![]() Also, and I suppose this was inevitable, current events pushed their way in. Edgar Hoover’s efforts against Communism. The suppression of the Armitage Inquiry took inspiration from J. Real-world American history – there’s a thinly disguised riff on Tammany Hall, for example, only it’s full of Deep Ones. GR-H: Various books on the Stasi and surveillance states. There’s no comforting rationality to retreat to, except in your own delusions, so most people delude themselves into thinking everything’s normal.ĭM: What else has inspired you while writing Cthulhu City? Usually, they’re wilfully unaware – the Mythos isn’t so much hidden as so all-pervasive that you can avoid acknowledging it, because it touches everything. It’s closer to Dark City than Finch, though, in that most people are unaware of the occupation. Finch deals with a city that’s been occupied by the alien fungoid gray caps similarly, Cthulhu City is about a city that’s been occupied by the Mythos. His characters are always fumbling around the edges of something too vast and terrible for their minds and perceptions to wholly encompass, and in their fumbling, they touch something abhorrent and invidious that infects them, drawing them inwards towards that inhuman revelation. It’s a shorthand, and it gets the mood of the place across quickly: ‘You’re trapped in this bizarre city that looks normal on the surface, but is in the thrall of sinister forces, it’s all a bit noir, and your memory may be unreliable’.įinch – and all of VanderMeer’s work – does wonders with the idea of infection and oblique horrors. ‘Take Dark City, chop off the dark bit, stick Cthulhu on instead – that’s the game’. GR-H: Dark City is the elevator pitch reference. How would a familiarity with either prepare players and GMs for engaging with this setting? In some ways, it’s not so much an idea as a cross-section – if you took all of Lovecraft’s cities, Arkham and Innsmouth and Boston, but also R’lyeh and the City of the Elder Things and Carcosa and the marvellous sunset city, mashed them up, and then took a slice of the resulting urban cacophony, that’s Cthulhu City.ĭM: You have mentioned both Alex Proyas’s Dark City (1998) and Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch (2009) as influences for Cthulhu City. I recall describing this fantastical procession wending its way between basalt skyscrapers, and thinking ‘hey, I could do more with this’. There’s a sequence in there where the investigators travel to this bizarre alien city that’s impinging or overlapping on New York. GR-H: It originated as an outgrowth from a scene in another Trail of Cthulhu adventure I wrote a few years ago, ‘Return to Red Hook’ in the Arkham Detective Tales anthology. Find him on twitter interview focuses on the new Trail of Cthulhu supplement, which can be purchased here.ĭM: Can you tell me about how the idea for Cthulhu City first came to you? He co-wrote the epic Dracula Dossier, voted Product of the Year in the 2016 Ennie Awards. He wrote the Darkening of Mirkwood for Cubicle 7's The One Ring: Adventures in Middle-Earth, the Laundry Files Roleplaying Game, new editions of Paranoia and Traveller, and Fear Itself 2nd Edition and Eyes of the Stone Thief among other projects for Pelgrane Press. Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan is a writer and game designer. Looking forward to much more to come.' - Alison J. Supported by Waterstone's Liverpool One and really well organised, Twisted Tales brings together established names in the genre as well as new voices and of course readers. a great way of promoting 21st century horror fiction. ![]() I salute anyone who contributes so much to the literary and cultural life of horror fiction.’- Adam Nevill As an author I've been invited to three of their events and have been pleasantly startled, to near shocked, by the attendance levels - two out of three were even sold out. What really distinguishes Twisted Tales for me is the intelligent themes and investigations they pursue, and the high quality of the discussions they always stimulate. ‘Twisted Tales consistently produce well-organised events for writers and readers of horror. May Twisted Tales continue to grow and prosper! If you love the field, support them! I do.' - Ramsey Campbell I've been involved in quite a few of both and have found them hugely enjoyable and stimulating - I believe the audiences did as well. As well as putting on author readings and signings at bookshops it has expanded into organising larger events, bringing authors and critics together for discussions of the field. 'In the past few years Twisted Tales has become a major force in the promotion and appreciation of horror fiction.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |