Or, make that a self-identified “recovering Derleth-hater.”
The “recovering” bit is important to the story.
Deuce Richardson kind of tag-teamed with Morgan Holmes yesterday and also put up a birthday post in tribute to August Derleth, of Arkham House, Mycroft & Moran, and others. He’s another guy whose eyes were opened by John D. Haefele’s A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos.
Like I was saying, one of the most influential litcrit reassessments of recent years — in my case, it didn’t cause a re-evaluation of Derleth, since I already knew the score (see “The Dark Barbarian” from 1984). But it popped my eyes wide open to the pivotal role of Frank Belknap Long in the intellectual life of the Lovecraft Circle, pointing out a significant series of interrelated stories from Young Belknapius and HPL that I don’t believe had ever been pointed out before.
That’s the kind of litcrit I want to see, not further droning drudgery repeating the same old same.
