One more thing - we all assume that the Robert Olmstead is a Deep One.

What if he's only snapped, and turned Quisling due to the trauma of his experience?  What if he's reading more into his family history than there is?  What if he's just going to wander out to Innsmouth Harbor, and drown himself believing he can breathe underwater?

Why did his Uncle then shoot himself after a visit to Innsmouth?

Why would his cousin land up with the same delusion at the Canton Sanitarium - probably the Molly Starks one that is to this day considered one of the most haunted sites in the U.S. BTW....

[To see some pics from the actual locations referenced in the story try this link:]

In reading "The Shadow over Innsmouth" I've found that following a map as our narrator travels throughout Innsmouth can be quite helpful.  The following is the best one that I've been able to find that is also free online:

To see some pics from the actual locations referenced in the story try this link:



http://www.flickr.com/photos/55086390@N06/sets/



semiosteve

Probably not the right thread - unless one has read Vandermeer. To my mind he is closer to HPL than his purported successor Thomas Ligotti.

There are broad streams flowing from HPL's work

1.) stories which stay close to the canon as well as often the locales, character types and styles of the original work

2.) stories that explore similar underlying concerns but in modern styles, locales and literary approaches

Most of the recent volumes of Lovecraft inspired collections tend to me of the first type. Vandermeer's work is of the 2nd type and yet his Ambergris series feel directly connected to ATMOM and Color out of Space.

Went out to do some yard work this weekend after being out of town - you would not believe all the strange mushrooms everywhere from all the rain.


sv

[/quote]
Gods, I hope so.
[/quote]

Strangely enough I am reading Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris books and the whole honey badger things and ATMOM reminds me somehow of the underground world beneath the city of Ambergris in those books.

If you ever wondered what happens to someone's thinking if they wandered too long where Shoggoths dwell read these books.

Think of it this way, imagine a city built on top of the the lowest sections of what was found in ATMOM (and all the other HPL tunnels, caverns and caves.). That's Ambergris.

steve

http://en.wahooart.com/A55A04/W.nsf/Opra/BRUE-6WHLL6

http://www.selfmadehero.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/roerich.jpeg

I guess this is what HPL is referring to for the Roerich artwork

semiosteve

This guy Alberto Breccia is wonderful. A master. Check out his Wilbur Whateley

http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/2010/09/22/look-here-read-the-dunwich-horror-adapted-by-breccia-and-buscaglia/

Thanks Philogus for the tip...Great stuff.

semiosteve

Thank you for highlight the Borges/Lovecraft connection. That connection can be expanded to include Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" and Arturo Perez-Reverte's "The Club Dumas" which was made into the movie "The Ninth Gate" staring Johnny Depp and directed by Roman Polanski.

Borges, Eco and Reverte are writing about signs and semiotics and see parallels in Lovecraft's understanding of what lies beyond that which can be named.

These gentlemen are all very highly regarding literary figures of the late XX century. I am sure Lovecraft would be amazed to know his influence extended to this level.

For the Lovecraft fan, Foucault's pendulum is like a cross betwen a Lovecraft story and DaVinci's code (be prepared though - Eco is a real semiotician and a real scholar - DaVinci code reads like a grade scholl primer in comparison). The Club Dumas is a thinly velied Necronomicon-based story. Both are highly recommended!

semiosteve