By H. P. Lovecraft
More
short pieces from H. P. Lovecraft, but they are all important ones within the
Cthulhu Mythos, establishing various monsters, entities, and the only recurring
character, Randolph Carter. Lovecraft has transformed to the professional
author. No more are his works being published in content starved amateur
magazines, and is almost exclusively put out in Weird Tales (The Magazine That Never Dies). His stories are
sharper, focused, and, while still detail heavy, not distractingly so.
Presented below are three of his finest short stories, along with links to
online texts and addition media that I could dredge up.
Pickman’s Model
(originally written in 1926, first published in Weird Tales in 1927).
Pickman's, an artist of renowned horror and spiritual successor to Goya
(Google him if you're too illiterate to know who Goya is), is befriended by the
protagonist after his newest work “Ghoul Feeding” makes a splash. This is one
of those Twilight Zone twists you see coming ten miles away. In fact it's given
away in the title. The character of Pickman and his ghoulish friends show up
again in The Dream Quest of Unknown
Kadath (which will be finally covered
next blog) and the race seems to be able to physically traverse between
the Dreamland's and the real world. This was made into an uninspired episode of
Night Gallery (the poor man's Twilight Zone), some of which I managed
to dredge up below.
Night Gallery
The Silver Key
(originally written in 1926, first published in Weird Tales in 1929). This is
technically a sequel to The Dream Quest
of Unknown Kadath, but was actually published first. They both have the
same protagonist, Randolph Carter- Lovecraft’s literary alter ego. In this tale,
he has lost the key to the gate of dreams. Thus begins a lengthy discussion on
the nature of reality, and whether one's life is made up of a series of
pictures. This delves into which means more, the dreams or reality. This leads
to a physical key that unlocks a temporal reset, or a physical time travel,
where his mind envelops that of his ten year old self. Truly odd. One of the
last of his Dreamland stories, and barely one at that, this was not well
received. The editor wrote to Lovecraft and said the readers “violently
disliked” it. That probably meant something different back then.
The Strange High House in the Mist
(originally written in 1926, first published in Weird Tales in 1931) Set in the witch haven of Kingsport, one of
Lovecraft's fictitious evil towns, a family becomes obsessed with an old house
overlooking the town and goes to investigate, only to discover the house's door
opens somewhere unexpected. We see the return of the Terrible Old Man from the
story of the same name, who demonstrates just how old he is. There are some
weird references to Nodens (who is a Celtic dirty, but later fully and badly
incorporated into the Mythos by August Derelith) as well to the Roman God,
Neptune. A fun tale, if a bit sparse. He should be past the hinting stage by
now. As for supernatural prick teases, Lovercraft was a master.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 
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