Your Favorite Cthulhu Mythos Story

[Odalisque]

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals

...Lin Carter, several volumes of work shall remain as unread curios...

I can't recall the title, but I once read his sonnet cycle in imitation of the Fungi from Yuggoth... Not the proudest moment in my reading history.

[G. S. Carnivals]

Quote Originally Posted by Odalisque

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals ...Lin Carter, several volumes of work shall remain as unread curios... I can't recall the title, but I once read his sonnet cycle in imitation of the Fungi from Yuggoth... Not the proudest moment in my reading history.

Pet, I assume that you are referring to "Dreams from R'lyeh: A Sonnet cycle." I have the piece in The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter which was edited by Robert M. Price and published by Chaosium in 1997. In the introduction, Price wrote, "This one just happens to rhyme." It seems to be the nicest thing that Mr. Price had to say about the piece. A taste? Why not? ;) and !

XIII. ABDUL ALHAZRED
Only Alhazred of all mortal men
Hath seen far Yuggoth lost beyond the Rim.
And drowned R'lyeh where lies buried Him
Who Was Before And Who Shall Be Again.
The cloudy shore of fabulous Hali
On dread Carcosa where Hastur abides,
That caverned deep where Tsathoggua hides -
No wizard else hath known, save only he.
Alhazred saw ... and from that sight returned
Out of the nightmare deeps of the Abyss.
If thou whouldst know the Elder Lore he learned
And passed down from that century to this,
Read of those horrors of that primal dawn
Recorded in the Necronomicon.

[Odalisque]

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals

Quote Originally Posted by Odalisque Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals ...Lin Carter, several volumes of work shall remain as unread curios... I can't recall the title, but I once read his sonnet cycle in imitation of the Fungi from Yuggoth... Not the proudest moment in my reading history. Pet, I assume that you are referring to "Dreams from R'lyeh: A Sonnet cycle." I have the piece in The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter which was edited by Robert M. Price and published by Chaosium in 1997. In the introduction, Price wrote, "This one just happens to rhyme." It seems to be the nicest thing that Mr. Price had to say about the piece. A taste? Why not? ;) and !

That piece of verse was far worse than I recalled. How did I manage to plough my way right through "Dreams from R'lyeh: A Sonnet cycle"? You're quite right about the title. But it had genuinely slipped my mind. I think it will probably slip my mind again before much time has passed. ;)

[Spotbowserfido2]

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals

Quote Originally Posted by Odalisque Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals ...Lin Carter, several volumes of work shall remain as unread curios... I can't recall the title, but I once read his sonnet cycle in imitation of the Fungi from Yuggoth... Not the proudest moment in my reading history. Pet, I assume that you are referring to "Dreams from R'lyeh: A Sonnet cycle." I have the piece in The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter which was edited by Robert M. Price and published by Chaosium in 1997. In the introduction, Price wrote, "This one just happens to rhyme." It seems to be the nicest thing that Mr. Price had to say about the piece. A taste? Why not? ;) and ! XIII. ABDUL ALHAZRED Only Alhazred of all mortal men Hath seen far Yuggoth lost beyond the Rim. And drowned R'lyeh where lies buried Him Who Was Before And Who Shall Be Again. The cloudy shore of fabulous Hali On dread Carcosa where Hastur abides, That caverned deep where Tsathoggua hides - No wizard else hath known, save only he. Alhazred saw ... and from that sight returned Out of the nightmare deeps of the Abyss. If thou whouldst know the Elder Lore he learned And passed down from that century to this, Read of those horrors of that primal dawn Recorded in the Necronomicon.

What a dreadful example of doggerel. !!!

[Aetherwing]

I can also sadly admit to reading Lin Carter's noxious sonnets, also. I recall them, though I read them only once, far too vividly. I honestly wonder what he was thinking when he wrote those. The truly terrifying thing is he apes not only Lovecraft, but Bloch, Howard, Smith, Derleth and others all in this one sonnet-cycle, to atrocious effect! Phil, you are cruel to post that selection--although you picked one the least offensive, if memory serves...

I also enjoyed Campbell's early stories, reading them when I was only slightly older than he was when he wrote 'em. Some of them were admittedly bad, but they were entertaining, and had some disturbing images that I still recall even now.

As for Mr. Lumley: his non-Mythos stuff tends to be better, by far, than, say, Beneath The Moors (yes, I read it too, Pet). He manages to crank out a few genuinely enjoyable stories in Fruiting Bodies, for instance.


And, finally, back to Klein: I have never read anything by him that was not well worth reading. Both Dark Gods and THE CEREMONIES (thanks, Phil!) remain high in my lists and eminently rereadable.

-J

[G. S. Carnivals]

An experiment. The cut and paste editing method of William S. Burroughs as applied to "Dreams from R'lyeh: A Sonnet Cycle" by Lin Carter. What follows will be line one of Sonnet I, line two of Sonnet II, line three of Sonnet III, and so forth. I have no idea where this is going. Let the iambs fall where they may. The result could prove to be rather surreal...

XXXII. CTHULHU LUNCH
I am New England born, and home to me
Quaint cobbled streets, fanlights above the door;
With cryptic starry signs enconstellate,
And on the hill-tops, where they grow the most,
With walls and rafters that leaned oddly wrong
How it were closed on 'count of what were done
At whose mad page I was forbade to look,
Or some dead thing long buried underground.
I rise with dawn and scrub my shaking hands
And scanned necrotic hieroglyphs on scrolls
Dim, phosphor-litten with putrescent fires --
And all her mysteries to them made known,
Read of those horrors of that primal dawn
If ever ... Hyperborea ... awake!

[Aetherwing]

Well, it scans at least as well as the effluvia from which it was distilled.

Phil...is sonnet four the one about "that preacher feller" and the kid who "screamed and RAN once he understood/just WHOSE image on that black altar stood!"? That one was particularly horrid to me (albeit laughable), along with a later one where the narrator reminisces of the time when once he was a man, and not a mindless, mewling parasite, who with his brethren chitter near Aldeberan...

I can only wish those awful lines were exaggeration. Perhaps Lin needed to walk his dog or grow some chives, anything except pen sonnets!

-J

[G. S. Carnivals]

Quote Originally Posted by Aetherwing

Phil...is sonnet four the one about "that preacher feller" and the kid who "screamed and RAN once he understood/just WHOSE image on that black altar stood!"? That one was particularly horrid to me (albeit laughable), along with a later one where the narrator reminisces of the time when once he was a man, and not a mindless, mewling parasite, who with his brethren chitter near Aldeberan...

Jimmy, those would be VI. THE SHUNNED CHURCH and XXX. THE ACCURSED, respectively.

[Spotbowserfido2]

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals

An experiment. The cut and paste editing method of William S. Burroughs as applied to "Dreams from R'lyeh: A Sonnet Cycle" by Lin Carter. What follows will be line one of Sonnet I, line two of Sonnet II, line three of Sonnet III, and so forth. I have no idea where this is going. Let the iambs fall where they may. The result could prove to be rather surreal... XXXII. CTHULHU LUNCH I am New England born, and home to me Quaint cobbled streets, fanlights above the door; With cryptic starry signs enconstellate, And on the hill-tops, where they grow the most, With walls and rafters that leaned oddly wrong How it were closed on 'count of what were done At whose mad page I was forbade to look, Or some dead thing long buried underground. I rise with dawn and scrub my shaking hands And scanned necrotic hieroglyphs on scrolls Dim, phosphor-litten with putrescent fires -- And all her mysteries to them made known, Read of those horrors of that primal dawn If ever ... Hyperborea ... awake!

This actually makes some sort of convoluted sense. and .

[G. S. Carnivals]

Rover, I'm terribly sorry to see your thread degenerate from the zenith of the Cthulhu Mythos subgenre to the absolute nadir. But one must consider the territory...