Medial Afterlives of H.P. Lovecraft brings together essays on the theory and practice of adapting H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction and the Lovecraftian. It draws on recent adaptation theory as well as broader discourses around media affordances to give an overview over the presence of Lovecraft in contemporary media as well as the importance of contemporary media in shaping what we take Lovecraft’s legacy to be. Discussing a wide array of medial forms, from film and TV to comics, podcasts, and video and board games, and bringing together an international group of scholars, the volume analyzes individual instances of adaptation as well as the larger concern of what it is possible to learn about adaptation from the example of H.P. Lovecraft, and how we construct Lovecraft and the Lovecraftian today in adaptation. Medial Afterlives of H.P. Lovecraft is focused on an academic audience, but it will nonetheless hold interest for all readers interested in Lovecraft today.
Author(s): Tim Lanzendörfer, Max José Dreysse Passos de Carvalho
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 373
City: Cham
Preface and Acknowledgements
The Lovecraft Renaissance
The Essays in This Volume
References
Acknowledgements
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Part I: Theory
Chapter 1: Lovecraft, the Lovecraftian, and Adaptation: Problems of Philosophy and Practice
Problems of Practice: Lovecraft, the Lovecraftian, and Adaptation
Lovecraft and Problems in the Philosophy of Adaptation
Conclusion: Adapting Lovecraft
Notes
References
Chapter 2: Disseminating Lovecraft: The Proliferation of Unsanctioned Derivative Works in the Absence of an Operable Copyright Monopoly
Introduction
Copyright Law During Lovecraft’s Era
Establishing Chain of Title: Derleth’s Assumed Monopoly Under Arkham House Publishing (1937–1971)
Unsanctioned Adaptations: The Proliferation of Derivative Works
Conclusion: Preserving Lovecraft’s Open Culture
Notes
References
Chapter 3: When Adaptation Precedes the Texts: The Spread of Lovecraftian Horror in Thailand
Early Encounters
The Present Continuity
Problem with the Imaginary
Return to the Symbolic
Conclusion
Notes
References
Part II: Comics
Chapter 4: Conveying Cosmicism: Visual Interpretations of Lovecraft
Cosmicism and “The Colour Out of Space”
Challenges of Adaptation
Color Out of Space (2019)
Comics
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 5: The Problematic of Providence: Adaptation as a Process of Individuation
“The Courtyard”, Neonomicon, Providence
Emergence, Individuation, and Media Ecologies
“I think maybe it’s always been Yuggoth”
The Media Ecological Aesthetics of Providence
Time, Memory, Perception
Speculative Media Archaeology
Conclusion
References
Chapter 6: Twice Told Tale: Examining Comics Adaptations of At the Mountains of Madness
I.J.N. Culbard’s At the Mountains of Madness: Smooth Edges, Wild Worlds
Gou Tanabe’s H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness: Sharp Edges
Conclusion: Lovecraft in Time, Words, and Pictures
References
Part III: Film and TV
Chapter 7: Image, Insoluble: Filming the Cosmic in The Colour Out of Space
Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space
The Visceral
The Caliginous
The Cosmic
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 8: The Threshold of Horror: Indeterminate Space, Place and the Material in Film Adaptations of Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space (1927)
Adaptation, Repetition, Variation
Filmic Affordances and Cinematic Space
One Story, Three Tales
Conclusion: Lovecraft, Adaptation, Innovation and Continuation
References
Chapter 9: Cthulhoo-Dooby-Doo!: The Re-animation of Lovecraft (and Racism) Through Subcultural Capital
Scooby-Doo and Cthulhu, Too
Scooby-Doo, Re-animator
Conclusion, or, “An Ending”
Note
References
Chapter 10: Dispatches from Carcosa: Murder, Redemption and Reincarnating the Gothic in HBO’s True Detective
Palimpsestuous Reimplementers and the Gothic Tradition
The Problems of a Cinematic Necronomicon
Setting and Characters: The Reconfigured Weird
A Crash of Musical Metal: Lovecraft, Burnett and the Atonal
Philosophical and Narrative Approaches
Conclusion: The Changeless Thing—Lovecraft Redefined?
References
Chapter 11: Lovecraft Country: Horror, Race, and the Dark Other
Anti-Blackness and the Dark Other in Speculative Fiction
Lovecraft Country: Surveillance from Jim Crow to the New Jim Code
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 12: The Lovecraftian Festive Hoax: Readers Between Reality and Fiction
The Fictional Lovecraft in In the Mouth of Madness and Providence
The Fictional Reader and the Festive Hoax
Conclusion
Notes
References
Part IV: Podcasts
Chapter 13: “In My Tortured Ears There Sounds Unceasingly a Nightmare”: H. P. Lovecraft and Horror Audio
Introduction: H. P. Lovecraft and Sound
Lovecraftesque: Radio Drama and the “Golden Age”
Lovecraft and Contemporary Audio
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 14: The Lovecraft Investigations as Mythos Metatext
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: Lovecraft and Simpson
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: Lovecraft vs. Simpson
Lovecraft, Simpson, and the Cult of Witchcraft
The Lovecraft Investigations, the (Non-)Fiction Podcast, and the Poetics of Adaptation
Conclusion
Notes
References
Part V: Video Games
Chapter 15: Head Games: Adapting Lovecraft Beyond Survival Horror
Notes
References
Chapter 16: The Crisis of Third Modernity: Video Game Adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft in The Sinking City
Introduction
Lovecraft and the Problem of Playing Video Games
The Sinking City: Between First and Third Modernity?
References
Chapter 17: Authorship Discourse and Lovecraftian Video Games
Transmedia Adaptation and Authorship Discourse
Lovecraftian Gaming
Advertising Authorship: Paratextual Connections
Notes
References
Part VI: Analog Games
Chapter 18: Challenging the Expressive Power of Board Games: Adapting H.P. Lovecraft in Arkham Horror and Mountains of Madness
The Board Game Medium
Lovecraftian Poetics: “No More Must Be Told”
The Story Engine of Arkham Horror
Beyond Managing Sanity Points: Mountains of Madness
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 19: Playing the Race Card: Lovecraftian Play Spaces and Tentacular Sympoiesis in the Arkham Horror Board Game
Introduction: Playing into Tentacular Legacies
“Could You Face Shoggoths Without Going Mad?”: Ludic Agency and Cosmic Indifference
“That Gorgeous Islam”: Playing with Others
Conclusion: “If I Throw a Ball at You”
Notes
References
Index
