Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx
I don't know about ... dull ... (unless you also think H.G. Wells, Burroughs, and Jules Verne were dull writers -- which means you just don't like the writing style of pulp fiction from the 19th and early 20th century?) but he was trying to describe the indescribable from the point of view of people slowing going insane....
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I think there's a big difference between the prose of Lovecraft and of Wells or Burroughs. He really doesn't have much sense either of the rhythm of prose or of the appropriate level of detail in an exposition. He overdoes almost everything, and packs too many adjectives together in his long, wandering sentences. He's simply hard to read. His prose is more like a second-rate version of the 19th century Henry James than it is like a 20th century Burroughs. There's a reason he was so much less popular than Wells or Burroughs in his own time. But you make a good point about him trying to describe the indescribable. That's what's great about him.
On the other hand, the long complex sentences might sound normal in Japanese, lol.