![]() ![]() Lovecraft, I’ve come to realize, had no idea how to hint or imply something. When an author tells you on page one that a witch and a rat-like monster are up to no good, the final page should contain a bigger pay-off than “a witch and a rat-like monster were up to no good.” The evidence favoring the supernatural explanation is simply overwhelming. In a good weird tale, there should be some question as to whether the supernatural doings are real, or simply a hallucination by the protagonist. Lovecraft was trying to do this, but he didn’t. Walter Gilman, the doomed protagonist of the tale, should be able to see what’s coming a mile away the reader certainly can. I think he was trying for ambiguity, but he was failing spectacularly at it. For one thing, there’s no surprise or subtlety to it-Lovecraft beats the reader over the head with the legend of Keziah Mason, and her rat-like familiar, Brown Jenkin. Lovecraft didn’t like it, and subsequent readers have generally considered it one of his worst.Īnd, by pretty much any objective measure, it’s a bad story. Lovecraft’s short story The Dreams in the Witch House. ![]()
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