Lovecraft

It seems a little premature to post about it, but I’m currently reading HP Lovecraft’s 1927 story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward... Had this been another author I might have completed this novella-length short story in one sitting but Lovecraft’s writing demands concentration and progress has been slow but steady. This is perhaps the most remarkable thing I’ve read by Lovecraft, and the most unnerving - the dry biographical style and Lovecraft’s eye for minutiae makes for such immersive reading, at times I forgot I was inside a work of fiction. In that sense, the story is comparable I think to The Blair Witch Project - the way the film was peppered with those little moments of “truth” that made it such a powerful viewing experience. I look forward to seeing The Haunted Palace (which I've not seen) upon completion of the Lovecraft story...

For all the praise I heap upon Lovecraft, I must temper that with Lovecraft’s racism which is evident throughout his work. I don’t have my Lovecraft books on hand now to cite examples, but the author’s notion of racial impurity of African-Americans (he frequently mentions the word “mongrel” in this context) makes for very problematic reading. One might say that such an attitude was emblematic of the times Lovecraft lived in but I can’t leave him off the hook that easily. It is however something that makes me want to tackle S.T. Joshi’s two-volume Lovecraft biography to find out more about the man and the socio-economic conditions that shaped his thinking. This also raises the thorny question of why continue to read Lovecraft (or watch The Birth of a Nation), and in my heart of hearts I will answer that the good outweighs the bad, but it’s a position I’m not entirely comfortable with…