Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[The Darknight Detective]

Mary Shelley

Her, Bram Stoker, Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert W. Chambers, Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Mathew Lewis, Sheridan Le Fanu, Nathaniel Hawthorne... that's just off the top of my head. Having said that. Lovecraft was king of horror before Stephen King in the 20th century (though nowhere near as popular as the guy from Maine during his lifetime) and deserving of the honor, IMO.

[TriggerWarning]

Her, Bram Stoker, Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert W. Chambers, Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Mathew Lewis, Sheridan Le Fanu, Nathaniel Hawthorne... that's just off the top of my head. Having said that. Lovecraft was king of horror before Stephen King in the 20th century (though nowhere near as popular as the guy from Maine during his lifetime) and deserving of the honor, IMO.

Whoever wrote Beowulf which is probably the first horror novel ever written.

[Gray Lensman]

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley is typically overlooked as a horror writer since it is generally considered that Frankenstein was the very first science fiction novel ever written and that is what tends to get the press. Writing an early piece of genre fiction isn't going to have the influence that creating an entirely new genre will.

[TriggerWarning]

Mary Shelley is typically overlooked as a horror writer since it is generally considered that Frankenstein was the very first science fiction novel ever written and that is what tends to get the press. Writing an early piece of genre fiction isn't going to have the influence that creating an entirely new genre will.

Its not even close to first. Many just want to say its first in order to give credit to a female writer.

Around 200 AD, Lucian of Samosota wrote a novel called "A True Story" which is about fantastical creatures, aka aliens, battles on the moon, gods, etc. Its different from normal mythology in that it literally features going to outerspace and fighting in space and on the moon. It also goes into how life on the moon is different than life on Earth. This puts its completely into the Sci Fi realm rather than just being greek mythology.

There is also a novel in the 16th century called the Chemical Wedding that is considered Sci Fi.

[Gray Lensman]

Its not even close to first. Many just want to say its first in order to give credit to a female writer.

Around 200 AD, Lucian of Samosota wrote a novel called "A True Story" which is about fantastical creatures, aka aliens, battles on the moon, gods, etc. Its different from normal mythology in that it literally features going to outerspace and fighting in space and on the moon. It also goes into how life on the moon is different than life on Earth. This puts its completely into the Sci Fi realm rather than just being greek mythology.

There is also a novel in the 16th century called the Chemical Wedding that is considered Sci Fi.

It depends on how tight or loose you want to define the term - the loosest definition allows for the Epic of Gilgamesh (yes, really) to qualify as part of the genre, while somewhat tighter ones cite Kepler's Somnium (Sagan and Asimov cite this one), but Frankenstein is where all the proto-scifi elements finally come together, complete with science being the MacGuffin that starts the story, rather than fantastic elements like 'stuff/will of the gods' or other variants of 'a wizard did it' being involved.

[batnbreakfast]

Whoever wrote Beowulf which is probably the first horror novel ever written.

You probably win. I thought about writers predating HPL and remembered MShelley, E.T.A. Hofmann and Bram Stoker but Stoker's Dracula isn't the first Vampyre there's an early Penny Dreadful called Barnaby the Vampire.

[Gray Lensman]

You probably win. I thought about writers predating HPL and remembered MShelley, E.T.A. Hofmann and Bram Stoker but Stoker's Dracula isn't the first Vampyre there's an early Penny Dreadful called Barnaby the Vampire.

Pliny the Younger has a ghost story to his credit.

[jetengine]

I just said Shelley cause it was the first to come to mind

[numberthirty]

While I get that Lovecraft ain't for everybody, dude was like The Ramones of writing horror.

A whole bunch of folks looked at it, and said "Heck, I Can Do That..."

[batnbreakfast]

While I get that Lovecraft ain't for everybody, dude was like The Ramones of writing horror.

A whole bunch of folks looked at it, and said "Heck, I Can Do That..."

Without Lovecraft REHoward's Conan, Batman and Hellboy would be a lot less cool. His Old Ones/Cthulhu stuff is something not everyone could have come up with for me.

[Agent Z]

Grimdark and edgy is just another pejorative online geeks use to describe something they hate.

[ed2962]

I watched the Ricky Gervais Golden Globe monologue and it wasn't anywhere near as eviscerating and some people seem think it was. Do people think comedians have never made fun of Hollywood at awards shows before?

[jetengine]

Grimdark and edgy is just another pejorative online geeks use to describe something they hate.

Not particularly. Its a term used for products that try to act mature but do so in the most immature way possible that tends to stretch disbelief.

[WillieMorgan]

I watched the Ricky Gervais Golden Globe monologue and it wasn't anywhere near as eviscerating and some people seem think it was. Do people think comedians have never made fun of Hollywood at awards shows before?

It was a tad overblown, as were the first four times he hosted them. This could well be set to music though:

“If you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.. So, if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent, and your god, and f--k off....”

[Jim Kelly]

Ricky Gervais says stuff to get a laugh. That's the point. I doubt he genuinely believes in most of the things he's saying. He's playing a character on the stage that gets a laugh from the off-colour things that come out of his mouth. It's all in good fun.

I really don't believe he wants the winners to make safe, short acceptance speeches--it would make the program too boring and leave comedians with a shortage of material to poke fun at. And do we want to say that, because everyone has skeletons in their closets, we should all just keep shtum about every bad thing that we see in the world? What a terrible existence that would be.