S. T. Joshi to Lovecraft's Critics

[hopfrog]

In a delicious new blog (S. T. Joshi - Blog), S. T. continues his defense of Lovecraft's excellence as an author, a matter of great importance to me. When I insist that Lovecraft's work is excellent, I am usually dismiss'd as an eccentric Lovecraft fanboy. S. T. cannot be so dismiss'd.

"...in my own judgment (derived from reading a fair amount of the great literature in English, Latin, Greek, French, German, and other languages) is that this [ye final paragraph from "The Call of Cthulhu"] is not merely good prose; it is superb prose. I am getting to the point of thinking that anyone who doesn't think Lovecraft a fine prose writer is simply an ignoramus--someone who simply doesn't know anything about prose. It is as if you've put a dunce cap on your head and said to the world, 'I don't know the first thing about good writing.'"

"...I unhesitatingly declare H. P. Lovecraft not merely a good writer but a GREAT writer--great in his management of prose, great in his imaginative scope, great in the philosophical and aesthetic underpinnings of his fiction, and great in the effective construction of a tale that allows it to become so compellingly readable. His influence is now perhaps greater than that of Edgar Allan Poe, and on its purely intrinsic merits his work is superior to that of every writer in the history of weird fiction with the possible exception of Ramsey Campbell."

"I wonder why Lovecraft's detractors don't just give up. Their foolish screeds are so easily refuted that there is really no sport in it anymore. And yet, they seem unable to resist the temptation to reveal their ignorance and prejudice for all the world to see."

My one disagreement with ye above is that I firmly consider Thomas Ligotti weird fiction's finest writer. Lovecraft wrote some bad stories; Ligotti has not.