Literary prejudices

[kestrell]

So there is this new Lovecraft book just out with the catchy title of _H. P. Lovecraft's Dark Arcadia: The Satire, Symbology and Contradiction_, which I have been anticipating for some time.

However, in looking at the Amazon page for the book, there is no book description, but there is a bit about the author, who lives in Florida.

I realize this is really really petty of me, but I find myself doubtful regarding the abilities of an author to really get the mood of Lovecraft right when that author lives in a state that completely lacks gothic ambiance. I'm trying to imagine a Floridian Stephen King, and it just isn't happening.

And then I noticed that there is no publisher listed for the book.

How does that happen? I know I've come to regard self-publishing with some skepticism, but listing no publisher at all does not convey a sense of confidence, either. And why not just make up something if you don't have an actual publisher? I kind of like the ring of Infernal Publishing, Inc.

Comments

[kallistii]

I've found that self published books are highly variable...and tend toward the extremes. I remember one that was well written with a good story...but...if it had a proof-reader, they would have caught a number of continuity errors that damaged the book. Or formatting problems...the authors are too close to the books to properly catch these things...even if they have the skills to see them. And some writers *don't*.

[negothick]

Agreed. I do like "Dark Arcadia" (wish I'd thought of it myself), but "Symbology" sets off alarm bells. Shades of Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code.

[kestrell]

So it isn't just me who twitches at the word "symbologist"?

[kestrell]

I, unfortunately, have had some pretty negative experiences with self-publishing, which is why I now check for the publisher, especially when the price of the book is $40. I'm willing to gamble on a five or six dollar book, but not one in the double digits. Also, unfortunately, I have found far too many books by relatively well-known publishers, especially in genre fiction, treat proofreading as optional. And don't even get me started on the small publishers who have decided to convert old titles to ebook form and do a completely shoddy job of scanning the paper book.

[negothick]

If they had any sense, they would hire YOU to check for scan-o's (and to proofread the manuscript to begin with).

[batwrangler]

bookdepository.co.uk identifies the publisher as McFarland & Co Inc which has its own website and describes itself as "a leading independent publisher of academic and non-fiction books" since 1979. Not sure where it falls on the scale of small press vs self-publishing vs vanity publishing.

Their description of said book:
"Dark Arcadia attempts an objective reassessment of the controversial works and life of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Ignoring secondary accounts and various received truths, Gavin Callaghan goes back to the weird texts themselves, and follows where Lovecraft leads him: into an arcane world of parental giganticism and inverted classicism."

Its table of contents from their site:

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Sympathy for the Shoggoths
One: Dark Arcadia: Arcadia, Arkham and H. P. Lovecraft’s Process of Classical Inversion
Two: The Birds and the Bees (According to H. P. Lovecraft)
Three: Secrets Behind the Locked Door: Lovecraft and the Theseus Myth
Four: From the Moon to the Pit: Lovecraft’s Moon-Ladder
Five:Lovecraft’s In Memoriam: Phillips Gamwell and the Innsmouth Coda
Six: H. P. Lovecraft and the Magna Mater
Appendix
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Link: http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7079-2

[kestrell]

Oo, thanks! And thank you for giving me another method for finding bibliographic information! McFarland is often very solid on academic writing about genre fiction, but there is the occasional miss--I bought a McFarland book which had the title _Jack the Ripper and Black Magic_ and, aside from a wildly wandering prose style, it also wandered wildly from the subject in the title, and the first fifty or so pages were about spiritualism in Britain.