[kaelcarp]

I actually meant that the elder things, not the shoggoths, are sympathetic. My fingers and my brain were out of sync, I guess.

The quoted letter is interesting. I think Lovecraft went through what most adults go through in that regard, except that 2 or 3 nightmares a year is probably more than most average adults!

While reading Lovecraft, I've sometimes thought his characters reacted with too much fear or revulsion to things. I have always kind of chalked this up to Lovecraft's own xenophobia coming through in the way his characters act. If he was much more open and less fearful by the end of his life (and by fearful I partially mean something more like tentativeness or great reluctance to accept new ideas), he often still depicted characters who experienced fear as he once had.