A brooding rumination on John D. Haefele’s A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos was brought to my attention recently — written by a guy named Jeffery Scott Sims, who is so in tune with the book that he may as well sign up for Gold Star Membership in Haefele’s Heretics.
So far Sims has read the book at least three times (yeah, it’s that good) and if you’re interested in thoughts about Lovecraft, the Cthulhu Mythos and so forth, you definitely should surf over and read the remarks inspired by Haefele’s magnum opus — thus far (guaranteed to be surpassed by his upcoming book on the Great Tales of Lovecraft, though).
Lots of good moments, but a personal favorite is this observation:
A biography of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, I suppose with regret, must necessarily incorporate clinical maunderings on militant atheism, blinkered politics, blatant racism, and untutored punditry, but must we accept that this junk defines Lovecraft’s contribution to the world?
Yeah, Lovecraft as artist was better than the sum of his parts.
