H.P. Lovecraft at Barnes & Noble

[TheFolklorist]

I went by one of my local Barnes & Nobles today and was surprised to see a display set up near the sci-fi/fantasy section dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft.



The only problem was that they didn't have a single book by H.P. Lovecraft on display. All the books were ones by Donald Tyson, an author who is apparently trying to become the new "Simon." You can't see it in the picture above but they even had his Lovecraft Tarot deck for sell. 

Anyway feeling somewhat annoyed by this I decided to "fix" their display for them. Free of charge! 



And so I did. I kept thinking that some angry B&N employee was going to come up behind me and ask me what the hell I was doing but that never happened. I replaced Tyson's ridiculous Lovecraft Tarot deck with BOOM! Studios' new Cthulhu comic series which came out in trade paperback today (anybody read it?). Anyway I think this is by far an improvement. I might try and go back in few days and see if the employees noticed.      

[MartinRonnlund]

All the books were ones by Donald Tyson, an author who is apparently trying to become the new "Simon."

Oh, come on. That's not true. Tyson admits he's an author, Simon claims not to be a fraud and mocks HPL with his BS-books.

[Ruth - CthulhuChick]

Well-done. They may fix it, but damned if it says H.P. Lovecraft it should be (mostly) Lovecraft!! Also, I've read 1-5 of the Fall of Cthulhu series and the 6th is in the mail on its way to me. I like it muchly.

[Bob Lovecraft]

Be careful, Folklorist. Once the people begin to notice your actions and leanings, it is only a short step for them to uncover your connection to the cult.If that happens, read the ritual on the 394th page of the Wormius edition of the Necronomicon and then swallow your cyanide pill.

Bob

[old book]

Guerilla Lovecraft book display arrangments, nice one.

Is Tyson's Lovecraft tarot the one in the sepiatype (deguarotype?) colours? I actually sort of liked that one. Selling Derleth books as Lovecraft books should be met with legal charges of false advertising and fraud, imho.

[Bob Lovecraft]

Selling Derleth books as Lovecraft books should be met with legal charges of false advertising and fraud, imho.

I'm kind of surprised that it's not fraud. I wonder how they get around that?

Bob

[Kaelestes]

Anyway feeling somewhat annoyed by this I decided to "fix" their display for them. Free of charge! 

You're my freakin' hero.

[TheFolklorist]

All the books were ones by Donald Tyson, an author who is apparently trying to become the new "Simon."

Oh, come on. That's not true. Tyson admits he's an author, Simon claims not to be a fraud and mocks HPL with his BS-books.

OK true enough. In all honestly I haven't read any of Tyson's books all the way through. I've read chapters from his Necronomicon (which Dan Harms refused to have anything to do with because Tyson allowed it to be labeled and sold as a genuine occult book) which I thought were OK but like a lot of fake Necronomicons (see Price's The Necronomicon Cycle) basically comes off as just a lot of psudeo-grimoire gibberish with no actual literary content.

I also remember Joshi's giving Tyson's novel Alhazred (which you can see in the top picture and which I simply moved to a lower shelf) a positive review in his "The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos." I've thought about reading it but that book is f*cking huge - a total of 672 pages! Has anybody here read it?

Well-done. They may fix it, but damned if it says H.P. Lovecraft it should be (mostly) Lovecraft!! Also, I've read 1-5 of the Fall of Cthulhu series and the 6th is in the mail on its way to me. I like it muchly.

It wasn't "Fall of Cthulhu" but a newer series titled THE CALLING: CTHULHU CHRONICLES. It has the same writing team as "Fall of Cthulhu" but I don't think its related.      

[old book]

Selling Derleth books as Lovecraft books should be met with legal charges of false advertising and fraud, imho.

I'm kind of surprised that it's not fraud. I wonder how they get around that?

Bob

Traditionally, by saying "H P Lovecraft's soul belongs to us. You cannot mention his name without our permission. Go ahead punk, make my day." Since Derleth's gone, the copyrights have all turned out to be fraud and shams, and if amazon.com claims Lurker was written by HPL, they could probably be sent a laywer's letter or something, but the most damages you'd see is probably the cost of the book and shipping.

I happened to see on cbc.ca that some corporation paid millions for the "intellectual property rights" to Marylin Monroe. They think this gives them rights to use her name and likeness to sell products, and to force others not to use her name and likeness. Kinda like the Cuban photographer whose image of Che Gueverra ended up on t-shirts around the world and who spoke once about charging royalties for the use of the image. In other words, it's all a scam that works until it's challenged, then it runs away with its tail hidden between its legs. Like selling parcels of lunar real estate.

[TransconaSlim]

Anyway feeling somewhat annoyed by this I decided to "fix" their display for them. Free of charge! 

I do the same thing when I'm in bookstores; I move G.H.W. Bush's autobiography into the "true Crime" section!

[Genus Unknown]

OK true enough. In all honestly I haven't read any of Tyson's books all the way through. I've read chapters from his Necronomicon (which Dan Harms refused to have anything to do with because Tyson allowed it to be labeled and sold as a genuine occult book) which I thought were OK but like a lot of fake Necronomicons (see Price's The Necronomicon Cycle) basically comes off as just a lot of psudeo-grimoire gibberish with no actual literary content.

I quite enjoyed the Tysonomicon. I'd call it a horror novel disguised as an occult grimoire, like a literary "Blair Witch" treatment. It follows the journeys and exploits of Abdul Alhazred, how he learned about the Great Old Ones, and how he settled in Damascus after his wandering and wrote the Necronomicon. Alhazred is fleshed out as a kind of ruthless guy, and it's his story, as revealed in little hints throughout the book, that make it such a fun read for me. I was halfway through before I realized that when "he" (Alhazred) says things about "a wanderer who tried such-and-such and got this result," he's talking about himself, and showing what a monster he's become since being cast out into the desert. Like when "a traveler" happens across the caravan of the noble young lady that he once loved (the reason Tyson gives for Alhazred being cast into the desert in the first place), he sneaks into her tent and replaces her treasured keepsake of him with a deadly scorpion. He then leaves, without even waiting around to see if his little "prank" worked. And by the end, after he's settled in Damascus, he finds himself revered and worshiped by a pack of "soft" city ghouls that recognize him for what he is. It's pretty cool stuff.

It's pulpy, but if you read it as the story of Alhazred's wanderings, it's a great little horror yarn.

[Miskatonic Philologus]

Anyway feeling somewhat annoyed by this I decided to "fix" their display for them. Free of charge.

Folklorist, you got that right!

[MartinRonnlund]

All the books were ones by Donald Tyson, an author who is apparently trying to become the new "Simon."

Oh, come on. That's not true. Tyson admits he's an author, Simon claims not to be a fraud and mocks HPL with his BS-books.

OK true enough. In all honestly I haven't read any of Tyson's books all the way through. I've read chapters from his Necronomicon (which Dan Harms refused to have anything to do with because Tyson allowed it to be labeled and sold as a genuine occult book) which I thought were OK but like a lot of fake Necronomicons (see Price's The Necronomicon Cycle) basically comes off as just a lot of psudeo-grimoire gibberish with no actual literary content.

I also remember Joshi's giving Tyson's novel Alhazred (which you can see in the top picture and which I simply moved to a lower shelf) a positive review in his "The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos." I've thought about reading it but that book is f*cking huge - a total of 672 pages! Has anybody hear read it?

Well-done. They may fix it, but damned if it says H.P. Lovecraft it should be (mostly) Lovecraft!! Also, I've read 1-5 of the Fall of Cthulhu series and the 6th is in the mail on its way to me. I like it muchly.

It wasn't "Fall of Cthulhu" but a newer series titled THE CALLING: CTHULHU CHRONICLES. It has the same writing team as "Fall of Cthulhu" but I don't think its related.      

I fear I might have to revise my statement, just heard a rumour that Tyson published a necronomicon spellbook, Simon style. Still, may only be a rumour, I'll have to look into it.

[Genus Unknown]

No, he totally did. And I have his Necronomicon tarot deck lying around somewhere...

[wyrmis]

I went into B&N this weekend specifically to find a copy of their new leatherbound Lovecraft (I say new, possibly "new to me"?), the one that may or may not have all the errors (LGT: my blog, talking about the errors). I found a display much like the one you photographed. "LOVECRAFT!" and then everything on it was graphic novels, "necronomicons", tarot, etc. The actual Lovecraft was split between anthology SF and under HPL's name (again in the SF). I tried explaining to my wife why stuff like this is a bad thing, but I suppose saying "Pop-culture is co-opting horror icons and draining them of any cred...." is about as bad as me saying "At the Mountains of Madness is good, but you should hear it live". The horror genre has been dissolved into 1 part fantasy, 1 part mystery/thriller, and 1 part "general fiction". Anything that collects it and gets it out there isn't a bad thing. Maybe I'll go back and fix the display, myself.

As for the Derleth books, when I first bought the collaborations, they did not have Aggie D's name on them. Now, at least, they say "Howard Phillips Lovecraft and August Derleth". That's not perfect, but it's a step up.