I encourage you to read this post at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, “Modern Lovecraftian Elder Gods”. These new gods are Gthoogle, Yog-Fomo, Mh’eme, Faek-Newsgurath, Shub-Mra, and the obligatory Donald J. Trump. Here’s the description of Yog-Fomo:
An amorphous blob of darkness that enters its victims, driving them to the virtual dimension in an attempt to fill the void Yog-Fomo has created. Yog-Fomo’s victims pathologically scroll endlessly through social media for fear they will miss something important, when in reality they are falling further into the pit of Yog-Fomo as their life slips away.
I think the author is onto something.
Oh boy, I’ve long been a Lovecraft/Cthulhu fan, this is great!
You may already be aware of it but the complete works of H. P. Lovecraft are available online.
Thanks! Haven’t read any for quite a while and my modest library is in storage, so I’ll have to grab these.
Also, try these:
Clark Ashton Smith
Frank Belknap Long
Cthulhu Mythos
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it but I am what is referred to in the trade as an “advanced collector” of science fiction, fantasy, and horror from about 1890 to 1960.
Thanks, have not read anything by him yet.
The premise of Gaiman’s American Gods (more or less).
As a Lovecraft fan, I would recommend Thomas Ligotti’s short stories and novellas. He’s contemporary, and he’s much more sly and involve nothing—or almost nothing–supernatural, but there’s a definite connection.
Also, Arthur Machen.
Arthur Machen
William Hope Hodgson (probably my favorite author of the genre)
Henry S. Whitehead
Seabury Quinn
James Branch Cabell
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (he wrote the seminal vampire story Carmilla)
M. P. Shiel (you owe it to yourself to read M. P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud)
Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow
You can get some other ideas for early horror by reading H. P. Lovecraft’s monograph, Supernatural Horror in Literature. It is encyclopedic through the time of its writing.
Long time sic-fi fantasy reader. Converted to Kindle because our library has too many books. Started with Wells and Jules Verne, then jumped forward to the 50s and 60s works. Totally missed the stuff from before the 50s other than the aforementioned, so will have to look up some of these.
Had phase when I was fascinated with Lovecraft and Dick, but not so much now. What is interesting now is the foreign influence in the genre. I remember when reading Stanislaw Lem was considered exotic. Now it seems like the Hugo, Nebula and Campbell awards always have a bunch of foreign authors.
Steve
Project Gutenberg has a significant number of Amazing Stories magazines from the 1930s in its collection which you should check out. For old sci fi some authors you should look into include
Murray Leinster
Ralph Milne Farley
E. E. Smith
Hey, can anybody tell me what websites/internet phenomenon Yog-Fomo and Shub-Mra are based on? I understand that the latter is based on Men’s Rights Activists, but what about the “shub”?