don’t watch the movie without your helmet, darling
by uzwi
Andrew Pulver has a point here until he runs out on it & effectively turns his own piece into a coffee table conversation. It happened to books across the same period. The reading group & literary festival select for clever, nuanced, unchallenging product. It’s a process of flattening. There’s no point blaming the publishing industry for this when art fiction’s great enemy is its own careful, self-protective, self-selecting audience–sensibly slim, nicely educated & wearing their special protective clothing to go out for their bike ride. Who knows, maybe everyone’s getting a bit bored playing safe ? Elsewhere, Sternezine runs an Amazon one-star reviews edition. I particularly enjoyed the Sebald commentary. Last but not least, since the Guardian is being slow to run my Lovecraft review, here’s the man himself, interviewed by WPA newsreel in 1933. He supposes that his work is “intended to fill the gap science has left in the place which was occupied in years past by religion. In that vacuum, we have to entertain ourselves. Our imaginative creations are our faith now.” He hopes these creations will save “New England civilisation”. Clearly an accomplished expressionist, he already looks dead as well as a bit of a fish.
the m john harrison blog 
Mmm,
Not certain that this is, indeed, Mr. Lovecraft.
But on the flattening of tastes: It is sad when the ‘edgy’ book club, which can cause mass debates, is run by Oprah. Or at least so it seems, from the careful distance I keep myself from such things.
However, art does face that risk – offending their own support is what most artists fear – and commercialization merely provides a more reasonable excuse for taking the easy path.
Fun, though ? & the comments, too.
Re:Uwzi
True, amusing, though the comments on the video purportedly by Mr Lovecraft tend to focus more on the racism and other prejudices of his era and his character.
Unfortunately, this is another type of situation, and sometimes problem, entirely. The tendency to view art through the modern focus and freedoms, such as they are, rather than remembering to take things as a piece of their time and place. Often, people focus on this as an attempt to ‘justify’ the writer’s words or viewpoints. I just consider it like talking about my family with my close friends – acknowledging flaws and strengths, with the tinted glasses of affection donned.
Actually, I’m fairly sure that is a production viral done for a Cthulhu art movie. But I does sound like it was taken in pieces from interviews he had done before his death in print. All in all, not a bad little piece of artifice and film. Though, anything is possible.