Appendix N is Cosmically Indifferent to Your Opinion: HP Lovecraft. Resurrected Post.
So we come to HPL himself, Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Much anguished ink has been spilled over HPL in recent years. You want to delve into that, you���re on your own. I���m just writing about stories here.
HPL is best known for his Cthulhu Mythos tales, his stories of men driven to madness upon coming face-to-face with cosmic horrors. The kicker, and the thrust of HPL���s philosophy, is that these cosmic horrors ��� and by extension, the universe itself ��� are completely indifferent to the fate, and even the existence, of humanity.
I wonder how HPL influenced Gary Gygax. The alignment system as developed in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons carries no overtones of HPL���s bleak existentialist view. In fact, the AD&D alignment system suggests precisely the opposite, that gods, planes of existence, afterlives, etc. are fundamentally tied up with humanity, in fact linked tightly to individual human���s morality and belief systems. Even the precursor versions of D&D, with the Poul Anderson and MIchael Moorcock bi-lateral Chaos/Order cosmos seem to contain no echo of HPL���s philosophy.
The way I see it, at most HPL contributed some cosmic-scale monsters to challenge high level characters. But I could be missing something and am willing to entertain alternative theories.
My personal preference is HPL���s Dream Cycle stories, only tangentially related to the Mythos. In these stories of beautifully realized imagination, HPL comes close to rivalling Clark Ashton Smith���s poetic prose. If Cthulhu, Hastur, and Co., are starting to get you down, pick up one of the tales of Randolph Carter and journey through the dreamlands.
