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Feb. 24th, 2008 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blodeueddWah, I slacked! *whimper* In my defense, the post promised last week is long and involves much screencappage, so it's taking a while to type. I'll post it tomorrow or tonight.
For now, courtesy of the lovely![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kimchii (who has not posted in YEARS!), my take on
At the Mountains of Madness (H.P. Lovecraft)
M-P rightly assumed that I'd enjoy broadening my horizons with this, because I'd never read anything by Lovecraft. I knew who he was, of course -- who, who has any interest at all in fantastic literature, doesn't? -- and was familiar with the name Cthulhu, and that his writings were much concerned with ichor and things eldritch. Happily, the four stories contained in this volume each feature at least one instance of the words "eldritch" or "ichor", so I wasn't disappointed on that front!
The title story is by far the longest, as well as the first in the book. It's about an Antarctic expedition that discovers more than it bargained for, in the form of a dead city of unimaginable age, as well as some of its surviving denizens. The story is told by one of the scientists, who until then never shared anything of what he saw, and is meant as a warning. However, since it's told in chronological order, his references to all those "horrors beyond imagining" and "terrifying ancient secrets" tend to grow wearisome, because you keep wanting to shake him and yell, "Tell us what they are, already!" Not the say that the suspense isn't handled well, it's just that all the hinting and foreshadowing could have been a tad lighter.
As a bonus, this story features a guest appearance by giant albino penguins! :D
The other three stories take place in New England. The second one, "The Shunned House", is a classic haunted house story; "The Dreams in the Witch-House", in my opinion the creepiest story in the book, is also about a haunting, but ties in with the Elder Races theme and name-drops the Necronomicon; the fourth story, at only seven pages long, seemed pointless in comparison with the others, though it again was about horrors beyond man's ken. Of the second and third stories, my only complaint is that I have a hard time accepting the words "since time immemorial" in relation to a New England cottage.
Final verdict: 8/10, but 6.5/10 for the last story ("The Statement of Randolf Carter")
It's been getting warmer, and yesterday I spent the afternoon outside without a jacket.
For now, courtesy of the lovely
kimchii (who has not posted in YEARS!), my take on At the Mountains of Madness (H.P. Lovecraft)
M-P rightly assumed that I'd enjoy broadening my horizons with this, because I'd never read anything by Lovecraft. I knew who he was, of course -- who, who has any interest at all in fantastic literature, doesn't? -- and was familiar with the name Cthulhu, and that his writings were much concerned with ichor and things eldritch. Happily, the four stories contained in this volume each feature at least one instance of the words "eldritch" or "ichor", so I wasn't disappointed on that front!
The title story is by far the longest, as well as the first in the book. It's about an Antarctic expedition that discovers more than it bargained for, in the form of a dead city of unimaginable age, as well as some of its surviving denizens. The story is told by one of the scientists, who until then never shared anything of what he saw, and is meant as a warning. However, since it's told in chronological order, his references to all those "horrors beyond imagining" and "terrifying ancient secrets" tend to grow wearisome, because you keep wanting to shake him and yell, "Tell us what they are, already!" Not the say that the suspense isn't handled well, it's just that all the hinting and foreshadowing could have been a tad lighter.
As a bonus, this story features a guest appearance by giant albino penguins! :D
The other three stories take place in New England. The second one, "The Shunned House", is a classic haunted house story; "The Dreams in the Witch-House", in my opinion the creepiest story in the book, is also about a haunting, but ties in with the Elder Races theme and name-drops the Necronomicon; the fourth story, at only seven pages long, seemed pointless in comparison with the others, though it again was about horrors beyond man's ken. Of the second and third stories, my only complaint is that I have a hard time accepting the words "since time immemorial" in relation to a New England cottage.
Final verdict: 8/10, but 6.5/10 for the last story ("The Statement of Randolf Carter")
It's been getting warmer, and yesterday I spent the afternoon outside without a jacket.
