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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1664 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 1, 2025

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So, what are you reading?

Still on the Iliad, Dialectic of Enligthenment and McLuhan's Classical Trivium. Dipping into the Metalogicon.

The King in Yellow, sort of a pre Lovecraft, Lovecraftian set of weird short stories.

Is it any good?

Three stories in. It's interesting because Chambers (the author) took the Ambrose Bierce idea of Carcosa, and developed it into his story cycle, but then I think because of Chambers doing this then Carcosa was later used by other writers including Lovecraft, Gaiman, and even George RR Martin (as well as Nic Pizzolatto in True Detective season 1). The stories so far are not bad but more freaky and evocative than anything else.

The last three stories are probably the weakest, if you find The Street of the Four Winds too twee, you might want to skip to the last one. It wasn't really written as cosmic horror so if that's your hook you'll find them annoying. What I love about the king in yellow is because I see it as kind of an attempt to explain the philosophy that everything is narratives in narrative form.

Interesting, I actually preferred the last few stories over the first few ones, which is a bit like the opposite of most people. Perhaps I'm too much of a softie but the more romantic and human theme of them left more more fulfilled at the end of the story compared to, for example, In the Court of the Dragon.

I do feel like it's self consciousness that made me flinch from those stories when I first read the book, although it was also the fact that I was going in thinking it was the precursor to Lovecraft and assuming that meant tentacles. They've grown on me since, I connect particularly strongly with Hastings in Our Lady of the Fields, but they do feel out of place in the modern context of the King in Yellow. Maybe it's the non-western elements of your upbringing? I still think back fondly on one of my best friends from primary school - a Bangladeshi guy named Raymond - for convincing me that romance is an important part of stories, I would have missed out on a lot of excellent poems and great stories, and a lot of flirting with ladies, if I hadn't listened.

Wow, someone has read it! Thanks. I'm a completist and they're pretty short so I'll probably read the lot, but thank you.

Do you have any Lovecraft recommendations? I've only read one (The Dunwich Horror) but I think I could probably get into his writing. Of course Chambers isn't Lovecraft but there's a thread there.

I would second The Colour Out of Space. Lovecraft himself considered it the finest of his works, and I think it's a purer example of purely Lovecraftian horror compared to some of his other works.

To add to what has been said, the Color out of Space, Pickman's Model, The Statement of Randolph Carter, From Beyond, Herbert West - Re-animator, The Nameless City, Nyarlathotep and The Whisperer in the Darkness are all a lot of fun too, and it's usually a good idea to start with his short stories, because the quality of his prose varies wildly in his longer works. If I had to be picky, the Color out of Space has a special place in my heart but The Rats in the Walls is an objectively better short story, Nyarlathotep is his best poem by a mile and At the Mountains of Madness is my favourite of his books, although Shadow over Innsmouth is a close second.

Great stuff, thanks.

"The Rats in the Walls" "Shadow over Innsmouth", "The Shadow Out of Time" and "At the Mountains of Madness" are probably among the most widely acclaimed. I own & really enjoyed the Necronomicon, nice hardcover and quite comprehensive collection of tales, so as a completionist that might be your thing.

Edit: Also, dunno how much you already know that, but the SCP Foundation is in many ways the modern equivalent of part-weird part-(eldritch)-horror of lovecraftian stories. Also definitely worth checking out.

Thank you for that!

Seconded "The Rats in the Walls". Scared the shit out of me.

SCP Foundation

I've read the anti-memetics division series and mostly enjoyed it, and a few others that were a lot of fun like the vhs tape of the Celtics game where the crowd became aware they were in the video. What are other great SCP stories?

I definitely agree with the idea that SCP is the modern repository of Cosmic Horror, in that Lovecraft relied on a kind of Satan-of-the-Gaps theory of the supernatural. Cults in foreign colonial ports, ruins in the remaining unexplored regions on the map, demon worship in the non-Anglo population of New England that the "respectable" parts of the world never touched.

But today most of those gaps have been closed, so to write in the same style and not just write a period piece, you need to move to new gaps. You have to write for today. Where do Demons hide in a world where I have satellite photos of the whole planet on my laptop, and people in the Congo have smartphones?

In general, the curated lists as well as the GoI-Hubs are a good place to start since they give some info, so you can judge better whether it's the kind of story you like. But the top-rated ones are almost all great, and going in blind is just more effective for many of them. Btw, it's no coincidence that almost all highly-rated stories are older.

For some of my own recommendations, to keep with the Lovecraftian (meaning grand-scale horror tied into smaller exploration stories):

-the Daevite stories. There's quite a lot of content so there is bound to be some hit and miss, but the core idea is solid and a nice twist on Lovecraft.

-SCP-2935, aka the dead planet

-SCP-093, aka the red sea object.

And some other personal favorites:

-SCP-3008, aka the IKEA dimension

-SCP-1689, aka the holding bag of potatoes

-SCP-2718, aka what happens after?

-SCP-1562, aka the tunnel slide

-SCP-3003, aka the end of history

-SCP-3673, aka the ballet room

-Parawatch Hub. Just some honest, small scale mystery/horror.

More comments

What are other great SCP stories?

Revenants is just a few pages but quite good.

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