"N." - An H.P. Lovecraft/Cthulhu Mythos inspired work (and that's a good thing!)

[Jake Featherston]

I'm not expecting I'll get many arguments on this one; the story is very clearly derived from the Cthulhu Mythos. While some literary snobs might object to that characterization (and while other parochial Fans of Mr. Stephen King Only might regard it as disrespectful for me to suggest this is something other than a uniquely original work by Stephen King...and of course, it is that, too), I think its not only a self-evidently true assertion, but that its being Lovecraft-derived is a fine thing which should be encouraged. Personally, while I doubt it will ever happen, I would LOVE to see Stephen King issue a collection consisting entirely of such stories. This one is so good, it'd probably have to be re-printed for the collection (as well as that "Crouch End" tale, although I consider this one to be superior), but ideally the rest of the stories would be new. Yeah, yeah, he's probably got other fish to fry, but I can have my desires, can't I? And who knows? I could get lucky. He may, for example, have several, unpublished (or, at least unknown, outside of "Dude" readership circles, LOL) stories of such a character lying about now. I suppose only time will tell.

There are a LOT of nods to the Cthulhu Mythos sprinkled throughout Stephen King's work (my personal favourite was the guy who went violently insane after listening to a "spirit trumpet" near a graveyard in Dunwich, Massachusetts, in "The Sundog," from Four Past Midnight), but arguably very few stories (and probably no novels, although I suppose The Tommyknockers is open to interpretation) that are so directly influenced by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and the literary menagerie with emerged from his cerebral maw. But I would like to see more such stories, very much.

Thoughts?

[Moderator]

H.P. Lovecraft has been an influence in Steve's writing but as he writes in the "Sunset Notes" at the back of Just After Sunset, the inspiration for "N." came from Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

And you'll find the full text of Machen's very influential The Great God Pan at the bottom of the Wiki link, and the rest of his work as well!

Arthur Machen

Long days and pleasant nights

[Jake Featherston]

H.P. Lovecraft has been an influence in Steve's writing but as he writes in the "Sunset Notes" at the back of Just After Sunset, the inspiration for "N." came from Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan.

Ah, I probably won't be reading the "Sunset Notes" until later this afternoon. Well, Lovecraft was also inspired by Machen, so I guess I wasn't that far off....

[Jake Featherston]

And you'll find the full text of Machen's very influential The Great God Pan at the bottom of the Wiki link, and the rest of his work as well!

Arthur Machen

Thanks, I'll probably read that too, now that you've posted a link to it. Its one of those things which has sort of been on my list for a long time.

[Denise Marsden]

I so agree with you about the Lovecraft inspiration,I felt that the reference to OCD sufferers appearing to be constantly pecked by large birds was interesting.I have worked with these people and the analogy fits so well.

[Jake Featherston]

I did get around to reading Machen's "The Great God Pan," and its well worth it.

[Aim4 the hed 2 kill zomBs]

In the Stephen King short story collection "Different Seasons", the last story of the book is called "The Breathing Method." It is a work that I feel is very much HP Lovecraft inspired. He also makes many references to HP Lovecraft's works in "Needful Things" - (The shop's proprietor says that he is from the plains of Leng, and there's a bit of graffiti on a wall in another part of the book that says "Yog Sogoth rules" unless I'm mistaken." He also goes as far as to even mention Lovecraft favorably in the non-fiction book "Dance Macabre."

With "Tommyknockers" the comparisons to Lovecraft's work are unmistakable. When the citizens of Haven start sprouting tentacles from their naughty bits, a reader familiar with Lovecraft's work can only smile and say "I was wondering when that would happen." That said, I don't feel Stephen King ever "ripped off" Lovecraft, but readers of both authors would be hard pressed not to see the inspiration show.

[oxymoron]

Crouch End definitley has a touch of Lovecraft in it-the Goat with a Thousand Young, Yogsoggoth, Cthulhu Kryon, and of course the Drudic spelling of Towen insted of town are Lovecraftian to be sure
love,love, love this short story
it's in Nightmares and Dreamscapes
but i think even Lovecraft's ideas were influenced by earlier "dark" books, such as the Necronominon(sp)
don't know for sure, because i've never read it(necro)
just finished 2 Lovecraft books, though, and Just After Sunset after those(imagine that)
N. is King, dipped in Lovecraft, sitting on Freud's couch, telling a bedtime story:wink2:
i always thought the short story Jerusalem's Lot, maybe in Night Shift was inspired by Lovecraft, too
the eater of the worms, the dark books the "evil" brother ordered, the town's unholy core, are totally him,
the ending is totally King, too
cliffhanger to the very end

[EMHeld]

I thought the nature of the "ghost" and the ship in Duma Key were directly tied to the slumbering nature of the Old Gods seeking purchase in this reality. That novel felt a lot like a Cthulhu (Cthulu?) Mythos story to me.

[GNTLGNT]

I've always gotten a welcome shudder from the King's homages to the "Love-man", and "N" is one such tale that tips the pen to H.P. and Machen...(course, the letter Q scares the be-jeezus out of me too, that little tail-the horror, the horror...:eek2:)

[Lencho_of_the_Apes]

Crouch End definitley has a touch of Lovecraft in it-the Goat with a Thousand Young, Yogsoggoth, Cthulhu Kryon, and of course the Drudic spelling of Towen insted of town are Lovecraftian to be sure
love,love, love this short story
it's in Nightmares and Dreamscapes
but i think even Lovecraft's ideas were influenced by earlier "dark" books, such as the Necronominon(sp)
don't know for sure, because i've never read it(necro)
just finished 2 Lovecraft books, though, and Just After Sunset after those(imagine that)
N. is King, dipped in Lovecraft, sitting on Freud's couch, telling a bedtime story:wink2:
i always thought the short story Jerusalem's Lot, maybe in Night Shift was inspired by Lovecraft, too
the eater of the worms, the dark books the "evil" brother ordered, the town's unholy core, are totally him,
the ending is totally King, too
cliffhanger to the very end

The Necronomicon is not a real book, it's something Lovecraft made up. A fictional book that his fictional characters read and use. Lovecraft writes about what his influences were in his long essay "supernatural Horror In Literature", sort of his version of Danse Macabre.

We all float down here.

[arsepoetica]

I think the only way you could object to Lovecraft having an influence on Stephen King is by not being familiar with one or both of these great authors. It's like asking if Michael Jordan had an influence on Kobe Bryant or LeBron James.