[X] My Assistant

[Renee]

I finally sat down the other day and really read a Lovecraft story, Mammoth Cave, also known as The Beast in the Cave. Was surprised to learn he was only fourteen when he wrote this tale! So I decided to make a thread listing a variety of Lovecraft influences in Bethesda games, and here it is. I'm sure these influences can be found in other games, as well as other media altogether, so feel free to add these as you'd like as well.

It struck me though. The Beast in the Cave features a pale-skinned creature with snow-white hair, which the protagonist kills toward the end of the tale. Before he killed this creature, he could only hear its footfalls (he was in total darkness), and apparently the creature alternated between walking on two feet, and walking on four feet. After killing it, he managed to find the tour guide he'd gotten separated from. He and the guide were then able to return to the creature, and were able to see it with a torch.

At the very end of the tale, the protagonist describes the creature he'd killed as having once been a MAN!!! ... There is an implication that this MAN once lived aboveground, perhaps. Because it's impossible for him to have been born underground.

And to me, this sounds like a reference to the falmer of Skyrim, who also once were an aboveground-living race, called snow elves.

[Renee]

I am reading The Amulet next, started reading it yesterday afternoon.

I can't believe this guy's writing ability as a teenager. It just boggles me. I mean, he must have spent a LOT of time reading and writing. Some of the words he uses, and the way he uses them, make me want to break out a dictionary or encyclopedia. He didn't have to write in such a way, at such a young age. It's obvious to me he was aspiring to become the very BEST of his craft?

Going back to The Beast in the Cave though, at the very end, it's almost like he betrays his actual age by finally emoting, when the protagonist realizes he's killed a MAN!!! The way Lovecraft wrote that very last word displays all kinds of enthusiasm, more aptly-said from a teenager than an adult.

[SubRosa]

I am reading The Amulet next, started reading it yesterday afternoon.

I can't believe this guy's writing ability as a teenager. It just boggles me. I mean, he must have spent a LOT of time reading and writing. Some of the words he uses, and the way he uses them, make me want to break out a dictionary or encyclopedia. He didn't have to write in such a way, at such a young age. It's obvious to me he was aspiring to become the very BEST of his craft?

Going back to The Beast in the Cave though, at the very end, it's almost like he betrays his actual age by finally emoting, when the protagonist realizes he's killed a MAN!!! The way Lovecraft wrote that very last word displays all kinds of enthusiasm, more aptly-said from a teenager than an adult.

Lovecraft always tried to save that big reveal for the very end. At some times it even gets pretty convoluted as he dances around that big shocking Truth so he can save it for the finish. But mostly it creates a resounding finish. The HPLHS society has done a lot of his stories as radio dramas, and they did that to outstanding effect with their version of Shadow Over Innsmouth.

You will also notice that HP hates woodwind instruments, especially pipes and flutes. If there is evil afoot, you can bet it will be heralded by musical piping. Daemoniac piping. He loves daemoniac things. He must have had a daemoniac neighbor who played the recorder all night...

For some of HPL's greatest hits, I recommend the following stories:

At The Mountains of Madness (probably his longest, and my personal favorite)
The Call of Cthulhu
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (my second favorite)
The Color Out Of Space
Dreams In The Witch House (I love the HPLHS radio drama of this, and how they used quantum physics)
The Dunwich Horror
Haunter Of The Dark
Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Shadow Out Of Time
The Thing On The Doorstep
The Whisperer In Darkness
Herbert West - Reanimator

For some of his best B-sides (well, smaller stories):
Cool Air
From Beyond
The Hound
The Lurking Fear
The Nameless City (you can see an early form of a recurring idea in his fiction - that of the Hollow Earth and the nameless horrors dwelling within it)
Nyarlathotep
The Outsider
Pickman's Model
Rats In The Walls
The Shunned House
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The Unnamable