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Many thanks for the latest issues of
your inimitable journal. To placate Mr. Kraklow, I'll take as little space as
possible. Two brief comments. I should tell Mr. Ambuehl that my story
"Before the Storm" will be included in Cold Print,
Scream/Press's omnibus of nearly all my Lovecraftian tales, due in January. As
for Brian Lumley, I'm sorry if my thoughts on criticism angered him; I certainly
didn't mean him to take them personally. I can see no point in my trying to
match the offensiveness of his response, though I stand by what I said
originally.
--- Ramsey Campbell
Merseyside, England
Let me congratulate you on your Crypt
magazine. You and the contributing writers are continuing a tradition of eerie
excellence HPL would have been proud of.
I find myself rereading the forbidden
books issue [# 23] again and again. The idea of translations from various Mythos
books is fantastic, and the writing is great.
Once again congratulations! I am now a
bona fide Crypt of Cthulhu fan and I can't wait for the next issue.
--- John Rectenwald
Louisville, KY
I must have especially enjoyed Crypt
#28 because I read it all at one sitting. The "Truth Is Stranger Than
Lovecraft" items were quite striking.
My favorite article was Will Murray's
description of your trip to Copp's Hill Burying Ground, which reminded me of my
first visit there in 1964 (though I didn't find any open tombs or bones!).
I hadn't caught that business about
Suydam being a self-lampoon of Lovecraft's ["The Humor at Red Hook"],
but as soon as you pointed it out I realized that it had to be so. Red Hook is
one Lovecraftian area I've never managed to visit; each time I've been in New
York I've somehow never found the time. Or, is it a subtle aversion, the
instinct to avoid waiting horrors? . . . And by the way, it's not just a
paranoid fancy that many Red Hookers follow a religion composed of innumerable
and ancient Pagan practices and beliefs; it's called Catholicism.
Incredible, that that sinister
dance-hall church of Suydam's should still be standing. . . . Mormo, Gorgo. . .
.
--- Richard L. Tierney
Mason City, IA
#28's most interesting feature was Will
Murray's "In Pickman's Footsteps". I expected a punchline or an
"April Fool" at the end. I thought, "What cleverly disguised
fiction," and then it dawned on me this was a "true" story. Yow!
--- Laurence Bush
Campbell, CA
I was looking through my copy of Crypt
#7 and noticed your article "Beget Me Not". At the time I thought you
were unquestionably correct [about the original reading being "unbegotten",
not "unforgotten" as in the present printed text], but I just
checked my photocopy of Derleth's draft of Lurker at the Threshold and
discovered that it is definitely "the unforgotten source". Hard to
believe, ain't it?
--- Steve Behrends
Ithaqua, NY
Crypt of Cthulhu has a scholarly
but informal approach I enjoy.
I see that in Vol. 4, #3, the
entertaining Will Murray has three pieces. Re "Sources for 'The Colour out
of Space'", I can't resist pointing out that an equally likely source for
"the blasted heath" is Macbeth, Act I, Scene 3. HPL does use
the adjective "theatrical".
Congrats on your own "Red
Hook" piece.
--- Fritz R. Leiber
San Francisco, CA
Crypt of Cthulhu #28 was
interesting as always!
Thought it might interest you to know
that I'm including a Mythos story in YBH 13 --- very strange piece by Fred
Chappell from The Texas Review entitled "Weird Tales" --- uses
HPL and early circle of actual characters, interweaving fact and fantasy.
Chappell, you may recall, also wrote Dagon, which for my money is the
best Mythos novel yet written.
Keep 'em coming!
--- Karl Edward Wagner
Chapel Hill, NC
S. T. shows us all up again with his
thorough scholarship. His article on "Lovecraft and the Regnum Congo"
[#28] fulfills the highest (and often neglected) purpose of critical research:
it actually adds to the general knowledge on the subject. Now we know something
we didn't.
Can Lovecraft be faulted for
superficial research in such a case? I don't think so. Any research a fiction
writer does, I think, is commendable, but inevitably runs the risk of being
superficial. After all, a fiction writer must deal with so many different
subjects, and, unless he devotes his life to a given topic (in which case he
will probably lose perspective and produce hopelessly pedantic fiction), his
knowledge never can match the expert. I am reminded of the case of DeCamp's Lest
Darkness Fall, in which two Gothic soldiers speak in their own language.
DeCamp got a letter from a professor, remarking how much he had enjoyed the
book, save for the "obvious" error: the Goths should have been using
the vocative rather than the dative. Of course DeCamp could have avoided the
problem by not including that line, and similarly Lovecraft could have just made
up a book on African cannibalism. But both writers wanted that extra touch of
verisimilitude, and had to take a chance that what research they'd done was
sound. (The professor could have gotten the Gothic right, but he couldn't have
written Lest Darkness Fall.)
I imagine the reason that Lovecraft
included a mention of Regnum Congo was that the reproduced plate (the
redrawn version, which he actually saw, rather than the original) inspired the
story or at least suggested details of it.
Now as far as research goes, textual
scholars will note that the version of "The Slitherer from the Slime"
you printed is clearly a later revision of that sublime masterpiece, since, not
only does it contain some fairly modern references, it varies considerably from
the original version published in Inside in the 1950s. The main joke of
that, as I recall (it came to my attention when I was assembling the aborted
Lovecraftian humor volume, Eldritch Laughter from Beyond), was that the
nameless and eldritch lore came from such blasphemous volumes as Winnie the
Pooh and The Wind in the Willows. (The artist who was to illustrate
my book did a wonderfully menacing Winnie.) I expect rigorous scholarship will
show how the old version evolved into the new.
I really enjoyed Will Murray's
account of your graverobbing efforts. Such an admirable effort to boldly dig
where so many ghouls have dug before. And how did you think those tunnels were
made anyway? Did ye notice the teeth-marks in the stone, heh . . . heh? . . . As
my great aunt Jemima Gibber used to say, before they took her away, we got this
here oral (dental, actually) tradition in the family . . . and that was jest
whut the young-uns usta do fer teethin' . . . yew may wonder about the tentacles
on Mount Rushmore . . .
--- Darrell Schweitzer
Strafford, PA
Contrary to what you stated in the
Editorial Shards of issue 28 (". . . we know you are interested in our
subject matter, not in the personalities of our staff . . ."), I thoroughly
enjoyed every vicarious step taken with you on your Boston field trip as
described by Will Murray in "In Pickman's Footstep"s. This certainly
ranks high in the annals of literary archaeology. As for taking a
"bone-fide" (ouch!) souvenir, be thankful your literary bent isn't
Shakespeare --- "Cursed be he . . ." I also admit to feeling some envy
over the camaraderie brought about by shared interests that was evident in
Murray's writing. When I read Peter Straub's Ghost Story I felt similar
regarding the Chowder Society. Wouldn't it be wonderful, I mused to myself, to
belong to a group that shared in the fascination of the supernatural and
macabre, to exchange stories, to research, to go on field trips like yours. Most
of my local friends benevolently tolerate my interest in these matters as a sort
of eccentricity. The most I can expect from them is the occasional trip to the
cinema to see a fright flick.
Thank goodness(or perhaps goodness had
nothing to do with it as Mae West was wont to say) that you and Crypt of Cthulhu
entered my supernaturally-starved life. At least Crypt does offer the food for
thought even if Chowder is missing from the menu.
I think it's fascinating, too, how
there seems to be some universal socio-psychological phenomenon at work that
causes people to band together for the purpose of sharing tales of horror and
fright perhaps as the means to control unseen forces or to exorcise in some
round of psychic aerobics. Straub's Chowder Society hearkens back to Lovecraft's
Kalem Club which I suppose hearkens to the Shelley's sojourn at the Villa
Diodati along Lake Geneva which in turn goes back to what? Primitive man sitting
around a campfire explaining the mysteries of nature? Or perhaps primitive is
the wrong term since people still gather around campfires to tell ghost stories
and tales of the "hook". It's in our genes, our blood, our bones
(there's that souvenir again, sorry), isn't it? For some it becomes a dominant
trait. Therefore, don't speak apologetically about including personality
profiles or anecdotal material in Crypt. It was like the Real People show
of Crypt of Cthulhu granting your readers an opportunity to empathize. I,
for one, would welcome more of it. Sort of a look into hands-on Lovecraft
studies.
--- Richard A. Zotara
Cheektowaga, NY
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