Lovecraft References

While Lovecraft's greater ideas surrounding the mythos are public domain, a lot of the specific terms (such as Cthulhu) are trademarked by Chaosium, the Call of Cthulhu games folks. And they like to throw that copyright around.

The rest of it ... Well, it's one big cluster of confusion. I'd err on the side of caution and just make up a similarly creepy New England town to avoid any trouble down the road.

All of Lovecraft's work are in the public domain and haave been for some time. If you make a game that infringes, that might be a different matter. Bu authors have been referring to Lovecraft's works since before he died. If you are concerned , then ask the game people.

JustinlDew said:

Thanks. I definitely don't want to get into a legal battle, so name change it is.

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Lovecraft liked the idea of people working within his mythos, and gave expressed permission for people to do just that.

"All [Lovecraft] works published before 1923 are public domain in the U.S. However, there is some disagreement over who exactly owns or owned the copyrights and whether the copyrights apply to the majority of Lovecraft's works published post-1923."[1]

Here is a list if you want to know what was published when. Arkham was first mentioned in "Herbert West–Reanimator," which was published before 1923.

Lovecraft himself borrowed themes from earlier works like The King In Yellow(Robert W. Chambers), mentioned in his stories.

I believe I've read a similar thread in the horror subforum--you might be interested in looking there.

Dryad said:

I believe I've read a similar thread in the horror subforum--you might be interested in looking there.

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You're right; a quick such of the keyword "copyright" in the Horror section pulled up this thread:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=235684

Except if you use "Arkham" you are summoning a certain tone into the mind of the reader without further explanation.

Since the OP says they want to have a quick reference to something in the past of the characters that is meant to evoke a certain response in the reader without further legwork on their part, it sounds like using overt Lovecraft references is a good idea.

Otherwise you'll be stuck trying to makeup words that kinda sound like the tone you're trying to set. I am having a problem like that in my story. I want the name of the main human city to evoke a very very venerable and decrepit feeling, but I am having trouble making a name that does that.

I started with "Old as Stone" and ended up with "Oldestrom " or "Aulderstone" and I don't really know if either name does what I want it to do, or which is better at it. I could just break down and call it "Babylon V" or something, but...

Alessandra Kelley said:

Arkham is fictional, but as a youngster it bugged me because it was plopped right over the real town of Ipswich, an unobjectional small town on the coast of Cape Anne north of Boston.

You could just use real towns.

Or make up your own using local naming conventions. Miskatonic University, after all, was named after the Housatonic River.

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Arkham is Salem. You may be thinking of Innsmouth, which is either Essex or Ipswich. I think that Essex is in the right place, because one can see Glouscester from Exsse4x but not from Ipswich.

I believe that Miskatonic could have been one of the Indian names for the Charles River, into which two broooks named Misko flow, as there are two Hoosac Rivers that feed the Housatonic River. BTW, Harvard University is on the banks of the Charles River.

You could invent plausible town names by using that of any English town, especially coastal ones, or by using words from a Massachusetts-area Algonquian Tribe such as the Wampanoag (I am not sure whether Lovecraft did not just make up his Indian-sounding names, but why not do the man one better?).

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But you are right. There are plenty of real towns that wouldn't b able to sue if you used the name.