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poisonenvy's review
I, like most people, was well aware of H.P. Lovecraft's racism going into this book. Even still, H.P. Lovecraft is long dead, so I don't need to worry so much about the things that would make me hesitate to read a still living author with his views. Canterbury Press puts out absolutely beautiful books (honestly, this book is so pretty that I had to buy it even if I didn't especially want to), and so I'm happy to support them, and I'm interested in Lovecraftian horror as a genre and thought I'd look into its roots a little bit.
I was disappointed on multiple levels in this book. First and foremost was, in fact, the racism. H was under the impression that a lot of Lovecraft fans were shocked! Shocked they say!! when they learned that Lovecraft was an unrepentant racist, and so I assumed that whatever his views were, in his writing's they'd be tone down or disguised. How wrong I was. It's very clearly laid out, in the vilest of terms, what he thinks of people who aren't white. It's not subtle, it's not metaphorical. It's there in clear language on the page.
Even aside from the racism, these weren't <i>great</i>. I found myself bored to tears more often than not (yes, even in the early stories of this collection, before they started expressing the clear racism. I read thirteen stories in this collection of 27, and of those thirteen, only four of them had the very clear racism). There were some stories I enjoyed, like "The Music of Erich Zann" but most of them were flops for me.
Included in the 13 stories I read was the novella "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" which, frankly, read like a child with a prodigious vocabulary wrote it. "This happened and then this happened and then this happened and then I talked with the general of the cat arm and then I made friends with a ghoul and then these other guys who were mean to me before became my friend! And they let me ride them!" before it finishes off with a love-letter to Boston (which was, admittedly, beautifully written, and was the one thing in the story that seemed to have any sort of feeling behind it).
Also included in the 13 stories was "The Cats of Ulthar" which was actually delightful and my favourite part of the nearly two weeks I spent with this book.
I was disappointed on multiple levels in this book. First and foremost was, in fact, the racism. H was under the impression that a lot of Lovecraft fans were shocked! Shocked they say!! when they learned that Lovecraft was an unrepentant racist, and so I assumed that whatever his views were, in his writing's they'd be tone down or disguised. How wrong I was. It's very clearly laid out, in the vilest of terms, what he thinks of people who aren't white. It's not subtle, it's not metaphorical. It's there in clear language on the page.
Even aside from the racism, these weren't <i>great</i>. I found myself bored to tears more often than not (yes, even in the early stories of this collection, before they started expressing the clear racism. I read thirteen stories in this collection of 27, and of those thirteen, only four of them had the very clear racism). There were some stories I enjoyed, like "The Music of Erich Zann" but most of them were flops for me.
Included in the 13 stories I read was the novella "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" which, frankly, read like a child with a prodigious vocabulary wrote it. "This happened and then this happened and then this happened and then I talked with the general of the cat arm and then I made friends with a ghoul and then these other guys who were mean to me before became my friend! And they let me ride them!" before it finishes off with a love-letter to Boston (which was, admittedly, beautifully written, and was the one thing in the story that seemed to have any sort of feeling behind it).
Also included in the 13 stories was "The Cats of Ulthar" which was actually delightful and my favourite part of the nearly two weeks I spent with this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia
sofipitch's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
4.0
My enjoyment of Lovecraft depended a lot on the placement of his racism. It's not a surprise or unknown how racist he is but some of the stories his racist beliefs are what inspired the "horror" whereas in other, usually the cosmic horror, it's just sprinkled in the background bc Lovecraft can't resist. I obviously only liked the later. I grew up/ still kind of do, have a fear of the Christian apocalypse, the idea that there's so unstoppable horror that will just happen randomly and is inevitable, and cosmic horror reminded me a lot of that kind of horror. A monster or slasher you can run from, but an ancient god you never know when might strike you cannot.
My favorite stories were: Call of Cthulu, The Dunwich Horror, The Beast in the Cave, The Cats of Ulthar, Dragon, Nyarlathotep, and Herbet West Reanimator.
My favorite stories were: Call of Cthulu, The Dunwich Horror, The Beast in the Cave, The Cats of Ulthar, Dragon, Nyarlathotep, and Herbet West Reanimator.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Body horror, Racism, Xenophobia, and Death
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