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Terrible, well renowned novelists
WriterofAllWrongs:
That joke was pretty cornea.
kraemandrummer:
--- Quote from: KharBevNor on 07 Oct 2009, 19:22 ---So you read pulp short stories HP Lovecraft wrote when he was like 20 and you think he's a shit novelist.
Okay whatever works for you I guess.
Also he never even wrote any novels.
--- End quote ---
kay I'm sorry I mentioned a short story writer. I never claimed he was a novelist. I apologize for thinking that we could branch out to other forms of writing (also I kinda forgot that it was novelists, I was going for writers in general :P)
and The Shadow over Innsmouth was one of the last stories he wrote (age 41), it was included in the collection. So it isn't just his early stuff. I admit that a large amount of the stuff in this collection is, but not all of it. And the date really has nothing to do with it, I like "The White Ship", it's an early release.
AND I said I found his horror to be rather repetitive. I also said that I enjoyed his other stuff immensely. I never said that he was a completely awful writer. I just didn't like the way he approached his horror stories. It seemed kinda like a cut and paste job.
As I said with Slaughter-house 5, I plan on reading more Lovecraft before I make a final judgement. Maybe my first impression is wrong.
So please, don't get angry or insulting because I disagree with you about an author.
rynne:
--- Quote from: kraemandrummer on 14 Oct 2009, 04:45 ---kay I'm sorry I mentioned a short story writer. I never claimed he was a novelist. I apologize for thinking that we could branch out to other forms of writing (also I kinda forgot that it was novelists, I was going for writers in general :P)
and The Shadow over Innsmouth was one of the last stories he wrote (age 41), it was included in the collection. So it isn't just his early stuff. I admit that a large amount of the stuff in this collection is, but not all of it. And the date really has nothing to do with it, I like "The White Ship", it's an early release.
AND I said I found his horror to be rather repetitive. I also said that I enjoyed his other stuff immensely. I never said that he was a completely awful writer. I just didn't like the way he approached his horror stories. It seemed kinda like a cut and paste job.
--- End quote ---
Man, see, the thing about Lovecraft is that the horror isn't meant to be scary in the sense of, Oh there are evil monsters who want to kill us AAHHHHHH! It's more nihilistic than that. The point of his later stories is that what we think of as the world is an insignificant speck in the cosmos, and there are forces out there (which he depicts as his Great Old Ones) that could blindly and arbitrarily destroy the entire history of humanity at any moment. His protagonists can no more comprehend or oppose the beings they come across than they could comprehend or oppose, say, our sun's eventual engulfment of the earth.
Incidentally, if you like "The White Ship," you'll probably like the early works of Lord Dunsany, particularly The Gods of Pegana. Others: link 1 link 2 link 3
kraemandrummer:
--- Quote from: rynne on 14 Oct 2009, 14:43 ---
Man, see, the thing about Lovecraft is that the horror isn't meant to be scary in the sense of, Oh there are evil monsters who want to kill us AAHHHHHH! It's more nihilistic than that. The point of his later stories is that what we think of as the world is an insignificant speck in the cosmos, and there are forces out there (which he depicts as his Great Old Ones) that could blindly and arbitrarily destroy the entire history of humanity at any moment. His protagonists can no more comprehend or oppose the beings they come across than they could comprehend or oppose, say, our sun's eventual engulfment of the earth.
Incidentally, if you like "The White Ship," you'll probably like the early works of Lord Dunsany, particularly The Gods of Pegana. Others: link 1 link 2 link 3
--- End quote ---
I understood the implications of his stories. From Beyond made that extremely obvious. It's not the stories themselves, or their message I have a problem with. It's the way they were written. He certainly created some astounding ideas. But it takes more than a good idea to make a good writer.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll take a look. I also bought another Lovecraft short story collection recently, we'll see if I change my mind.
rynne:
Fair enough. I will not argue that his prose is not exactly the most readable thing in the world.
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