The Horrific Conundrum

[polymorphikos]

Is it overly derivitive to write stories about wierd things from beneath the earth coming back to reclaim the great wonders that were once theirs, just because H P Lovecraft did it so well and his work is so famous? Just how far can a writer, in your opinion, go before it becomes idea-theft and you don't want to read it. In fantasy stale repetition of ideas seems to be the done thing, and authors make a mint out of it, but are there some sub-genres that the readers hold sacred, and do you have to set a story in the world of Cthulhu to write a Cthulhu-esque story?

[knivesout]

If you deal with the topic in a new and different way it's fine. Lovecraft tapped in to a very rich vein of sheer horror, and apart from writers who worked in his mythos, I think other writers have since written on similar themes without seeming to borrow from him.

[Tsujigiri]

Lovecraft didn't do it particularly well, he just did it first and being honest... the composition and use of English within his work is sometimes haphazard....
He is quite long winded and most of his charm comes from the fact that the language he uses is dated by our modern useage.

I think if you actually wrote something that was completely untouched by his work you'd find few problems.
However there is always the fact that you have probably read a lot of his writing and it will be lurking with intent in your subconscious