The book deals mainly with HPL and classicism. It sort of enlarges on George Wetzel's earlier, rudimentary efforts in this direction. Chapter One deals with HPL and Arcadian imagery; ch. 2 deals with insect and bee imagery; chapter 3 deals with HPL and the Theseus myth; ch. 4 deals with HPL and Leucothea and Palaemon; and ch. 5 deals with HPL and Demeter/the Great Goddess.

[www.mcfarlandpub.com]

Just pre-ordered on Amazon. There's another book that looks interesting: NEW CRITICAL ESSAYS ON H. P. LOVECRAFT, edited by David Simmons. It's an hefty $70. Jason Brock mentioned it at the site for his journal, NAMELESS, and has this to report: "It's from mainstream publisher Palgrave MacMillan--who have saddled it not only with a hideous cover but also with the eyebrow-raising claim that it's...'the first scholarly study of its kind.'" Your book sounds a bit less pretentious, Gavin. Looking forward to devouring it.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

wilum pugmire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> with the eyebrow-raising
> claim that it's...'the first scholarly study of
> its kind.'"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gavin Callaghan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The book deals mainly with HPL and classicism. It
> sort of enlarges on George Wetzel's earlier,
> rudimentary efforts in this direction. Chapter
> One deals with HPL and Arcadian imagery; ch. 2
> deals with insect and bee imagery; chapter 3 deals
> with HPL and the Theseus myth; ch. 4 deals with
> HPL and Leucothea and Palaemon; and ch. 5 deals
> with HPL and Demeter/the Great Goddess.
>
> [www.mcfarlandpub.com]
> 64-7079-2
congrats on the publication gavin

I'll add my congratulations, and look forward to reading it. I'm very glad to see someone tackling this aspect of HPL in detail; while it is often mentioned, and a certain amount of attention has been paid to it, I think there is a tremendous amount of work to be done, and I'm delighted that it is being done by someone who, however much I may disagree with some of your points or conclusions at times, is so attentive to detail and willing to examine these things from various angles.

jdworth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'll add my congratulations, and look forward to
> reading it. ..and I'm delighted that
> it is being done by someone who, however much I
> may disagree with some of your points or
> conclusions at times, is ...willing to examine these things from various
> angles.

canlonan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

congrats on the publication gavin

wilum pugmire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just pre-ordered on Amazon.

Very gracious all of you, thanks. An open mind is all I can ask. We'll see how it goes. I'm working on the proofs now. Didn't receive them until April 19th. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute.

Am having a hard time with the proofreading. Is the word Devil rightly capitalized, or lowercase? Am also having a similar problem with the word Cyclopean. HPL capitalized it, but is that correct? Any advice would be appreciated----- I'd like to have it constant throughout the book, so the effect isn't jarring on the reader---

Gavin...

Devil: if referring to Satan, aka the Devil, it is capitalised; otherwise, if to devils, aka a devil, it is lowercase.

Cyclopean is capitalised as it refers to the Cyclopes, the race of beings referenced in Greek mythology and epic.

Generally: when quoting Lovecraft, follow his usage. Where, for example, "The Colour out of Space" has appeared as "Color" it's probably a safe bet to either use sic in square brackets, or to add a footnote.

You may need to confirm with the publisher regarding their style guide. To be safe I'd ask, and use it for all bar quoted texts. I know a number of Australian academic publishers stipulate style guides to be followed, so check this, ok?

*****

In general comments, I look forward to reading your book. I hope it will be the start of a detailed conversation between us anent Lovecraft's Classicism, especially regarding that of his poetry.

Phillip

Congrats Gsvin - it looks like an interesting and original area of study

phillipAellis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gavin...
>
> Devil: if referring to Satan, aka the Devil, it is
> capitalised; otherwise, if to devils, aka a devil,
> it is lowercase.
>
> Cyclopean is capitalised as it refers to the
> Cyclopes, the race of beings referenced in Greek
> mythology and epic.
>
> Generally: when quoting Lovecraft, follow his
> usage. Where, for example, "The Colour out of
> Space" has appeared as "Color" it's probably a
> safe bet to either use sic in square brackets, or
> to add a footnote.
>
> You may need to confirm with the publisher
> regarding their style guide. To be safe I'd ask,
> and use it for all bar quoted texts. I know a
> number of Australian academic publishers stipulate
> style guides to be followed, so check this, ok?
>
> *****
>
> In general comments, I look forward to reading
> your book. I hope it will be the start of a
> detailed conversation between us anent Lovecraft's
> Classicism, especially regarding that of his
> poetry.
>
> Phillip


Retaining the author's usage is a basic tenet of the work of the editor - footnote it if you think it useful, however, historically (and particularly the inheritors of the school masters of the 19th century pedagogy) various periods have favored certain words - Philip's analysis is correct -

Gavin Callaghan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The book deals mainly with HPL and classicism. It
> sort of enlarges on George Wetzel's earlier,
> rudimentary efforts in this direction. Chapter
> One deals with HPL and Arcadian imagery; ch. 2
> deals with insect and bee imagery; chapter 3 deals
> with HPL and the Theseus myth; ch. 4 deals with
> HPL and Leucothea and Palaemon; and ch. 5 deals
> with HPL and Demeter/the Great Goddess.
>
> [www.mcfarlandpub.com]
> 64-7079-2

A welcome volume. Hoping someone will also eventually look at the 18th century influences on Lovecraft's prose. Dunsany's and Poe's influence have been explored, but when you look at the essay-like openings to "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Colour out of Space" or "The Dunwich Horror" or the clarity and restraint used in the description of such indescribable events as the emergence of Cthulhu, it is difficult not to think of the balance sought and achieved by John Dryden, Alexander Poper, Samuel Johnson, and others in prose and poetry.

The key line in "The Call of Cthulhu" - "After vigintillions of years great Cthulhu was loose again, and ravening for delight." - is so well-balanced, so memorable, and so suffused with implication that I doubt even Alexander Pope could have matched it, and yet that odd little phrase "ravening for delight" is precisely the sort of commixture we might expect of Pope (or John Keats) - a phrase that seems disjunct at first, perhaps even bathetic, but soon seems perfectly apt and ineradicable from memory.

jimrockhill2001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> A welcome volume. Hoping someone will also
> eventually look at the 18th century influences on
> Lovecraft's prose. Dunsany's and Poe's influence
> have been explored, but when you look at the
> essay-like openings to "The Call of Cthulhu", "The
> Colour out of Space" or "The Dunwich Horror" or
> the clarity and restraint used in the description
> of such indescribable events as the emergence of
> Cthulhu, it is difficult not to think of the
> balance sought and achieved by John Dryden,
> Alexander Poper, Samuel Johnson, and others in
> prose and poetry.
>
> The key line in "The Call of Cthulhu" - "After
> vigintillions of years great Cthulhu was loose
> again, and ravening for delight." - is so
> well-balanced, so memorable, and so suffused with
> implication that I doubt even Alexander Pope could
> have matched it, and yet that odd little phrase
> "ravening for delight" is precisely the sort of
> commixture we might expect of Pope (or John Keats)
> - a phrase that seems disjunct at first, perhaps
> even bathetic, but soon seems perfectly apt and
> ineradicable from memory.


Not to toot my own horn, but the forthcoming book on Lovecraft and Influence -- in which Gavin is also represented, if I understand correctly -- has an essay I wrote on this topic. Unfortunatey, the constraints of space (5000 words) doesn't allow of the sort of in-depth examination we're talking about here, but I do take a look at several of the writers of the period, and attempt to show examples not only of direct stylistic influences (including similar passages, usage, etc.) but also how they may have influenced some of the themes and philosophy of his work.


[www.amazon.com]

I'm quite interested in Gavin's entry here, as well.

As for that comment about "the first scholarly study of its kind"... it depends on what they mean, I suppose. Perhaps of its particular type, yes; but in a more general sense, there have been a huge number of very scholarly works on Lovecraft, academic and otherwise, several of which are really very good, fascinating and even entertaining....

"Scholarly study" means something written by academics, i.e., people affiliated with universities.

Jojo Lapin X Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Scholarly study" means something written by
> academics, i.e., people affiliated with
> universities.

Even taking such a strictly literal view (which is seldom the case in such comments), there have been no few of those, from Timo Airaksinen's book on HPL and philosophy to Donald Burleson's general survey and his deconstructionist criticism to the various master's and Ph.D.'s theses to Barton L. St. Armand's two slender but "meaty" volumes to Robert H. Waugh's work to....

As I said, it may be the particular sort of thing this is, but even here, if I am reading the blurb correctly, not all the writers represented here are academics, either, but rather a broader spectrum; in which case, this doesn't apply, either, as academics and non-academics have been represented in other anthologies of Lovecraftian criticism (A Century Less a Dream; Four Decades of Criticism; An Epicure in the Terrible). In any event, this seems at best a rather untenable statement....

I'm with you regarding your scepticism of that claim, J. D. Especially since, if it refers to a collection of our contemporaries' papers, for example, we have Epicure, and so on.

Speaking of the book on HPL's influence, I had submitted an unsuccessful abstract proposing a study of Lovecraft's influence on subsequent poets. Ah well.

Back to Gavin's book: I look forward to it with particular attention, given my slow-moving study of Lovecraft's aesthetic thought. At the moment I await the Toldridge letters with avidity, since they form a central outlet of his poetic theories, and since I have developed a fondness for Miss Toldridge. I know many like her, and she strikes me as a lonely individual.

Thanks Phillip-----

When I quote from HPL, I follow his usage as to Cyclopean being capitalized. But when I used the word, I noticed I had it lowercased. Is that allowable? I'll leave a note in the proofs for my copy editor, and see what they say.

My copy editor objected to my use of the word "primitive" throughout my text, however: saying that it was insensitive/pejorative to savage tribes (!), so I don't know if I can trust their opinions! I ended up replacing the word "primitive" with "archaic" in most of the text.

jdworth wrote:
------------------------------------

>Unfortunatey, the constraints of space (5000 words) doesn't allow of the sort of in-depth examination we're talking about here, but I do take a look at several of the writers of the period,

I know. The space constraints for that anthology killed me, as well. I ended up having to cut down a 65-page essay (plus 65 pages of appendices) to 24 pages or so. Even that went over the allotment, I know. But I begged and begged and Waugh relented. I'm kind of the opposite of an intellectual bully. An intellectual whiner?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 28 Apr 13 | 04:39PM by Gavin Callaghan.