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The Color Out of Space
Set in the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts, an unnamed narrator investigates a local area known as the 'blasted hearth.' After failing to extract any information from the Arkham locals, the narrator encounters an old man, Ammi Pierce, who relates the story of a farmer who once lived there. The hearth, he claims, was caused by a meteorite that fell onto the farmer's field in 1882. The Color Out of Space is one of H.P. Lovecraft's best-loved and most critically acclaimed stories. According to the author, it was also his personal favorite. It has been adapted twice for film; first in 1967 and later in 1987.
54 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1927
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About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
5,923 books19.1k followersHoward Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,994 reviews
February 17, 2019
In some ways, if you think about it, The Colour Out of Space could be H.P. Lovecraft’s scariest story.
And that is saying a lot.
Published in 1927, this was almost certainly an influence for Stephen King in his story “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill” which gave rise to King’s memorial dramatic performance and his unforgettable line of “meteor s***” from the 1982 film Creepshow.
Lovecraft describes, in his unmentionable, oldest and strongest, ancient and mysterious, eldritch style of writing how a strange and unworldly meteor crashes into a New England farm and then literally all hell breaks loose.
In classic Lovecraft fashion, he gives the reader a hint of the unknown and lets our fear go on from there.
And that is saying a lot.
Published in 1927, this was almost certainly an influence for Stephen King in his story “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill” which gave rise to King’s memorial dramatic performance and his unforgettable line of “meteor s***” from the 1982 film Creepshow.
Lovecraft describes, in his unmentionable, oldest and strongest, ancient and mysterious, eldritch style of writing how a strange and unworldly meteor crashes into a New England farm and then literally all hell breaks loose.
In classic Lovecraft fashion, he gives the reader a hint of the unknown and lets our fear go on from there.
June 14, 2021
The Colour Out of Space (Amazing Stories, 1927) is probably Lovecraft’s most striking and famous tale. He wrote it at the height of his career, in between The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Dunwich Horror. As so often with HPL’s stories, this one takes place around Arkham, an imaginary town in Massachusetts, and involves scientists from Miskatonic University, fictional as well. The whole thing is a nightmarish invention about some strange alien meteorite fallen from the sky that poisons the well water near a farm and dramatically disrupts the peaceful lives of a few locals.
Still, one of Lovecraft’s trademarks (borrowed from Mary Shelley, Edgar Poe, Henry James and others) is to ground his insane stories in material assumptions and provide as many concrete details and particulars as possible — in this case, in the form of a month-by-month chronicle —, to convey a sense of reality and authenticity. Deeper still, Lovecraft shapes the structure of his plot like a Russian doll, instilling a feeling of step-by-step descent into a realm of intensifying horror. This arrangement reflects the story itself, in which the falling star gradually poisons the soil, then the plants, then the animals, then the people, and finally leads on to a blasphemous outlook on a fiendish cosmos.
Using the substance of colour itself as the cause and manifestation of a disturbing reality is perhaps the most original feature of this tale. Not least because it suggests that aliens are entirely beyond the realm of describability — the idea of an abomination beyond words comes back repeatedly throughout this story, which, incidentally, relies almost exclusively on descriptions. Lovecraft got the concept of landscape contamination from some cases of paint poisoning in his time. Nowadays, radioactive waste is identically invisible and deadly, and a Chernobyl-type disaster is far more threatening than the remote possibility of a hostile alien invasion.
The influence of this story on Arkady Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic or Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation is unmistakable. I have heard about a film adaptation of HPL’s story, starring Nicolas Cage; maybe I’ll give it a chance whenever I have leisure.
Still, one of Lovecraft’s trademarks (borrowed from Mary Shelley, Edgar Poe, Henry James and others) is to ground his insane stories in material assumptions and provide as many concrete details and particulars as possible — in this case, in the form of a month-by-month chronicle —, to convey a sense of reality and authenticity. Deeper still, Lovecraft shapes the structure of his plot like a Russian doll, instilling a feeling of step-by-step descent into a realm of intensifying horror. This arrangement reflects the story itself, in which the falling star gradually poisons the soil, then the plants, then the animals, then the people, and finally leads on to a blasphemous outlook on a fiendish cosmos.
Using the substance of colour itself as the cause and manifestation of a disturbing reality is perhaps the most original feature of this tale. Not least because it suggests that aliens are entirely beyond the realm of describability — the idea of an abomination beyond words comes back repeatedly throughout this story, which, incidentally, relies almost exclusively on descriptions. Lovecraft got the concept of landscape contamination from some cases of paint poisoning in his time. Nowadays, radioactive waste is identically invisible and deadly, and a Chernobyl-type disaster is far more threatening than the remote possibility of a hostile alien invasion.
The influence of this story on Arkady Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic or Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation is unmistakable. I have heard about a film adaptation of HPL’s story, starring Nicolas Cage; maybe I’ll give it a chance whenever I have leisure.
November 1, 2021
¡Ufff, tremendo! ¡Esta vez, sí he sentido miedo!
En El color que cayó del cielo, H.P. Lovecraft nos presenta un relato buenísimo, cargado de horror, ciencia ficción y una atmósfera siniestra en todo el sentido de la palabra. Dicen que los relatos antiguos —y yo también lo pienso— no suelen generar miedo a las personas que vivimos en esta época porque pasan los años, cambia nuestra cultura, nuestros pensamientos, y de la misma forma también cambian nuestros temores y miedos más profundos; no obstante, en este relato no aplica esa condición, ya que realmente sí se siente el miedo en las palabras de Lovecraft. Quizás la combinación de ciencia ficción y horror es la que permite que esto suceda. Lovecraft usa la hipotética caída de un meteorito a la Tierra como centro de su historia, y un evento así, naturalmente siempre será objeto de especulaciones, debido a la ignorancia que tenemos con respecto a lo que verdaderamente se encuentra en el espacio exterior. Por tanto, pienso que esta historia no tiene fecha de vencimiento. De la misma forma en que este cuento generó miedo a muchas personas en el siglo XX, asimismo puede causarnos miedo a nosotros, a los del siglo XXII, a los del siglo XXX, etc., siempre y cuando hayan incógnitas relacionadas al espacio exterior: Es decir, por mucho tiempo, ¿verdad?
Otra razón importante para que este cuento cause miedo al lector es por su inicio. En la parte inicial Lovecraft usa descripciones muy bien detalladas que permiten que como lectores nos adentremos en su mundo, imaginando el movimiento y sonido de los árboles, el silencio de la noche, el cambio de colores, etc. Si logramos imaginar un escenario con aquellas descripciones, sentiremos que nunca nos gustaría estar en un lugar así. Hace pocos días finalicé de leer una colección de cuentos de Edgar Allan Poe, que se destaca justamente por la misma característica de describir escenarios, y por ello puedo decir con seguridad que es notable la fuerte influencia de Lovecraft hacia las características narrativas del autor estadounidense. Su prosa ha sido muy buena, la estructura de su cuento muy bien planeada, y el ritmo de la lectura fue ligero del inicio hasta el final.
En verdad me ha gustado mucho. De hecho, tengo que confesar que efectivamente sentí miedo porque me sumergí mucho en la historia. Quizás leyéndola a la luz del día no produzca esa sensación, pero la noche es diferente porque es misteriosa, silenciosa y mágica. Yo, he leído este cuento a la una de la mañana, en una habitación oscura, en silencio, y en un segundo piso. Les dejo a su imaginación, la cobardía que sentí, cuando comprendí que tenía que orinar y necesitaba ir al baño que queda en el primer piso.
Leer esta historia ha sido como un creepypasta sin fecha de vencimiento, que me dejó claro la hora a la que debo leer a Lovecraft en el futuro. Relato muy recomendado.
En El color que cayó del cielo, H.P. Lovecraft nos presenta un relato buenísimo, cargado de horror, ciencia ficción y una atmósfera siniestra en todo el sentido de la palabra. Dicen que los relatos antiguos —y yo también lo pienso— no suelen generar miedo a las personas que vivimos en esta época porque pasan los años, cambia nuestra cultura, nuestros pensamientos, y de la misma forma también cambian nuestros temores y miedos más profundos; no obstante, en este relato no aplica esa condición, ya que realmente sí se siente el miedo en las palabras de Lovecraft. Quizás la combinación de ciencia ficción y horror es la que permite que esto suceda. Lovecraft usa la hipotética caída de un meteorito a la Tierra como centro de su historia, y un evento así, naturalmente siempre será objeto de especulaciones, debido a la ignorancia que tenemos con respecto a lo que verdaderamente se encuentra en el espacio exterior. Por tanto, pienso que esta historia no tiene fecha de vencimiento. De la misma forma en que este cuento generó miedo a muchas personas en el siglo XX, asimismo puede causarnos miedo a nosotros, a los del siglo XXII, a los del siglo XXX, etc., siempre y cuando hayan incógnitas relacionadas al espacio exterior: Es decir, por mucho tiempo, ¿verdad?
Otra razón importante para que este cuento cause miedo al lector es por su inicio. En la parte inicial Lovecraft usa descripciones muy bien detalladas que permiten que como lectores nos adentremos en su mundo, imaginando el movimiento y sonido de los árboles, el silencio de la noche, el cambio de colores, etc. Si logramos imaginar un escenario con aquellas descripciones, sentiremos que nunca nos gustaría estar en un lugar así. Hace pocos días finalicé de leer una colección de cuentos de Edgar Allan Poe, que se destaca justamente por la misma característica de describir escenarios, y por ello puedo decir con seguridad que es notable la fuerte influencia de Lovecraft hacia las características narrativas del autor estadounidense. Su prosa ha sido muy buena, la estructura de su cuento muy bien planeada, y el ritmo de la lectura fue ligero del inicio hasta el final.
En verdad me ha gustado mucho. De hecho, tengo que confesar que efectivamente sentí miedo porque me sumergí mucho en la historia. Quizás leyéndola a la luz del día no produzca esa sensación, pero la noche es diferente porque es misteriosa, silenciosa y mágica. Yo, he leído este cuento a la una de la mañana, en una habitación oscura, en silencio, y en un segundo piso. Les dejo a su imaginación, la cobardía que sentí, cuando comprendí que tenía que orinar y necesitaba ir al baño que queda en el primer piso.
Leer esta historia ha sido como un creepypasta sin fecha de vencimiento, que me dejó claro la hora a la que debo leer a Lovecraft en el futuro. Relato muy recomendado.
September 15, 2019
West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut.Thus, with the finest opening sentence in the Lovecraft canon, the “The Color Out of Space” begins.
This story, the last Lovecraft wrote during the remarkable ten-month spurt of creativity that spanned the years 1926 and ‘27, is a culmination of sorts. During this period, H.P. had refined the art of horrific description, dispensing with the unnecessary adjectives and overwrought prose which often detracts from the power of his effects. Now, in “The Color Out of Space,” he set out to induce terror almost entirely by description alone. No forbidden books, no repulsive idols, no sinister dark men with deevolutionary faces; no, this time he would terrify through something simple and pervasive, through the use of color alone.
Lovecraft who wanted to write an outer space story but was determined to avoid the “bug-eyed monster” cliché. who wished to create an extraterrestrial invader who was essentially, utterly alien, had lately been reading about the scientific detection of colors outside the spectrum which can be viewed by the human eye. Yes, color, if it were uncanny, could surely terrify.
The story itself is simple: one night, a meteor lands on Nahum Gardner’s farm, and things begin to change. The farm does not, at first, look all that different. But the colors of the crops, the vegetation, the trees . . . well, they’re just not right.
There is not much explicit horror here (although a horrific fate is implied for Nahum’s wife Nabby), but the accumulation of suggestion and oblique narrative make “The Color of Space” one of the most unsettling of all Lovecraft works.
The effect of the descriptive details is subtle and cumulative, but I would like to include one small passage as an example. In the summer, the fruit harvest on Nahum's farm is unsually bountiful, but the individual fruits are monstrous and inedible. Then, when winter comes, the neighbors begin to realize there is something wrong with the animals that inhabit the property too:
In February the McGregor boys from Meadow Hill were out shooting woodchucks, and not far from the Gardner place bagged a very peculiar specimen. The proportions of its body seemed slightly altered in a queer way impossible to describe, while its face had taken on an expression which no one ever saw in a woodchuck before. The boys were genuinely frightened, and threw the thing away at once, so that only their grotesque tales of it ever reached the people of the countryside. But the shying of the horses near Nahum’s house had now become an acknowledged thing, and all the basis for a cycle of whispered legend was fast taking form.Oh, I almost forgot! The Good News: “The Colour out of Space” was published in Hugo Gernsbach’s legendary science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. (September 1927). The Bad News: Gernsback paid 1/5th of a cent per word. Lovecraft earned $25 (approximately $350 in today's money) for the story, and never submitted anything to Amazing again.
October 29, 2017
Da bastante mal rollo para solo tener 30 páginas :O
November 19, 2018
A tale that only H.P. Lovecraft could tell!
CHROMATIC HORROR
One of the most popular tales by H.P. Lovecraft out of his famous The Call of Cthulhu.
An investigator is researching about an incident in Arkham, Mass., named “The Blasted Heath” but...
...that none in the town is willing to talk about in specifics,...
...until he is able to make contact with a farmer living way out of the town, along with his family.
The investigator is told about the fall of a meteorite several years ago...
...who produces COLORS so unlike anything ever seen in the spectrum by humans,...
...and that still is causing terrible efects on the crops,...
...the cattle...
...and even...
...the family.
CHROMATIC HORROR
One of the most popular tales by H.P. Lovecraft out of his famous The Call of Cthulhu.
An investigator is researching about an incident in Arkham, Mass., named “The Blasted Heath” but...
...that none in the town is willing to talk about in specifics,...
...until he is able to make contact with a farmer living way out of the town, along with his family.
The investigator is told about the fall of a meteorite several years ago...
...who produces COLORS so unlike anything ever seen in the spectrum by humans,...
...and that still is causing terrible efects on the crops,...
...the cattle...
...and even...
...the family.
April 3, 2020
دو ستاره دادم ولی ۱/۵ ستاره بخاطر احترام به ژانر وحشت امتیاز واقعیشه:/
چیه این آخه؟ یعنی ناموسا با این بچه بازیا میترسن یه عده؟
بعد چرا این قدر صفت برای هر چیزی؟ انقدر صفت پشت هم ردیف کرده اصلا به خواننده اجازه نمیده چیزی رو خودش حس کنه. جانور وحشی هولناک کریه شیطانی با چشمانی از حدقه بیرون زده ...
اون وقت چیزی رو که باید توصیف کنه در نهایتِ تنبلی ذهن، بهش عنوان " غیر قابل توصیف" میده که پروندهشو ببنده. چه مسخره!
نمیدونم الان دقیقا احساسم به لاوکرفت چیه، ولی فعلا برای شروع این سه داستان کوتاه انقدر بد بودن که عی بابا...
چیه این آخه؟ یعنی ناموسا با این بچه بازیا میترسن یه عده؟
بعد چرا این قدر صفت برای هر چیزی؟ انقدر صفت پشت هم ردیف کرده اصلا به خواننده اجازه نمیده چیزی رو خودش حس کنه. جانور وحشی هولناک کریه شیطانی با چشمانی از حدقه بیرون زده ...
اون وقت چیزی رو که باید توصیف کنه در نهایتِ تنبلی ذهن، بهش عنوان " غیر قابل توصیف" میده که پروندهشو ببنده. چه مسخره!
نمیدونم الان دقیقا احساسم به لاوکرفت چیه، ولی فعلا برای شروع این سه داستان کوتاه انقدر بد بودن که عی بابا...
May 21, 2019
This is more visceral horror than I'm used to from Lovecraft.
Yes, the monstrosity is somewhat ineffable, but its effects are not -- victims suffer in body and mind, changing and watching themselves and their loved ones change, helpless to stop the decay of body and brain. Even the natural world, the farm and animals that the family labored so hard to cultivate are completely poisoned and destroyed, through no fault of their own. It's just chance. Something strange falls from the sky, and by the time you realized you should have abandoned your home and fled while you still had your lives it is too late, the contamination is inside you, changing you, rotting you, even your brain so so can't make yourself go. Disturbing and sad.
Yes, the monstrosity is somewhat ineffable, but its effects are not -- victims suffer in body and mind, changing and watching themselves and their loved ones change, helpless to stop the decay of body and brain. Even the natural world, the farm and animals that the family labored so hard to cultivate are completely poisoned and destroyed, through no fault of their own. It's just chance. Something strange falls from the sky, and by the time you realized you should have abandoned your home and fled while you still had your lives it is too late, the contamination is inside you, changing you, rotting you, even your brain so so can't make yourself go. Disturbing and sad.
November 11, 2020
This is my 2nd short story I've read by H. P. Lovecraft. Many of the authors I respect like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, etc, cite this author as an influence. It must have been so difficult for him back then. He was writing stories no one had told before, creating a new genre basically and he sold this story to a magazine for $25.00. That is a tough life making a living that way.
The story was written in 1927 and I hear that this was H.P.'s favorite story he wrote. His language was of the day and much more purple prose than today. The language is a bit archaic and for some modern readers this can be a turn off. I don't mind it. My head gets in the rhythm of the pieces and it flows.
Lovecraft creates such a mood of dread in about 30 some pages. It's amazing. He didn't publish novels, so the guy could create a very creepy world in a short story.
The evil is the most interesting thing I have read. We are used to things from space being horrible monsters, but this was more like some sort of awful colored gas of some kind, a mist. I mean, I've never really seen that so much. Usually mist is hiding the thing. After reading this story, I can see some of the influence it had on King and where King took it and made it his own.
This is about a rural farm community that is there for a meteorite hitting someones farm and it affects that farmer and the community in terrifying ways. This is psychological devastating. It's like a horrible retold version of Job without the bet between God and Satan.
If you are looking for creepy and don't mind older type language then this is a story for you.
The story was written in 1927 and I hear that this was H.P.'s favorite story he wrote. His language was of the day and much more purple prose than today. The language is a bit archaic and for some modern readers this can be a turn off. I don't mind it. My head gets in the rhythm of the pieces and it flows.
Lovecraft creates such a mood of dread in about 30 some pages. It's amazing. He didn't publish novels, so the guy could create a very creepy world in a short story.
The evil is the most interesting thing I have read. We are used to things from space being horrible monsters, but this was more like some sort of awful colored gas of some kind, a mist. I mean, I've never really seen that so much. Usually mist is hiding the thing. After reading this story, I can see some of the influence it had on King and where King took it and made it his own.
This is about a rural farm community that is there for a meteorite hitting someones farm and it affects that farmer and the community in terrifying ways. This is psychological devastating. It's like a horrible retold version of Job without the bet between God and Satan.
If you are looking for creepy and don't mind older type language then this is a story for you.
July 31, 2023
Relato fantásticamente ambientado, que nos cuenta que algo caído del cielo, un meteorito, trajo algo que modifico la vida en una granja, tanto de la flora como de la fauna como de los habitantes de la granja. Con su magistral prosa Lovecraft nos va contando los hechos allá acaecidos.
Valoración: 7.5/10
Valoración: 7.5/10
July 9, 2019
Ammi Pierce tells the extremely haunting story of the aftermath when a meteorite hit the ground in his neighbourhood. The area is known as 'blasted heath' since. On the character of the farmer Nahum Gardner you can see the terrible impact of the meteorite. Strangeness comes and the family undergoes subtle changes as the surrounding. At first everything seems to be in bloom but then all colours fade to grey, madness befell the members of the family and some eldritch force sucks the life out of the now accursed place. Decay stands at the end. The well seems to be its centre... To me, this is one of the best stories Lovecraft ever wrote. It is so damn eerie and will really scare you. Absolute must read for every fan of Lovecraft or everyone who wants to become a fan of his. Classic creeper!
May 18, 2014
It’s been a while since I read any Lovecraft so I’d forgotten just how… crap he is!
Lovecraft’s problem is his poor writing ability. He can come up with some great stories and ideas, he clearly had a ton of nightmarishly unique imagery, but he really struggles to convey them to the reader.
Like The Colour Out of Space, which tells of a meteorite hitting a farm and the mysterious colourfully glowing rock slowly poisoning the farmer and his family. It’s a great setup but Lovecraft ineptly tries to make the cause of the illnesses a mystery when you know it’s the alien meteorite. Things start falling apart and continue in that vein for the rest of the story with little variation. There’s no suspense but he drags out the story to a unnecessary length anyway and it’s beyond tedious to read.
The Outsider takes a similar approach where a monster rises up from his dungeon castle to visit the outside world and is surprised to see he looks different to the humans who run from him screaming. That scene when he looks in the mirror at the end and realises he’s a monster is the “twist ending” even though the reader’s figured it out long beforehand.
The Hound is a dull story of a demon dog’s revenge on a pair of grave-robbers who stole a magical amulet. A great idea but so poorly handled that it fails to live up to it’s potential.
Lovecraft’s style is to write lavish monologues rather than a narrative so it feels like you’re reading a sequence of descriptions of elaborate and complex images rather than an actual story with a plot, characters, etc. And if you write horror, it’s best to try and have some immediacy with the threat - having characters meet another character who relates a story from 50 years ago, and whose “terrors” were also static and distant, completely nullifies any scares.
And while he doesn’t describe the monsters, leaving that up to the reader, which can be effective if written with skill, it’s not really potent in the way he uses it here. Simply writing “oh the horror was unimaginable!” isn’t scary, it’s stupid.
At least Lovecraft knew his weaknesses and stayed away from writing dialogue for the most part - which doesn’t make it easier to read - but he does attempt dialogue in The Colour Out of Space and it’s laughable. It’s a page-length monologue where a character stutters out a few words followed by ellipses, over and over again: “the terror… it’s so terrible… durnit, the terror… unimaginable!!...” etc. - nobody talks like this!!
(Horror trivia: in On Writing, Stephen King says his inspiration for The Tommyknockers was The Colour Out of Space. Also in On Writing, I think the dialogue he uses to illustrate how not to write speech was taken from this story too.)
Lovecraft’s stories may be horribly written and be a chore to read but he is remembered for a reason as his stories contain some great imagery and he did influence a number of succeeding great horror writers. If you want a taste of what Lovecraft’s like to see if you’ll like or dislike his work, this three story collection provides a good idea of what to expect from him.
Lovecraft’s problem is his poor writing ability. He can come up with some great stories and ideas, he clearly had a ton of nightmarishly unique imagery, but he really struggles to convey them to the reader.
Like The Colour Out of Space, which tells of a meteorite hitting a farm and the mysterious colourfully glowing rock slowly poisoning the farmer and his family. It’s a great setup but Lovecraft ineptly tries to make the cause of the illnesses a mystery when you know it’s the alien meteorite. Things start falling apart and continue in that vein for the rest of the story with little variation. There’s no suspense but he drags out the story to a unnecessary length anyway and it’s beyond tedious to read.
The Outsider takes a similar approach where a monster rises up from his dungeon castle to visit the outside world and is surprised to see he looks different to the humans who run from him screaming. That scene when he looks in the mirror at the end and realises he’s a monster is the “twist ending” even though the reader’s figured it out long beforehand.
The Hound is a dull story of a demon dog’s revenge on a pair of grave-robbers who stole a magical amulet. A great idea but so poorly handled that it fails to live up to it’s potential.
Lovecraft’s style is to write lavish monologues rather than a narrative so it feels like you’re reading a sequence of descriptions of elaborate and complex images rather than an actual story with a plot, characters, etc. And if you write horror, it’s best to try and have some immediacy with the threat - having characters meet another character who relates a story from 50 years ago, and whose “terrors” were also static and distant, completely nullifies any scares.
And while he doesn’t describe the monsters, leaving that up to the reader, which can be effective if written with skill, it’s not really potent in the way he uses it here. Simply writing “oh the horror was unimaginable!” isn’t scary, it’s stupid.
At least Lovecraft knew his weaknesses and stayed away from writing dialogue for the most part - which doesn’t make it easier to read - but he does attempt dialogue in The Colour Out of Space and it’s laughable. It’s a page-length monologue where a character stutters out a few words followed by ellipses, over and over again: “the terror… it’s so terrible… durnit, the terror… unimaginable!!...” etc. - nobody talks like this!!
(Horror trivia: in On Writing, Stephen King says his inspiration for The Tommyknockers was The Colour Out of Space. Also in On Writing, I think the dialogue he uses to illustrate how not to write speech was taken from this story too.)
Lovecraft’s stories may be horribly written and be a chore to read but he is remembered for a reason as his stories contain some great imagery and he did influence a number of succeeding great horror writers. If you want a taste of what Lovecraft’s like to see if you’ll like or dislike his work, this three story collection provides a good idea of what to expect from him.
January 30, 2020
Full Video Review Here: https://youtu.be/DtkEBD8Qvcs
When you are talking about one of the greatest Lovecraft stories, including his personal favorite that he ever wrote, what can one say that hasn't already been said? Even if you've never read Colour Out of Space I feel like its influence is one you've heard of by one avenue or another. Just a classic tale of how insignificant humanity is on the greater cosmos of the universe; aka The Lovecraft Special. It's a classic that's only about 30 pages long and it deserves your time.
When you are talking about one of the greatest Lovecraft stories, including his personal favorite that he ever wrote, what can one say that hasn't already been said? Even if you've never read Colour Out of Space I feel like its influence is one you've heard of by one avenue or another. Just a classic tale of how insignificant humanity is on the greater cosmos of the universe; aka The Lovecraft Special. It's a classic that's only about 30 pages long and it deserves your time.
October 17, 2018
"El color que cayó del cielo"... ¡qué nombre zarpado para un cuento! y qué aterrador...
October 11, 2021
Quite an interesting story. Listened to it on Spotify while I cleaned.
November 20, 2021
Lovecraft es un genio y esta historia es una maravilla.
Después de una pequeña decepción literaria esta lectura me ha sentado requetebién.
Después de una pequeña decepción literaria esta lectura me ha sentado requetebién.
January 27, 2019
H.P Lovecraft’s The Color Out of Space is another example of the authors flesh tingling ability at creating atmosphere and racketing up the tension until it explodes. In this story a meteorite has landed in a New England farmers field and a slow development of chaos ensures. I couldn’t help but feel that this story is important to fans of his work such as Stephen King. It felt like perhaps this story inspired several elements of It. It’s great fun and the language is a joy to be immersed in.
November 8, 2018
Dies war meine erste Begegnung mit H.P.L. Nach dem ganz guten Anfang störte mich, dass die Story einfach so runtererzählt wurde. Es gibt eigentlich keine Dialoge, vielmehr liest es sich wie ein Zeit-Dossier über einen mysteriösen Fall in Arkham County. Diese chronologische Aneinanderreihung wirkte fast schon etwas lieblos. Dazu dann noch dieser antiquierte Schreibstil, bei dem das Unbeschreibliche nicht in Worte gefasst wurde. Allerdings stört mich das bei recht vielen Büchern, zuletzt bei Frankenstein von M. Shelley.
Letztlich hat mich die Geschichte dann aber doch gebannt, wenn schon nicht gegruselt oder gar schockiert. Nachdem der auf das Farmgelände gestürzte Meteoroid seine Bösartigkeit an die Umwelt weitergegeben hat, sterben Pflanzen, dann Tiere und später auch die Menschen auf entsetzliche Weise. Gegen Ende entwickelte die Geschichte für mich mehr Atmosphäre. Lovecrafts Beschreibung hatte für mich etwas psychodelisches. Ich denke, dass er mit so einer Geschichte schon Neuland betreten hat. Er wollte halt versuchen, das Unbegreifbare und Unsichtbare als nebulöse Bedrohung zu schildern. Daher wählte er erst gar nicht eine Form beim Gegner, sondern lediglich eine Farbe. Das ist schon recht abgedreht. Aus heutiger Sicht sicherlich mehr zum Schmunzeln, als zum Fürchten. Aber doch auf eine Art gut, die sich nicht beschreiben lässt (um es im Stil des Autors zu sagen).
Letztlich hat mich die Geschichte dann aber doch gebannt, wenn schon nicht gegruselt oder gar schockiert. Nachdem der auf das Farmgelände gestürzte Meteoroid seine Bösartigkeit an die Umwelt weitergegeben hat, sterben Pflanzen, dann Tiere und später auch die Menschen auf entsetzliche Weise. Gegen Ende entwickelte die Geschichte für mich mehr Atmosphäre. Lovecrafts Beschreibung hatte für mich etwas psychodelisches. Ich denke, dass er mit so einer Geschichte schon Neuland betreten hat. Er wollte halt versuchen, das Unbegreifbare und Unsichtbare als nebulöse Bedrohung zu schildern. Daher wählte er erst gar nicht eine Form beim Gegner, sondern lediglich eine Farbe. Das ist schon recht abgedreht. Aus heutiger Sicht sicherlich mehr zum Schmunzeln, als zum Fürchten. Aber doch auf eine Art gut, die sich nicht beschreiben lässt (um es im Stil des Autors zu sagen).
November 1, 2022
This might be one of my all-time favorite Lovecraftian stories. It really rolls off the page smoothly, creepily, and with such otherworldly terror.
Not only does it capture that essence of an undescribable color and how it gets into the water and -- does things -- to the plants and animals on this farm, but Lovecraft outdid himself with writing simply pleasing pages and tight prose.
That color! That undescribable color!
Not only does it capture that essence of an undescribable color and how it gets into the water and -- does things -- to the plants and animals on this farm, but Lovecraft outdid himself with writing simply pleasing pages and tight prose.
That color! That undescribable color!
December 10, 2021
A strange meteor. Colors beyond human experience and description. Trees that scratch at the sky. But then poison and death and fear.
I haven't read a lot of Lovecraft, but this one has been my favorite so far. This one seem a lot less obtuse in its language to me. Candidly, this was the only one so far where I didn't struggle to understand it (or even fail to understand it).
I haven't read a lot of Lovecraft, but this one has been my favorite so far. This one seem a lot less obtuse in its language to me. Candidly, this was the only one so far where I didn't struggle to understand it (or even fail to understand it).
February 21, 2021
A delightful short story which takes a scientific subject which was, at the time, fairly new and poorly understood - particularly by Lovecraft, who had an extremely poor grasp on science and mathematics - and uses that idea of that which is poorly understood to twist into a fear of the unknown.
Lovecraft tells us here the tale of a family whose farm is struck by a meteorite, which behaves very strangely and soon begins to cause havoc and mayhem all around as the colours from outer space infect the farm.
While the horror takes what it wants and moves on eventually, a staple of Lovecraftian existential horror, we are left with a final hint that all is not as it seems, and that perhaps this was only the beginning...
The creepy happenings and constant, thick, choking layers of slime and ooze with which Lovecraft paints a picture of horror return and I think I have subconsciously stopped drinking as much water whilst reading this book.
Another beloved icon of the genre from a master of horror.
Lovecraft tells us here the tale of a family whose farm is struck by a meteorite, which behaves very strangely and soon begins to cause havoc and mayhem all around as the colours from outer space infect the farm.
While the horror takes what it wants and moves on eventually, a staple of Lovecraftian existential horror, we are left with a final hint that all is not as it seems, and that perhaps this was only the beginning...
The creepy happenings and constant, thick, choking layers of slime and ooze with which Lovecraft paints a picture of horror return and I think I have subconsciously stopped drinking as much water whilst reading this book.
Another beloved icon of the genre from a master of horror.
April 6, 2023
Una historia que combina de manera sublime los géneros de la ciencia ficción y el terror. Un meteorito cae en la granja de una familia común y corriente, quienes a partir de entonces empiezan a experimentar sucesos extraños y cada vez más inquietantes. Lovecraft, además, consiguió superar un problema recurrente en la ciencia ficción a la hora de representar extraterrestres: el antropomorfismo, la tendencia a representarlos con forma humanoide o muy similar a los humanos. Me hubiera gustado más con un estilo de prosa un poco distinto: casi todos los relatos de Lovecraft son narraciones de hechos que ocurrieron hace mucho tiempo, sin mucho diálogo, lo que no contribuye al dinamismo de la historia. Pero más allá de eso, un excelente relato y de lo que más me ha gustado hasta ahora del autor.
September 19, 2019
Pretty impressive!
This is one of the first science fiction / horror short stories where extra-terrestrial aliens are not depicted as 'green martians'. While most writers of that time had their aliens appear humanoid in both physical appreance and motivations, Lovecraft went an entirely new way by showing 'something' from outer space that cannot be described or even perceived by human eyes and whose motivations are as unclear as its origin.
The story is the account of a scout who visits Arkham to check out the location of a possible water reservoir that will drown an entire valley soon. Inspecting the dark woods of the valley, the man notices that something is strangely wrong. Especially when he finds a spot fearfully named 'the blasted heath' by the inhabitants, he realizes that there must be a reason why the valley is devoid of any population:
A blackened spot clears the wood there, covering the ground in soot and not allowing any growth there. The center of the odd space seems to be an abandoned well near the ruins of an old farm house.
Inspired to make further inquiries, the man meets the only person who still lives on the fringe of that dreadful valley: Ammi Pierce, who some 50 years ago witnessed a story so terrible that it shakes the narrator's sanity:
Nahum Gardner and his family lived on the ranch in the valley when one day a meteorite fell from the sky. Scientists and curious onlookers alike were amazed by the stone's weird physical attributes: It was spongy and soft and seemed to display a strange color/luminosity that nobody had ever seen before. Strangely the stone shrank over a few days until it disappeared.
Over the next year, strange things happened on the farm: Cattle grew sick, plants grew strong but were inedible and finally the vegetation seemed to glow in the dark.
But even more disturbing were the changes in the Gardner family witnessed by Ammi Pierce. While Nahum seemed to have a rock solid mind, his three sons and wife's sanities were wilting away, until things went so bad that Nahum locked up his frantic wife in the attic.
The family became isolated from the social life of the town and Ammi Pierce was their only outside contact.
And the more Ammi witnessed the decline of the valley, the more he was convinced that something lived in that well near the Gardner home. Weird lights could be seen there at night and the animals behaved oddly.
When Nahum desperately told Ammi that he thought the well has swallowed one of his sons, a series of terrible events set forth that left the valley a desolate waste that is only whispered about as 'the blasted heath'.
I absolutely loved the atmosphere in that short. By the end of it, I found myself clawing at my kindle, afraid of what I might find on the next page. This is EXACLTY what I love so much about Lovecraft's writing.
The concept of a nameless evil (although, can something be considered evil if men are simply unable to understand it?) that falls from the sky and feeds on organic matter has been used countless times in books and movies, but it seems this is one of the earliest stories that used this trope. It's also amazing to see an alien entity that is so unlike anything we know that it is not even possible to describe its appearance, as its color cannot be perceived by the human eye.
And just when you thought everything is right again by the end, Lovecraft throws in that final 'oh' moment when you realize that no, the danger is still lurking underneath the surface.
Amazing.
5 stars!
This is one of the first science fiction / horror short stories where extra-terrestrial aliens are not depicted as 'green martians'. While most writers of that time had their aliens appear humanoid in both physical appreance and motivations, Lovecraft went an entirely new way by showing 'something' from outer space that cannot be described or even perceived by human eyes and whose motivations are as unclear as its origin.
The story is the account of a scout who visits Arkham to check out the location of a possible water reservoir that will drown an entire valley soon. Inspecting the dark woods of the valley, the man notices that something is strangely wrong. Especially when he finds a spot fearfully named 'the blasted heath' by the inhabitants, he realizes that there must be a reason why the valley is devoid of any population:
A blackened spot clears the wood there, covering the ground in soot and not allowing any growth there. The center of the odd space seems to be an abandoned well near the ruins of an old farm house.
Inspired to make further inquiries, the man meets the only person who still lives on the fringe of that dreadful valley: Ammi Pierce, who some 50 years ago witnessed a story so terrible that it shakes the narrator's sanity:
Nahum Gardner and his family lived on the ranch in the valley when one day a meteorite fell from the sky. Scientists and curious onlookers alike were amazed by the stone's weird physical attributes: It was spongy and soft and seemed to display a strange color/luminosity that nobody had ever seen before. Strangely the stone shrank over a few days until it disappeared.
Over the next year, strange things happened on the farm: Cattle grew sick, plants grew strong but were inedible and finally the vegetation seemed to glow in the dark.
But even more disturbing were the changes in the Gardner family witnessed by Ammi Pierce. While Nahum seemed to have a rock solid mind, his three sons and wife's sanities were wilting away, until things went so bad that Nahum locked up his frantic wife in the attic.
The family became isolated from the social life of the town and Ammi Pierce was their only outside contact.
And the more Ammi witnessed the decline of the valley, the more he was convinced that something lived in that well near the Gardner home. Weird lights could be seen there at night and the animals behaved oddly.
When Nahum desperately told Ammi that he thought the well has swallowed one of his sons, a series of terrible events set forth that left the valley a desolate waste that is only whispered about as 'the blasted heath'.
I absolutely loved the atmosphere in that short. By the end of it, I found myself clawing at my kindle, afraid of what I might find on the next page. This is EXACLTY what I love so much about Lovecraft's writing.
The concept of a nameless evil (although, can something be considered evil if men are simply unable to understand it?) that falls from the sky and feeds on organic matter has been used countless times in books and movies, but it seems this is one of the earliest stories that used this trope. It's also amazing to see an alien entity that is so unlike anything we know that it is not even possible to describe its appearance, as its color cannot be perceived by the human eye.
And just when you thought everything is right again by the end, Lovecraft throws in that final 'oh' moment when you realize that no, the danger is still lurking underneath the surface.
Amazing.
5 stars!
October 16, 2021
"Reinaban la maleza y las zarzas, y algo salvaje y furtivo susurraba en el subsuelo. Sobre todas las cosas pesaba una rara agitación y opresión, un toque de lo irreal y lo grotesco, como si fallara algún elemento vital de la perspectiva o del claroscuro."
Escogí este relato como "Mi lectura de Halloween". Quería algo corto porque tengo algunas lecturas pendientes que deseo terminar rápido.
La sinopsis es simple. Un hombre visita una ciudad llamada Arkham donde se planea hacer una represa. Allí, se entera por medio de un habitante del pueblo de la historia de "Los días extraños" en donde se nos cuenta los acontecimientos que sufrieron un hombre llamado Nahum y su familia.
Debo destacar la ambientación. Lovecraft crea una atmosfera que te hace imaginar completamente el lugar sin llegar a extenderse innecesariamente, y trasmite una sensación de desagrado por el lugar.
Otro aspecto positivo es que le da tiempo a la historia para desarrollarse, y creo que a pesar de su corta duración, no me quedé con la sensación de que faltó algo por contar, todo fue en justa medida.
Sin mucho más que agregar, no está de más decir que recomiendo bastante este relato. Muy ligero y con una buena dosis de terror, que me dejó con pocas ganas de ver de cerca meteorito.
Escogí este relato como "Mi lectura de Halloween". Quería algo corto porque tengo algunas lecturas pendientes que deseo terminar rápido.
La sinopsis es simple. Un hombre visita una ciudad llamada Arkham donde se planea hacer una represa. Allí, se entera por medio de un habitante del pueblo de la historia de "Los días extraños" en donde se nos cuenta los acontecimientos que sufrieron un hombre llamado Nahum y su familia.
Debo destacar la ambientación. Lovecraft crea una atmosfera que te hace imaginar completamente el lugar sin llegar a extenderse innecesariamente, y trasmite una sensación de desagrado por el lugar.
Otro aspecto positivo es que le da tiempo a la historia para desarrollarse, y creo que a pesar de su corta duración, no me quedé con la sensación de que faltó algo por contar, todo fue en justa medida.
Sin mucho más que agregar, no está de más decir que recomiendo bastante este relato. Muy ligero y con una buena dosis de terror, que me dejó con pocas ganas de ver de cerca meteorito.
November 3, 2018
HOST: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to a new episode of
What were you thinking?
Our guest tonite is the late horror writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft, better known to most of us as (lowers voice) the Necormaniac. Please welcome with a big round of applause: H– P– (shouts) Lovecraft!
(indiscernible clapping from the audience, slight coughing, an indescribable form of silence as the writer enters the stage and sits down beside the host)
HOST: Welcome Mr. Lovecraft and thanks so much for being here with us tonight. I'm lost for words how you could make it from your grave and answer some questions.
HPL: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
HOST: Mr. Lovecraft. Let me get straight to the point. In medias res. What were you thinking when you wrote "The Colour Out of Space"? I mean, you never actually mention it. But I'm sure many readers would very much like to know. So, what is it?
HPL: What's what?
HOST: The colour out of space. Surely you must have had some idea what it looks like.
HPL (his expression changes to something that no man has ever seen before): I'm not sure what you mean?
HOST: Can you give this space colour a name, or can you describe it to us in simple terms, in your own words?
HPL: In my own words? (coughs; wispers) In my own words. (clears his throat; louder) Well–
HOST: Yes?
HPL: If I shall give it a name, I'd say (pause) I mean (pause) It's some kind of–
HOST: Yes?
HPL: Grey.
HOST: Grey? You mean the colour of space is just grey?
HPL: Yes. Grey. –ish. But not a pure grey. More like green-grey. Bordering on brownish. Some kind of brown-grey with green. A brown-green-grey.
HOST: Brown. Green. Grey.
HPL: Yes. And it also shows a bit of bluish. But the main thing is, it's grey.
HOST: Thank you.
HPL: Brown-grey.
HOST: Many thanks, Mr. Lovecraft.
HPL: It's a little reminiscent of red, too.
HOST: I think that's enou–
HPL: A brownish red. But overall grey.
HOST: Yes. yes.
HPL: A green-bluish brown-red-grey.
HOST (raises an arm, snaps with his fingers; two orderlies enter the stage): Thank you. Thank you so much. (shouts) H.P.Lovecraft, Ladies and Gentlemen.
HPL (mumbling): … some blots of yellowish-orange … but grey … yeah, grey. but not too greyish … more like …
(the oderlies carry the writer off stage... thunderous applause... curtain)
[apologies to Loriot for sketchnapping]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
(indiscernible clapping from the audience, slight coughing, an indescribable form of silence as the writer enters the stage and sits down beside the host)
HOST: Welcome Mr. Lovecraft and thanks so much for being here with us tonight. I'm lost for words how you could make it from your grave and answer some questions.
HPL: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
HOST: Mr. Lovecraft. Let me get straight to the point. In medias res. What were you thinking when you wrote "The Colour Out of Space"? I mean, you never actually mention it. But I'm sure many readers would very much like to know. So, what is it?
HPL: What's what?
HOST: The colour out of space. Surely you must have had some idea what it looks like.
HPL (his expression changes to something that no man has ever seen before): I'm not sure what you mean?
HOST: Can you give this space colour a name, or can you describe it to us in simple terms, in your own words?
HPL: In my own words? (coughs; wispers) In my own words. (clears his throat; louder) Well–
HOST: Yes?
HPL: If I shall give it a name, I'd say (pause) I mean (pause) It's some kind of–
HOST: Yes?
HPL: Grey.
HOST: Grey? You mean the colour of space is just grey?
HPL: Yes. Grey. –ish. But not a pure grey. More like green-grey. Bordering on brownish. Some kind of brown-grey with green. A brown-green-grey.
HOST: Brown. Green. Grey.
HPL: Yes. And it also shows a bit of bluish. But the main thing is, it's grey.
HOST: Thank you.
HPL: Brown-grey.
HOST: Many thanks, Mr. Lovecraft.
HPL: It's a little reminiscent of red, too.
HOST: I think that's enou–
HPL: A brownish red. But overall grey.
HOST: Yes. yes.
HPL: A green-bluish brown-red-grey.
HOST (raises an arm, snaps with his fingers; two orderlies enter the stage): Thank you. Thank you so much. (shouts) H.P.Lovecraft, Ladies and Gentlemen.
HPL (mumbling): … some blots of yellowish-orange … but grey … yeah, grey. but not too greyish … more like …
(the oderlies carry the writer off stage... thunderous applause... curtain)
[apologies to Loriot for sketchnapping]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
February 28, 2023
3 🌟 para El Color que Cayó del Cielo de H.P Lovecraft.
📖 Inesperadamente, esta historia es una de las que más me gustó entre todas aquellas que leí del autor en estos últimos años. Lovecraft, en mi caso, suele parecerme denso narrativamente ya que, aunque considero que crea atmosferas y tramas muy interesantes y creativas, en sus obras sobreabundan las descripciones contextuales y los monólogos internos y/o reflexiones del narrador o personaje de turno.
◾ Sin embargo, El Color que Cayó del Cielo es una historia que apunta más a los hechos paranormales que desencadena la caída de una especie de meteorito en un campo de Arkham, sin desviarse excesivamente de lo que le sucede concretamente a los personajes en pos de reflexiones o descripciones pesadas que no llevan a ninguna parte o que no inciden de manera directa en los eventos principales. Por esa razón, creo que es una de las obras más fáciles de digerir del autor y que más te mantienen enganchado de principio a fin. Sin dudas, la recomiendo a aquellos que quieren arrancar a leer algo de Lovecraft.
📖 Inesperadamente, esta historia es una de las que más me gustó entre todas aquellas que leí del autor en estos últimos años. Lovecraft, en mi caso, suele parecerme denso narrativamente ya que, aunque considero que crea atmosferas y tramas muy interesantes y creativas, en sus obras sobreabundan las descripciones contextuales y los monólogos internos y/o reflexiones del narrador o personaje de turno.
◾ Sin embargo, El Color que Cayó del Cielo es una historia que apunta más a los hechos paranormales que desencadena la caída de una especie de meteorito en un campo de Arkham, sin desviarse excesivamente de lo que le sucede concretamente a los personajes en pos de reflexiones o descripciones pesadas que no llevan a ninguna parte o que no inciden de manera directa en los eventos principales. Por esa razón, creo que es una de las obras más fáciles de digerir del autor y que más te mantienen enganchado de principio a fin. Sin dudas, la recomiendo a aquellos que quieren arrancar a leer algo de Lovecraft.
February 18, 2021
3.5 stars
Great concept, poor execution. I can bet The Tommyknockers will be way better than this.
Great concept, poor execution. I can bet The Tommyknockers will be way better than this.
July 26, 2021
Narrativamente es impecable, tiene una gran atmósfera, y parece ser un muy buen punto de arranque para aquellos -como yo- que leen por primera vez a Lovecraft.
September 7, 2025
4 Sentient Space-Radiation Stars, love that Cosmic Horror!
Written in March 1927, the story was first published in the September 1927 edition of Hugo Gernsback's science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. You can download the archived issue for free here: https://archive.org/details/Amazing_S...
The tale opens with our narrator headed for Arkham, Massachusetts to explore the location of a possible water reservoir that will drown an entire valley by its creation. Inspecting the dark woods of the farming valley, the narrator sees the woods appear burned, no regrowth has occurred, and the valley is void of animals and people. With further exploration he comes upon the only person who still lives on the fringe of that dreadful valley (fearfully dubbed 'The Blasted Heath' by locals), an old-timer named Ammi Pierce. Some 50 years prior Ammi witnessed events so terrible that it shakes the narrator's sanity, and thus the weird tale commences...
"What it is, only God knows. In terms of matter I suppose the thing Ammi described would be called a gas, but this gas obeyed laws that are not of our cosmos. This was no fruit of such worlds and suns as shine on the telescopes and photographic plates of our observatories. This was no breath from the skies whose motions and dimensions our astronomers measure or deem too vast to measure. It was just a colour out of space—a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it; from realms whose mere existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open before our frenzied eyes."
Of course the soil and water emitting this mysterious gas was sent to the lab at nearby Miskatonic University for evaluation.
Miskatonic University: 📣Rah-Rah-Go Cephalopods!!!🤸♀️
Uncannily, in 1927 The Massachusetts State Legislature officially declared that the Swift River Valley in west central Massachusetts would become the Quabbin Reservoir, although actual flooding didn't begin until 1939 thereby obliterating the farming communities of Enfield, Prescott, Greenwich, and Dana.
As a Wachusett Mountaineer, I spent my highschool years in and around Quabbin Reservoir. It is one of the largest unfiltered water supplies in the United States and serves as a primary source of drinking water for approximately 2.7 million people in Massachusetts, including metropolitan Boston. It has been touted as “one of the purest sources of drinking water in the country” according to community group, Friends of Quabbin, https://friendsofquabbin.org/the-quab... .....idk.
The Project Gutenberg has published an online copy of this splendid tale of cosmic horror that you may read for free here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68236
Enjoy 💛🧚♀️🙋🏼👍!
Written in March 1927, the story was first published in the September 1927 edition of Hugo Gernsback's science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. You can download the archived issue for free here: https://archive.org/details/Amazing_S...
The tale opens with our narrator headed for Arkham, Massachusetts to explore the location of a possible water reservoir that will drown an entire valley by its creation. Inspecting the dark woods of the farming valley, the narrator sees the woods appear burned, no regrowth has occurred, and the valley is void of animals and people. With further exploration he comes upon the only person who still lives on the fringe of that dreadful valley (fearfully dubbed 'The Blasted Heath' by locals), an old-timer named Ammi Pierce. Some 50 years prior Ammi witnessed events so terrible that it shakes the narrator's sanity, and thus the weird tale commences...
"What it is, only God knows. In terms of matter I suppose the thing Ammi described would be called a gas, but this gas obeyed laws that are not of our cosmos. This was no fruit of such worlds and suns as shine on the telescopes and photographic plates of our observatories. This was no breath from the skies whose motions and dimensions our astronomers measure or deem too vast to measure. It was just a colour out of space—a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it; from realms whose mere existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open before our frenzied eyes."
Of course the soil and water emitting this mysterious gas was sent to the lab at nearby Miskatonic University for evaluation.
Miskatonic University: 📣Rah-Rah-Go Cephalopods!!!🤸♀️
Uncannily, in 1927 The Massachusetts State Legislature officially declared that the Swift River Valley in west central Massachusetts would become the Quabbin Reservoir, although actual flooding didn't begin until 1939 thereby obliterating the farming communities of Enfield, Prescott, Greenwich, and Dana.
As a Wachusett Mountaineer, I spent my highschool years in and around Quabbin Reservoir. It is one of the largest unfiltered water supplies in the United States and serves as a primary source of drinking water for approximately 2.7 million people in Massachusetts, including metropolitan Boston. It has been touted as “one of the purest sources of drinking water in the country” according to community group, Friends of Quabbin, https://friendsofquabbin.org/the-quab... .....idk.
The Project Gutenberg has published an online copy of this splendid tale of cosmic horror that you may read for free here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68236
Enjoy 💛🧚♀️🙋🏼👍!
October 31, 2022
We're back at Arkham. No wonder the name was used in the DC comics, not a day goes by that nothing awful happens in this town! *lol*
This time, we're following a land surveyor into the hills and woods around Arkhman though. Supposedly, different groups of immigrants have tried settling there but something creeps them out until they all leave. Ammi Pierce is the only one who still remains, and even Ammi only dares live at the outskirts, close to the new road in and out of Arkham.
The surveyor was told the place was evil but didn't think the land itself was meant so he went into the heath anyway. He immediately noticed the strange way the plants and trees grow in the glens leading up to it as well as the absence of noise from animals ... and he still continued, the idiot. *lol* He continues until he is in the heath proper where nothing grows. It looks as if a fire had raged there - though we all know that fires can be cleansing and new plant life will regrow, this is not the case here.
Once he makes it back to Arkham, he asks around and, through Ammi, is told what happened (which wasn't long ago either) - leading him to immediately return to Boston never to come back.
Cue ominous music!
I shall not tell you anything about what Ammi told the surveyor, but I can tell you that it was pretty darn great. Well, not for the people who were involved, obviously, but for the reader who got sucked into quite a psychedelic trip. Muhahahahahahaha.
Not too long ago, I've see the movie adaptation with Nick Cage (don't judge) and while it wasn't rocking my world, it was really rather good and creepy.
If you were wondering: the story is even more so! The writing sent shivers down my spines and made me glad it was still light outside when I read it. *lol*
You can read the story for free here: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/...
This time, we're following a land surveyor into the hills and woods around Arkhman though. Supposedly, different groups of immigrants have tried settling there but something creeps them out until they all leave. Ammi Pierce is the only one who still remains, and even Ammi only dares live at the outskirts, close to the new road in and out of Arkham.
The surveyor was told the place was evil but didn't think the land itself was meant so he went into the heath anyway. He immediately noticed the strange way the plants and trees grow in the glens leading up to it as well as the absence of noise from animals ... and he still continued, the idiot. *lol* He continues until he is in the heath proper where nothing grows. It looks as if a fire had raged there - though we all know that fires can be cleansing and new plant life will regrow, this is not the case here.
Once he makes it back to Arkham, he asks around and, through Ammi, is told what happened (which wasn't long ago either) - leading him to immediately return to Boston never to come back.
Cue ominous music!
I shall not tell you anything about what Ammi told the surveyor, but I can tell you that it was pretty darn great. Well, not for the people who were involved, obviously, but for the reader who got sucked into quite a psychedelic trip. Muhahahahahahaha.
Not too long ago, I've see the movie adaptation with Nick Cage (don't judge) and while it wasn't rocking my world, it was really rather good and creepy.
If you were wondering: the story is even more so! The writing sent shivers down my spines and made me glad it was still light outside when I read it. *lol*
You can read the story for free here: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/...
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