By request, an HP Lovecraft short story.

Since I started Radio Free Burrito Presents several weeks ago, lots of you have asked me if I would narrate something by HP Lovecraft.

I love the Cthulhu mythos, but I’m not crazy about Lovecraft’s storytelling. I feel like he spends a lot of time in the high concept and the world building, without ever really going more than skin deep on his protagonists and narrative characters. NB: I haven’t read a ton of Lovecraft, probably six or so short stories, so maybe he has a novel or novella with rich characters and narratives, but I haven’t found it.

None of this is to suggest that he wasn’t brilliantly creative and imaginative, just that his stories aren’t the most satisfying use of my time.

However, hundreds of you have reached out in comments and emails, asking me to narrate something from the Cthulhu Mythos, so today’s RFB Presents is a short, weird, lurid story called Dagon.

This wasn’t published until 1919, and was published again in 1923, so I take that as a reminder not to get discouraged when things take time in publishing.

The text I read is here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dagon

 

20 thoughts on “By request, an HP Lovecraft short story.”

  1. Apologies for leaving this here, but please be in touch if you’re still homebrewing! I want to discuss a project I’m interested in doing with you.

    1. It says in the source material that it was an excerpt. It feels complete to me, too, buy I didn’t research it too deeply.

  3. Nicely done. Am I the only one who had images of the 2001 A Space Odyssey monolith?

  4. I enjoyed it. This was the first ‘audiobook’ I’ve listened to of yours since Ready Player One which was a pleasant distraction for me during a super hard time. I had a 7month clinical depression a few years ago and listened to RPO when I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night. I’ve had a hard time listening to your audio since then because for me there is a ptsd period following an episode, from having had the episode itself.

    I really liked this piece and I didn’t have any residual episode-related flashbacks so that’s good! (Probably too much information but I thought you may find the depression/anxiety component helpful to know).

  5. Really enjoyed that reading. I’ve read a few lovecraft stories, some hit the mark, but I find others too rambling and stuffed with unnecessary details. His shorter stories are definitely more enjoyable (to me at least). Would love to hear a few more, I think the style of your reading suits the source material well.

    Thanks for helping entertain us during the lockdown 👍

  6. I thoroughly enjoyed the reading! I love Lovecraft. I do agree that most of his characters are not developed very deeply, but his style of letting your imagination fill in so much is a fun distraction. Thank you!

  7. Hey Wil,

    Thank You for doing this reading of Lovecraft’s “Dagon!”

    I’ve shared a link to this page with “The World of H. P. Lovecraft Audio” group on Facebook, one of the two Lovecraft groups I’m the Admin for; and many Lovecraftians will greatly enjoy hearing you from there!

    I’ve also added a link to your reading, to “The World’s Largest H. P. Lovecraft Audio Links Gateway!” on CthulhuWho1 dot com! Your reading is now listed there with over 1200 links to other readings that are freely available too.

    “The World of H. P. Lovecraft Audio” group, and the other group I run on Facebook, the Lovecraft Related Press Releases group, are open to everyone to look through, whether they join or not; so I invite you to take a look through them whenever you’re curious about Lovecraftian activities.

    William “Will” Hart
    aka CthulhuWho1

    ps
    You can leave the following off of this comment if you prefer:

    I too have done some Lovecraftian readings, with the poem, “Nemesis,” scored by the great Irish composer, Graham Plowman, ranking as my favorite that I offer on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Cw5lvAvcw&t=4s

  8. I have heard of Lovecraft but never read him myself. Based on what I heard here, he’s a good writer, with a marvelous grasp of language. The story reminded me of Edgar Alan Poe. Your reading was terrific, Wil. Thank you so much for doing this, and keeping us entertained while we’re stuck at home.

    1. Stephen King had some interesting things to say about him. He was terribly terribly racist and anti-Semitic (even though his wife was Jewish), and was a bit of a loner, which explains why there is so little dialogue in his stories, and what there is of it is terribly stilted.

      Still, he created a universe that have inspired thousands of other writers, and wrote some damn entertaining stories based on it.

  10. Hi Wil,

    I just want to say that I appreciate everything you’ve been doing during these extraordinary, unprecedented times.

    I pushed through a couple of mental walls (anxiety and depression) to get one more episode of my podcast done. I talked about my theory about aliens, a great paranormal/crypto podcast I’ve been listening to on my daily walks (essential these days), and mental health (mine, yours, ours, everybody’s). I have to admit, I have listened to your “Happy Brain Club” episode of Radio Free Burrito almost daily during the past couple of weeks. It has definitely helped me see the light on the other side.

    I also mentioned the Time-Life series of books, which I absolutely loved back in my middle school days. It’s like I had one checked out almost all the time. (I was also a nerd/geek/whatever, so it was the equivalent of writing “throw volleyball here” on my forehead. I didn’t care then, and I don’t care now.) I really appreciated your reading of it, and linked to your SoundCloud reading.

    I really do hope that one positive outcome of our current situation is that we are more open to talking about mental health going forward, since we are all in one big collective crisis mode. I honestly have no idea how health care workers in hot spots like NYC can get through their day. It’s all I can do to go to Costco to buy some groceries and drop them off in my parents’ garage. I can’t imagine working a 12 or more hour shift working with Covid patients. I love ST:TNG (currently binging S3), but I need to go into Firefly mode when I think or talk about those folks: Big Damn Heroes.

    Anyway, just a big thanks. I hope you and yours are doing well. I know you are doing what it takes to keep the people around you safe. I keep waiting for the NCC-1701-C to go back through that time rift so that everything returns to normal, but I also know that’s not going to happen. We’ll eventually get back to normal, but it will be a different normal.

    I’m just happy that Radio Free Burrito will still be there on the other side.

    Live long and prosper, flameo hotman, soar like a leaf on the wind, engage!

    Your pal, Ken

  11. I am so glad my Radio Free Burrito feed loaded and there your were. Fantastic read! You asked, so please do more. The request made me look for this site.
    My wife and I found Eureka and have been binge watching. It’s funny how the timing worked out. We both said, ” we need to find more Will Wheaton performances”. Great stuff!

  13. Thank you so much for this reading! I love Lovecraft and you Mr. Wheaton! Dagon is a masterpiece and today is even better.

  14. I just wanted to recommend a few Lovecraft stories that perhaps have a little more narrative and character-building. Most Lovecraft stories lack character-building, but there are some that have quite good plots. Probably my favorite is “The Color Out of Space” which I think is fantastic horror. “Herbert West: Reanimator” and “The Dreams in the Witch House” both have quite interesting characters and plots, and are perhaps the most approachable. None of these three stories are traditional Lovecraft horror. I would probably recommend “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” “The Shadow out of Time,” and the classic “At the Mountains of Madness.”

    Honestly, I agree that Lovecraft doesn’t spend a lot of time on characters or narratives. But my opinion is that Lovecraft’s stories are far more subtle than the Cthulhu in pop culture indicates. I mean, none of his characters actually succeed in fighting his monsters, unlike what video games and board games suggest.

    Rather, I would argue that the true value of Lovecraft’s short stories is in connecting the various stories together. Many of his creatures show up in multiple stories, and so some of the best moments are learning about his interconnected world through these little short stories. It’s actually far less straightforward than the modern interpretations of Lovecraft’s world leads one to believe — he never really talks about multiple of his Great Old Ones in the same story.

    So I guess what I’m trying to say is that Lovecraft is best when you read all of it — the good and the not-so-good — and accept it for what it is.

    1. Thanks for mentioning this, fourthdiagonal. I wholeheartedly second this approach. I worked through HPL’s entire works about 12-13 years ago and it was a richly rewarding experience.

      The only other writer I can think of that gave me the same experience is Russell Banks, but he writes contemporary fiction, rather than horror. (And FWIW, Rule of the Bone is my favorite book ever.)

  15. So here’s an interesting thing about Lovecraft… He was part of a writer’s circle that contained, among other people, Robert Howard of Conan fame and August Derleth (writer and publisher, founded Arkham House Publishing). They often borrowed from each other, and used elements of each other’s world settings. Some of Lovecraft’s stuff reads very stilted and overly ornamented, but some of it reads very like modern horror/mystery… In other words he reads like two different authors. I’ve always wondered if some of the stuff attributed to Lovecraft was written by Derleth, or someone else.

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“The library is a safe place.”

In order to survive, I disassociated for much of my childhood, but I clearly remember the books. That's where I found comfort, companionship, inspiration and validation. It's where the imagination that powers everything I do creatively in my life today was born. And it all started in that library, with that librarian. She was one of the first people I can remember asking me, "What do you like? What's important to you? What do you want to know more about? How can I help you find it?"

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