H.P. Lovecraft: Good Writer

The Black Gate's Matthew David Surridge has weighed in on an aged debate regarding H.P. Lovecraft's writing style - particularly his heavy adjectival usage. Surridge recounts the lengthy and controversial history behind analyzing Lovecraft's style, and then adds his own opinion, strongly against those who claim HPL tales are too "overwritten," or worse. Indeed, Surridge's defense is a welcome one, especially in an age where authors who dared to give their sentences more than a dozen syllables seem more threatened than ever.

Notwithstanding the small, but devoted circles of weird fiction admirers and several other literary circles, 21st century readers have lived in an era where pithy phrases and abbreviated techno-babble endanger the written word. Lovecraft's long, complicated, and excruciatingly constructed passages already came under assault in his own time, victims of the author's zeal for outmoded literary forms. Critics, and even successors who added to the Cthulhu Mythos, have been less kind in the decades since his death. Perhaps the circular firing squad in niche horror has so thoroughly wounded participants in the debate over Lovecraft's legacy that there is now a push back beginning?

Mr. Surridge's article is not the only defense of Lovecraft's writing to appear in recent years. In fact, an increasingly bold vanguard now holds that Lovecraft's style was not just acceptable, but something unique and marvelous. This view accepts Lovecraft as a visionary in all his literary aspects, not just his ideas, forming a more complete appreciation of the Providence writer's genius.

Any age may not be defined by its extremes, but when one pole materializes, there will always be another. So it is in weird fiction, where the savage attacks on Lovecraft's prose have generated their antithesis in those who say, without pausing to tremble, that H.P. Lovecraft is a great writer. And it looks increasingly like the current trend in publishing may be linking up with Lovecraft's grassroots defenders. Certainly, HPL's increased popularity through viral online campaigns accounts for some the rise in new books containing his fiction. But this alone does not explain why he enjoys a wider readership than ever.

Library of America's 2005 edition formed a major coup in literature.

It is not just the greater quantity of new editions this past decade that matters, but the quality. H.P. Lovecraft has significantly broadened acknowledgment by established literary publishers of his importance. Logically, this could not have occurred if his writing were not compelling, and that means in more ways than one. No one wants to read badly constructed or over-written dribble, even if there are revolutionary concepts and impressive imagery hidden within. Outfits like the Library of America have re-published Lovecraft's (see H.P. Lovecraft: Tales) work because it turns a profit, and because reading his tales is an enthralling, unsettling, and mind rending experience.

Money talks, as does prestige, and in the case of Howard Philips Lovecraft, they drown their shrieks together, to sing a macabre and honorary dirge to a great writer. Lovecraft has secured his place in literary history thanks to subject matter that remains weirdly unique. Could any of this have happened if he were not a master engineer, adept at shaping conduits for his weirdness through the power of his words, finely built tunnels with a darkly enchanting glow that can draw in unsuspecting readers? You already know the answer, as do I.

-Grim Blogger