entirely safe and fun

The Temple of Dagon has opened its Lovecraft Archive in observation of the 70^th anniversary of the death of seminal horror author H. P. Lovecraft. All has transpired as it was prefigured in a previous post. As Lovecraft himself had it, “Meanwhile the cult, by appropriate rites, [kept] alive the memory of those ancient ways and shadow[ed] forth the prophecy of their return.”

Thanks to Aleister at the Temple for making such an important primary collection available. If you’re approaching Lovecraft as a new reader, I recommend starting with one of the classic tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, such as “At the Mountains of Madness”, “The Call of Cthulhu”, “Pickman’s Model”, “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” (an especially well-executed work of dark fantasy), “The Shadow Out of Time”, The Whisperer in Darkness, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, or “The Dunwich Horror”. The last is a special, sentimental favorite of mine because it is obviously the most direct inspiration for the Chaosium role-playing game “The Call of Cthulhu”, and because it inspired me to write a campaign of my own (recasting the premise of “TDH” into a body horror/cyberpunk millieu) for that game. I envy new Lovecraft readers their fresh eyes — maybe enough to steal them, adding them to my merely human pair of eyes in imitation and celebration of the Great Old Ones… At any rate, enjoy!