H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

"There are indeed those who have tried to introduce erotic elements into the framework of a primarily Lovecraftian tale. The results have been absolute failures. Colin Wilson's attempts in particular tend clearly toward catastrophe; there is a constant feeling that the titillating elements have been added merely to draw in a few additional readers. "-- H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (1991) by Michel Houellebecq


“Dear sir,

Having a habit of writing weird, macabre and fantastic stories for my own amusement, I have largely been simultaneously hounded by nearly a dozen wellmeaning friends into deciding to submit a few of these Gothic horrors to your newly founded periodical. Enclosed are five tales written between 1917 and 1923.

Of these the first two are probably the best. If they be unsatisfactory, the rest need not be read…

[…]

I have no idea that these things will be found suitable for I pay no attention to the demands of commercial writing. My object is such pleasure as I can obtain from the creation of certain bizarre pictures, situations, or atmospheric effects; and the only reader I hold in mind is myself. My models are invariably the older writers, especially Poe, who has been my favourite literary figure since early childhood. Should any miracle impel you to consider the publication of my tales, I have but one condition to offer and that is that no excisions be made. If the tale cannot be printed as written, down to the very last semicolon and comma, it must gracefully accept rejection. Excision by others is probably one reason why no living American author has a real prose style… but I am probably safe for my MSS are not likely to win your consideration. ‘Dagon’ has been rejected by Black Mask to which I sent it under external compulsion—much as I am sending you the enclosed.”

--manuscript submission by H. P. Lovecraft to Weird Tales in 1923

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (1991, H. P. Lovecraft : Contre le monde, contre la vie) is a work of literary criticism by French author Michel Houellebecq regarding the works of H. P. Lovecraft. The English-language edition features an introduction by American novelist Stephen King.

In some editions the book also includes two of Lovecraft's best known short stories: "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Whisperer in Darkness."

The study focuses on Lovecraft's xenophobia and masochism.

In this early published work (which he calls his "first novel"), Houellebecq reports having discovered Lovecraft as a teenager and being struck by how each story was, as he describes, "an open slice of howling fear". He reports a fascination with Lovecraft's anti-modernity, what he supposes is Lovecraft's profound hatred of life and philosophical denial of the real world; Houellebecq notes that his works include "not a single allusion to two of the realities to which we generally ascribe great importance: sex and money." He posits Lovecraft as an American existentialist for whom both life and death are meaningless. He also praises what he sees as Lovecraft's rejection of democracy and progressivism.

Also noted is Houellebecq's exegesis of Lovecraft's racial preoccupations, which he traces to a 24-month period Lovecraft lived in the comparatively racially mixed New York City of the 1920s, where, Houellebecq says, Lovecraft learned to take "racism back to its essential and most profound core: fear." He notes the recurring image in Lovecraft's fiction of a mammoth, hideous city teeming with terrifying beings.





Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools