I looked in and saw an oddly dressed company, indeed

[teenybuffalo]

I'm so tired I could do a faceplant on the table. But before I forget:

I went to Necronomicon just for the day today. It was lovely despite the fact that the overall convention was sold out when I got there, and so first I went for a walk over College Hill and snarled at myself about my frustration with my own poor planning, and then I thought

Comments

[asakiyume]

That's a brilliant limerick--big applause for coming up with it on the spur of the moment, and three cheers for winning. The prize sounds excellent indeed!

[teenybuffalo]

Thank you! I'm still patting myself on the back. The egoboo that I got from watching the organizer read my limerick aloud to a crowded room was intense.

[moon_custafer]

*note for those who aren't into Lovecraft: Wilmarth is the (fictional) scholar protagonist of The Whisperer in Darkness

The HPLHS did a movie of Whisperer in Darkness a few years back. I can't find anything about Carlton Connolly, but the HPLHS have been known to work original characters (often self-inserts going back to their LARPing days) into their movie and radio adaptations, so he might be one.

[teenybuffalo]

Yes! I have watched and enjoyed The Whisperer in Darkness several times over the past few years. The HPLHS members leading the chantey singing were Sean Branney (who played the brain-in-a-jar guy in "Whisperer" and also directed) and Andrew Leman (who played Charles Fort and was also one of the producers), as well as at least four other people whose names I didn't get. They were total sweethearts, and I was kind of star-struck around them, so I hope I managed to convey my love for their work at some point.

I guess it didn't sink in till now that you were into HPL and associated works. Just out of interest, how old were you when you encountered Lovecraft's stories? I was fourteen. There's a popular wisdom that you have to get into Lovecraft's work as an adolescent or it won't work for you. I don't think that's true but I'm curious enough to ask people about their own experiences.

Out there on FB somewhere there are photos of me in like 2012 at a party holding Akeley's brain-in-a-jar and grinning like a loon.

[alexx_kay]

I definitely found HPL in high school. "The Outsider" is the PERFECT portrait of teenage alienation.

[teenybuffalo]

Oh my gosh, it's wonderful to read "The Outsider" for the first time when you're fourteen. I distinctly remember reading it and thinking, "This writer gets me." And people wonder why I'm obsessed with zombies.

[negothick]

Sorry I missed seeing you, even sorrier that I was asleep by the time the Chantey Sing was in progress. Glad the HPLHS guys did such a great job. My former cadets Dave and Amanda also tried to get a day pass for Saturday and were told the same thing. Dave also gave them a piece of his mind--"sold out" is ridiculous for a con this spread out. The only place they actually checked badges was at the dealer's room and the Prayer Breakfast. Other than that, the panel rooms were open--and there was always plenty of room. But in the end, you got the best of the con anyway!

[teenybuffalo]

Well, you'd have had fun at the chantey sing. I won't lie, I had to get past a moment of clashing mental gears every time I tried to sing the original which I knew instead of the filk which I'd been given words for, but it was all so lovably earnest and well-thought-through that I was just delighted with it. One of the group played the tunes as accompaniment on a fiddle, which helped the people who don't normally sing traditional songs.

[negothick]

As Dave said, who would imagine someone saying at an academic conference, "I'm trying to pay you for knowledge, but you're turning me away!"

[negothick]

As for the age question, I asked it of the participants in "She Walks in Shadows No More," and all four women said they grew up reading Lovecraft from (between) ages 11-15.