Modern Weird Tale Book

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...