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A review by dknippling
The Complete H.P. Lovecraft Collection by H.P. Lovecraft
3.0
As far as I can tell, this is everything but the letters (there are some essays pulled from a letter or two at the end). That means it includes some drafts with no punctuation and typos. And juvenalia. This is *not* the best-of collection. I have The Annotated Lovecraft and am working through that. Lovecraft is one of those authors that, unless you have a special interest in, you really want a curated selection of rather than the whole fire hose.
When looking at his work as a whole, some things popped out at me:
--"Once upon a time there was a setting. AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" seems to be the entirety of his plot a great deal of the time. Often it's, "Once upon a time a found a journal that said that once upon a time there was setting, and the author was like, 'AIEEEEEEE!' and I was like that was creepy, but then I realized, 'AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!'"
--The Old Ones are really big germs. Like, look up images of microorganisms.
--Dude hated that which he fears, and dude was afraid of everything.
--"It wasn't my fault; it never would have happened if them damn [insert racial/gender/class epithet here] hadn't made me do it."
It's not just that he was racist. It's that racism is the plot of his stories. One of his plots was, "BECAUSE SHE HAD ONE DROP OF BLACK BLOOD SHE WAS A MONSTER."
Double yay?
He was a master of setting. Unfortunately, when you take look at the whole of his work, it becomes clear that setting was about the sum of his genius. Herbert West is about the only memorable character. I didn't see any plot twists that wouldn't have been around in the pulp era (and that he didn't himself use multiple times). He couldn't write dialog to save his life (or rather he might have been able to write dialog--if he chose to do so--and if he had more than "the main character who is relatively sane and stands in for Lovecraft" and "the character who's kind of nuts" and "look, just don't write in accent anymore" as characters. His research is laughable (ah, yes, a story set in Australia, referring to native magic, and not a word of songlines). His style is hypnotizing (I skimmed a lot and often just fell asleep).
But oh, that setting. When it works, it works.
When looking at his work as a whole, some things popped out at me:
--"Once upon a time there was a setting. AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" seems to be the entirety of his plot a great deal of the time. Often it's, "Once upon a time a found a journal that said that once upon a time there was setting, and the author was like, 'AIEEEEEEE!' and I was like that was creepy, but then I realized, 'AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!'"
--The Old Ones are really big germs. Like, look up images of microorganisms.
--Dude hated that which he fears, and dude was afraid of everything.
--"It wasn't my fault; it never would have happened if them damn [insert racial/gender/class epithet here] hadn't made me do it."
It's not just that he was racist. It's that racism is the plot of his stories. One of his plots was, "BECAUSE SHE HAD ONE DROP OF BLACK BLOOD SHE WAS A MONSTER."
Double yay?
He was a master of setting. Unfortunately, when you take look at the whole of his work, it becomes clear that setting was about the sum of his genius. Herbert West is about the only memorable character. I didn't see any plot twists that wouldn't have been around in the pulp era (and that he didn't himself use multiple times). He couldn't write dialog to save his life (or rather he might have been able to write dialog--if he chose to do so--and if he had more than "the main character who is relatively sane and stands in for Lovecraft" and "the character who's kind of nuts" and "look, just don't write in accent anymore" as characters. His research is laughable (ah, yes, a story set in Australia, referring to native magic, and not a word of songlines). His style is hypnotizing (I skimmed a lot and often just fell asleep).
But oh, that setting. When it works, it works.