Reviews for Modern Weird Tale

The average rating for Modern Weird Tale based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-07-29 00:00:00 CANDY GLENN Joshi treats the weird tale--as all critics should treat it--as a distinct and worthwhile genre, and consequently seeks to establish a canon of works by using the criteria of 1) literary merit, 2) the presence of the weird and uncanny (as opposed to mere horror or suspense) and 3) the consistent logic of the author's world. Using these criteria, he judges Shirley Jackson, Robert Aickman, Ramsey Campbell, T.E.D. Klein and Thomas Ligotti as masters of the form, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Peter Straub and Anne Rice as flawed, inconsistent secondary figures, and Dean Koontz as unworthy of mention. Although I find some of his in-depth analysis of the individual works repetitive and superfluous, I agree completely with his evaluation of the authors. Those who enjoy good literature, and think they might perhaps enjoy scary stories if such works weren't so poor in style and extravagant in conception, should heed Joshi's well-considered recommendations. Joshi's criticism is somewhat marred by his antipathy to theism. I'm not a fan of William Peter Blatty myself, but Joshi spends too much time and energy ripping into him merely because he holds traditional Catholic views. Although I can see how one could make the case that any rigid form of belief in an all-powerful, all-good God precludes the profound metaphysical disorientation which is a precondition for supernatural terror, this is not the argument which Joshi makes here. Instead, he merely attacks Blatty with obvious hostility, and by so doing puts the objectivity of his criticism in question.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-06-10 00:00:00 Kim Pickrell S. T. Joshi, the eminent Lovecraft scholar, is not so much a literary critic as a bibliographer with opinions. Strong ones. But his opinions are invariably worth reading, even - perhaps particularly - at their most truculent and (occasionally) pedantic. He is unashamedly elitist, while at the same time aware that the literature that he loves most is considered, by other shameless elitists, as rubbish. This makes him simultaneously critical and defensive, which may be why he often seems in a bad mood. He is also in the ambivalent position of being a card-carrying sceptic and liberal in a field that is dominated by the illiberal and the obscurantist. 'The Modern Weird Tale' will probably be most controversial for Joshi's unrelenting critique of Stephen King. Personally, I am happy to see the King bubble pricked: King is not a bad writer, and in some ways he is an admirable one, but he is certainly overrated, and most of Joshi's critical barbs strike home, even if his overall attack seems a little unfair. The most rewarding chapters, though, are those dealing with the authors that Joshi admires: Jackson, Aickman, Tryon, Campbell, Klein, Ligotti. In these his style is generous, warm and clear-headed - although his section on Robert Aickman he is curiously led astray by a philosophical red-herring. In a way, it is the Aickman section that shows Joshi at his most interesting, and conflicted: an intelligent, rational man trying to come to terms with his engagement in a field that goes against so many of his dearly held principles...