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I was in this crystal clear cliffside cove and could see in front of me maybe 10 m or so but the Rock only went out about 5 and then just plunged into the abyss. and after exploring the coastline I swim out about 10 ft past the rocks and realized that I could see nothing but the deepest blue I'd ever seen.
literally anything could be just a few body lengths away watching me were sensing me, it was almost overwhelming.
I felt this visceral terror, that I've felt before in the middle of reading a Lovecraft story.
very much looking into the eye of something unknowable.
Do you recall which Lovecraft story?
mountains of madness.
I had similar chills with other Lovecraft stories, but then my roommate in college told me that the first time he read mountain of madness he had like a mini breakdown because it was so terrifying, and I hadn't read that story yet.
and the way he describes the immensity of surreal psychotic landscape is pretty terrifying.
I actually read through the story like three or four times in a week to feel the chill more than once.
I haven't reached that one yet, but I'm close. I really enjoyed A Colour Out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, Rats in the Walls, The Temple, Call of Cthulhu, and the very beginning of The Festival, when he describes wandering along the seaside road toward the distant twinkling lights of a wintery village. The opening pages of that book are beautiful.
That's great.
The gothic beauty of his writing is part of what's so deceptive about his world building, he can seamlessly lull the reader into terror through hints and connotations even within beautiful descriptions until all of a sudden you're mired in the psychic clutches of lunatic behemoths.
have fun, do you have his collected works?
I actually don't remember the festival.
I have the collected works ready to read but haven't restarted it yet.
I have this one here. It's huge and leatherbound. Unfortunately it's missing several of his less popular ones. The Hound is one I'd like to read, but it isn't included in this volume.
oh awesome, that looks great.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but there are many websites that have his complete works listed online for free.
here's the hound:
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/h.aspx
Oh fuck no! Dark water is a big fear of mine. I like swimming, scuba diving, snorkeling BUT those dark patches in the water make me truly feel paralyzed and electrified at the same time brbrbrbr. One time I went to the Yucatan penninsula to swim in a couple of cenotes and boy did it make my body shiver! Let alone the meaning of cenotes in mayan cosmogony and what not but the pure sheer terror that that black water gave me was like nothing else.
I understand thalassophobia. The deep is scary. Funny thing is, though, I can handle being on a ship or flying over water, even though I think about how far down it might be.
yep, I'm good with either of those. and I love swimming far out as long as the bottom is still there.
It's once the the Earth falls away that I don't want to be there.
Oh shit, just reading about this scares me. It must have been so terrifying, not knowing what's in the deep water
beaches are usually sandy or have detritus floating, but this was just stark clear, perfect blue getting deeper and deeper as it devoured the light.