn't that dedicated to his bigotry he literally married a jewish woman. also anyone jacking his shit at all was like the best thing that'd ever happen to him he rlly wanted ppl to do it bc he felt the more references there were to things like miskatonic university or arkham asyllum or the necronomicon the more real they seemed and the more mindfucky it was. and i think doing his literal favorite thing in the world is a p effective way to get him to overlook everything else). sometimes the "spiting lovecraft" is just adding monster sex bc he'd be sooo scandalized by it. babes he created innsmouth and wilbur whately he would Not gaf and i doubt you've actually read any of his shit 0/10 strategy accomplishes nothing and spreads misinformation

2) i call this one the "actually he wasn't involved in this at all" . the 'arkham asyllum was created by dc comics!' approach. mainly seen in fans of re-animator 1985 who like to call it a frankenstein adaptation. 0/10 you are Lying

[play-rough]

8, 21, 22, & 25 for Dazai and Chuuya 🥹💕

🩵❤️‍🔥

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Dazai- god i feel like I’m so picky about Dazai characterizations and it’s so hard to describe sometimes I’ll just be like NO THATS WRONG‼️ but I guess one thing is when Dazai mentoring ryunosuke is just boiled down to a black and white situation where Dazai was soooo abusive to poor ryu (and i feel like this is a disservice to akutagawas character too), but Iike you have a child raised in a strict mafia environment and then you give that unstable child control over *another child* it’s not gonna go well, and i don’t personally blame either of the children in that scenario 🙄 idk BSD just has a lot of complex situations and I feel like they’re not always handled as such 😌🩵 Wtf this morally grey character is making problematic choices??? Cancel him🚫

Chuuya- when he’s just angry shouty guy who yells and shouts, sometimes I feel like I’m looking at a bad bakugo parody 😭

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

Ummm for Dazai i like making him break down and cry and forcing him to admit he needs help or attention 🥺👉👈 or sick or just any kind of general vulnerability, and flip side for Chuuya, I love forcing him to admit he’s worried about Dazai or cares about him. My favorite part of Chuuya’s character is that he’s a genuinely nice person, Dazai is just so annoying and pushes his buttons, so I love showing off Chuuya’s softer side and highlighting his protective and caring nature. That scene where chuuya watches Dazai get slammed into a tree by lovecraft x1000000❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to ths character? Something you don't like?

For both of them like I said above im so picky and if you make them one dimensional or even if the vibes are bad I’ll just be like NO THATS WRONG‼️ and close the fic

Something i *like* is pretty much my same answer for 21 ajdhhfhdjs I really only write about what I like reading about so I’m a sucker for vulnerable Dazai and sappy Chuuya BUT for a more specific, ridiculous, self indulgent answer i like when Dazai is written regressed 🥹🩵 or even if he’s baby, just in energy 🥺🩵 Dazai is baby and should be written as such

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

First impressions of Dazai was i don’t even remember him, I read the first bsd book at the library when I was in middle/high school (don’t remember exactly when) and was like eh. Boring. I think it didn’t help that they didn’t have all the books so it was like volume one, three, five, prime numbers only. I think I read soul eater instead lmao. Flash forward to college I had seen bsd characters and i liked the designs, and i had figured chuuya would be my favorite bc he kinda reminded me a bit of Karkat from homestuck (a dear fave of mine at one point) in that angry but actually sweet and kindhearted kinda way.

I was still eh whatever about Dazai, which is crazy because I’ve seen him compared to both Gojo and Reigen in the silly mentor who lost the kids he’s custody of kinda way, and those two are some more faves of mine. Tbh i didn’t solidify him as my fave until we learned of his tragic past because my OTHER favorite kind of character is a rude little bastard, and i was shown the light. Dazai Osamu has the range. He’s like a two for one, which I’m pretty sure he’s a Gemini??? I’m not gonna google and confirm just trust me i think he’s a Gemini ♊️

Impressions now obviously Dazai is my babygirl, my soaking wet cat, my poor pathetic meow meow who has both never done anything wrong and also committed so many war crimes. Chuuya I knew i would like him and I do lmao, close second from Dazai. I think Dazai is pretty much my ultimate fave character of all time…

[kekkuda]

Part of the process of recovering from my first psychotic episode has involved revisiting all of the famous gothic horror literature i read and was fascinated by as a preteen and reading Poe has been a constant experience of yeah I’ve been there before buddy and it really does feel like he was ahead of his time in terms of presenting reality as inherently absurd in a way his peers didn’t often touch upon. People often stop their analysis at “Edgar Allan Poe utilizes unreliable narrators a lot” instead of going a bit further to put themselves in the shoes of the characters and asking what it feels like to live in an unreliable reality. Reading Poe stories feels so very melancholic at a moment in my life when I don’t know how to get care for these issues, whether or not I’m actually sound of mind or just convincing myself I’m losing touch with reality-- in other words “faking it.” Ever since the incident moments of joy and curious hobbies have gone from being seen by those around me as quirky hyperfixations to something more sinister and unwell. Others who I thought really cared for my health and safety seem to treat the revelation that I am “losing my mind, no literally. . . please let me tell you what happened” with the if i’m retelling the story of what flavor of soda i picked at the vending machine. It’s so alienating as if being terrified of your own mind and it’s capability to break apart the rules of reality isn’t alienating enough. I think Poe really captures that feeling I get when things are just a bit off until they crescendo into an event that seems massive and tiny and inconsequential all the same. I really can’t describe it because the fear I feel is unlike any other fear I’ve felt and you don’t know it until you’ve felt it and it clicks. Out of curiosity I wanted to see how well H.P. Lovecraft held up or if my distaste for his work was strictly from the knowledge of who the man was in life. The answer is no, it does not. Frankly I find it insulting that H.P. Lovecraft is put at the same level as Poe, far above the tens of Gothic writers that preceded him by decades to nearly a century. . . of whom Lovecraft would openly take influence from just to water down down everything that makes those works interesting. The “indescribable” horrors that Lovecraft describes are paradoxically comprehensible. I’ve had many discussions with my partner about why more grounded surrealist art feels far more surreal and uneasy than art that is comprised of endless “weird” imagery. To keep this topic brief, think something like David Lynch. His films are utterly bizarre compared to your average hollywood blockbuster, sure, but as far as surrealist media goes? His films are very grounded in reality, but that reality feels off and strange in a way that genuinely is indescribable. When I read Lovecraft on the other hand, it feels like he read a lot of gothic literature about the sublime, indescribably transcendent nature of the universe and replaced that with essentially. . . a big scary monster. When Lovecraft writes “indescribable” or other similar words as a descriptor for what his characters see, it feels akin to when 14 year olds discover the SCP wiki and think that the more you write REDACTED or [DATA EXPUNGED] the scarier the object of horror is. It feels lazy when you’re not given any other reason to feel afraid. When I read Dagon it feels like I’m reading an early 2010s creepypasta written by someone who hasn’t been writing long enough to analyze what makes something scary. It genuinely feels like someone trying to write what they think psychosis might be like. His stories are so inhuman (and not in the way he’s trying to achieve) and detached, and I never get the is it real or not feeling I get from older gothic stories dealing with notions of sanity and humanity’s role in the universe. I know the big spooky space creatures are real in the universe of the text, so I don’t really connect the Lovecraftian hero’s lapses of sanity. You don’t see the same tragic decay of mind and body and ill-fated social dynamics that permeate so many of Poe’s stories. I genuinely don’t know what purpose there is to be gained from the oft-quoted declaration that the core of Lovecraft is about uncovering knowledge you aren’t supposed to know. I frankly don’t know how you can separate the art from the artist for HPL when so much of his work seems to pretty clearly match up with antisemitic “secret global society” conspiracy theories that go back centuries upon centuries. Think about it for two seconds: the “terrible knowledge” that gets discovered is typically the existence of some all-powerful cosmic race that seems to hide itself at all costs and could possibly end humanity’s pitiful existence should they so choose to do so. So much of his work involves this utterly unsympathetic view of otherness as an “indescribable threat” in society whereas I think a lot of Poe’s writing really captures the terror of being othered at a time when the treatment of mentally ill and disabled people was at one of its all-time peaks. I might revisit this idea again when I’m not tired as shit but I think in all, Lovecraft feels almost boring. Nothing feels really impressive despite the scale of its horror. In some ways, Poe really feels almost shockingly similar to a lot of postmodern man-vs-reality narratives, whereas Lovecraft feels like he takes a lot of the same aesthetics of gothic literature and uses it to craft a narrative that is far more simplistic than it seems at first glance. It hardly even qualifies as a man-vs-god narrative prevalent in the time of the Illiad, but given HPL’s track record when it comes to respecting human beings it’s all just a bare bones black and white us-versus-them man-vs-man narrative. Now, art doesn’t have to be thematically complex to be good, but I find it a bit insulting when the man with the copy-paste self insert characters with the personality of soggy paper wants to profess understanding of profoundly existentialist, indescribable terror. . . and the vast majority of his work is just an allegory with a metaphor writing-hand heavier than CS Lewis’s own that gives me no insights about the world other than that he literally couldn’t get over the “indescribable” fear of “grug look different from ogg, grug bad!” dog you didn’t make a cosmic discovery you are literally the fuckin meme “men will smoke weed once and think they’re enlightened for discovering empathy” or whatever. i have more transcendental experiences railing twinks and cuddling with pretty girls talk about smth really indescribable!!!!! it’s fucking caveman shit. mf really would be writing shitty fanfic of shadow puppets if you locked him in the cave fr fr. prolly wouldn’t notice he’s in an allegory fr fr life is indescribable and that’s what makes it beautiful and tragic and precious just eat a cock like the rest of us instead ur scarin the hoes with your shitty octopus fursona!

[adrien2501-blog]

Dagon: A study of cosmic terror

HP Lovecraft's Dagon is a 1919 short story that is a delve into Cosmic horror and one of the earliest works of what would become the Lovecraft Mythos.

Dagon focuses on a sailor during the Great War who's ship is sunk in the pacific by a German U-boat. The protagonist survives in a lifeboat as the Germans strand him at sea. Drifting about at sea, The unnamed protagonist finds himself in strange black waters whilst also starting to experience strange dreams and visions. Not long after, the protagonist found himself on a strange island, described by Lovecraft as, “So great was the extent of the new land which had risen beneath me, that I could not detect the faintest noise of the surging ocean, strain my ears as I might. Nor were there any sea-fowl to prey upon the dead things.” The protagonist begins to trek across the island where he encounters a strange towering monolith. The protagonist comes to realize that despite how massive the monolith is that it was built by something, He also describes the monolith in some details such as: “The writing was in a system of hieroglyphics unknown to me, and unlike anything I had ever seen in books,” and as “It was the pictorial carving, however, that did most to hold me spellbound. Plainly visible across the intervening water on account of their enormous size, were an array of bas-reliefs whose subjects would have excited the envy of a Doré.”(Dagon, Lovecraft) The narrator also describes the beings depicted as fish-men and did not go into further detail. Eventually, the Protagonist encounters one of the monsters depicted on the monolith, describing it as “Vast, Polyphemus-like, and loathsome, it darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith, about which it flung its gigantic scaly arms, the while it bowed its hideous head and gave vent to certain measured sounds.” At this point the protagonist flees and remembers nothing else until he wakes up in a hospital in San Francisco, making minor inquiries particularly about the ancient god Dagon though is overall fruitless. The story ends with the Protagonist being attacked in his home.

Dagon is a high quality story that focuses on ambient terror and the fear that comes from encountering unknown beings that you can’t explain. Lovecraft describes much of what we see though makes it clear that what both we and the characters in the story are encountering are things that are beyond our comprehension. Such prose and concepts are a hallmark of both Lovecraft’s writing and the Lovecraft Mythos. For those into ambient horror with little answers, Dagon is a great starter story as much of the hesitation and unease builds from the background. There’s not really any jump scares in the story until the conclusion, instead focusing on building uneasiness such as by describing the environment and the alien writing on the monolith making it known that whilst the monolith says something, it’s not human nor is it meant to be read by humans, putting the protagonist and by extension humanity into an alien world. Lovecraft also makes excellent use of scale to create tension, both the monolith and the creature are described as colossal as the monolith is surrounded by a huge and deep pit and the creature is described as "Polympheus-like” (Dagon, Lovecraft)as an allusion to the cyclops of the Odyssey.This scale adds to the terror as it represents humanity’s place in the grand scale of the universe, just as animals such as ants are insignificant to humanity, so are we to the creatures and the universe with which we live in. The lack of any true explanation and context also plays into this sense of cosmic terror that the protagonist and the reader are exposed to as we are left with clues to interpret and speculate what we are dealing with and it works in this story as one of the central themes of Cosmic horror is the incomprehensibility of the universe around us. 

Works Cited

Lovecraft, Howard  Phillips. “Dagon.” “Dagon” by H. P. Lovecraft, 20 Aug. 2009, www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/d.aspx. 

"Dagon" by H. P. Lovecraft (hplovecraft.com)