3 ms·

Such a fascinating book. I remember first reading it because of True Detective season 1. I was pretty into Lovecraft at the time. The first short story is still

Such a fascinating book. I remember first reading it because of True Detective season 1. I was pretty into Lovecraft at the time. The first short story is still great

2099miles 2y ago
How is it related to TD1 was it the inspiration for the yellow king and carcosa?
- pantulis 2y ago
  Yes.
- nottorp 2y ago
  The book title plus the year of publication (1895) should hint at it a bit.
- devmor 2y ago
  There is a deeper inspiration as well I believe. It seemed to me like the play-within-a-play that drives you mad is exactly what we see happening to the main characters in TD1.
weatherlight 2y ago
"The Repairer of Reputations", is such a weird story. I love that fact that it takes place in 1920's NYC, 30 years in the future from when it was written (1985). It's not quite science fiction, though. The descriptions of New York aren't dark or dreary, like one would expect from a short story that usually firmly placed in the horror/weird fiction category. There's these hints that something is not quite right, though. like the presence of these "Government Lethal Chambers" in Washington Square Park where, I guess one could kill them selves publicly. It's hinted at, but not really addressed further. it's these little details that color the story and make it uncomfortable. It seems tht United States that has embraced authoritarianism, and society social structure is heavily enforced by a militarized government. EDIT: Written in 1895 not 1985!
- darkwater 2y ago
  > it takes place in 1920's NYC, 30 years in the future from when it was written (1985). Is it you, Marty? (sorry, could not resist)
  - weatherlight 2y ago
    I meant to type 1895! *ugh.
- dghf 2y ago
  I couldn't work out from the story whether it was really set in the 1920s, or whether that was a delusion on the part of the main character.
- 7thaccount 2y ago
  I read it not that long ago. I agree with the comments that the setting is deeply unsettling.
- linksnapzz 2y ago
  It's also one of the best examples I know of for "unreliable narrator".
  - stevenAthompson 2y ago
    "Book of the New Sun" will always be my favorite unreliable narrator story.
    - UltraSane 2y ago
      The Book of the Short Sun takes unreliable narrators to 11
      - stevenAthompson 2y ago
        I never got that far in the series, despite New Sun being one of my all time favorites. I'll give it a go. Thanks.
api 2y ago
Lovecraft remains an underrated sci-fi pioneer as well as a horror writer. His depictions of the alien are notable for being truly alien. A lot of his "eldritch horrors" weren't necessarily evil so much as so alien that their value systems, motives, and conception of morality are incomprehensible to human beings. This might well be the case if we meet real aliens. We'd be able to converse about objective things like math and physics but beyond that we might find our worldviews to be different to the point of near mutual incomprehensibility. A lot of later sci-fi actually retreated to more human-like familiar notions of the alien. Very few sci-fi works have explored Lovecraftian aliens -- maybe Arrival (notable for the aliens being benevolent but Lovecraftian), The Expanse (though the alien machines use simulated human minds to talk to us, making them seem familiar), Alien (the Xenomorph), and a few others. Edit: the Blindsight series by Peter Watts is another. The Alien franchise is a huge missed opportunity for failing to develop the Xenomorph as an alien race. I always thought it'd be neat if they turned out to be intelligent insect-like hive-mind aliens that just don't realize they're doing anything "bad" because they don't understand our concept of individuality. In their environment using some of the drones of another hive to reproduce would be fine, even a kind of social interaction, so when they do it to us think they're saying hello. Their apparent violence is just the ultra-utilitarian behavior of drones. Ripley's comment in Aliens about "I don't know which one is worse" might have been a hook for that. We might have eventually learned that our sociopaths were, in fact, quite a bit more "evil" than the xenomorphs, who are just very unlike us biologically. I'm aware of some of Lovecraft's personal shitty views, but I think it's unfair to judge people from another time by the standards of this age. His views would not have been unusual for his place and time, and they only really show up at the edges of his works anyway. I read all his works and never really picked up on those subtexts until it was pointed out to me later.
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  Lovecraft is not underrated though, I wonder why people keep calling well regarded famous authors or artists underrated.
  - jaapz 2y ago
    Right? If you have an entire genre named after you[1], you're not underrated [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraftian_horror https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraftian_horror

Such a fascinating book. I remember first reading it because of True Detective season 1. I was pretty into Lovecraft at the time. The first short story is still great

2099miles 2y ago

How is it related to TD1 was it the inspiration for the yellow king and carcosa?

pantulis 2y ago
Yes.
nottorp 2y ago
The book title plus the year of publication (1895) should hint at it a bit.
devmor 2y ago
There is a deeper inspiration as well I believe. It seemed to me like the play-within-a-play that drives you mad is exactly what we see happening to the main characters in TD1.

weatherlight 2y ago

"The Repairer of Reputations", is such a weird story. I love that fact that it takes place in 1920's NYC, 30 years in the future from when it was written (1985). It's not quite science fiction, though. The descriptions of New York aren't dark or dreary, like one would expect from a short story that usually firmly placed in the horror/weird fiction category. There's these hints that something is not quite right, though. like the presence of these "Government Lethal Chambers" in Washington Square Park where, I guess one could kill them selves publicly. It's hinted at, but not really addressed further. it's these little details that color the story and make it uncomfortable. It seems tht United States that has embraced authoritarianism, and society social structure is heavily enforced by a militarized government. EDIT: Written in 1895 not 1985!

darkwater 2y ago
> it takes place in 1920's NYC, 30 years in the future from when it was written (1985). Is it you, Marty? (sorry, could not resist)
- weatherlight 2y ago
  I meant to type 1895! *ugh.
dghf 2y ago
I couldn't work out from the story whether it was really set in the 1920s, or whether that was a delusion on the part of the main character.
7thaccount 2y ago
I read it not that long ago. I agree with the comments that the setting is deeply unsettling.
linksnapzz 2y ago
It's also one of the best examples I know of for "unreliable narrator".
- stevenAthompson 2y ago
  "Book of the New Sun" will always be my favorite unreliable narrator story.
  - UltraSane 2y ago
    The Book of the Short Sun takes unreliable narrators to 11
    - stevenAthompson 2y ago
      I never got that far in the series, despite New Sun being one of my all time favorites. I'll give it a go. Thanks.

api 2y ago

Lovecraft remains an underrated sci-fi pioneer as well as a horror writer. His depictions of the alien are notable for being truly alien. A lot of his "eldritch horrors" weren't necessarily evil so much as so alien that their value systems, motives, and conception of morality are incomprehensible to human beings. This might well be the case if we meet real aliens. We'd be able to converse about objective things like math and physics but beyond that we might find our worldviews to be different to the point of near mutual incomprehensibility. A lot of later sci-fi actually retreated to more human-like familiar notions of the alien. Very few sci-fi works have explored Lovecraftian aliens -- maybe Arrival (notable for the aliens being benevolent but Lovecraftian), The Expanse (though the alien machines use simulated human minds to talk to us, making them seem familiar), Alien (the Xenomorph), and a few others. Edit: the Blindsight series by Peter Watts is another. The Alien franchise is a huge missed opportunity for failing to develop the Xenomorph as an alien race. I always thought it'd be neat if they turned out to be intelligent insect-like hive-mind aliens that just don't realize they're doing anything "bad" because they don't understand our concept of individuality. In their environment using some of the drones of another hive to reproduce would be fine, even a kind of social interaction, so when they do it to us think they're saying hello. Their apparent violence is just the ultra-utilitarian behavior of drones. Ripley's comment in Aliens about "I don't know which one is worse" might have been a hook for that. We might have eventually learned that our sociopaths were, in fact, quite a bit more "evil" than the xenomorphs, who are just very unlike us biologically. I'm aware of some of Lovecraft's personal shitty views, but I think it's unfair to judge people from another time by the standards of this age. His views would not have been unusual for his place and time, and they only really show up at the edges of his works anyway. I read all his works and never really picked up on those subtexts until it was pointed out to me later.

Cthulhu_ 2y ago
Lovecraft is not underrated though, I wonder why people keep calling well regarded famous authors or artists underrated.
- jaapz 2y ago
  Right? If you have an entire genre named after you[1], you're not underrated [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraftian_horror https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraftian_horror