OverAnalyzed: H.P. Lovecraft's Commonplace Book

Howard Phillips Lovecraft. He was a guy. He wrote things. Things that inspired generations of writers to follow. Also things about black cats with unfortunate names. He kept a commonplace book. If you're not familiar with the term, it's basically just a notebook you use to write down cool ideas. Nothing too fancy. Really, you could just call it a notebook and be done with it. Anyway, I have a (bootleg) copy of his commonplace book, and when I was leafing through, I noticed that some of the story ideas seemed...familiar. So, I went through and found anything that rang a little bell of memory, then cross-referenced his stories and poems to see what I could see. Namely, one-to-one correlations between numerous ideas and his written works, as well as the evolution of his ideas for stories. Here they are. If you'd like to follow along, a digital copy of Lovecraft's notebook can be found here. Obviously, there will be spoilers of 100-year-old stories. You've been warned.

Last Month's Books: "Witches, Wings, and...Ms. Marvel?"

I...didn't do a whole lot of reading in December, so this is a bit barren. Next month will be better, I promise. December was busy. And by busy, I mean I was playing Fallout for 8 hours a day. 

Ms. Marvel (2014 Version)

This is really really good. I've never been a Ms. Marvel fan. But this fresh start makes her way more relatable to me. Which is weird, because as some people have complained: Kamala Khan is Muslim, Blah blah blah blah SJW nonsense blah blah blah. Nope. She's kickass WHILE being Muslim, not "in spite of being Muslim" or "because of being Muslim." She's just a kickass girl who happens to be Ms. Marvel and Muslim. And that's pretty cool. Art style, writing, sense of humor, this is all top-notch.

Witches’ Hollow - H.P. Lovecraft

Color Out of Space 2.0, only way more obvious and not as good.

Winged Death - H.P. Lovecraft

Quite good. Actually pretty suspenseful and well-written, unlike Witches’ Hollow WHICH WAS A TRASHFIRE

Without a Thought - Fred Saberhagen

A really fascinating and suspenseful sci-fi short story about entropy, intelligence, and programming.

When You Care, When You Love - Theodore Sturgeon

Enthralling short story about wealth, love, power, fate, and humility, as well as the lengths people will go to save someone.