"...I unhesitatingly declare H. P. Lovecraft not merely a good writer but a great writer--great in his management of prose, great in his imaginative scope, great in the philosophical and aesthetic underpinnings of his fiction, and great in the effective construction of a tale that allows it to become so compellingly readable."
--S. T. Joshi (in his newest blog)
I've posted this quote in various places; and in one forum, to my dismay, it generated many comments, but almoft all of them discuss Lovecraft's racism rather than those aspects of his writing that convince people that HPL is a good or bad writer. Most of ye online discussions that dismiss HPL as a bad writer do not convince me--it is pointed out, falsely, that Lovecraft couldn't create convincing characters, that he was poor at dialogue, that his prose is overly purple, &c &c; none of which, from my recent study of the Work in my arcs of the Variorum edition (to be published in summer by Hippocampus Press), have much validity or truth.
S. T., in his playfully rude way, has this to say about those online critics: "...my own judgment (derived from reading a fair amount of the great literature in English, Latin, Greek, French, German, and other languages) is that this [ye final paragraph in "The Call of Cthulhu"] is not merely good prose; it is superb prose. I am getting to the point of thinking that anyone who doesn't think Lovecraft a fine prose writer is simply an ignoramus--someone who simply doesn't know anything about prose. It is as if you've put a dunce cap on your head and said to the world, 'I don't know the first thing about good writing.'"
Another blog, by Daniel Maccarthy from September 2013, also discusses this paragraph by Lovecraft:
"H. P. Lovecraft was capable of purple prose, but Peter Damien is wrong to call him a 'godawful writer.' The passage Sam Goldman provides in support of Damien's point actually proves the contrary. Read it out loud to yourself. It's poetry--absolutely lucid, rhythmically perfect:
"Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, again in that chasm of stone which has shielded
him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunk once more, for the Vigilant
sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his ministers on earth still bellow
and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places. He must have
been trapped by the sinking whilst within his black abyss, or else the world would
by now be screaming with fright and frenzy. Who knows the end? What has risen
may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the
deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men. A time will come--but I
must not and cannot think! Let me pray that, if I do not survive this manuscript,
my executors may put caution before audacity and see that it meets no other eye."
"This is artful writing, and if it's melodramatic, that's only appropriate to the genre. Lovecraft thinks carefully about sound, rhythm, and the meaning of his words; not a syllable is wasted here. A paragraph like the one above is packed with literary devices that enhance the reader's enjoyment and even the meaning of the text, without drawing too much attention to themselves--ars celare artem. Consider:
"1.) Consonance, assonance, and internal rhyme:
since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken.
"All the sibilance is signigicant--air is leaking out from something; Cthulhu hisses in his slumber; it's the sound of Satan snoring.
idol capped monoliths in lonely places.
"Note not only the internal rhyme but also the 'I' and 'n' sounds gliding around the key syllables: -ol, -nol, -lon. Mournful, desolate sounds.
caution before audacity
"2.) Alliteration:
whilst within his black abyss, or else the world would by now be screaming with
fright and frenzy.
"Here, too, there's more: alliterative "by" and "be," the rhyming "be" with "screaming."
"3.) The only awkward line in the paragraph is awkward for effect: an emdash and then a struggle for expression "--but I cannot think!'
"4.) Imagery augmented by rhyming recollection:
his ministers on earth still bellow and prance and slay . . . Le me pray
"Very artful, since 'pray' here may mean only 'ask' or more even loosly 'hope,' yet it can't escape its religious connotation. To what or whom does our protagonist pray, and what of use is it to pray when Cthulhu's ministers, not praying meekly but bellowing and prancing, slay?
"Imagery--unseeing/unseen:
Let me pray that, if I do not survive this manuscript, my executors may put
caution before audacity and see that it meets no other eye.
"Note the cinematic effect whereby Lovecraft closes with a concrete noun--an organ, an eye. It's a close-up. The executors will 'see' that this 'other eye' doesn't see the manuscript. The resonance of a 'thing unseen' recalls Cthulhu himself 'within his black abyss' and the 'chasm of stone which has shielded him since the sun was young.' The paragrah begins and ends with life bereft of illumination.
"These are just the more obvious effects Lovecraft has written into a seemingly simple expository paragraph. The sound is deliberate, painstakingly layered, musical, economical. It takes great skill to get that much poetry into clear prose."
It is my belief that most of the wankers who yell that H. P. Lovecraft is a bad writer are Americans, but of this I am uncertain. Lovecraft's stories continue to be a world-wide phenomenon, more popular than ever before, and his Work will certainly outlast the moronic rantings of his detractors.
I post this thread with an idea in the back of my head that most people are growing bored with discussions of Lovecraft and his work; so many people are complaining of being utterly "done" with Lovecraft's fiction, but I wonder how much of his fiction these people have actually read, and when they last actually visited the fiction. However, discussions of Lovecraft's work such as ye above continue to be a rarity on ye Internet, where almoft all the "talk" remains centered on Lovecraft's racism.
