The Reception Of Lovecraft In Popular Culture

Anna Braun, year 2

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

‘The reception and influence of H.P. Lovecraft in Popular Culture’ A Table of Contents 1. Introduction The notion of Popular Culture, Lovecraft, reminiscences 2. Characteristic Features of Lovecraft’s writing What are the characteristic features of his writing? Why is Lovecraft still popular? 3. Still present. a) Film b) Comics c) ‘Call of Cthulhu’ (Role Playing Game) d) Collectibles, computer games 5. Summary Why is Lovecraft still popular? 6. Bibliography

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Anna Braun, year 2

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

Introduction Although today’s teenage culture occupies itself mainly with the spectacular success of Harry Potter and books about his adventures are the very first association that comes into the mind of a person with superficial knowledge about fantasy literature, Lovecraft seems to have found a particular niche for his works, which has made him even more famous and the interest shown for his works back in XIX century has never died out, what is more the interest has transformed and adapted into a new pop cultural context. It is very common nowadays that Lovecraft has become his own trade mark on the new ground that is modern popular culture. Lovecraft became a name representing all the qualities which prevailed in his stories. What follows, it can be noticed that in order to describe a fictitious character and to create a certain image of a character some authors1 without a greater effort tend to resort to simply mentioning that X used to read Lovecraft in the childhood, or was obsessed with Cthulhu world. The picture of X reading and showing interest in Lovecraft’s domain automatically creates the image of the person in the reader’s mind. Lovecraft’s reminiscences can be found in many places. Not only literature draws on the knowledge of the author’s characteristic language and own mythology. Surprisingly, Popular Culture as a commercial machinery found Lovecraft ‘an interesting product’, which can turn out to be a lucrative business if advertised properly. We can assume without doubt that Howard Phillips Lovecraft is deeply ingrained

in

world’s

popular

culture

regardless

of

geographical

localization.

In order to talk about a presence of his phenomenon in Popular Culture, I believe, that it is necessary to explain the meaning of the latter term: According to the Collins Dictionary of Literary Terms, Popular Culture “is a term describing forms of cultural expressions that exhibit wide popularity, such as a detective story, a western, or a television sitcom (...) It has been viewed from two contrasting perspectives. For the theories of the Frankfurt School, a group of Marxist-oriented intellectuals who fled Nazi Germany and settles in the United States, popular culture was an arm of capitalist ideology, functioning as the cultural equivalent of its economic practices. These critics saw popular culture as a commodity to be consumed by the population like any other product. The result, in their view, was that the spread of popular culture was destroying the last vestiges of independent, critical thinking among the masses. The term they frequently employed was mass culture. An alternative view is that associated with the movement known 1

Chabon, Michael. Wonder Boys . US: Villard Books. 1995.

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Anna Braun, year 2

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

as cultural studies. Like the Frankfurt School, many of the proponents of Cultural Studies have a leftist or neo-Marxist point of view, but they differ from the Frankfurt School in asserting that popular culture is not a simple case of mindless consumerism by an unquestioning mass. Instead, they argue that a close study of examples of culture should include not just the products themselves but also what use people make of them. That is, Cultural Studies critics argue that popular culture is the site of a negotiation between the individual and the product. The individual may, and frequently does, subvert the intended ‘meaning’. Another definition of popular culture appears in “The SAGE Dictionary of Cultural Studies”: Popular culture „Traditionally, the idea of popular culture has referred to that which

remains after the canon of high culture has been established and/or as the massproduced commodity culture of consumer capitalism. Here popular culture has been regarded as inferior both to the elevated cultures of Art or classical music on the one hand and to an imagined authentic folk culture on the other. Apologists for maintaining the distinction between high and popular culture do so on the grounds of alleged aesthetic quality arguing that high cultural forms are more subtle, complex and adequate in their formal expression of content than those of popular culture. Popular culture is accused of standardization and a levelling down that encourages, and indeed demands, conformity. However, the criteria that are used to police the boundaries of’ ‘good works’ are, from the standpoint of cultural studies, derived from an institutionalized and classbased hierarchy of cultural tastes. Equally, the argument that draws a contrast between popular culture and an authentic non-commodity culture cannot be sustained since there is no longer, and probably never was, any authentic folk culture against which to measure the ‘inauthentic’ character of commodity culture. While contemporary popular culture is primarily a commercially produced one, many writers in cultural studies have argued that audiences make their own meanings with the texts of a commodity culture. That is, readers or audiences of cultural texts bring to bear their own cultural competencies and discursive resources to the consumption of commodities. Thus, popular culture can be regarded as the meanings and practices produced by popular audiences at the moment of consumption. This argument reverses the traditional question of ‘how does the culture industry turn people into commodities that serve its interests?’ in favour of exploring how people turn the products of industry into their popular culture serving their interests. Cultural studies understands popular culture to be an arena of consent and resistance in the struggle over cultural meanings. In this sense, cultural studies holds a political conception of popular culture as a site for the struggle over significance; that is, an arena where cultural hegemony is secured or challenged. Understood in this way, judgements about popular culture are not concerned with questions of cultural or aesthetic value per se, but concern issues of classification and power.”

Both definitions seem to partly explain the phenomenon of Lovecraft’s cult and admiration. Particular terms/ideas might be repeated if we tried to deliver another definition of popular culture. However, the most important notion in almost every definition that perfectly applies to the topic of the essay is the dialogue between the work and its recipients (“subvert the intended meaning”). I believe, therefore, that Pop culture is a name for a particular environment and set of conditions for a literary (or artistic) work to develop its 3

Anna Braun, year 2

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

interpretation and provide inspiration for another works (intertextuality). Every critical approach has its basic assumptions and the angle from which it decides to interpret a given work. Popular Culture is a very tolerant critic, once it decides to approve of the work, it immediately disseminates its popularity inspiring the use of a theme in almost every cultural domain. It is the very thing which is happening to the Lovecraft’s literary works. His stories are very much inspiring, and numerous references and allusions to them can be found in the modern culture. We can thus easily observe various aspects of the presence of ‘Lovecraftian’ elements and mythology not only in literature, film and art but also in comics, computer games and toy industry, all of which elements constitute the term Popular Culture. It has brought undoubted popularity to Lovecraft’s stories among the young teenagers who thanks to the Popular Culture upbringing knew the weird fiction author before they read any of his stories. In my short essay I would like to briefly discuss the reception of the H.P. Lovecraft as well as to focus on the his presence and influence in the Popular Culture. I would like to take a look on the individual fields of the Popular Culture (literature, art, film, entertainment) and present the way in which he is introduced.

2. Characteristic Features of Lovecraft’s writing An important point that should be made first and foremost is the reason why the figure of H.P. Lovecraft is being nowadays still mentioned in the works of art in spite of that he died in the last century. One of the reasons can be that the interest is still fueled thanks to the activity of several individuals and societies concerned with the popularity of the given subject. Three most important influences hail from S. T. Joshi, an Indian and American literary critic, and the leading authority on Lovecraft; an American ‘H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’ and French journalist and writer: Michel Houellebecq, who has recently reminded the readers about Lovecraft in his essay. Another important cause for the interest in the Lovecraftian world is mentioned in the introduction to the popular game, “Call of Cthulhu”. Very important question is asked by the author and immediately answered. We agree that Lovecraft’s works have been remembered for better part of century, but it is not easy to answer beforehand why Lovecraft in particular gets more appreciation among others writers from his time producing similar works of pulp fiction. It is the meticulous care about 4

Anna Braun, year 2

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

verisimilitude that is the explanation: “Lovecraft’s stories are created to seem like actual accounts, with references to (usually fictional books), events, myths and people. His writing is almost in the manner of an academician or a journalist. To further strengthen these imaginary proofs – all the more to make the horror seem real to the reader – he used the same references repeatedly. We read of the ‘Necronomicon ‘, Cthulhu, and the Esoteric Order of Dagon in one story, and the names carry credibility because we know we read them somewhere else, even if we can’t quite remember where.” The same references began to be used by other writers and friends of the author in their own weird tales. Something new was always added and thus the Cthulhu Mythos has been developed. It has become a communal conceit which enables writers to create stories sharing a sort of secondary reality (initiated by Lovecraft). His approach to the universe appeals to our darker side: “Lovecraft’s stories aren’t just horrors because of gore, or terrible monster with big claws. They horrify because they state that we are not – as we should love to believe – at the centre of everything. We are not vital and important. We cannot accomplish anything significant. We will not live forever.”

3. Still present – reminiscences a) Film This domain of the Popular Culture easily adopted the Lovecraft convention and transplanted some main ideas to its own environment. One of the significant proofs supporting the thesis of Lovecraft’s greatness is the huge number of new productions based on his stories. One of the biggest internet movie service, The internet Movie Database (an Amazon.com company), in a small section on their website dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft inspirations proclaims the writer to be “Universally considered to be the father of modern horror.” Also, it later attributes to him, rather daringly, the inspiration for such stories of success as Stephen King ("The Shining"), John Carpenter ("In the Mouth of Madness"), Robert Bloch ("Psycho"), Clive Barker ("Hellraiser") and Anne Rice ("Interview with the Vampire"). No wonder of the authors of the website meticulously list about eighty titles closely inspired by or directly adapting some of the writer’s most interesting stories. Two movies are worth special ivestigation, since they seem to represent two distinct kinds of approach towards handling Lovecraft’s artistic legacy in a modern context. First of them is The Call of Cthulhu (2005), directed by Andrew Leman. Lovecraft’s most famous story is here featured in a black-and5

Anna Braun, year 2

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

white mute picture, the production of which was supported by The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Without doubt, it is the representative of a rather epigonic current, which strictly follows the conventions and faithfully re-tells the story presented in the book. The realisation is conservative to such an extent that the film seems to be a 1920’s picture. Viewers in pursuit of novelty are likely be rather disappointed with the final outcome. Nevertheless, a great deal of effort put in the realisation as well as respect for the original story should be here appreciated. Another but completely different approach can be found in LovecraCked! The Movie (2006), where the entire ‘Lovecraftian’ world is just a pretext for improvisation and playing with conventions. From the official advertisement we learn the following about the picture: “LovecraCked! The Movie”, the debut feature film from BiFF JUGGERNAUT Productions, is a horror/comedy anthology, inspired in part by influential author H.P. Lovecraft (“Re-Animator”). Following in the tradition of George A. Romero's “Creepshow” and “Tales From The Darkside”, the film is an international collaboration of directors from the USA, UK and Sweden, combining over-the-top comedy in the irreverent style of “Monty Python” with bone-chilling horror, to have you clutching your gut one moment and cringing the next. The story follows the exploits of a bumbling investigative journalist as he struggles to deduce the truth behind the author H.P. Lovecraft and his work. Along the way, hilarious and horrific tales play out, pulling us deeper into the mysterious world of the author.“

b) Lovecraft in Comics Another Lovecraft-friendly field prone to drawn on ‘Lovecraftian’ elements are comics. The situation of Lovecraft’s popularity in comics’ world is similar to that of cinematography. Again we can distinguish comics evidently/directly featuring Lovecraft’s stories and works including some of the characteristic elements. Comics particularly attracted to this charms of the ‘disturbing world’ of Horror will collect the most important scenes and illustrate them in a characteristic shortcut. Some recent examples of works treating about Cthulhu Mythos as well as the author himself are: •

“Lovecraft Country: Return to Arkham” story by Shannon Appelcline (a published roleplaying and short fiction author and a line editor for Call of Cthulhu for a few years), illustrated by Saffronrage Solutions and published in 2005 by Cafe Press. The comic is also wholly available on the Internet2.

2

http://www.lovecraftcountry.com/comic

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Anna Braun, year 2 •

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

Boom! Studios publisher has been releasing comic books featuring Cthulhu stories since May 2006 until the present day.

Having read a few of the publications one can notice that almost every story has a similar manner and the same pattern for delivering the events. Very little onomatopoeia is present in the stripes (contrary to the popular tendency in comics). Expository element of the story is introduced almost immediately. Very little knowledge from Lovecraft stories is presented. Events and characters are introduced in the stereotypical way with much more focus on the ‘scary element’. Fright is emphasised and very often exaggerated. Facial expressions play the leading role in conveying the atmosphere. The favourite motif in the comics (as we may conclude) seems to be the madness of the main characters. The advantage of the comic stripes over the literary works (not visual) is the opportunity to present the monsters and countenance of the characters in a way which the reader would not be able to imagine himself. Monsters are drawn in a detailed and careful way. Prevailing colours in the pictures are rather balanced and dark.

c) The Call of Cthulhu RPG The most important and influential source of the inspiration for the modern fan of H. P. Lovecraft is the Role Playing Game “Call of Cthulhu”, which adapted the world and mythology featured in the novel under the same title (as well as other stories) and used them to create rules for the game. A few words about RPG’s phenomenon should be given. The phenomenon of Role Playing Game appeared in the 1970s when the first game of this kind appeared (Dungeons & Dragons now called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons). It is a game of imagination, a sort of real-time story telling where all the players assume the roles of fictional characters (personalities which were previously created in great detail, very often through a dice rolling), including the way of acting, skills, appearance etc.). Each player can easily influence the story in which he or she participates through the decisions that are made to act in a particular way. One of the players known as the ‘gamemaster’ leads the character-players through adventures. Among

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Anna Braun, year 2

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

one of his responsibility is to create a story (scenario) of the adventure and to make decisions about controversial/important matters for the game. The Call of Cthulhu is similar to many other games of their kind (on the basic level of the idea) with regard to its distinct elements which are unique of the qualities determined by the world. The game was first published in 1981, soon after release was translated into several other languages (Finnish, French, Polish, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Italian) The Call of Cthulhu is a certain guidebook from which we can learn the rules governing the mechanisms in the world we are to move. The guidebook is divided into several sections (and subsections) and chapters dealing with the different aspects of the game. a) In the very beginning we are invited to create a character (our protagonist who will be the performer of our decisions throughout the adventure). Character has six abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each ability describes the character and affects some of it’s actions. At the start of the game player rolls (using special dice) six abilities scores randomly and assigns them to his or her character’s abilities in order they like (character creation). Strength measures character’s muscle and physical power (important in hand-to-hand combat), Dexterity measures hand-eye coordination, agility, reflexes and balance. Constitution represents character’s health and stamina. Intelligence determines how well the character learns and reasons. b) One of the section is devoted to explain some of the jargon terms peculiar to the game. One of the most important factor in the game is the measurement of sanity of our characters. Every character is sane, regardless of the number of Sanity points, unless 0 Sanity points has been reached, or unless the keeper has announced that a state of temporary insanity or indefinite insanity has been reached by a character because of mental trauma. We distinguish three levels of Sanity: Indefinite Insanity: when an investigator (a general name given to all players’ characters) loses 20% or more of his or her current Sanity points within an hour of game time, the result is insanity as the keepers sees fit. Permanent Insanity occurs if an investigator’s current Sanity points reach zero, he or she is deeply insane for a period of months or years, and perhaps institutionalised. Temporary Insanity: if an investigator loses 5 or more Sanity points as the consequence of a single Sanity roll, he or she suffered major emotional trauma. The player must roll D100. A few general terms which reveal the spirit of the game: 8

Anna Braun, year 2

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

Players can be divided into two groups; Investigators: a game term for player character while and the Keeper who is the person running the game. He or she knows the secret of the plot, describes the situation and non-player characters, and determines what skills and rolls to apply.

d) Collectibles and artefacts The side effect of the great interest in The Cthulhu World and Lovecraftian cult is the desire to make money on the fans’ enthusiasm for this subject. Some examples are very surprising (and amusing at times) with the ideas behind the products that are always ready to be sold to anyone who decides to buy something connected with their field of interest. Internet shops offer numerous toys, statuettes as well as elements of garment (e.g. gloves and plush hats) inspired particularly by the films, comics and games with the Cthulhu Mythos as the main theme. A few of them mention worthy examples should contain such articles of clothing as the plush Cthulhu slippers (“These plush Cthulhu slippers can keep your feet warm even as they damn them to a thousand nameless hells.”) and t-shirts illustrating monsters from the stories as well as witty slogans (“Cthulhu loves you”, “Cthulhu for President – why settle for a lesser evil?”) or quotations from Lovecraft (“The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind”); and the author himself. Another creative idea realised in the selling industry is the production of the souvenirs from the fictitious places from the Lovecraft’s stories (e.g. Miskatonic University) Toys and statuettes seem to be a dominating product. An unusual and extraordinary idea is the children’s toy “My Little Cthulhu” designed by

John

Kovalic

(an

award-winning

editorial

cartoonist

for

the Wisconsin State Journal whose work has appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post), which is a green rubber monster (name is a clear allusion to a famous line of colourful toy ponies marketed primarily to young girls) with even more amusing additional toy victims (“Little Victimes”).

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Anna Braun, year 2

“The reception of Lovecraft in Popular Culture” Popular Fiction Course

Collectibles are especially addressed to the more involved fans, who are willing to spend some more money on their hobby. The Great Cthulhu Figure is a Giant 16" HorrorClix artefact, released by WizKids company offering collectible miniatures games (a form of miniature war-gaming incorporating figures and modelled terrain as the main components of military simulation games). Some of the objects offered to the Lovecraftians can cost up to 300$, the existence of products of this kind, which are still offered to sell and are still popular with customers would suggest that H.P. Lovecraft is interesting and can attract the attention of the reader regardless of the age (toys for children, products for adult collectors). 5. Summary H.P. Lovecraft as it has been presented in the previous examples is present in the Popular Culture. New productions are being released (comics, films, toys, newspaper articles). Our interest is also aroused by the presence of works inspired by the Lovecraft’s heritage. The author was an interesting and controversial figure himself, which makes many biographers interested in his life as well. In 2005 a French

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