Re: New edition of HPL from Oxford University Press
Posted by:
Platypus (IP Logged)
Date: 30 April, 2014 06:56PM
wilum pugmire Wrote:
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> This is perhaps why he insisted, when
> first submitting his stories to WEIRD TALES, that
> the stories be printed EXACTLY as Lovecraft wrote
> them.
Joshi-ites like to say this as though it somehow proves that Lovecraft hated the WEIRD TALES versions, and was therefore eager for Joshi to make changes to them. Sounds like a non-sequitur to me.
What Pugmire does not tell you is that WEIRD TALES printed this letter in their letters column, announced to their readers that they would comply with HPL's conditions. After DAGON appeared in the next issue, HPL wrote another letter to WEIRD TALES stating that he was "exceedingly pleased" with it. WEIRD TALES printed that letter too.
Then, after telling them he was "exceedingly pleased" with DAGON (shortened American spellings and all) he continued to submit many many tales to them thereafter.
> Now Whelan has this ignorant idea that
> because the WT texts were printed during
> Lovecraft's lifetime, they represent absolutely
> his wishes.
Pugmire means me, Platypus. However, I have never held such an idea. In many cases the pulp printings are NOT his final wishes, and he made later corrections and/or revisions to them, either because of mistakes, or because he changed his mind. Derleth often had access to these corrected copies, which is why I take Derleth's texts seriously as sources. Derleth may have had information that we now lack.
> Whelan took Ramsey Campbell to task
> for Ramsey's
It is really poor form to import disputes from another forum.
> "It's a bit sad that your
> version of 'The Rats in the Walls' improperly
> anticipates the climax by having its modern
> American narrator resort to archaisms (like 'shew'
> and 'daemon')
Actually, the only corruption of this type in "THE RATS IN THE WALLS" is "shew". The other word is rendered in WEIRD TALES as "dæmon" (with a conjoined "æ" or "ash-symbol). I had momentarily confused the tale with THE MOON-BOG, another tale featuring a modern American narrator, which uses "show" and "demon". Both stories survive ONLY through the WEIRD TALES printings (yes, even the Joshi texts are based on them, and hence, when they use "shew" it is an innovation).
I don't think British versus American spellings is usually an issue. However, "shew" and the like are archaisms, and it should always be the authors choice whether to use them or not - because they have an artistic effect. For instance, in this case, it is supposed to come as a shock to the reader when the narrator (a modern American businessman) suddenly starts using archaic British idiom during the climax of the story. Having him say "shew" throughout dilutes this.
A possible explanation of the absence of surviving manuscripts or typescripts for certain tales may comes from the following letter to Barlow, dated [Nov 13] 1933: "I haven't originals of 'Pickman', 'Cthulhu' & 'Colour', for I've always torn up rough draughts as soon as I get a printed copy of the equivalent text for my files."
> When I pointed out
> that "shew" was Lovecraft's consistent choice of
> spelling, , Whelan screamed
LOL!! I am surprised that you could hear me screaming from so far away!
Anyhow, after I had finished screaming, I did point out that you were incorrect. Lovecraft used both "show" and "shew", and usually reserved "shew" for archaic contexts. For instance, in his writings in the UNITED AMATEUR, a magazine which HE EDITED HIMSELF, the verb "show" & its variants appear 72 times, and the verb "shew" etc. appear only 7 times, at least 5 of which are in an archaic or poetic context.
> The narrator for "The
> Colour out of Space" is also an American, yet he
> uses "colour," "shewn," "meagre,"
> "greying/greyish" and "shewed" in his narrative,
> including the final speech of the simple American
> farmer, Nahum.
Several points to make:
[1] The narrator is never identified. We never even learn his name. He is an out-of-towner, come to Arkham and New Hampshire for a surveying job. In the source texts, he uses a mix of British and American spelling (see below).
[2] I do not think that British versus American spellings is an issue. I never claimed that Joshi's RATS IN THE WALLS was corrupt for using British spelling. I objected to imposing an archaism ("shew") on a text where HPL had evidently chosen not to use it.
[3] The narrator never uses "shew" or its derivatives in any of the source texts for "The Colour out of Space". Note that the Derleth text closely follows the WEIRD TALES texts with some errors corrected, and must be based either on a corrected copy of the magazine print, or on the same typescript that the magazine print was prepared from. Derleth's text never says "shew" either, though it was his habit to preserve such variants when he found them. The only possible conclusion is that "show" was HPL's choice here. To my knowledge, "shew" never appeared in any version of "The Colour out of Space" until Joshi came along. If it appeared in earlier drafts, HPL himself destroyed these drafts deliberately. As HPL told Barlow, he tore up the manuscript (and probably the typescript) once he had a printed copy.
[4] The narrator actually uses a mix of spellings in the Derleth and magazine texts. Yes, he uses "meagre" and "colour" and "grey"; also "recognize", "analyze", "connection", "fetid", and "demon". He uses both "realise" and "realize", "neighbour" and "neighboring". Neither Derleth nor the magazine seems to have standardized the spelling - both merely seemed to have followed their source, resulting in an inconsistent, pattern very similar to that we see in HPL's own writings in THE UNITED AMATEUR, which he edited himself. But it is always "show"; never "shew".
> The consistency of this preference
> for British spelling is one of the aspects
> retained in all of Joshi's Lovecraft texts.
Consistency of spelling is an aspect of the Joshi texts. However, HPL, rather like a true man of the 18th century, did not seem to give a darn for consistency of spelling.
He may have been a bit embarrassed by his tendency for inappropriate archaism. He wrote to Barlow in 1927: "The earliest tale that I continue to take seriously - The Beast in the Cave was written at the age of fourteen; & even this will have to be revised extensively before it can be published. My style in those days was a pompous Johnsonese, for I am an antiquarian by nature, & never used to read a modern book if I could possibly find anything with long S's to take its place".
Joshi, of course, decided to remove the revisions HPL had already made, in an attempt to reconstruct the version he wrote when he was 14.
Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 30 Apr 14 | 07:23PM by Platypus.