I'm not sure what Howard Philips Lovecraft would have thought, but from BoingBoing by way of Turk Turon comes the news that a writer got called names and was told to begone after leaving a memento (small plastic frog: Next year in Innsmouth?) and then having the effrontery to be taking a couple of photos of HPL's grave.
With a digital camera, mind you, not a brain in a can with an imaging attachment. (Darn the luck!)
Nor is she the only one -- BoingBoing link lets you punch through to her site, q.v. for more real-life horror tales. I dunno the writer (one Caitlin R. Kiernan)* from Eve's kitchen help but between my scary books and Tam's, I'll have to see if we've got any -- anyone fond enough of HPL to pay a visit on his day probably has other virtues.
Here's the basic rule, mo-rons d'securidaddy and the fat-headed weasels y'serve: If you'll let people look at it, they can take pictures of it, too. Also, they get to write about the Great Fun! they have had. And it gets linked to.
A lot.
...Okay, where's the outfit making digital cameras the size of the old spy-type film ones? 'Cos I'm gonna start takin' pix where prohibited and posting them whenever I can.
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* Oh, ha-ha-ha, Wikipedia, someone went and changed the spelling after I linked to it? And no redirect? Fun-neee. Love you too.
We have a couple of Kiernan's short stories in some of our anthology collections, and they're decent. She's definitely more of a dark fantasy writer than a horror writer; both stories of hers we read were good, but not particularly memorable.
ReplyDeleteI'd be up for investigating whether she's better in the long format, though.
The frog?
ReplyDeleteJust another one of those "hideous reptilian abnormalities, sprouting, bubbling and baking over a winking bluish-green spectre of dim flame in a far corner of black shadows."
Awww, Turk, you're so romantic!
ReplyDeleteI would have linked up this article more, had I time (and I may yet).
Labrat: as in "Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath" dark fantasy?
I read Weird Tales when I can find it, so this may be someone I've read but not noted.
Stingray informs me the title you mentioned is a Lovecraft story- he's the Lovecraft fan in the house, I've always found him impenetrable.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as one of the Kiernan stories we have is in "Shadows Over Baker Street" (yes, that's right, an anthology purely for Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft crossover pastiches- it's worth it just for Neil Gaiman's contribution), and the other story is in a similar, though more traditionally fantastic vein, I'd probably say "yes".
Lovecraft, impenetrable? ...I was prolly exposed to the radiations at too early an age. But, yes, it is, and a very Lord Dunsany-ian sort of story it is, if that helps?
ReplyDeleteI have Shadows Over Baker Street, about half done; I was reading it when the House Deal hit, which means odds favor it being in either "books from the couch" or "Books To Be Read" boxes.
Anyway, the thing irks me in principle; it's like the Naval Air Station* at "Area 51:" as long as terrestrial observers could train a lens on it, they could expose film to that light. Uncle Sam must have agreed, too, or he wouldn't have moved back the fences. If they don't want it photographed, they can shut the gates.
Anyway, The HPL stone is a centotaph, if I understand what I read. At least it looks like nobody is chipping away at it, they way they've done James Dean's monument.
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* Why else d'ye think the USAF can deny it so happily? :)
I have a small list of spy cam suppliers.......
ReplyDeleteBut I'd hate to see you in a small dark place for feloniously exercising your constitutional rights....
"Small dark place" is where I spend a lot of my work day, John!
ReplyDeleteOne of the few good reasons for a cell-phone camera
ReplyDelete