![The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre [Paperback]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v9huVVUQkvGqDWP2NyfTGuPV1oYt_p4_axShklgGuR7X4Fp61dkVDkQkM25_dnk-170o_raAXfczt1J45E2G6hiZFm4wOg4tqCBsgJgFlT2dTQkJNMuFVF7Gq5ktvaFC9OJmsfnP0okRXRkBvroSyeQrJVZcFNq7cVg6EtVQ4HmfgRRk0j3XEKvs_binq89yu9Dk7--bPX-B48BkIH7JTS0bkWjDcI=s0-d)
The Truth About H.P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu, and the Necronomicon
About 30 films have been based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Fans, from casual readers to wannabe Cthulhu Cultists, look for books by and about Lovecraft, but it's hard to find decent scholarship about the scholar of Weird Fiction. One of the few books that looks at the works of Lovecraft in an intriguing way is called H.P. Lovecraft and the Modernist Grotesque. This book puts the works of Lovecraft into a literary context that makes sense. Unlike most things about Lovecraft, written by Cthulhu - obsessed fans who believe the Necronomicon is actually the wisdom of the Old Ones, H.P. Lovecraft and the Modernist Grotesque is the Ph.D. Dissertation of an English Professor. He is a literary scholar first and a Lovecraft fan second, which means that he is less liable to fall into the same old patterns of sensationalism, delusions, and biography that overshadows actual literary analysis.
This dissertation could use a minuscule bit of polishing up - a few typos and a misspelled name (Ph.D. Students are under a whole let of pressure), but the foremost thing is that it does things that no other book about Lovecraft does, together with the identifying (and supporting) of a fully new literary type (the Modernist Grotesque), appropriate diagnosis of Lovecraft as a modernist, and specific study of Lovecraft's deconstruction of foremost institutions through saTire and depictions of logical fallacies. This book also discusses fan phenoMena like Cthulhu worshipers, hoax Necronomicon copies, and literary elitists' bias against fear-based fiction. After reading about Lovecraft for years, a have seen very few works that accomplish as much as this one in terms of actually developing an comprehension of Lovecraft's work. Some great biographies exist (Joshi's especially) but not sufficient true, classic literary criticism. In order for Lovecraft to be given the respect he deserves, we need real literary scholars analyzing his work the way they would analyze the work of any other great writer. That's why I like this book so much.
