H.P. Lovecraft’s Philosophy of Science Fiction Horror

The paper is an examination and critique of the philosophy of science fiction horror of seminal American horror, science fiction and fantasy writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). Lovecraft never directly offers a philosophy of science fiction horror. However, at different points in his essays and letters, he addresses genres he labels “interplanetary fiction”, “horror”, “supernatural horror”, and “weird fiction”, the last being a broad heading covering both supernatural fiction and science fiction. Taken together, a philosophy of science fiction horror emerges. Central to this philosophy is the juxtaposition of the mysterious, unnatural and alien against a realistic background, in order to produce the emotion that Lovecraft calls “cosmic fear”. This background must not only be scientifically accurate, but must accurately portray human psychology, particularly when humans are faced with the weird and alien. It will be argued that Lovecraft’s prescriptions are overly restrictive and would rule out many legitimate works of science fiction horror art. However, he provides useful insights into the genre

Reception Claims in Supernatural Horror in Literature and the Course of Weird Fiction

This chapter explores H. P. Lovecraft\u27s essay Supernatural Horror in Literature, considering the ways in which Lovecraft attempted to construct favorable conditions for the reception of his own work. The writing of the essay was a pivotal moment in Lovecraft\u27s career and authorial self-fashioning. Both it and he went on to influence the development of weird fiction in Lovecraft\u27s lifetime and subsequently, lasting well into the current period of reevaluation of the author\u27s legacy and person

American Fears: H.P. Lovecraft and The Paranoid Style

Why is H.P. Lovecraft still relevant? That is the one the questions put forward by this thesis. Lovecraft is known for his creation of Lovecraftian horror, also known as cosmic horror. However, his bigoted view on race and class muddies this legacy. What this thesis seeks to explore is how Lovecraft’s work demonstrates the fears and anxieties central to the America psyche. The paranoid style can be found in American discourse throughout history but it can also be found in the works of Lovecraft himself. Lovecraft was a prejudiced and paranoid man, and his prejudices and paranoia are a major part of his works. The fear that Lovecraft felt and wrote, is the same fear that continues to guide and shape America itself. This work explores four of Lovecraft’s work “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Dunwich Horror,” “The Shadow Over Innsmouth;” as well as a lesser-known poem by Lovecraft “Providence 2000 A.D.

The Negative Mystics of the Mechanistic Sublime: Walter Benjamin and Lovecraft\u27s Cosmicism

In recent years, a small but significant number of H. P. Lovecraft\u27s critics have begun to address the question of language in his fiction. Language has always been an issue with Lovecraft\u27s detractors, and anyone familiar with his criticism knows the legacy of critiques of his verbosity and ambiguity. Lovecraft\u27s early antagonistic reception in the world of critical scholarship was no doubt due in part to his deliberate affect of language and perhaps in part to the generally low opinion of weird fiction held by many critics. But it is less our intention to address those old discussions here than to help advance the front of a new one. In John Langan\u27s postmodem, language-oriented article, Naming the Nameless: Lovecraft\u27s Grammatology, he delivers the argument that Lovecraft\u27s language in fact embodies the ideas that drive his fiction (27). For the new inheritors of the Lovecraft critical tradition, language is the essential question of Lovecraftian texts, and the critical process of this generation should manifest itself in attempting to understand how that language operates. To that end, this essay offers a view of Lovecraft\u27s texts through the ideological lens of Walter Benjamin

The Macabre on the Margins: A Study of the Fantastic Terrors of the Fin de Siècle

It demonstrates that in spite of the dominant associations of fantastic literature with horror, terror, as the marginal and marginalized fear of the unknown, with its uncanny, sublime and suspenseful qualities, holds a definitive presence in fin de siècle fantastic texts. Literary analysis of the chosen texts registers significant examples of the importance of terror to fantastic writing, and as such functions to extract an “aesthetics of sublime terror” from the margins of critical studies of this often macabre literary mode

"Monsters on the Brain: An Evolutionary Epistemology of Horror"

The article discusses the evolutionary development of horror and fear in animals and humans, including in regard to cognition and physiological aspects of the brain. An overview of the social aspects of emotions, including the role that emotions play in interpersonal relations and the role that empathy plays in humans' ethics, is provided. An overview of the psychological aspects of monsters, including humans' simultaneous repulsion and interest in horror films that depict monsters, is also provided

Etherotopia or a country in the mind: bridging the gap between utopias and nirvanas

Joyce Hertzler concludes his History of Utopian Thought with the phrase ‘Utopia is not a social state it is a state of mind’. Other utopian scholars would argue that the truth is exactly the opposite, that utopia is a purely social matter. There seems to be a false dilemma here where one must choose between two, seemingly conflicting, schools of utopian thinking: social utopias and private ones. In John Carey’s words, ‘Whereas most utopias reform the world, some reform the self’. He says of the later that these ‘solitary utopians are Robinson Crusoes of the mind, inventing islands for themselves to inhabit’ and that they are very unlike ‘normal, public-spirited utopians’. In this essay Christos Callow Jr explores the potential of a utopia that reforms both world and self and proposes Etherotopia as its name.N/

Eldritch Horrors: the Modernist Liminality of H.P. Lovecraft\u27s Weird Fiction

In the early part of the twentieth century, the Modernist literary movement was moving into what was arguably its peak, and authors we would now unquestioningly consider part of the Western literary canon were creating some of their greatest works. Coinciding with the more mainstream Modernist movement, there emerged a unique sub- genre of fiction on the pages of magazines with titles like Weird Tales and Astounding Stories. While modernist writers; including Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, William Faulkner, and T.S. Elliot – among others – were achieving acclaim for their works; in the small corner of unique weird fiction there was one eccentric, bookish writer who rose above his own peers: Howard Phillips Lovecraft. I would argue that within the works of Lovecraft there are glimpses of modernism. Lovecraft was aware of and wrote with an understanding of the concerns of the more mainstream literature of the Modernists, and he situated his narratives and stories within a modernist framework that reflected this. Most importantly, it is the way in which Lovecraft used science and religion, and blended myth with material culture, that Lovecraft most reflects modernist leanings. It’s important to make the distinction that he is not part and parcel a Modernist, but he was influenced by, interacted with, and showed modernist tendencies. There is a subtlety to the argument being made here in that Lovecraft was not Joyce, he was not Elliot, he was most definitely not Hemingway, and his fiction was by no means what we would consider traditionally modernist. In 2005 he received inclusion in the Library of America series and, although this isn’t an indicator or guarantee of inclusion in a large canon, the argument that he in no way had a discourse, awareness, or did not contribute to what would be more properly termed `Modernist’ warrants consideration when properly situating Lovecraft within early-twentieth century literature. In the ways in which he subverted and changed what previously constituted horror fiction, Lovecraft holds a liminal place in the Modernist perspective

H.P. Lovecraft and the Modernist Grotesque

This study serves to bring Lovecraft into a new and more significant literary context, and to highlight the relationships between modernist and grotesque literature. Various authors are mentioned with reference to both modernist and grotesque literary tendencies, and Lovecraft\u27s modernist grotesque characteristics are analyzed in their connection to the three concepts that are prominent in both modernism and the grotesque: alienation, subjectivity, and absurdity. Biographical information about Lovecraft is used minimally in this study, which focuses on textual analysis of many elements of Lovecraft\u27s writing that seem to have been previously overlooked, including religious satire, scrutiny of scientific practices, and the modernist concept of literary difficulty. This dissertation serves to establish a new place for Lovecraft in the larger context of English literature, and to establish a new way of thinking about modernism with reference to its possible roots in the experimental and diagnostic impulses of the literary grotesque