Lovecraft And Priestcraft

[poliphilo]

A friend of a friend is frightened of demons. He puts it down to being a fan of Lovecraft's. And he puts the Lovecraft thing down to his good, old-fashioned Catholic education.

I can't be doing with Lovecraft. I find him completely over the top. He doesn't frighten me because I  don't believe in his mythos.

Maybe you need to have been brought up as a certain kind of Christian- traditional Catholic or hell-fire Protestant- to find Lovecraft frightening.

I was brought up as an Anglican with an elusive God who "moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform" and so the spook stuff that ruffles my feathers is the hinty, blink-and-you'll-miss-it English ghost story, as purveyed by the likes of M.R. James and Robert Aickman.

Comments

[cataptromancer.livejournal.com]

Also, on the issue of Lovecraft and god, I've always thought of him as much more of an atheist horror writer -- his sense of man's unimportance in the face of an uncaring universe populated by vast forces beyond his control seems like the dark side of early 20th century scientific optimism.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

There's another friend of the same friend (see above) who reckons Lovecraft is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.

I'm beginning to feel I ought to tryhim again...