“Glimpse a universe we cannot truly comprehend”, Letters to Lovecraft Review

Screenshot 2015-08-25 at 9.20.28 AMAllen Stroud from the British Fantasy Society reviewed Letters to Lovecraft. Thanks Allen! You can read the full review here. Allen says,

“Reading ‘Letters’ is a good exercise in identifying and understanding the influence of H. P. Lovecraft on modern horror and in looking at a collection of stories you can see the techniques he pioneered. It is also a good demonstration of how much a writer can still learn from the 1925 essay, ‘Supernatural Horror in Literature’. It also highlights how Lovecraft’s legacy needs to be taken as a whole; both his personal prejudice and ability to project depth; allowing us to glimpse a universe we cannot truly comprehend and through the stories, learn to fear.”

“‘Past Reno’ by Brian Evenson is the first story of the collection and mixes personal character scars with a wider impression of the ritualised rules of our world. Through Bernt, we get an idea that the world functions on a clear set of guidelines, but Bernt’s ignorance of them, the assumption of others that he knows them, and ultimately his rejection of them, leaves us with the idea that they exist. Evenson replicates Lovecraft’s trick of reversing humanity’s quest for knowledge. Instead of journeying to find understanding, a glimpse of understanding is so strange and beyond what we expect that we are terrified by it and flee. This leaves the reader with the glimpse, not with the character or to some extent, the plot.”

“The stories that use Lovecraft’s mythos and style to make a hybrid work are of significant interest and it is here that the collection transcends the pastiche. ‘Allochthon’ by Livia Llewellyn blends macro and microplot, using the signifiers of mental depression to create a truncated narrative that depicts a surreal world of perception. In this, we have the internal and external explanations as expressed by Donaldson and we never know whether Ruth’s end is driven by a glimpse of the true nature of the world, by her own personal trauma or both.”

“There are some prevalent themes; the lingering images and intentional intangibility of Lovecraft features widely, but there are other stories that look to explore his racism, his Cthulhu mythos and more.  As you explore the collection, it is clear a lot of thought has gone into the placement of each story and how it relates to the others.”

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