I love how humans are horrified by the Elder Things beyond the initial mountain range, yet there’s something beyond an even bigger mountain range that horrifies the Elder Things.
I felt so bad for the starfish creatures. Imagine awakening after eons only to discover your entire civilization is gone and the biomechanical mindless slaves have taken over. Truly alone. Even more lost in the universe than we are.
For me, that's what stands out about this story. As weird as the Elder Things are....they're pretty comprehensible and even sympathetic by human standards, and the narrator acknowledges as much ("they were men!") when he realises their plight, and how they did pretty much what a human would do in the same situation--defend yourself from the things attacking you (which you don't even know are intelligent at that point), try to figure out what sort of world you've woken up in, and then try to find your home again. It's a real departure from Lovecraft's common themes of the alien being loathsome and incomprehensible.
I know it doesn't really have anything to do with anything but your statement just made me think of planet of the apes, and how it'd feel to one day come upon a world where monkeys go from being in zoo's and in the wild to taking humans places as the dominant species of the earth. Itd feel so weird, especially if they killed or subjugated all the other humans and you're the last free or living human left who knows how it used to be.
@@paulgibbon5991 I mean from the Elder Things' POV, WE the humans are oddlooking creatures. The scariest thing of the Elder Things to me is that they.... are not alien. They are the first. They were of earth before humanity.. so you can't even think of them as so spooky alien horror.
@@elianameier5717 I feel like confusion and willpower may be similar emotions but emotions like sadness and existential dread might not apply. You’re right though, since they are such sturdy long lasting beings, they likely have a different concept of time. More similar to a fantasy elf than a human being.
I think my favourite/most creepy part about the implications of the Mountains of Madness is that humans are basically an escaped and largely botched scientific experiment.
Sadly, our creators seem to agree with you. And given what has transpired in Antarctica in the past few years (politicians, Pope, and celebrities visiting ??? down there) you have to wonder if HPL knew something, or it was just a lucky guess about what is down there.
@@Cryo837 The pope never visited antartica, it was some russina orthodox dude. I looked it up, and antartica is open for tourism YOU could visit antartica, its not a big deal
A Shogoth goes into a bar and says. "Yog Sothoth, sent me. I am one of his spawn!" The Bartender flips a tentacle across the bar and sez "Jeez! Cthulu'D, Me!"
The movie "Prometheus" constantly reminded me of this book while I was first watching it. The plots are similar: exploration of mysterious ruins awakens something ancient and more advanced than humans, which then results in Shakespearean deaths of everyone. And the settings are similar: in particular I remember there were weird murals in one of the Prometheus scenes that reminded me so much of Lovecraft's description of the murals in this story.
@@loganwithlightsabers3051 Please don't call it the "Tom Cruise Mountains of Madness," it is so clearly Guillermo del Toro's Mountains of Madness, and if there's one good thing about the film maybe never being realized, it is that at least Tom Cruise won't play the main character.
I read all 22 Dune books, spent 400+ hours on asoiaf lore, started reading Lovecraft.. mindblown by mountains of madness and THEN i found your channel... i cannot believe you like and take the time to make great videos about everything i cherish damn .. what a luxury you are
The "final horror" Danforth saw was the Nameless Mist, according of one of Lovecraft's letters, although what exactly the significance of that entity to the story or the scenario other than it was just scary isn't really clarified as it never was really elaborated on. The true fridge horror of the story, though, that isn't exactly explicit but after stepping away from the story and thinking for a moment about what they saw on the expedition, is the suggestion that rather than simply killing them, the Shoggoths had assumed the forms of the Elder Things and were perpetuating their society long after the original builder of that city were long dead. It's pretty chilling to think about, as the story encourages the comparison between humans and the elder things, a far future where all of human civilization is not inherited so much as imitated by monsters created by our own hand with no real understanding of what it is they're making. And it just freaks me out because of the creep factor, imagine the kind of intense existential fear that could invoke to posit such a perverse and blasphemous idea to someone who DIDN'T think civilization was in itself the ultimate evil.
I see the opposite here - it’s not the monsters imitating humans, it’s the humans imitating monsters. Remember: petroglyphs of Elder Things with strange, proto-humanoid creatures were found at the site - the Elder Things are likely the creators of humanity and “civilization” as humans know it is just a pale imitation of what their creators forged.
@@thatotherted3555 That's very en pointe, Lovecraft explicitly uses this idea for horror in other stories, like He and Polaris. He literally says "savage yellow people" in He, which is just aboot how much he hated New York cuz jews. What's really interesting is how much humanity he invests into the elder things and yithians, which he created to kinda mirror his utopia where everyone is asexual in a literal way and socialist. But then he goes and has them create slave races and shit. It's so... weird. I kinda feel like if he had lived a little longer he would have chilled out on the racism, because how the hell is he willing to accept flying starfish alien as "men" but inuits are hairy cannibals who sack cities? What a weird fuckin' guy.
@@princessmaly Eugenics in America was very strong around Lovecraft's time. Sterilization of handicapped etc. happened in Californian mental hospitals supposedly to protect the gene pool.
@@Claytone-Records Nazi Germany got a lot of its ideas from the US! On the point of Malyssa's original comment, that's an interesting way to think about it. I could easily imagine a far future where all that's left of human civilization is a giant self-aware Amazon factory, running everything on autopilot. In fact, Shoggoths are basically just goopy Amazon factories when you think about it
The story is outstanding and was well ahead of its time. The ultimate horror was that mankind found proof of just how unimportant we really are. Childhood ending in an belief destroying moment. In Lovecraft's world the best we can hope for from the cosmos and its gods is indifference.
One of the interesting, and frustrating, parts of the Cthulhu game was that you had to roll against your character's sanity. Blow the role and you had to create a new character, your old one was now insane and unusable. In the end the game was just too frustrating, and I never finished it.
The best part of the mountains of madness is where we only gather new information through radio transmission. The fact that even our character is unable to act and is only in a passive state is somehow very haunting.
Never thought or wanted to read: HP Lovecraft (too weird & creepy) Dune (wasn’t finished!) ASOIAF (WAY too dense & also NOT DONE!) Till I started watching your vids Mind opened
@@RougeOso Yep. Although to be completely honest for me it's mostly me being a lazy reader and going for walks or playing video games while listening to them.
"At the Mountains of Madness" is my favourite Lovecraft's story and your analysis was perfect, you totally got the heart of the story. The part of it I find more tragical is the discovery that human kind is nothing but a creation of the Elder Things. But I just love the misteries and darkness of this novel, I keep wondering what there could be beyond the Mountains of the East. Kudos to you for making this video.
Its refreshing to see a younger generation embrace the older masters and the very books that dwarf today's attempts at sci-fi and horror.... Herbert, Asimov, Antony, Lovecraft.... Magnificent.
My favorite Lovecraft story is still "the festival". It was the first story of him I heard as a reading and it blew me away. Since that day, I'm a fan of all his work.
Its one of my favorites too. I like that it has a similar theme as aMoM, but on a much smaller scale (where we come from, but Family ancestry vs origin of species) and equally horrifying results.
In his house at R’lyeh dead CTHULHU waits dreaming... That which is not dead which can eternally lie, And with strange aeons even death may die. H.P. Lovecraft
Quinn, thank you for properly introducing me to Lovecraft through GRRM. I've come to realise that HP Lovecraft is in fact one of the most important contributors to our modern culture ever, and possibly understood our world better most. Keep up the amazing work
I don't think Lovecraft understood our world better. He just hyper saw one aspect of it. Anyways, Imagine if he lived long enough to see Humanity build Nuclear Weapons. He died in 1937 at 47. He could have seen WW2 end and the Nuclear Bomb. Wonder if it ever crossed his mind that Humanity COULD become the Eldritch horrors he imagined? Pretty sure a Civilisation capable making making a single bomb that can destroy a City wouldn't be out of place in Lovecraft, at least Prior to WW2. Everything starts from somewhere. Those ancient civilizations in Lovecraft didn't just pop into existence.
Came here to ask if someone who loved the stories and would be respectful to them was making/had made a movie. Hopes crushed against wave-clashed onyx rocks.
@@daniellopez189 Prometheus didn't bomb. Del Toro's didn't make his movie simply because Prometheus was made, and if you look closely, they are lots of plot points in common.
@@Yora21 The premises are remarkable similar, the structure and develop quite different. But the fact that The Thing is such a well known property has probably made it harder to get a Mountains adaptation greenlit.
toverkleet well yes, but Everything cool in SciFi can be traced back to the trunk of Aliens and Alien, which movies are themselves deeply rooted in Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror, the nihilism of peeking at the unknown and all that. Also, I suspect that the Alien/s influence in Halo comes to it by way of Starcraft. The most famous cutscene of that game is basically ripped off in Halo:CE when you discover the Flood. While I’m on my soapbox, If you look into the plot and gameplay of StarControl 1-3, it’s basically a rough draft of Mass effect 1-3. It’s scary how much of our great media wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the pure luck of certain good ideas becoming commercial successes.
Mountains of Madness was actually the story that dragged me into the whole Lovecraft thing. I stumbled over some artwork depicting the Dornier Airplane from the expedition as a Dornier Wal (Whale). This is an aircraft that’s just beyond fascinating for me, so I read the book and was completely astonished.
I got hooked on your Dune videos and now you throw some Lovecraft out there? Doesn't matter what time it is, I'm watching this video at least twice. Thanks for doing what you do and best wishes.
Well done, sir. I've been a decades-long Lovecraft fan, and I really appreciate your insights. Lovecraft had that rare ability to inspire horror and dread by what he did not say in his tales.
I yearn to learn of secrets that no living man can teach. I know that they lie down below, just out of our reach. Hidden behind the formal, in the realm of the paranormal. Beneath the thin veneer, that's kept in place by mortal's fear. There dwell the mysteries that I so long to know. I believe when I unravel them my soul shall surely grow.
This was great. At the Mountains of Madness. Say have you checked out “A Colder War” by Charles Stross? I kinda see as a spiritual sequel to At the Mountains of Madness.
Reading through Lovecraft's works and recently finished "At the Mountains of Madness". I liked the short story, and this was longer than most. But I read it and was sucked in. They find the horror and are chased out by it, barely escaping. I felt bad for the dogs that were killed during the expedition. The Necronomicon and the backstory behind it is fascinating. The tie-ins to middle eastern culture and characters are very interesting. Good explanation of the story and characters.
Fantastic video Qinn!! As a huge fan of Lovcraft and yours...thank you for focusing on the story itself and not the other nonsense that most creators tend to obsessed over and cover in this day and age when it comes to Lovecraft!👍👍
I while back I read Lovecraft's 'Supernatural Horror in Literature'. Was an interesting read, especially when I didn't even realise it was BY Lovecraft, I just picked it up from a book store as they were having an inventory sale. Contained a lot of old horror titles I found interesting and added to my reading list.
Love the video's man I love when you talk about Dune you actually got me interested in reading the series I'm halfway through Heretics of Dune right now and I love all the books thus far hope the 2020 movie is good keep up the great work.
This was the first Lovecraft story I read and loved it! I continued to explore the Lovecraftian universe, mostly reading, film adaptations, and fellow fans. I greatly appreciate your videos and your detailed and insightful take on sci-fi! I wish you all the best in the new year!
I believe the mountains behind the mountains of madness were a focal point to another dimension, and that dimension was evil. It was because of those mountains that the shoggoths were inspired to rebel against their masters the old ones. When Danforth looks back and screams, he screams the same thing the shoggoth they encountered was screaming.
ooh i was just rereading this story. man the buildup in the story is just mind blowing and excruciating. in the best way. thanks for doing this quinn !!!
I gotta say I read the book and it’s some seriously advanced reading. It’s a short story but it took me so long to get through this one having to re read many pages over again to get what happened. My first explanation of the elder beings was a mind fuck. So thanks for really putting all this into better context. I was still confused on a lot of stuff and you cleared that up professionally well!
If I wasn't basically a homeless bard, I'd be funding you myself! Your command of language, of tone, of image are worthy of more than this channel. I wish you were the literature teacher for my kids, and hope your life reflects the boons of such talent, devotion, natural talent, and honed skill.
Hey Quinn, do you like the work of H.R. Giger. He has cited Lovecraft as one of his influences, and you can clearly tell just by looking at his artwork in his book Necronomicon(1977).
A copy of Giger's Necronomicon was given to director Ridley Scott during the pre-production of the film Alien, who then hired Giger to produce artwork and conceptual designs for the film.
Ah, I see you are a person of culture as well. I´m a great fan of Lovecraft and Giger and I take great inspiration from them (for both writing and painting).
Oh, I do love me some Lovecraft. The Rats in the Walls was the story that hooked me when I was 9...been on a search for his complete works along with all his collaborations ever since.
'The Horror in the Museum' contains his collaborations. His complete works are available in annotated and non-annotated editions. The Horrorbabble RUclips channel has readings of his stories.
@Maria Kelly - Stracynski wrote an episode of 'The Real Ghostbusters' cartoon titled 'The Collect Call of Cathulhu.' I think he might have read some Lovecraft.
I've got the complete works of Lovecraft on my Kindle and I dip into it every Halloween. I always really enjoy the atmosphere, but I'm rarely frightened and usually I struggle to remember even the broadest strokes of a story after I've finished it.
Thanks for turning people on to lovecraft. When you consider how long ago he wrote these stories and that his work is better than most of modern horror it's quite incredible. I can understand why modern film directors shy away from tackling lovecraft material. It would have to be very special or it would just not do the original stories any justice, but I agree if anyone could it would be del toro. Another thing is that reading lovecraft and learning his way of describing things really increases your vocabulary and makes you think about how to write in a flow that takes you away with it. Such a shame because if he was born in the 1950s he would've been a superstar. Anyway the least we can do is keep his work in the public frame of reference so awesome job mate.
If the "Elder Things" were so advanced, why did they write on the walls? To quote the character Dr. Sarah Chambers from the episode "Racing the Night" of the series "Babylon 5, Crusade," "I put my books on a shelf, I don't make them into a shelf," (or as I remember it.)
Mountains of Madness was also one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. It has such an interesting mixture of dread and discovery. It's been a big influence on me since I first read it. I've subconsciously ended up tailoring my best campaigns in rpgs around that theme, slowly discovering a dark secret which throws the presumed past into question and the realization that elements of those dark beginnings still exist. I also love the theme that the Elder Things slowly degenerated into savagery from once being a mighty and dominate race. Good stuff.
I listened to the auto book. Horrifying but fantastic at the same time. It's probably the best book, or story that Lovecraft created that should be made into a film. There's been so many cosmic horror movies made, but so many of them aren't really all that good. Every writer that trys to copy the work of Lovecraft either mess the point of cosmic horror, or just show to much. Of course there's also "The Call of Cuthulue" which could made into film too but i think a lot of people would love to see The "Mountains of Madness" a little more. Love your stuff by the way. Think you could do some 40k? Just a suggestion and Dune is the grandaddy of sci-fi😁.
John Carpenter's The Thing is an amazing body horror/psychological fuckery movie that definitely seems to draw from Lovecraft's "horror from the stars" style. It's an old movie, so the effects and whatnot are a bit antiquated, but by the gods is it terrific.
It was frankly draggy af, but the atmosphere of desolation was there for sure. Not one of my all-time favourites (that one goes to Reanimator) but it was one of HPL's defining works.
@@jacksonmacpherson6101 What makes it so interesting is that Lovecraft hated writing Reanimator because he felt creatively constrained and writing a commercial endeavour iirc.
Love this channel, man. You've gotten me into Dune, Foundation, and Hyperion. I'm reading the first Dune book and first Foundation book now. Along with Clash of Kings. So I don't know where I'm going to fit Hyperion in, but I'm going to somehow. I can't get enough of these classic sci-fi books.
Thank you for making this video with visuals. I am listening to all of Lovecraft's work on audible. But some of the things he describes is very hard to visualize because as you said he is like the godfather of this kind of horror. This video really helped to grasp some concepts that I missed listening to book.
Awesome video, where did those illustrations come from? I've been reading The New annotated Lovecraft, my personal favorite story he wrote is The color out of space (the recent film with Nicholas Cage is awesome and gives me hope that someone can and will make a decent adaptation of at the mountains of madness.)
Thrilling talk; I have read the book three times, the comic adaptation more times than that, and still, the pleasure of another telling is undiminished! Thank you so much!
It's kinda why I've tended to enjoy more the things his work has inspired. Taking the things that made his writings so scary and thought provoking, and leaving to the side the stuff that is just blatantly gross. Because yeah, it's hard to wholeheartedly love his work in that respect.
I love how humans are horrified by the Elder Things beyond the initial mountain range, yet there’s something beyond an even bigger mountain range that horrifies the Elder Things.
Let's see Elder ? He's a badass. If there was a commodities market for good old melodrama he'd be Wal-Mart.
There's always a bigger fish - Qui Gon Jinn
:p
Mountain-ception
Bullshit
@@Self-replicating_whatnot WTH are you talking about?
Quinn you have a hell of a talent for storytelling and the voice to match it.
Stellvia Hoenheim I think it’s more to do with being well read and he can create the right tones at the right points.
Omg 100% yes. Wish he did creepy pastas or something similar.
Wow, you have a great voice, and story telling talent! Do you do Audible books?
Does this brotherman do audiobooks?
I like the name of the channel
I felt so bad for the starfish creatures. Imagine awakening after eons only to discover your entire civilization is gone and the biomechanical mindless slaves have taken over. Truly alone. Even more lost in the universe than we are.
For me, that's what stands out about this story. As weird as the Elder Things are....they're pretty comprehensible and even sympathetic by human standards, and the narrator acknowledges as much ("they were men!") when he realises their plight, and how they did pretty much what a human would do in the same situation--defend yourself from the things attacking you (which you don't even know are intelligent at that point), try to figure out what sort of world you've woken up in, and then try to find your home again. It's a real departure from Lovecraft's common themes of the alien being loathsome and incomprehensible.
I know it doesn't really have anything to do with anything but your statement just made me think of planet of the apes, and how it'd feel to one day come upon a world where monkeys go from being in zoo's and in the wild to taking humans places as the dominant species of the earth. Itd feel so weird, especially if they killed or subjugated all the other humans and you're the last free or living human left who knows how it used to be.
Idk, it's probably irrelevant to them because they have a different concept of time beyond human comprehension.
@@paulgibbon5991 I mean from the Elder Things' POV, WE the humans are oddlooking creatures.
The scariest thing of the Elder Things to me is that they.... are not alien. They are the first. They were of earth before humanity.. so you can't even think of them as so spooky alien horror.
@@elianameier5717 I feel like confusion and willpower may be similar emotions but emotions like sadness and existential dread might not apply. You’re right though, since they are such sturdy long lasting beings, they likely have a different concept of time. More similar to a fantasy elf than a human being.
I think my favourite/most creepy part about the implications of the Mountains of Madness is that humans are basically an escaped and largely botched scientific experiment.
Sadly, our creators seem to agree with you. And given what has transpired in Antarctica in the past few years (politicians, Pope, and celebrities visiting ??? down there) you have to wonder if HPL knew something, or it was just a lucky guess about what is down there.
@@Cryo837
The pope never visited antartica, it was some russina orthodox dude.
I looked it up, and antartica is open for tourism
YOU could visit antartica, its not a big deal
So you're saying that God was posting cringe when he made Earth?
lmao basically
@@abesilverbabe6818
Pretty much the same idea from Prometheus
A Shogoth goes into a bar and says. "Yog Sothoth, sent me. I am one of his spawn!" The Bartender flips a tentacle across the bar and sez "Jeez! Cthulu'D, Me!"
Yes!
The movie "Prometheus" constantly reminded me of this book while I was first watching it. The plots are similar: exploration of mysterious ruins awakens something ancient and more advanced than humans, which then results in Shakespearean deaths of everyone. And the settings are similar: in particular I remember there were weird murals in one of the Prometheus scenes that reminded me so much of Lovecraft's description of the murals in this story.
I thought the same thing, Ridley Scott def had inspiration from Lovecraft.
Difference being the folks in Mountains of Madness weren't fucking idiots who were so dumb they'd die trying to tie their own shoelaces
Prometheus is actually one of the reasons why the Tom Cruise Mountains of Madness movie didn’t get made they thought the plots were too similar
@@loganwithlightsabers3051 Please don't call it the "Tom Cruise Mountains of Madness," it is so clearly Guillermo del Toro's Mountains of Madness, and if there's one good thing about the film maybe never being realized, it is that at least Tom Cruise won't play the main character.
The alien Francise always had inspiration from the Eldritch elements of H.P Lovecraft.
_"The oldest and strongest emotion is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is the fear of the unknown."_
*~ H.P. Lovecraft*
@Righteous Indignation.
I looked into infinity, it was full of stars.
that explains his racism
@Righteous Indignation. oh ok
@NC Dave he wasn't, just one guy writed it about him and everyone believes him
@@ishouldprobablychangemyuse5093 even if he was, who cares, lmao.
I read all 22 Dune books, spent 400+ hours on asoiaf lore, started reading Lovecraft.. mindblown by mountains of madness and THEN i found your channel... i cannot believe you like and take the time to make great videos about everything i cherish damn .. what a luxury you are
The "final horror" Danforth saw was the Nameless Mist, according of one of Lovecraft's letters, although what exactly the significance of that entity to the story or the scenario other than it was just scary isn't really clarified as it never was really elaborated on. The true fridge horror of the story, though, that isn't exactly explicit but after stepping away from the story and thinking for a moment about what they saw on the expedition, is the suggestion that rather than simply killing them, the Shoggoths had assumed the forms of the Elder Things and were perpetuating their society long after the original builder of that city were long dead. It's pretty chilling to think about, as the story encourages the comparison between humans and the elder things, a far future where all of human civilization is not inherited so much as imitated by monsters created by our own hand with no real understanding of what it is they're making. And it just freaks me out because of the creep factor, imagine the kind of intense existential fear that could invoke to posit such a perverse and blasphemous idea to someone who DIDN'T think civilization was in itself the ultimate evil.
I see the opposite here - it’s not the monsters imitating humans, it’s the humans imitating monsters. Remember: petroglyphs of Elder Things with strange, proto-humanoid creatures were found at the site - the Elder Things are likely the creators of humanity and “civilization” as humans know it is just a pale imitation of what their creators forged.
@@thatotherted3555 That's very en pointe, Lovecraft explicitly uses this idea for horror in other stories, like He and Polaris. He literally says "savage yellow people" in He, which is just aboot how much he hated New York cuz jews. What's really interesting is how much humanity he invests into the elder things and yithians, which he created to kinda mirror his utopia where everyone is asexual in a literal way and socialist. But then he goes and has them create slave races and shit. It's so... weird. I kinda feel like if he had lived a little longer he would have chilled out on the racism, because how the hell is he willing to accept flying starfish alien as "men" but inuits are hairy cannibals who sack cities? What a weird fuckin' guy.
@@princessmaly Eugenics in America was very strong around Lovecraft's time. Sterilization of handicapped etc. happened in Californian mental hospitals supposedly to protect the gene pool.
@@jona826 Just like in Germany. Oops!
@@Claytone-Records Nazi Germany got a lot of its ideas from the US!
On the point of Malyssa's original comment, that's an interesting way to think about it. I could easily imagine a far future where all that's left of human civilization is a giant self-aware Amazon factory, running everything on autopilot. In fact, Shoggoths are basically just goopy Amazon factories when you think about it
The story is outstanding and was well ahead of its time. The ultimate horror was that mankind found proof of just how unimportant we really are. Childhood ending in an belief destroying moment. In Lovecraft's world the best we can hope for from the cosmos and its gods is indifference.
One of the interesting, and frustrating, parts of the Cthulhu game was that you had to roll against your character's sanity. Blow the role and you had to create a new character, your old one was now insane and unusable. In the end the game was just too frustrating, and I never finished it.
The best part of the mountains of madness is where we only gather new information through radio transmission. The fact that even our character is unable to act and is only in a passive state is somehow very haunting.
The second best part is the penguins
Never thought or wanted to read:
HP Lovecraft (too weird & creepy)
Dune (wasn’t finished!)
ASOIAF (WAY too dense & also NOT DONE!)
Till I started watching your vids
Mind opened
Pretty much the same. He basically ''introduced'' me to Lovecraft, Dracula and 1984. I don't know if I would have picked them up on my own.
Baky Cool how that happens huh? All you need is someone to give you the push.
@@RougeOso Yep. Pretty much. Reading or in my case listening to audiobooks is wonderful when you are not forced to do it for the grade at school.
Baky I hear you! Love audiobooks! Sometimes it’s a better way to really immerse yourself in the story.
@@RougeOso Yep. Although to be completely honest for me it's mostly me being a lazy reader and going for walks or playing video games while listening to them.
"At the Mountains of Madness" is my favourite Lovecraft's story and your analysis was perfect, you totally got the heart of the story. The part of it I find more tragical is the discovery that human kind is nothing but a creation of the Elder Things. But I just love the misteries and darkness of this novel, I keep wondering what there could be beyond the Mountains of the East. Kudos to you for making this video.
Not even a purposeful creation, we were made by mistake according to the murals.
Its refreshing to see a younger generation embrace the older masters and the very books that dwarf today's attempts at sci-fi and horror....
Herbert, Asimov, Antony, Lovecraft....
Magnificent.
My favorite Lovecraft story is still "the festival". It was the first story of him I heard as a reading and it blew me away.
Since that day, I'm a fan of all his work.
Its one of my favorites too. I like that it has a similar theme as aMoM, but on a much smaller scale (where we come from, but Family ancestry vs origin of species) and equally horrifying results.
I read The Festival listening to some really atmospheric music on a bus ride to work and it’s one of my favorite short stories to this day.
Agreed - and it has one of my favorite opening lines of his: "I was far from home, and the spell of the eastern sea was upon me."
In his house at R’lyeh dead CTHULHU waits dreaming...
That which is not dead which can eternally lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.
H.P. Lovecraft
Quinn, thank you for properly introducing me to Lovecraft through GRRM.
I've come to realise that HP Lovecraft is in fact one of the most important contributors to our modern culture ever, and possibly understood our world better most.
Keep up the amazing work
I don't think Lovecraft understood our world better. He just hyper saw one aspect of it.
Anyways, Imagine if he lived long enough to see Humanity build Nuclear Weapons. He died in 1937 at 47. He could have seen WW2 end and the Nuclear Bomb.
Wonder if it ever crossed his mind that Humanity COULD become the Eldritch horrors he imagined? Pretty sure a Civilisation capable making making a single bomb that can destroy a City wouldn't be out of place in Lovecraft, at least Prior to WW2.
Everything starts from somewhere. Those ancient civilizations in Lovecraft didn't just pop into existence.
It sucks that Guellermo Del Toro's movie based on this story got shelved
Wait what? It got shelved?! Man, that fucking sucks
Came here to ask if someone who loved the stories and would be respectful to them was making/had made a movie.
Hopes crushed against wave-clashed onyx rocks.
The Thing got made though!?
@@robbaker1841 nope it's been been shelved thanks to Prometheus bombing at the box office ( I thought Prometheus was pretty good same with covinent )
@@daniellopez189 Prometheus didn't bomb. Del Toro's didn't make his movie simply because Prometheus was made, and if you look closely, they are lots of plot points in common.
In a way, Lovecraft predated the Ancient Alien theory by decades. And I think Lovecraft's philosophy offers humanity an important lesson in humility.
I never thought about that. I don't think Lovecraft's work has ever been mentioned on Ancient Aliens. I wonder why?
@@mariakelly1059 That's a good question. Of course, Ancient Aliens might do a Lovecraft episode someday.
H.p. Lovecraft did ancient aliens first and way better...
@@maxvickrey4357 Absolutely much better. Lovecraft's stories are chilling. "Ancient Aliens" is amusing.
I've always suspected that MoM is the inspiration for the horror aspect of the Halo games.
Either way, it's my favorite Lovecraft story.
Partly. Also The Thing, which clearly has strong similarities with MoM.
@@Yora21
The premises are remarkable similar, the structure and develop quite different.
But the fact that The Thing is such a well known property has probably made it harder to get a Mountains adaptation greenlit.
And Aliens (space marines anyone)
toverkleet well yes, but Everything cool in SciFi can be traced back to the trunk of Aliens and Alien, which movies are themselves deeply rooted in Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror, the nihilism of peeking at the unknown and all that.
Also, I suspect that the Alien/s influence in Halo comes to it by way of Starcraft. The most famous cutscene of that game is basically ripped off in Halo:CE when you discover the Flood.
While I’m on my soapbox, If you look into the plot and gameplay of StarControl 1-3, it’s basically a rough draft of Mass effect 1-3. It’s scary how much of our great media wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the pure luck of certain good ideas becoming commercial successes.
@@Yora21 Yeah, I was thinking of The Thing as well.
That reference to Lot’s wife was brilliant. I read a short story called “Details” in a book dedicated to Lovecraft that still freaks me out.
I've always been into Lovecraft but you've gotten me into it ten fold.
Mountains of Madness was actually the story that dragged me into the whole Lovecraft thing. I stumbled over some artwork depicting the Dornier Airplane from the expedition as a Dornier Wal (Whale). This is an aircraft that’s just beyond fascinating for me, so I read the book and was completely astonished.
SCP Foundation: Yeah we got a call?
I got hooked on your Dune videos and now you throw some Lovecraft out there? Doesn't matter what time it is, I'm watching this video at least twice. Thanks for doing what you do and best wishes.
To quote Ross Scott:
“We were wrong. We are *Not* the Masters of the Universe.”
We will never be masters of the universe.
Well done, sir. I've been a decades-long Lovecraft fan, and I really appreciate your insights. Lovecraft had that rare ability to inspire horror and dread by what he did not say in his tales.
That is my favorite Lovecraft story too. I also love the CoC RPG module that makes you play what happens to this second expedition.
I yearn to learn of secrets that no living man can teach.
I know that they lie down below, just out of our reach.
Hidden behind the formal, in the realm of the paranormal.
Beneath the thin veneer, that's kept in place by mortal's fear.
There dwell the mysteries that I so long to know.
I believe when I unravel them my soul shall surely grow.
This was great. At the Mountains of Madness. Say have you checked out “A Colder War” by Charles Stross? I kinda see as a spiritual sequel to At the Mountains of Madness.
Which monster does one fear more: the one seen or the one unseen? Always amazing, sir. Thank you.
Reading through Lovecraft's works and recently finished "At the Mountains of Madness". I liked the short story, and this was longer than most. But I read it and was sucked in. They find the horror and are chased out by it, barely escaping. I felt bad for the dogs that were killed during the expedition. The Necronomicon and the backstory behind it is fascinating. The tie-ins to middle eastern culture and characters are very interesting. Good explanation of the story and characters.
Yess, I loved At the Mountains of Madness
This story is so unsettling that it gave me a nightmare when I first read it.
That happened to my ex. He read it once and would said he'd never read it again. It scared the bejeebers out of him.
Fantastic video Qinn!!
As a huge fan of Lovcraft and yours...thank you for focusing on the story itself and not the other nonsense that most creators tend to obsessed over and cover in this day and age when it comes to Lovecraft!👍👍
I while back I read Lovecraft's 'Supernatural Horror in Literature'. Was an interesting read, especially when I didn't even realise it was BY Lovecraft, I just picked it up from a book store as they were having an inventory sale. Contained a lot of old horror titles I found interesting and added to my reading list.
At the Mountains of Madness is a story I reread every few years. One of my all-time favorites. Great video, buddy!
amazing video covering one of the few touching points I've had with Lovecraft's novels as of yet
Love the video's man I love when you talk about Dune you actually got me interested in reading the series I'm halfway through Heretics of Dune right now and I love all the books thus far hope the 2020 movie is good keep up the great work.
This was the best recap of any Lovecraft story I’ve come across yet. Great work
I’ve really started to get into Lovecraft. Very dense difficult reading but the ideas are very great and terrifying that I think about at night
Man your story telling is beyond I literally been hearing your narration but never checked the channel amazing content.
This was the first Lovecraft story I read and loved it! I continued to explore the Lovecraftian universe, mostly reading, film adaptations, and fellow fans. I greatly appreciate your videos and your detailed and insightful take on sci-fi! I wish you all the best in the new year!
Only just discovered this wonderful channel. An amazing talent for storytelling even just explaining other authors story's. Fantastic.
I believe the mountains behind the mountains of madness were a focal point to another dimension, and that dimension was evil. It was because of those mountains that the shoggoths were inspired to rebel against their masters the old ones. When Danforth looks back and screams, he screams the same thing the shoggoth they encountered was screaming.
Didn't remember that. Good point. But there's no need to be a dimension outside that mountains. Could be other beings.
@@txxt5248 The reason I thought that was because of what was hinted at what Danforth saw, and what he said in his more crazed moments.
I´ve heard a theory that the mountains behind are those from Leng.
ooh i was just rereading this story. man the buildup in the story is just mind blowing and excruciating. in the best way. thanks for doing this quinn !!!
At the Mountains of madness is probably his best work.
color out space is among there
i have reread this story several times. the slow build up is really, truly unnerving. i wish he could have lived to do a sequel.
I gotta say I read the book and it’s some seriously advanced reading. It’s a short story but it took me so long to get through this one having to re read many pages over again to get what happened. My first explanation of the elder beings was a mind fuck. So thanks for really putting all this into better context. I was still confused on a lot of stuff and you cleared that up professionally well!
Thank you, Quinn! My favourite Lovecraft story!
Oh yeah boys let's get some lovecraft in our veins-
Lothor Brune I prefer to freebase my Lovecraft, but to each their own lol
If I wasn't basically a homeless bard, I'd be funding you myself! Your command of language, of tone, of image are worthy of more than this channel. I wish you were the literature teacher for my kids, and hope your life reflects the boons of such talent, devotion, natural talent, and honed skill.
Hey Quinn, do you like the work of H.R. Giger. He has cited Lovecraft as one of his influences, and you can clearly tell just by looking at his artwork in his book Necronomicon(1977).
A copy of Giger's Necronomicon was given to director Ridley Scott during the pre-production of the film Alien, who then hired Giger to produce artwork and conceptual designs for the film.
@@differous01 Yeah, I know
Ah, I see you are a person of culture as well. I´m a great fan of Lovecraft and Giger and I take great inspiration from them (for both writing and painting).
Thank you YT for recommending this channel. I've been binging your content all day including during work lol.
Oh, I do love me some Lovecraft. The Rats in the Walls was the story that hooked me when I was 9...been on a search for his complete works along with all his collaborations ever since.
'The Horror in the Museum' contains his collaborations. His complete works are available in annotated and non-annotated editions. The Horrorbabble RUclips channel has readings of his stories.
That's funny cause The Rats in the Walls is one of his weakest works, imo.
‘fungous flabby beasts’
the elder things scared me at first... then I felt sorry for them, and then went back to pure terror
"You have always been here."
- Kosh
@Maria Kelly - Stracynski wrote an episode of 'The Real Ghostbusters' cartoon titled 'The Collect Call of Cathulhu.' I think he might have read some Lovecraft.
I've got the complete works of Lovecraft on my Kindle and I dip into it every Halloween. I always really enjoy the atmosphere, but I'm rarely frightened and usually I struggle to remember even the broadest strokes of a story after I've finished it.
There was a cross genre scene in A Golconda Story where Lovecraftian ideas played a part in Act Two.
This channel is the best. Love listening to Quinn recap all the good sci fi stories!!
Thanks for turning people on to lovecraft. When you consider how long ago he wrote these stories and that his work is better than most of modern horror it's quite incredible. I can understand why modern film directors shy away from tackling lovecraft material. It would have to be very special or it would just not do the original stories any justice, but I agree if anyone could it would be del toro. Another thing is that reading lovecraft and learning his way of describing things really increases your vocabulary and makes you think about how to write in a flow that takes you away with it. Such a shame because if he was born in the 1950s he would've been a superstar. Anyway the least we can do is keep his work in the public frame of reference so awesome job mate.
Just saw one of your videos for the first time. OUTSTANDING!
Oh shit. This is actually terrifying. I might look into the necronomicon actually. Btw your new intro is poppin off man
The Necronomicon is fictional. It's as fictional as Miskatonic University.
@@julietfischer5056 Some editions of Love Crafts complete works are listed as the Necronomicon, so technically it does, not to be that guy!
Love the direction your channel is taking!
If the "Elder Things" were so advanced, why did they write on the walls? To quote the character Dr. Sarah Chambers from the episode "Racing the Night" of the series "Babylon 5, Crusade," "I put my books on a shelf, I don't make them into a shelf," (or as I remember it.)
Probably tradition
Ask the Anchient Egyptians.... ;)
That was made by a group of graffiti artist. They were so advanced that even their punks were history scholars.
Why not write on the walls? The Egyptians did. It's likely to last a lot longer than paper.
@@harrietharlow9929 Also books aren't the superior form of written language, they are just the cheaper one.
Mountains of Madness was also one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. It has such an interesting mixture of dread and discovery. It's been a big influence on me since I first read it. I've subconsciously ended up tailoring my best campaigns in rpgs around that theme, slowly discovering a dark secret which throws the presumed past into question and the realization that elements of those dark beginnings still exist. I also love the theme that the Elder Things slowly degenerated into savagery from once being a mighty and dominate race. Good stuff.
Great effort and knowledge put into this video. I'm jealous! I subscribed, and hoping for more Lovecraft content.
If you are a Lovecraft fan please check this man´s youtube channel.
This book was one of my favorites. I love the mixture of arctic exploration and the alien beings that lived there.
I listened to the auto book. Horrifying but fantastic at the same time. It's probably the best book, or story that Lovecraft created that should be made into a film. There's been so many cosmic horror movies made, but so many of them aren't really all that good. Every writer that trys to copy the work of Lovecraft either mess the point of cosmic horror, or just show to much. Of course there's also "The Call of Cuthulue" which could made into film too but i think a lot of people would love to see The "Mountains of Madness" a little more.
Love your stuff by the way. Think you could do some 40k? Just a suggestion and Dune is the grandaddy of sci-fi😁.
John Carpenter's The Thing is an amazing body horror/psychological fuckery movie that definitely seems to draw from Lovecraft's "horror from the stars" style. It's an old movie, so the effects and whatnot are a bit antiquated, but by the gods is it terrific.
@@americanodude Oh, yae! I almost forgot about that one. That gets it pretty close to cosmic horror.
@@JaceMorley i've been wanting to that. It hasn't come out on apple TV yet😔
Absolutely well done! Thank you for doing a description of the story so well!
Well done Quinn, this is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories and you do a great job summing it up. Keep up your great work.
Keep doing Lovecraft material please, it is excellent! Great work buddy
For a second I thought you were holding a pipe at the beginning. Wouldn't be a bad addition, just saying.
A good strong English blend, dark with Latakia, supported by orientals and perhaps a sprinkling of perique.
Could of used a couple of candles too. SPOOKY
If he sat in an armchair next to a fireplace to boot, it would be a master piece.
Wouldn't you know C&D released a bunch of Lovecraft inspired pipe tobaccos
It was frankly draggy af, but the atmosphere of desolation was there for sure. Not one of my all-time favourites (that one goes to Reanimator) but it was one of HPL's defining works.
Reanimator is by far the best story.
@@jacksonmacpherson6101 What makes it so interesting is that Lovecraft hated writing Reanimator because he felt creatively constrained and writing a commercial endeavour iirc.
Love this channel, man. You've gotten me into Dune, Foundation, and Hyperion. I'm reading the first Dune book and first Foundation book now. Along with Clash of Kings. So I don't know where I'm going to fit Hyperion in, but I'm going to somehow. I can't get enough of these classic sci-fi books.
Loving the Lovecraft, you have a way with storytelling sir
Art imitates life.
Thank you, Quinn 💕
"Allow me to explain."
You're so funny. 😄
Thank you for making this video with visuals. I am listening to all of Lovecraft's work on audible. But some of the things he describes is very hard to visualize because as you said he is like the godfather of this kind of horror. This video really helped to grasp some concepts that I missed listening to book.
I was listening to horror babble's reading of this when your vid came up.
Check out Mike Bennett's readings, he's great. Especially "From Beyond".
Rats in the walls has to be my favorite. It was one of the first I read and still gives me that creepy skin crawling feeling.
I like the intro Quinn.
I discovered your channel because of my love for Dune, and I stayed for the rest of your content. You deserve more subs.
I love HE does not describe the horror ... True imagination
Great choice for a video. Gotta be my favorite Lovecraftian story.
One of Lovecrafts best. Have you ever seen the hplhs's adaptation of the Call of Cthulhu? its done in silent film style and its pretty good
a great summary of this story! i am a great lovecraft fan and i thank you so much for this wonderfull video!
You need a talent agent. You"re so unique, a nerd with suace lol
Don't need agents anymore! We've got RUclips!
In his case, it might be a right next move, who knows?🤔
(RUclips channels live then die...it won't last forever)
Your vibe is just so similar to mine around this kind of literature. I can't believe I've gone this long without this channel. Bless you sir
Awesome video, where did those illustrations come from? I've been reading The New annotated Lovecraft, my personal favorite story he wrote is The color out of space (the recent film with Nicholas Cage is awesome and gives me hope that someone can and will make a decent adaptation of at the mountains of madness.)
LOVE your voice! Great breakdown of the mountains of madness too! You got me subscribed! Thank you for picking up on Lovecraft!
this came out just at the right time
Thrilling talk; I have read the book three times, the comic adaptation more times than that, and still, the pleasure of another telling is undiminished! Thank you so much!
I’ve been re-reading H P Lovecraft in the last few weeks! The casual racism is nauseating, but when he’s good, he’s a very good horror writer.
I'd argue it's a biiiiiiiiiit more than just casual considering what he named his cat
That cat 💀
It's kinda why I've tended to enjoy more the things his work has inspired. Taking the things that made his writings so scary and thought provoking, and leaving to the side the stuff that is just blatantly gross.
Because yeah, it's hard to wholeheartedly love his work in that respect.
I come back to rewatch videos all the time thanks man for sparking my love for reading all over again
Anyone watch Color out of Space with Nick Cage? It was pretty rad.
This book actually scared me, one of my all time favorites, thank you for this!
_Do you read Sutter Cane?_
This would make a fantastic animated movie or series. Well done btw.
Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!