“The color that fell from the sky” and other stories to remember H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Philips Lovecraft is known for his tales of horror genre, but stories that are based on the abnormal and creature originate from the fear of which we can find in myths, stories and languages that have endured since the beginning of humanity.

It is the way to capture terror and in turn the horror genre became part of Gothic, which emerged in England at the end of the 18th century, where medieval was already present in the scriptures and the large windows were the entrance of light that manifested itself as the God who entered, according to scholars of the time.

The first writer to write of this genre was H. Walpole, who in 1746 published El Castillo de Otranto, a short novel set in an old castle in medieval Italy. Examples of this literature are: The Mysteries of Udolfo by Ann Radcliffe and The Monk of M. Lewis.

By starting H.P. Lovecraft managed to merge the writing techniques that were read by Edgar Allan Poe, into his vision of the world he created. With this he was able to lay the foundations for the current narrative of terror.

But something that characterized him, in his texts, was the very concept of the world, since the education he received and personal experiences were part of the problem in showing the nightmares that permeate his stories.

“His atheism, his irrational rejection of the sea, the light of day, his neighbor and everything different, among many other phobias, must have shaped the contradictory personality that is manifested in the facts and sayings of man and in his prolific work as written”.

Critics mention the references Lovecraft takes to the influence of his texts, which divide them into Macabre Stories, Stories of the Sleep Cycle and the Myths of Cthulhu.

In his autobiography entitled Some Notes on Something That Doesn't Exist Lovecraft mentions his favorite writers, but he refers to the fact that “there are my pieces Edgar Allan Poe and my pieces Edward Plunket, by Baron de Dunsany, but where are my Lovecraft pieces? ”.

The selected texts

According to the publishing house Longseller made a selection of titles of Lovecraft's work in order to be able to learn more about this character, since many of these texts highlight the author's contradictory personality.

Lovecraft created a new term of fear and that made many people know what terror was for him.

These texts are selected both for the degree of fear they inspire, and their departure into the unknown, which is beyond the scope of time and space.

The alchemist

He wrote the story at the age of 18 and the story takes place in a castle. The protagonist lives tormented by a curse that fell on his family.

Dagon

The horror experienced at the real existence of a pagan god is revealed, where the reader confuses dream and reality with aquatic terrors.

Beyond the wall of sleep

A psychiatric worker tells the story of Joe Slater, a criminal from the Catskill Mountains who was admitted to his asylum. In it he will present strange behaviors in his dreams.

The swamp of the moon

The text talks about Denys Barry, an Irish-American who claims an ancestral heritage in Kilderry, a fictional city in Ireland. This heritage has a castle that begins to be restored, earning the esteem of the peasants.

The cats of Ulthar

The story tells of an elderly couple who are dedicated to capturing and murdering cats. The people of Ulthar were worried that their cats would approach the little old hut, because if they disappeared they already knew the terrible fate they would have suffered.

The color that fell from the sky

An entity from outer space falls with a color not known to humans. The story is told in the first person by an engineer in charge of conducting a study to build a reservoir in a remote place called Arkham.

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