"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 He may, for example, have several, unpublished (or, at least unknown, outside of "Dude" readership circles, LOL) stories of such a character lying about now.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.