December is beginning, so, as I noted in my last entry, it's much too late to blog about Halloween. Also, as Julian Lennon once informed us, it's much too late for goodbyes. I don't know quite how that quote applies here, but there you have it. It's much too late for things.
On Halloween night I enjoy reading a story by H. P. Lovecraft, while listening to King Crimson's classic In the Court of the Crimson King album. (By this point in my life, I am running out of H. P. Lovecraft stories that I haven't read, so I have to ration them carefully.) I find that the spooky, otherworldly strains of early King Crimson and the spooky, otherworldly words of Howard Phillips Lovecraft combine well on a night that one would want to be spooky and otherworldly.
This year, late at night, I came upon this accidental juxtaposition:
It looks as if it could be the cover of the book, but it's actually the book with the King Crimson CD on top. The CD cover art shows the 21st Century Schizoid Man, the song about whom was sampled by Kanye, in what might have been a sign of the apocalypse. (A picture inside the CD booklet depicts the Crimson King himself.)
Here is the book's real cover:
Such interesting coincidences will be harder to come by if recent reports that record companies will stop producing CDs in 2012 are true.
Just watch The Reanimator!
ReplyDeleteI forget, Bill: did I introduce you to HPL, or were you already familiar with his ouvre as part of our generally similar background geekiness?
ReplyDeleteRegardless, I have that same HPL short story collection on my shelf. It's a good one.
Here's a cool companion volume for your story reading: Tour De Lovecraft by Ken Hite
http://atomicovermind.com/main/?page_id=121
Regarding The Reanimator, I haven't seen the movie, but I read the story, which I thought was one of the worst things that Lovecraft had ever written, making me wonder why someone would make it into a movie.
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Oddly enough, Josh, I have a blog post planned that will deal with you introducing me to Lovecraft, in the context of several odd coincidences. But I don't know when I will get around to writing it.
Before college, I had heard of Lovecraft, and had unknowingly read a few of his noncharacteristic stories, like "Cool Air." But you were the one who introduced me to Lovecraft as a phenomenon, so to speak, which was what inspired me to start reading him a few years later.