Pickman’s Model by HP Lovecraft
Overall Rating: An Odd Creepy Puzzle That May Entertain Or Disappoint.
Okay this is a short story by HP Lovecraft. actually I don’t think HP Lovecraft wrote anything but short stories. But all the same, this is a tale called Pickman’s Model. And if you have not heard of this author, then I dare you to look up some films that are based off of or influenced by Lovecraftian horror such as Re-animator, Dagon, From Beyond and my personal favorite, In The Mouth Of Madness.
The story starts off with a nameless character telling a story to a friend about a man he knew as Richard Upton Pickman. He was a man who had a creative talent, realistic painting techniques but unfortunately painted paintings of terrifying and morbid images. But while he is constantly rejected, Therber (later on the main character is given a name) is fascinated. Though Picket is considered a monster, evil or cruel, he can not help but be amazed but the realism of it all. Then one day, Pickman says there’s an old house that he goes to where the darkest of images come to him. There also are the most realistic and modern pieces he done. Of course being Picket’s one and only fan, Thurber agrees and follows Picket into his dark world of demonic paintings and underground tunnels. And as he stops into this world, Thurber feels these painting are just something beyond what could be possibly from someone’s imagination.
So the good? Well there’s the detail. Every painting, alleyway and every other detail we can see in our own head. And we can feel Thurber emotions,and what is going through his head through all of this. Also, its quick paced. There’s no mile long build up. We’re in the middle of it and we can see what is happening. It’s creepy.
The bad? I felt that the climax was kind of weak. And I’m shutting up there. I don’t want to spoil anything. That and just fact this is written back in the 1920’s which means more attention to wording than ever.
Then in the middle of good and bad (I know I typically don’t do this but bear with me) is the ending. The ending is not bad. It’s very open ended and in actuality I feel that it didn’t answer questions but left a lot of mystery to what the real meaning behind the paintings may be. And I know there’s a large percentage of people who will say “That’s stupid” or “It didn’t make any sense” and not like the piece. But I’m not one of those people. After reading this, I’m still thinking of what everything meant and piecing it together in my head and finding deeper meaning to it. This piece is asking the author to think. It does so the same way films like Inception or Donnie Darko did. They give you the puzzle to solve and you can only solve if you put more effort into it than reading it alone. If you like mind games, then you know who you are, and the rest of you know you can skip it.
Overall it’s a simple yet creepy piece. I say it’s worth the read, but in the climax, I felt it failed a bit since it seemed to be building up to something big. So I can’t love it. But I do like the idea that it is asking me to piece things together. And late rather thinking about it more. My rating might change. But as of right now anything is average two smoothies out of four.
2 Smoothies out of four
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