View Single Post
Old 11-29-2011, 06:27 PM   #9
JeremyR
Guru
JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
JeremyR's Avatar
 
Posts: 973
Karma: 2458402
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: St. Louis
Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+
I don't know why people are saying he wouldn't be appreciated today - he is more popular now that he ever had been in his lifetime. Not even close. He couldn't even sell out a 500 copy hardback of his stuff.

I also suspect most of his detractors have never really sat down and read Lovecraft carefully. He does frequently "show" in his books, but generally only after a long build up. It really depends on the story - if it's trying to shock you with a description of a monster, that part happens at the end - if there's another twist, that happens at the end and the showing takes place much earlier.

And as to the summarizing thing, I know he did it in some stories, like Re-animator and Lurking Fear, because it was written over many parts for a magazine and he had to re-cap at the start of each episode.

It's also not true that writing styles have changed. For whatever reason, writing/language has more or less frozen around the 1920s (maybe earlier). When HPL sounds archaic, it's because he's deliberately choosing to be tying to set the mood.
JeremyR is offline   Reply With Quote