Suppose you wished to describe CAS's poetry to others who had never heard of him, and you wished to do so in a way that caught their attention. How would you do it?

Here's my characterization:

"Imagine that Baudelaire had been born fifty years earlier, and was transported to England's Lakes District".

Have some fun with this, if you like; the more imaginative yet apt the characterization, the better.

And one more:

"What might have happened if Keats had lived long enough to read Poe's Eureka."

Last one, just for fun, since no one seems interested in these:

"Imagine that aliens abducted Algernon Charles Swinburne and left him (with suitable survival apparatus) on Mars".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 1 Sep 11 | 04:15PM by Absquatch.

It's not that I'm not interested...I'm just not smart and well read enough to think of any good ones!

Ah, you're being too modest, I think, K_A_.

Alright, Absquatch, I've got one. I suppose it applies both to poet and fictioneer Smith:

Imagine that Lovecraft had been subjected to the hypnotic lull of the California sun, rather than the frore chill of New England, and that his predilection for architecture and alien gods had been supplanted by an equally strong love of weird flora and sorcerers....

Not as beautifully concise as yours are, but it's the best I can do right now....

Thanks, I enjoyed it. I like the regional differences angle.

Smith, Lovecraft and Howard could all be considered regional writers (to differing extents). Examining the effect their geographical locations had on their writing (and lives) could make an interesting book. It's virtually impossible to visualize HPL in any setting other than New England; likewise, to me CAS has always seemed to 'fit' California and the Pacific Ocean. "And summer seas afoam like foaming wine."

I wonder what HPL, CAS, and REH would've come up with if they'd enjoyed the wonders of pot and mescaline.

I suspect that much of the violence in REH's work would vanish, being supplanted by a mellow confusion. Or, it is possible he would take up a sword and go struting into town, thinking he is Conan....

For CAS--I'm not sure his writing could possibly get any weirder. I suspect that the effects of mescaline on his imagination would cause him to see something so frighteningly weird that he'd simply die of a heart attack.

Lovecraft--he would become extremely paranoid, and start to think that Cthulhu is real, and is about to rise any day...

Although I am by no means whatsoever an authority on the effects of drugs....

I have little doubt that both HPL and CAS had some experience of the medicinal opiates* that were in widespread use at the time, and therefore at least a small taste of that particular form of altered consciousness. Whether that has any relevance to their work is, of course, purely a matter for speculation.


*Obviously, I am not referring to poor Lovecraft's end-of-life morphine administrations.

I think that HPL loved chocolate. I would've loved being able to give him some "hash" brownies with his overly-sweetened black coffee.