Lovecraft circle critique by Josef Škovercký (comunist era)

[Lobolover]

Published in the czechoslovakia in 1966,writen by a later emigrant.

"And alsoa strange and sometimes wonderfull group of setlers of the true "gothic story" from the thirties,grouped around exc
entric H.P.Lovecraft (found out about Bierce)......

Ambrose Bierce presents the dividing point between the continers of this lowly genre and the line of pesimism of great,recognised literature.

However-one thing diferentiates Bierce from Lovecraft and his colleagues,like August Derleth,Clark Ashton Smith,Robert Bloch or englishmen Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood-the creators of makabrozities of the Lovecraft type achieved horor and the supernatural through evidently strange (as in weird,negatively),almostpsychopatical aspects of their personalities-it were oftentimes hermits,looking for an escape from reality in the world of dreamt-up horrors and falsified mythologies .....

(On Lovecraft)-so a curious old-times lover,a weird exycentrik,living far of from the screaming crowd.

Lovecraft brings up in us an acusation that he believed his "Cthulhu mythos".


Pepole around Lovecraft's Arhkam house clothed the gray reality of common life in multi-colored fabrics of the horros of fancy."

Josef Škvorcký.

God,this pissed me of.
Not only was it at a time when the writer could have never read any of HPL's works,let alone those of Smith,Machen or Blackwood.(I also like how he brings down people that are long acknowledge's masters of clasic horror as inferior to a person who was mainly a humorist)

Also,the evident lack of any true information outside of an encyclopedia reference and a few brief glances at some critiques-I mean,lets sum up the errors

1-"Lovecraft and his colleagues,like August Derleth,Clark Ashton Smith,Robert Bloch or englishmen Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood-" Machen or Blackwood were NEVER colleagues of HPL.

2-"Lovecraft brings up in us an acusation that he believed his "Cthulhu mythos"."-okay,since Lovecraft has stated numerous times his own disbelief and the utter-fiction-ness in numerous leters,this is just laughable
-however the next one is the worst

3.-"Pepole around Lovecraft's Arhkam house clothed the gray reality of common life in multi-colored fabrics of the horros of fancy.""

oh God-"Arkham House" was founded years AFTER Lovecraft DIED,you moron !!!

God,does anyone else think its as horrible as I think it is?

 

[j d worthington]

To be honest, I'm reluctant to give any response without having the entire context here. Yes, there are factual errors and gross misinterpretations, but that's hardly unusual with HPL and his peers, and is due in part to the long-standing myth of HPL being a "hermit", and his admittedly unorthodox life. But even here, where we have long had access to accurate information concerning Lovecraft, such errors are by no means uncommon. Heck, you'll still see people spouting Griswold's gibberish about Poe!

I would, however, be interested in seeing the entirety of this piece, if it's ever been translated.....

 

[Lobolover]

Icould,but that was it,esentialy,it was mostly a oreword about Bierc-the only thiung Ileft out was th statement of Blackwood being
a spiritist,but the rest is complete.

 

[j d worthington]

That being the case, it does seem rather riddled with errors, doesn't it....?

 

[Lobolover]

(damn,my E button and spacebars are messy)

I hated how Lovecrafts eforts and stories are mostly presented as insane or mechanical and being described as a lowered genre and implied to be inferior and without quality.