Lovecraft’s mode of writing has in the past as well as in the present had an impact on the way people write. Lovecraft’s influence is speculated to continue inspiring many generations of writers in the future. It is imperative to have an insight of Lovecraft’s background and upbringing to establish whether the two aspects had an impact on the way he wrote his stories. Many scholars are of the view that many times, the environment in which an individual is brought in affects the way the particular individual creates his or her narrations (Kneale, 2016). Many times, people reveal their childhood experiences or use specific events to inspire their stories.
Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Rhode Island. It is stated that Lovecraft had an unusual childhood that was marked by tragedy. For instance, his father had developed a mental disorder that resulted from untreated syphilis when he was barely three years. Lovecraft was also a sickly child, something that made him spend most of his school years at home. He at one point suffered a nervous breakdown before he could get his diploma. His sickly condition made him spend most of his time reading and writing. Thus, the childhood life of Lovecraft affected who he would become later in life.
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Many people regard Lovecraft as one of the pioneers of modern horror. It is because all of his stories were fictional and even explicitly referred to as “weird fictions.” It would be important to describe how Lovecraft’s fictional stories differ from other conventional writers. First, a lot of fantasy and fictional plays put a lot of emphasis on the characters. On the contrary, Lovecraft’s characters appear to be meaningless in most episodes to the actual stories. People can even replace his characters with any other, and the story would remain the same.
Fate plays a central role in Lovecraft’s narrations. The character in Lovecraft’s stories usually does not have options in any prevailing circumstances. In other authors’ books, the fictional characters usually are killed when they make bad decisions. Lovecraft’s characters do not get a chance to make even wrong decisions. Instead, their fate is determined by uncontrollable forces (Smith, 2014). Through, such ideas, Lovecraft attempts to explore the unknown. He also tries to show that the human race is small in comparison with everything else in the world.
Lovecraft’s work has minimal dialogue. The stories were mainly based on how the characters related to the environment as opposed to character versus character. Perhaps that was how he was able to bring in the psychological horror that he was popularly known for. The environment was always in conflict with the character, and the environment always won. No matter how the characters tried too hard to overpower their surroundings, they always were subdued.
Perhaps the most evident mode of writing that Lovecraft used was the first person perspective. He avoided the second or third person perspectives with a purpose. He did not want to develop the characters too much, something that would be inconsistent with his style of writing (Kneale, 2016). Instead, the first person perspective would describe the narration in detail. Some scholars say that when reading Lovecraft’s stories, readers can see themselves in the eyes of the characters. It added to the psychological mark that Lovecraft had on the readers. Some critics have lamented Lovecraft’s descriptive nature in his stories, but arguably, it was a way of enhancing the appearance of the characters. Readers can envision the looks and the scary appearance of the horrifying characters.
The most prominent story written by Lovecraft is The Call of Cthulhu . Cthulhu is a strange being of immense power that lies entombed in the stone city of R’lyeh beneath the Pacific Ocean (Lovecraft, 2016). The powerful being has laid under the water for many years and is speculated to continue doing so until the stars align whereby he will then wake up and reclaim dominion upon the Earth. Lovecraft created Cthulhu as part of broader mythology incorporating extraterrestrial creatures whose existence cannot be understood by human beings. What is more mysterious is that the characters in the story only see Cthulhu in dreams or artwork. The story resembles common myths where people only hear of supreme beings that once existed, but individuals have never set their eyes on them despite them expecting the Supreme Being to resurface. Lovecraft enhances Cthulhu’s supremacy by giving him a powerful description. Cthulhu is described as possessing features of an octopus, a dragon as well as human traits. Such a description presents a monster that not only seems powerful, but scary. Several artists have even attempted to create artwork showing the monster having a head that resembles an octopus and a large pair of wings to his back.
At the beginning of the story, Cthulhu is trapped in a stone city under the ocean, but an earthquake pushes a portion of the city above the surface. Cthulhu does not wake up but can have contact with the minds of specific creative and insane people. Towards the end of the narrative, a massive storm wrecks the city again, making it sink beneath the ocean waves where Cthulhu is trapped again. Although an organization of people who believe in the cult of Cthulhu tries to hasten his return, it seems that fate does not allow their effort to come to fruition.
Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu has had a tremendous impact on how writers create narrations. The Call of Cthulhu could be described as a piece of science fiction because of the environment it is placed. Science mostly describes the unknown phenomena or rather, things that human beings have not yet discovered. Before Lovecraft began writing, little stories explored the fictitious scientific world. Most importantly, Lovecraft’s work began to inspire many writers to explore science and imagine several events that could threaten the existence of human beings. Particularly Keene’s Darkness on the Edge of Town novel is a perfect example of work inspired by Lovecraft. In the novel, Keene narrates of how the residents of Walden, Virginia woke up one morning to find the rest of the world gone (Tushnet, 2014). A wall of darkness where things like light, electricity, food, water, internet, among others could not get in surrounded the small town. Individuals who tried to cross the mysterious wall were never seen again. What was only heard were the screams. What scared people the more was the lack of food and water. They had to try and forge a way out of their predicament in the darkness. However, just like The Call of Cthulhu , there was little they could do. Fate was not on their side, and they perished.
Another novel that draws its inspiration from The Call of Cthulhu is Talley’s That Which Should Not Be . The main character, Carter Weston is asked by his professor to explore a nearby village for a book that is perceived to control the inhuman forces that control the earth. Taking the book to the university proves to be a mistake. Weston discovers that he has taken a role in opening the gate between the world of man and the netherworld ( Talley, 2013 ). Reversing the course proves to be impossible and the only option left is to embrace the unknown.
Lovecraft began the idea of creating mysterious stories in which human beings cannot control their predicament. The environment usually proves to be too powerful to be outdone. Movie scriptwriters have also used Lovecraft’s idea to depict various scenes in the movies. Movies such as The Crimson Cult , The Curse and Dagon have employed Lovecraft’s ideas in some of their episodes (Smith, 2014).
The Call of Cthulhu is described as a pragmatic story that deviates from the norm. It is uncommon for a majority of stories to be written in the first person. Most of them dwell on describing the characters and even distort the plot. Lovecraft shows that the plot or the content is the most important. His emphasis on the content made some readers think that Cthulhu was a real being that existed when it was purely imaginative. In addition, writing is an art that does not need to follow a specific order. A completely new level of imagination emerged. Writers began to write about their nightmares, the future of the world or catastrophic events that are unlikely to happen.
Conclusively, Lovecraft’s style of writing reveals that the art of writing is dynamic. Individuals can combine various styles as long as the subject they intend to communicate stands out. Writing is pure imagination, and any topic is viable. Authors who intend to receive recognition ought to be consistent in their topics. For instance, a writer can create a character which he or she bases other subsequent stories. Creating a character whose traits are known from the start allows the writer to develop new content along the known character. In addition, readers will also anticipate knowing what the already known character does in subsequent series.
References
Kneale, J. (2016). From beyond: HP Lovecraft and the place of horror. Cultural geographies , 13 (1), 106-126.
Lovecraft, H. P. (2016). The Call of Cthulhu.
Smith, D. G. (2014). HP Lovecraft in Popular Culture: The Works and Their Adaptations in Film, Television, Comics, Music and Games . McFarland.
Talley , B. (2013). That Which Should Not Be : Journalstone, 72(3), 201-670
Tushnet, M. (2014). Darkness on the edge of town: The contributions of John Hart Ely to constitutional theory. The Yale Law Journal , 89 (6), 1037-1062.
