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Mariconda, Steven J. H. P. Lovecraft: Art, Artifact, and Reality. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2013. 308 pp. Paperback. ISBN 978-1-61498-064-3. $20.00.
With H. P. Lovecraft: Art, Artifact, and Reality, independent scholar Steven J. Mariconda assembles three decades' worth of his articles and reviews in order, on the one hand, to dissolve enduring misconceptions concerning H. P. Lovecraft's weird fiction and, on the other, to celebrate and challenge the work of other leading scholars in the field. It is important to note that much of the material contained within these pages first appeared in a variety of now-defunct fanzines, making this a noteworthy and convenient collection worth owning for anyone invested in horror fan culture. Mariconda's volume adopts a tripartite structure with special attention paid to the author's prose style and his philosophy involving a "materialistic conception of a purposeless universe governed by a fixed and only partially knowable set of laws" (27).
Following a brief introduction, the first section, entitled "General Studies," contains many finely tuned articles arguing in defense of Lovecraft's style. Mariconda's original and meticuLously researched readings of the author's stories, poems, essays, and letters constitute the most compelling and useful segment of the book. The second section, "Essays on Specific Works," includes a series of mostly self-contained readings of Lovecraft's artistic output. The quality of these essays is generally quite good, and there are a few quite captivating readings. In the third section, "Reviews," Mariconda compiles a multitude of his own reviews of some of the most important critical texts in the field; although this section drags a bit, it is nonetheless an excellent resource for newcomers and veterans alike. While Mariconda gives no real rationale for the book's tripartite set-up, the arrangement does permit a gradual percolation of key concepts, effectively reproducing Lovecraft's prose style of gradual, creeping doom, and thus embodying a kind of metafictional approach appropriate to any reading of the American author's unique brand of cosmic horror.
The first half of "General Studies" is neatly conceived, instructive, and packed with exciting ideas....