29 pages • 58 minutes read
H. P. LovecraftThe Colour Out of Space
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1927A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Further Reading: Cosmic Horror
These are several of Lovecraft’s best-known and most highly-regarded stories featuring the theme of cosmic horror
- “The Dunwich Horror” by H. P. Lovecraft (1929)
- “The Whisperer in Darkness” by H. P. Lovecraft (1931)
- At the Mountains of Madness H. P. Lovecraft (1936)
- At the Mountains of Madness on SuperSummary
- “The Call of Cthulhu” by H. P. Lovecraft (1981)
- “The Call of Cthulhu” on SuperSummary
Stephen King admits to being heavily influenced by Lovecraft. Lovecraftian influence suffuses a broad range of his work, including these and a number of short stories:
- From a Buick 8 on SuperSummary
- It on SuperSummary
- The Mist on SuperSummary
- Under the Dome on SuperSummary
- The Outsider on SuperSummary
- The Dark Tower on SuperSummary
The Hellboy series (1993) for Dark Horse Comics, written by Mike Mignola
- The Hellboy series contains numerous Lovecraftian elements, images, and ideas. He and Guillermo Del Toro collaborated to produce the 2004 film adaptation.
The Laundry Files series by Charles Stross (2006-present), explicitly based on Lovecraft’s universe.
Other contemporary writers influenced by Lovecraft:
- George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams, Robert Bloch, Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, Tom Clancy, Anthony Horowitz, Rod Serling, Joyce Carol Oates, Jean Wolf, Peter Strauss, Fritz Lieber.
Further Reading: Lovecraft's Contemporaries and Influences
Lovecraft's most pronounced influences include:
- Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and Lord Dunsany. He also corresponded with a wide circle of literary friends who shared his love of weird fiction. Among them, they cross-pollinated each other's work, borrowing references and ideas from each other. Lovecraft actively encouraged these cross-references, feeling that they enhanced the verisimilitude of their collected body of work.
The so-called "Lovecraft Circle" consisted of:
- August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Howard, Robert Bloch, Henry Kuttner, Frank Belknap Long, and Donald Wandrei.
Film Adaptations
The Haunted Palace directed by Roger Corman (1963)
- Although billed as one in a series based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe, this film was actually based on Lovecraft’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.” Its success led to a plethora of further adaptations:
Die, Monster, Die! directed by Daniel Haller (1965)
The Curse directed by David Keith (1987)
Colour From the Dark directed by Ivan Zuccon (2008)
The Colour Out of Space directed by Huan Vu (2010)
Colour Out of Space directed by Richard Stanley (2019)
Night Gallery hosted by Rod Serling (1970-1973)
- Rod Serling's television anthology included two Lovecraft stories: “Model” and “Cool Air.” Another episode, “Professor Peabody's Last Lecture,” contains numerous references that would be recognized by Lovecraft enthusiasts.
Film: Influenced by Lovecraft
Hellboy by Mike Mignola, Dark Horse Comics (1993)
- The Hellboy series contains numerous Lovecraftian elements, images, and ideas. He and Guillermo Del Toro collaborated to produce the 2004 film adaptation.
The Laundry Files by Charles Stross (2006-)
- This series of novels is explicitly based on Lovecraft’s universe.
Further Reading: Beyond Literature (Nonfiction)
The Book of the Damned: The Original Classic of Paranormal Exploration by Charles Fort (2016)
- Lovecraft may have been partially inspired to write “The Colour Out of Space” by Charles Fort’s book of unexplained phenomena. Fort maintained that mainstream scientists had an unreasonable prejudice against facts and ideas that went against the way the world was generally believed to work.
Modern Science and Materialism by Hugh Samuel Roger Elliot (1919)
- A science writer, Elliott objected to metaphysics and denied the existence of the supernatural in any sense that could not be measured. His scientific materialism had a powerful influence on Lovecraft’s worldview.
“All the Colors We Cannot See: Tetrachromacy in Humans” by Carl Jennings, The Startup (2019)
- This article offers a very simple overview of colour perception.
I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft by S. T. Joshi (2013)
- This text is an exhaustive biography of “The Gentleman from Providence.”
Related Titles
By H. P. Lovecraft
