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A Haunted Mind: Inside the Dark, Twisted World of H.P. Lovecraft
Arguably no American writer has had more of an impact on the modern horror scene than Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the man who created the Cthulhu Mythos, with its strange gods, eerie places, and forbidden books. But what sort of a man was Lovecraft, how did he create such a terrible universe, and where did his inspiration come from? Was it, as some have argued, based on esoteric knowledge forgotten or even denied to all sane people?
In A Haunted Mind , Dr. Bob Curran explores what motivated Lovecraft--his personal life is just as strange as some of his creations--and drove him to create his terrible cosmos. Using both folklore and history, Dr Curran investigates a wide variety of Lovecraftian mysteries.
A word of you may never look at Lovecraft--or the world--in exactly the same way again!
In A Haunted Mind , Dr. Bob Curran explores what motivated Lovecraft--his personal life is just as strange as some of his creations--and drove him to create his terrible cosmos. Using both folklore and history, Dr Curran investigates a wide variety of Lovecraftian mysteries.
A word of you may never look at Lovecraft--or the world--in exactly the same way again!
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
4 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Bob Curran
53 books54 followersBOB CURRAN is an educational psychologist in Coleraine University. His interests are broad-ranging but are focused especially on history and story. He has written several books, including The Field Guide to Irish Fairies, The Wolfhound Guide to the Shamrock, Creatures of Celtic Myth, The Truth about the Leprechaun.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 18, 2012
Wow, what a piece of s***. It is utterly without an ounce of merit. It is painfully obvious that the author had an agenda and so everything he wrote in this book was in service to that agenda, even if he had to make up ‘facts’ out of the blue, as he often does. Again and again the author makes wild claims and yet never bothers to cite any sources. Sorry Mr. Curran but that’s not how a serious book about anything is done.
August 8, 2017
I haven't been able to make it through this terrible book. I'm sad at the money I wasted on it, and that I hadn't seen a review before my impulse purchase. The writing is poor, as is the tone and overall content. The writer makes so many nonsensical statements without any support.
September 4, 2013
I was really excited about this when I ran across it, but I could only make it to page 33, unfortunately. I noticed, in the Introduction, a lot of typos, like the following:
Whipple Phillips also boasted an extensive library, and from these tomes the literary education that Howard received . . . began to bear fruit, as he started to read voraciously as soon as he was.
Um...OK. Is there a word missing? But, hey, alright, I found a typo, paid myself a dollar, and moved on. But these began to occur with more and more frequency. So I started chapter 2 and found:
According to historians, Solomon had a special relationship with the Israelite god Yahweh, who, according to legend, asked for great wisdom far beyond that of mortal men.
Hmm....really? I don't remember the story about Yahweh asking for wisdom. I do remember learning about dangling participles in middle school English class, though. And, while I'm sure I commit them occasionally, I certainly wouldn't let them make it into print. (I hope.) But, OK, I'm still not totally giving up. (I'm enjoying the topic, after all.) So I make myself a deal--if I find two more typos in the chapter, I'm giving up. And really, I just mean distracting ones, because I'm sure I read right over a ton of them without paying attention. I'm certainly no expert grammarati, as a casual reader can tell.
And yet, only one (1!) page later, I find this sentence with not one but TWO errors in the same sentence!
It may be that the theology and ritual . . . outraged more orthodox churchman who declared them and their writings as heretic.
Yes, "churchman" and "heretic."
So, I can't really tell you how good the rest of the book is, because I stopped at page 33. But Bob Curran definitely needs a new proofreader and editor. It's inexcusable for a book to make it to print with this many typos.
Whipple Phillips also boasted an extensive library, and from these tomes the literary education that Howard received . . . began to bear fruit, as he started to read voraciously as soon as he was.
Um...OK. Is there a word missing? But, hey, alright, I found a typo, paid myself a dollar, and moved on. But these began to occur with more and more frequency. So I started chapter 2 and found:
According to historians, Solomon had a special relationship with the Israelite god Yahweh, who, according to legend, asked for great wisdom far beyond that of mortal men.
Hmm....really? I don't remember the story about Yahweh asking for wisdom. I do remember learning about dangling participles in middle school English class, though. And, while I'm sure I commit them occasionally, I certainly wouldn't let them make it into print. (I hope.) But, OK, I'm still not totally giving up. (I'm enjoying the topic, after all.) So I make myself a deal--if I find two more typos in the chapter, I'm giving up. And really, I just mean distracting ones, because I'm sure I read right over a ton of them without paying attention. I'm certainly no expert grammarati, as a casual reader can tell.
And yet, only one (1!) page later, I find this sentence with not one but TWO errors in the same sentence!
It may be that the theology and ritual . . . outraged more orthodox churchman who declared them and their writings as heretic.
Yes, "churchman" and "heretic."
So, I can't really tell you how good the rest of the book is, because I stopped at page 33. But Bob Curran definitely needs a new proofreader and editor. It's inexcusable for a book to make it to print with this many typos.
September 2, 2012
good background material for a story I am working on. Reads like a tour guide for Lovecraft's world.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews