The Loved Dead and Other Revisions in Vampires, Weres and Fae!

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Jul 02, 2016 Roger rated it it was ok

Until I stumbled upon a copy of The Loved Dead I was really unaware that HP Lovecraft had collaborated with various other authors in the course of his career. (Ghost writing Imprisoned with the Pharaohs for Harry Houdini does not count-though interestingly enough the two men did collaborate on other works.) You learn something new everyday-I learned Lovecraft collaborated to a greater or lesser extent with a variety of his contemporaries, and the resulting tales are collected in The Loved Dead. Until I stumbled upon a copy of The Loved Dead I was really unaware that HP Lovecraft had collaborated with various other authors in the course of his career. (Ghost writing Imprisoned with the Pharaohs for Harry Houdini does not count-though interestingly enough the two men did collaborate on other works.) You learn something new everyday-I learned Lovecraft collaborated to a greater or lesser extent with a variety of his contemporaries, and the resulting tales are collected in The Loved Dead. The editors present these stories without any comment so the only way to judge how much of these tales are and are not Lovecraft is to read them-no insight is provided as to the collaborative process though odds are it all took place via the US Postal Service. Technically these stories do seem to take place in the shared universe Lovecraft created called the Cthulhu Mythos, if name dropping a Necronomicon or Nyarlathotep is the price of admission. But for the most part these stories are genuinely awful, whether they are deemed part of the Mythos or not. I was hoping for a few lost Lovecraftian gems but for the most part I was very disappointed. The only standouts are the last five selections in the book-most people will quit reading before they ever get to them. I speculate that Lovecraft's contributions to these stories were heavier-they have an atmosphere the other stories entirely lack. The Night Ocean is especially moody and suggestive, and The Tree on the Hill is classic Lovecraft. But the remainder of the book-these are some terrible stories and it is really almost painful to talk about. There is one story specifically I feel I need to address: Medusa's Coil. Critics have made a lot over the years of the racism inherent in Lovecraft's work-this is something I have never enjoyed or approved of but for the most part I could ignore it, because it seemed a minor part of the whole tapestry. However there is absolutely no way to turn a blind eye to the racism in Medusa's Coil. None. One of the things Lovecraft was famous for was the twist ending-well the twist in Medusa's Coil is ***SPOILER ALERT*** that the true villain of the piece is not some writhing cosmic horror from the abyss or soul destroying Elder God from beyond time and space, but the fact that a black girl has "passed" and married a white man. That's right folks-the true horror is...miscegenation. ***END SPOILER*** Ugh. Again as we really don't know to what extent Lovecraft collaborated with co-author Zealia Bishop we don't know how much of that to lay at his doorstep versus hers. I also know and acknowledge both people were children of their times. In a way it is like criticizing Margaret Mitchell for Gone with the Wind. But it was really saddening to read. ...more

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Jun 13, 2015 Megan Lynn marked it as to-read

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Oct 12, 2016 José Martins marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: wordsworth, weird

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