{"product_id":"h-p-lovecraft-the-decline-of-the-west","title":"H.P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe author writes: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book began as an expansion of my essay, \"H. P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West,\" in \u003cem\u003eThe Weird Tale\u003c\/em\u003e, but very quickly became something quite different, to the degree that the two works have little save the title in common. I have always been interested in Lovecraft the philosopher, and in my \u003cem\u003eStarmont Reader's Guide to Lovecraft\u003c\/em\u003e (1982) I attempted a very compressed account of his philosophical views. To treat so complex a thinker as Lovecraft in a few pages was obviously untenable, even though I think those few pages at least convey the unity of his thought--perhaps better than this fuller study does. One reviewer, however, was correct in noting that I did not sufficiently integrate Lovecraft's thought and his fiction, and I have now attempted to remedy the failing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI am still not convinced that I have really written one rather than two books here. Does Lovecraft's fiction really depend upon his philosophy? I wrestle with this question further in my introduction, but here I can note that I had great difficulty deciding upon the proper structure for this book. I deal with four principal facets of Lovecraft's philosophy--metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and politics--in Part I, and those same facets as applied to the fiction in Part II. It might have made more sense to juxtapose the corresponding chapters of each part, but I finally determined that this would be both methodologically and practically unsound; methodologically for reasons explained in the introduction, and practically because it would fail to demonstrate the interconnectedness of Lovecraft's thought and because in Part II I frequently rely upon conceptions expressed throughout the whole of Part I.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wildside Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50527896404242,"sku":"9781587150685","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_fd52170d-d9c6-4d07-9ab1-60b2f21664bc.jpg?v=1737233286","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/h-p-lovecraft-the-decline-of-the-west","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}