The Sexiness...

H.P. Lovecraft (Introduction by S.T. Joshi), “H.P. Lovecraft – The Complete Fiction”, 2008, Barnes & Noble, Inc., New York, NY, USA.

Quarto; hardcover with decorated boards and endpapers, four raised bands on the spine with titles in compartments, and a purple marker ribbon; 1098pp., all edges silver-gilt. No dustwrapper, as issued. Fine.

I don’t normally go into stores that sell new books, but I was in Parramatta the other day and Dymock’s were having a sale. I always think it’s good to know what’s out there in the publishing world so I’m not averse to popping into a book chain to see what’s new and to keep my product knowledge up to date.

It has bothered me over recent years, that most major retailers have conflated their horror, science fiction and fantasy departments under the general heading “Fantasy/Sci-Fi”, although more recently still, a new section has emerged – “Paranormal Romance”. This is where you head if you’re after anything by Anne Rice, Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, or the ever-appalling Stephenie Meyer. Horror seems to be making a bit of a comeback spearheaded by these authors and their emulators – which is no bad thing, I guess – but there seems to be a steadfast aversion to the classics: no Ramsey Campbell; no Poppy Z. Brite; no Brian Lumley. Once upon a time, you could go to a bookshop confident that there would be books with covers showing giant crabs feeding on their victims, or skulls with single eyeballs staring out at you. Now it’s all buff guys with canines sweeping swooning damsels into a passionate embrace. You’d be forgiven for thinking you’d wandered into the “Romance” department.

So I swung past “General Fiction” and there, under “L” was “The Call of Cthulhu” in a standalone printing with a little tag underneath it, indicating a “Staff Pick”. That staff member had penned a blurb which confidently stated that Lovecraft was the “Ed Wood of horror writers” and that this novella was “so bad, you’ll laugh out loud!” (exclamation point not mine). I mean really! What is this generation coming to? Where's the respect?

I thought I would rip off the offending scribble and march it over to the counter to lodge an objection; but suddenly I saw this:

The sexiness.

All of HPL’s fiction, including his juvenilia and poetry, in one volume with all the bells and whistles; and at sale prices! What’s not to love?

Well, they still haven’t sorted out that final sentence of “The Haunter of the Dark” (this one has the “titan blur” variant) but I’ll give them that for having come up with a beautiful volume.

I just had to share.  :)