Are YOU Horrified?

gregorymaness

2 hours ago

2 min read

We are all living in Lovecraft's worst nightmares. Josh Peters and the Pundit, both historians, talk on Cthulhu and why its real horror is almost always ignored: Because almost anyone under 50 can't even understand the real horror (hint: its not tentacles). — Kasimir Urbanski or the RPG Pundit, “The Final Boss of Internet Shitlords!”

I have an interest in the cosmic horror of H. P. Lovecraft, meaning that I have read a handful of his works and watched and listened to a handful of works based upon his works. When I came across a video capturing a conversation between Josh Peters and Kasimir Urbanski or the RPG Pundit on cosmic horror or Lovecraftian horror, I had to watch and listen. I found it interesting and it seemed like a natural thing to share on my blog (click on the first link below) with Halloween approaching.

I have also shared links below to a couple other videos from the Kasimir Urbanski - RPGPundit YouTube channel (@RPGPundit) and a link to Stellagama Publishing’s website. One of the longer videos is the entire interview with Josh Peters and the other video is an interview with game designer Sandy Petersen. Petersen created the acclaimed and popular Call of Cthulhu tabletop roleplaying game and contributed to the creation of the popular Doom and Quake video games. Stellagama Publishing is a company that Josh Peters helped to found. I confess that I have yet to watch either of the longer videos in their entirety, but I expect that I will watch one or both of them in the remaining days before Halloween.

I have also posted below a screenshot of a comment by RPG Pundit to someone that was being very dismissive of Lovecraft, Lovecraftian horror, and Lovecraft’s contribution to horror literature because of his documented history of racist views and xenophobia. While I am certainly not going to defend Lovecraft’s more distasteful beliefs, opinions, or views, I must admit that I find the haughty self-righteousness from such modern, virtue signaling critics that are the beneficiaries of the evolution in societal and moral thinking to be particularly tiresome. All of these people seem to lack the capacity to consider the possibility or even the likelihood that they might not have been so enlightened themselves had they lived during an early period in history. And this particular critic of Lovecraft seems to be unaware of the changes in his thinking or is just unwilling to acknowledge that his thinking evolved somewhat for the better over time. RPG Pundit’s comment also helps to define Lovecraftian horror.

Enjoy and have a fun, happy, and safe Halloween!