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The Alchemist by HPL

I agree that 'The Alchemist' clearly is a juvenile story (i.e. the narrative technique isn't fleshed out yet and contains numeral 'mistakes') and also that at least the first paragraph consists of nice evocative sentences. I was curious what S.T. Joshi had to say about this tale, so I looked it up in his 'The Weird Tale'. He's actually quiet positive about this story because of how Lovecraft handles the supernatural in a (according to him) innovative way: first the 'typical' supernatural explanation seems to be a familiy curse (so, sorcery), but then the typical HPL-way of wanting to use a natural explanation causes the solution of a living human being, killing the aristocratic scions. Then, Joshi explains, Lovecraft puts the supernatural back in by having this alchemist to prolong his life unnaturally. I myself think that this latter was way to obvious in the tale (but yes, Lovecraft still had to learn better story telling techniques). On the other hand Joshi's take on it in itself (as a new way of approaching the supernatural) is interesting.

He also points at the typical Lovecraftian archetype of 'the very old man' which has its starting point in this tale (and indeed he has given one of his tales the name 'The Terrible Old Man'). I think this is something to go back to when discussing other HPL tales, like 'The Picture in the House' or 'Cool Air'.

18 comments

18 Comments

pietermerel

May 18, 2021

@thomasiota I think I'm one of the few who discovered Lovecraft through a book and not through an RPG or metal, this book being a collection of stories from August Derleth (gathering dust in my mother's bookshelf). But I played AD&D (and D&D 3rd ed.) a lot myself some 25 years ago. I always was a dwarf, so I had to crawl dungeons 😉

Both The Nameless City (being a sort of overture to The Mountains of Madness) and He are among my top favorite Lovecraft stories. The second sentence of He is one of the most Lovecraftian sentences of his oeuvre I think:

'My coming to New York had been a mistake; for whereas I had looked for poignant wonder and inspiration in the teeming labyrinths of ancient streets that twist endlessly from forgotten courts and squares and waterfronts to courts and squares and waterfronts equally forgotten, and in the Cyclopean modern towers and pinnacles that rise blackly Babylonian under waning moons, I had found instead only a sense of horror and oppression which threatened to master, paralyse, and annihilate me.'

I published a collection of my own weird horror/magical realist stories (in Dutch: Gepelde aarde) and I've had three of them translated. This week I started to get them published in ezines. (But as I understand it, that could take a long time.) Look at the Claytemple Fiction forum for some help I got on this topic: https://www.claytemplemedia.com/forum/claytemple-fiction/publishing-my-translated-weird-tales.

I see now that Wattpad can also be used for Dutch texts, but I don't know if that will work as well as for English texts. In any case I'm going to look into it - and certainly see what else you've written!

thomasiota

May 24, 2021

Replying to

I send thanks for all the good info, wishes for good hunting in your market search, and huge congratulations on your publication and translations! Sadly I'm not literate in Dutch, but please shout when the English translations get published. I would love to check them out! The discussion you linked was great. I didn't know about The Submission Grinder nor about Shunn's template and format guides, (which were recommended by @G.L. McDorman and @ktvician, respectively) those are both really helpful and encouraging! The turnaround times and pay stats on the 'Grinder really aid in focusing on particular publications and planning where to try next for acceptance. It's terrific to see y'all sharing such good recommendations (and a reminder that I need to read these forums more thoroughly ;) ! Wattpad definitely has it's limits, and, unfortunately, I think most publication markets will consider anything that's ever been published on Wattpad to be a "reprint," (which significantly reduces submission options afterward). It's been a great way for me to answer challenges, work through workbooks, and to easily share text with kind folks like you all in this forum, but it's probably not especially useful for actually trying to build a personal publication history. Have you checked out Reedsy at all? As far as I can tell, they've got a lot of great resources (including a very handy looking online book editor). I always worry about the subtleties of copyright (especially when using third-party tools based on online databases), but it still might be worth delving into. I heard a few interesting things about self-publishing on Scribl, so might consider trying that out. In truth, it seems to have almost all the limitations of Wattpad too, but it has at least the potential for sales. Also, their audiobook angle is intriguing. However, the Reedsy folks recommend going for width instead of depth if self-publishing, and often recommend Draft2Digital. Maybe I will roll up my sleeves and try to throw some stories into the 'Grinder, turn the crank, and see if anything fortuitous emerges. Judging by the stats, it could take many weeks just to get a rejection, then many more in hopes of getting a $20 acceptance. Still, it's pretty clear that the idea is to shop dozens of stories gradually across dozens of markets, and the fact that there is a free tool like this to help manage it (rather than my usual, if less sophisticated write-it-on-scrap-paper-then-pile-all-that-on-a-shelf method) gives me some hope that keeping organized long enough to build real momentum might actually be possible. Thanks again for the pointers, and congrats again on your publications!

pietermerel

Feb 12, 2021

@thomasiota It took a while, but today at last I read your story 'I commenced my descent'. I really liked it, especially with the original next to it to see what changes you made (that is: at the beginning, most of the second half was completely new). I think it's a really good 'aemulatio' of Lovecrafts' story - it was well fixed and far more suspenseful, especially the 'dungeon crawling' part. Lovecraft himself wrote this dungeon crawling parts of course in an unforgettable way in his later stories, in particular in 'Mountains of Madness'.

Like Glenn I think your story is very publishable, but I know myself which bumps are to overcome when you want to do that. However, I hope we can read more of your writing in the future!

thomasiota

May 18, 2021

Replying to

@brouwpieter It took me a while to read your kind comment, but thank you very much for making it. I was introduced to dungeon crawls by Basic Dungeons and Dragons almost forty years ago, and first met Lovecraft in ADnD's Deities and Demigods just a few years later, so, even though I didn't set out to design a crawl for this story, it doesn't surprise me that one sneaked in. You're right that Lovecraft makes great use of them in a lot of his stories. The crawl through "The Nameless City" made a big impression on me when I first read it. To your original comment, I agree more with your interpretation than Joshi's. This felt to me like a supernatural story from the very beginning (just one of alchemy, rather than hexes), and the fact that it took the protagonist so long to cotton onto that fact didn't add any suspense, since we readers had long since solved the puzzle. In contrast, I've always appreciated Lovecraft's "very old man" villains (the one in "He" is particularly disturbing to me) and it's fascinating to think that Charles may have been the very first one. Thanks again for your kind words regarding my rework of the story. I may eventually figure out how paid-venue publishing works, but please feel free to check my Wattpad posts any time you like. Have you posted anything there yourself? I usually get hit at least once every few months with an undeniable writing challenge :)

G.L. McDorman

Nov 30, 2020

I was unaware of this show, so thank you for that!

I feel your pain about figuring out how to publish. It's the part of writing that isn't fun and the marketplace is just getting worse and worse.

ktvician

Dec 19, 2020

Replying to

A lot of small press magazines have presences on Twitter. Most have instructions on submissions on their websites. I've submitted short stories to a few, though never been published in a paying venue.

G.L. McDorman

Dec 20, 2020

Replying to

@ktvician It's the paying venues that have really diminished with the advent of the Internet even while the Internet has made non-paying small magazines much easier to manage and distribute.

thomasiota

Nov 30, 2020

Thanks very much for reading it, I'm glad there was some fun to be had! As far as publishing goes, I'm sadly a newbie. I've checked out the Writer's Market guides, but haven't yet broken any ground there. I'm intrigued by the fanzine idea, but unsure about process (submission, reply times, multiple submission, etc.). I've looked into self-publishing a bit (because it seems to have fewer variables) and was tempted by Draft2Digital as well as the Kindle marketplace, but haven't bitten that bullet yet either. ...Hmm, maybe I ought to just get off my duff? I won't lie... I really enjoyed reworking this story and it did make me think I'd like to try more, but I hadn't considered attempting an entire book. I'd definitely think twice about tackling the masterpieces, but there are some stories that I always wished were better ("Medusa's Coil" comes to mind... started off strong, ended up blatantly, stupidly racist with a copious side-dish of misogyny). That one isn't quite in the public domain yet (as far as I know), but there are some low-hanging fruits that are. (There is an IMO-excellent ranking of most of HPLs solos and collabs here: https://freelanceflaneur.blogspot.com/2017/01/ranking-h-p-lovecraft-stories.html) You guys and your writing challenges!! ;) Thanks again! Y'all stay safe and be well! P. S. as far as reworks go, have you checked out "The Lovecraft Investigations" from BBC Radio 4? They're making no attempt to mimic Lovecraft's style (instead, capturing only major characters and settings, and filling in alternative action, similar to the treatment of Doyle's work in the recent Sherlock BBC TV miniseries), but the result is still some pretty-darn-good Lovecraftian podcasting: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06spb8w

ktvician

Dec 17, 2020

Replying to

Thanks for the referral. I just listened to the first season, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". It was really good: well-produced and acted, which I'd expect from BBC.

thomasiota

Jan 19, 2021

Replying to

@ktvician I'm really glad you liked it. IMO the next two series hold up just as well, even though the tone changes a bit. The BBC really gets radio drama, and their production values are fantastic. A lot of folks (especially in the Call of Cthulhu RPG community) have suggested that Lovecraftian plots (which depend so much on heirloom letters, found journals, and dusty tomes lost in obscure shops) can't survive in a cell-phone-connected, wikipedia-documented age, but I think the writers, cast, and crew do a great job of injecting modernity into those podcasts. They also often deliver a nice, action-story pace alongside an occasional tasty slice of X-files, Serial, and maybe even a dash of Scooby-Doo ;)