He may amaze some, but he is not a great writer. Just a good writer with strange ideas.Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandi
He may amaze some, but he is not a great writer. Just a good writer with strange ideas.
I disagree--I think he is a great writer. To me, nothing is creepier than a Lovecraft story. His ability to create dark, atmospheric settings is unequaled.
Except by Poe, Goethe, Borges, Baudelaire, Maupassant, Melville, Emily Bronte, Coleridge, Henry James, Akutugawa.... The list of authors who can do great dark, atmospheric settings and something else is too huge.
Meh. In your opinion.
Yes, Moby Dick is only in my opinion a more impressive monster than Chuthulu monsters, right?
Pretty much, yes. I mean, sure, Moby Dick is a more monumental work than any of Lovecraft's, but Moby Dick a better "monster"? Not to me.
Anyways, I am not saying Lovecrat is necessarily "better" than any author you listed, just that I feel he deserves to be in the same group (though, Melville presides over all in that list). You say he is merely good, I say he is great.
Last edited by Mutatis-Mutandis; 02-13-2011 at 07:21 PM.
Just Melville? Lovecraft is not on the same status as any of those I listed. Either just horror stories or overall stories. If we broad to call all them great, we will call Stoker or Mary Shelley too. And soon, Stephen King...
And Moby Dick? Do anyone outside the genre horror actually know the monster of Lovecraft?
Sense when does popularity matter? More people knowing Moby Dick is somehow proof that he is a better MONSTER than Cthulhu? And since when does status dictate if one truly deserves to be a part of some pointless list?
I really don't care to argue about it. I think Lovecraft's great, you don't. I have stated each time that I THINK he's a great writer. This doesn't carry much weight, obviously not as much weight as your opinions. You've offered nothing but a list and said, "Look, these are better!" Very convincing.
Err...
You asked me if I implied if he is not an amazing writer. So, you cared.
And yes, a pointless list of great writers. If Lovecraft is nowhere near to them, he cannt be a great writer. If Melville is a great writer, as you agreed, and superior to Lovecraft, it is not my opinion, but yours that he does not belong to this list. That simples. Of course, you can change, and broad the definition to a maximun and include several medium writers like Lovecraft.
And it is not my opinion. Lovecraft is just a genre writer. Outside the horror genre he as no importance or influence. His prose is sometimes heavy, today certainly outdated. He can write well, but filling a ship like the Pequod? Not a chance. Turning the white as a color of death? Anyone can reckonize he owns much to Poe and certainly didnt surpassed the other.
No major author is really under his influence either, people writing like him, he goes to some popularity but that is all. Great writers - such as those I listed - do it all. No Lovecraft is not great unless it is very easy to be great, simple because he never achived the influence or aesthetic feats of those who are trully great.
But simple as put, you asked.
Interesting discussion. I have recently come to the conclusion that popular does not necessarily mean an author is a good writer. I think being a good horror writer is a talent unto it's own (niche writing). To be a good writer with a talent for writing horror- than maybe that defines King. On the other hand, the short story sounds so cliche and predictable that I'm not surprised King wrote it. I think he is so popular, because the formulaic structure works for him. (Sorry, if I offended any King fans out there.)
It's not doubtful that King is the most popular and successful writer in history. He beats Dickens by a mile in being more successful. Dickens was enormously popular in his day, but he doesn't approach King in success. By successful I mean the number of books he's sold.
Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientist.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. - Albert Einstein
Then he sold less than Shakespeare. And Dickens may have sold more than him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...iction_authors
Last edited by JCamilo; 02-13-2011 at 09:12 PM.
King has sold more than Shakespeare or Dickens
Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientist.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. - Albert Einstein
[QUOTE=JCamilo;1008498]Err...
You asked me if I implied if he is not an amazing writer. So, you cared. [quote]
True.
I said Melville surpasses all authors on that list, in my opinion. So, if all of them, aside from Melville, are great (including Lovecraft), then Melville is a transcendent, mazing, outstanding, or whichever adjective you would like.
How?
I'm guessing there's proof of this, since you state it as fact.
Opinion.
I have yet to read anything written a long time ago that isn't "dated."
I never said he could. I intimated quote the opposite, actually.
How could you possibly know that? What an ignorant statement.
Unfortunately, I did. Well, not really. I implied, though.
Really, are you really try to take Lovecraft importance out of Horror genre? What remarkable author is under his influence? Stephen King? Neil Gaiman? Robert Howard?
Compare him not to Melville, but Poe, fundamenthal for the short stories, for the american criticism, some influence on poetry. Names like Fernando Pessoa, Machado de Assis, Eliot, Tchekhov, Dostoievisky, Dickens, Borges, Nabokov, Cortazar, Baudelaire, Mallarme, Rimbaud, Paul Valery are under his influence. So, if Poe is a great, what makes Lovecraft? Oh, ok, he transcend the great like Melville, so, you are just stretching the defintion of great. Lovecraft just does not belong to superlatives.
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