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This note is only to tell you about a
personal point of view toward something soon to appear in Crypt: a new
tale by Brian Lumley. . . . Now, you are entitled to whatever action you want to
take regarding Crypt; I only give my opinion as a devoted reader. I HATE
BRIAN LUMLEY, and sincerely think he stinks! To tell the truth, I never
understood why he is so praised by Lovecraftians. His stories are stupid,
plotless, as good as the worst by Derleth, and that just does not exactly match
the fine quality I have found in your zine. I do not believe Crypt to be
bad enough to host such a junk-writer as Lumley. . . .
--- Patrice deG. Joubert
Ripon, Quebec, Canada
In advance of the Brian Lumley issue, I
can only say that I consider him too heterodox for my purist taste. He makes his
gods and minions too human. He is unable to really create an aura of alienness
in his characters. Also, an early piece of his, "A Thing about
Cars", suffered in being related in the first person, not the third,
leaving you to wonder how the narrator escaped being squished in the diabolical
death-machine built by his insane brother.
--- Paul R. Wilson
Bergenfield, NJ
Brian Lumley is one of the greatest living
contributors to the Cthulhu Mythos. He brings to his Lovecraftian pastiches a
distinctly British flavor ("flavour"). For example, Lovecraft's
"The Thing on the Doorstep" is taut with panic and murder, while
Lumley's "Aunt Hester", though also dealing with the theme of
mind-possession, has Aunt Hester and her prospective victim casually peruse Feery's
Notes on the Necronomicon and sip cocoa together! Like the shrub in Lumley's
story "The Thing from the Blasted Heath", his ideas survive and thrive
after their transplant from Arkham to England.
--- Donna Tod
New York, NY
I have just finished reading, with great
pleasure, Crypt of Cthulhu #10 and Bran Mak Morn: A Play and Others.
I want you to know that I think you're doing great work. Always nice to have
someone rescue unpublished texts or moldering stories that appeal only to the
hardcore fan.
--- Tore Stokka
Drammen, Norway
Crypt of Cthulhu is highly
enjoyable to read and very valuable. The articles are written not from a maniac
fan's narrow viewpoint but a wide and fresh one. They bring much new
knowledge and scholarly vision. Especially unique features like "HPL and
the Inklings" reached a new level of Lovecraft study.
I am now working to supervise "Tales
of the Cthulhu Mythos", the collection of translated Mythos stories from
Lovecraft to Campbell and Lumley. This series was produced as a two-volume
anthology at first. They were well received by Japanese readers and have now
grown to ten volumes.
--- Masaki Abe
Akita, Japan
Thanks as always for the latest Crypt
[# 18]. I enjoyed most especially the Obed Marsh and Derl-Yith articles. I seem
to remember that either "Shadow Out of Space" or "Dark
Brotherhood" has the cone-shaped creatures living ON YITH! Quite a faux
pas, no? It's certainly strange how Derleth behaved like an amateur, armchair
HPL enthusiast at times!
--- Steve Behrends
Rochester, NY
Re Lovecraft's "The House of the
Worm": This may have been the working title for "The Shunned
House". In a letter to Weird Tales editor Edwin Baird dated February
3, 1924, Lovecraft said he was planning to write a short novel of 25,000 words
or more, "a hideous thing whose provisional title (subject to change) is The
House of the Worm" (SL I, 295). "The Shunned House", written
in October 1924 is a story of approximately 10,500 words. It isn't a novel, but
it is considerably longer than most of HPL's previous tales.
Denise Dumars' film criticisms are right
on target. However, judging from her synopsis of The Haunted Palace, I
don't think she understands the exact nature of the "curse" Curwen
levied upon the town of Arkham. If I remember correctly, Curwen was burned at
the stake because he was mating female Arkhamites with an Old One. That's the
reason the Arkham of Ward's day is inhabited by monstrous hybrids. At the climax
of the film, Curwen/Ward (Vincent Price) attempts to mate his wife (Debra Paget)
with the same Old One who ravished the maids of Arkham 150 years earlier.
Although Lovecraft did not receive a
credit line in The Crimson Cult, this film is undoubtedly an authorized
adaptation of "The Dreams in the Witch-House". Arkham House sold the
film rights to the story to American International in 1965.
--- William Fulwiler
Duncanville, TX
Concerning Ms. Dumars' article ["The
Lurker in the VCR", Crypt #18], while it is true that Equinox
was a very low budget film, I remember reading that at first the film was made
for a film school project by Mark Thomas McGee. Then only afterward it was
decided to go for theatrical release, with the addition of extra scenes by Jack
Woods, who received final credit as director. (See Hammer House of Horror
Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 7, April 1978, p. 43). Also, I enjoyed Donna Death's
column.
--- Ronald Shearer
Wallington, NJ
Bit by bit you keep adding important new
input to Lovecraftian lore, and some of the peripheral items (like "The
Cthulhuers") offer just the right touch to alleviate scholarly solemnity.
--- Robert Bloch
Los Angeles, CA
Just a few lines to let you know that Crypt
of Cthulhu #18 was great as always, one of the few I read from cover to
cover. The cover really took me back! "The Cthulhuers" was a real
"Fun Guy" item! How about "Ozzie and Harriet and
Nyarlathotep" or "Dragnet for Dagon"?
As for the best of the issue, it would be
hard to say; Murray, Gafford, Rimel, and "'Lovecraftianity' and the Pagan
Revival" would be high on the list, but all were of interest, even dear ol'
Donna Death's column.
---Dan Gobbett
Riverdale, MD
I, for one, consider Crypt of Cthulhu
the most consistently outstanding, informative, and humorous Lovecraft
periodical now, or ever, published. There are just too many gems stashed away in
those early Crypts for any to remain out of print. The book reviews alone
are indispensable. My vote is cast that you keep up a steady reprint policy, or
find some other solution so that the new generation of Lovecraftians will never
be deprived of their rich and rightful heritage.
--- Stephen R. Jennings
Ann Arbor, MI
I've especially enjoyed the issues which
covered HPL's revision works. It made me re-read them with a new attitude.
--- Ralph E. Vaughan
San Diego, CA
Crypt of Cthulhu is the most
interesting publication on HPL/horror in existence. Weird Tales reprints
and all! A collector's dream. And eight times a year!! More, more! The world
must be warned! Iä! Iä!
--- Laurence C. Bush
Campbell, CA
Thanks for Crypt #18. l especially
liked Bert Atsma's "Scales of Horror". I've often thought that the
Deep Ones can't really be all that distantly related to us or they couldn't
reproduce with us as easily as they do. Here's a suggestive quote from Ernest
Becker (The Denial of Death, Macmillan, 1973, pbk., p. 27):
Babies are occasionally born with gills
and tails, but this is not publicized --- instead it is hushed up. Who wants to
face up fully to the creatures we are, clawing and gasping for breath in a
universe beyond our ken?
Desmond Morris (The Naked Ape, Dell,
pp. 37-8) considers the theory that our species may have gone through an
aquatic phase. I suspect that one branch never did re-emerge from the sea,
eventually contacted Cthulhu's minions and thereby learned secrets of genetic
engineering that enabled them to adopt certain desired ichthyic traits, thus
becoming the Deep Ones.
--- Richard L. Tierney
Mason City, IA
I have been perusing various recent issues
of your fine, eldritch & damnable journal. The cover on #16 (Tales from
the Crypt of Cthulhu) is wonderful, wonderful, the best visual gag I have
seen since Todd Klein's illos for my ill-fated Eldritch Laughter
From Beyond. At the same time, the solid scholarship in these issues is
tremendously impressive. I admire the way you've mixed an irreverent attitude
with genuine substance. Crypt is a really impressive amateur achievement
in the truest sense of the term, and I hope you get a World Fantasy Award
someday for it. Keep up the good work.
"The Tree on the Hill" is
certainly an interesting Lovecraftian find, although I think you will admit that
if Lovecraft had not had a hand in it, nobody would have heard of it, much less
be discussing it today. It's pretty bad, as a story, with its plot severely
aborted, and all the important elements either left undescribed or resolved
offstage. Try to imagine Clark Ashton Smith's "City of the Singing
Flame" (first half only --- before he added the sequel and wrecked it)
written in this fashion. It would consist of the narrator wandering around in
the hills, falling asleep by some odd-shaped stones, and having a vision of a
flame of sorts, which he can't really tell us about.
In the 18th issue I enjoyed "The
Cthulhuers" greatly. There are other possibilities of this sort, you know.
What if Gilligan's Island were set on R'lyeh? Then there are those
lovable, unspeakable Dunwich Hillbillies. Iä! Not to mention My
Favorite Yaddithian, a situation comedy about the social problems
encountered by Randolph Carter after his "coming out" of the
mysterious clock. . . . And of course the daytime serial, Henry Armitage, M.D. Of course none of these could actually be funnier than some of the things
in the movie "adaptation" of "The Dunwich Horror".
--- Darrell Schweitzer
Strafford, PA
I take issue with the letter from M.
Eileen McNamara [in Crypt #17] concerning an article on "homosexual
panic" and HPL's "The Outsider". Lovecraft, despite his words,
did not have an unhappy childhood, nor one cast out from his friends --- at least
this is at variance with the testimony of HPL's childhood friends, and also with
his own in which he stated that his childhood up to the death of his grandfather
Whipple in 1904 was quite a good one. Even Dr. McNamara will have to agree that
all such psychological patterns were inculcated long before age 14 --- more like
around age 4. Also, I am sick and tired of hearing that HPL's mother dressed him
like a girl. Of course she did --- this was the fashion for those times; I have
dozens of baby photos of my own ancestors, taken from the same Victorian period,
replete with baby curls like girls. When the curls were cut off was quite a
celebration, akin to the later wearing of long pants. Do you think that Buster
Brown with the pageboy hairdo was a girl?
There's no denying that Lovecraft's
mother smothered him; but he rather did manage to live with any damage there, as
Sonia Lovecraft has amply testified. One thing I learned in college is that you
cannot draw any psychological conclusions from anything a subject has written
unless the subject has himself been psychoanalyzed.
--- R. Alain Everts
Madison, WI
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