A Rather More Weightless Entry
I'm intermittently taken by strange fascinations. I simply acquire minor inexplicable obsessions for no discernible reason and maintain them for a week or a month or so, and then move on. Not because I particulayly like the subject I'm compelled towards (though I may) but simply because I am compelled towards it. Right now I'm compelled by all things H.P. Lovecraft. Before that it was the life of Hitler. Before that it was the backstory of the fictional band Gorrilaz. Beatniks, angelical hierarchies, and Fyodor Dostoevsky are all up there too.
This current fascination - H.P. Lovecraft - has me making daily trips to the bookstore to sit sideways in a chair and read his stories. They all seem to involve the same basic reveal - "Bad things happen -> demonic portal is to blame" - but there are enough variations on the form to keep it interesting. "The Music of Eric Zahn" is a particularly satisfying short piece, if you have a small stretch of time and care to read anything by him. Lovecraft's trademark writing style is characteristically over the top; a lot of his descriptions are hyperbolic or simply state that the thing which he is describing is "beyond description." The man really seems like a generational extension of Edgar Allan Poe; they've got a lot in common and Lovecraft definitely gives an explicit nod to Poe in a lot of his work. The difference is Lovecraft's supernaturalism - his pantheons of demons and dark gods and the like that lurk just outside of our reality and make us mortals insignificant pawns by contrast. It's a different concept of madness than Poe's more worldly approach, which makes the insanity if his driving characters internal rather than guided by some demonic force.
[insert conclusion]
This current fascination - H.P. Lovecraft - has me making daily trips to the bookstore to sit sideways in a chair and read his stories. They all seem to involve the same basic reveal - "Bad things happen -> demonic portal is to blame" - but there are enough variations on the form to keep it interesting. "The Music of Eric Zahn" is a particularly satisfying short piece, if you have a small stretch of time and care to read anything by him. Lovecraft's trademark writing style is characteristically over the top; a lot of his descriptions are hyperbolic or simply state that the thing which he is describing is "beyond description." The man really seems like a generational extension of Edgar Allan Poe; they've got a lot in common and Lovecraft definitely gives an explicit nod to Poe in a lot of his work. The difference is Lovecraft's supernaturalism - his pantheons of demons and dark gods and the like that lurk just outside of our reality and make us mortals insignificant pawns by contrast. It's a different concept of madness than Poe's more worldly approach, which makes the insanity if his driving characters internal rather than guided by some demonic force.
[insert conclusion]