July 2012 Read: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

[Sean]

I considered not finishing it, but I'm glad I did. Its a great story, but the style made it difficult to follow. The end made up for everything I didn't like. I actually listened to the audiobook, but I bet I would have enjoyed reading it a lot more.

[Eileen]

Nora, I don't know how I missed that. I now enjoyed the story even more now that I reread parts. A new fan of HP Lovecraft!

[Nora aka Diva]

Eileen wrote: "Nora, I don't know how I missed that. I now enjoyed the story even more now that I reread parts. A new fan of HP Lovecraft!"

Glad I could help? lol.

Thank you for not deciding my observation was invalid due to my not liking the novel. :)

[jb]

I finished this book and I quite liked it.

[jb]

I just finished watching The Resurrected. Pretty good movie. Although I was explaining to my husband thru the whole movie about the book.

[Greg]

Shawn wrote: "Probably the most interesting "take" on Lovecraft's racism (interesting to me because it would probably upset both the screedmakers and the apologists) was [book:H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World,..."

Meant to comment on this before - I have Houellebecq's book but haven't read it yet. Sounds like it's worth the read so I'll try to tackle it later in the summer.

Having finished Storm Front, I can now tackle The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. :)

[Greg]

Michael wrote: "People talk about Lovecraft's era as though it was 600 years ago, when somehow people didn't know what "racism" was and racist or xenophobic attitudes could be forgiven because history hadn't quite..."

Well said, Michael!

[Nora aka Diva]

"Trisha wrote: "I think we understand you didn't like the story, Nora...
--------------
It's not about liking or disliking the story, the comment I made but about being suprised over people being suprised by the end. I have been suprised people didn't see the end coming in books I have read that I did like as well.
ETA: that I don't see the correlation between the statement I had made and my feelings about the novel. Explain? "

Yeah, I'm still waiting for that explanation.

[Greg]

So far, I'm about 35 pages in and am enjoying it. The style is a little dry because, as Tressa pointed out before, it lacks dialogue, which would break up the text more. However, it reads a little like a narrative report in an academic journal and, as I read a fair bit of journal literature every year, this gives it a familiar feel to me.

Since racism and snobbery were brought up in this topic before, I thought it worth highlighting its appearance in a couple of cases in chapter 2 (all emphases are of course mine). On pp. 157-8 (of the anthology At the Mountains of Madness in which The Case of Charles Dexter Ward appears), we get:

'Here his only visible servants, farmers, and caretakers were a sullen pair of Narragansett Indians; the husband dumb and curiously scarred, and the wife of a very repulsive cast of countenance, probably due to a mixture of Negro blood.'

Later, on p. 158:

'...two swarthy foreigners who comprised the only manservants, the hideous indistinct mumbling of the incredibly aged French housekeeper....'

And on p. 162:

'...all his sailors were mongrel riff-raff from Martinique, St Eustatius, Havana or Port royal.'

However, if Lovecraft was indeed racist (and not merely that the narrator of the tale was), we get a statement that offers some mitigation, as it indicates some concern for what had happened to some slaves (p. 164):

'[...] but not until modern times, [...] did it occur to any person [...] to make dark comparisons between the large number of Guinea blacks he imported until 1766, and the disturbingly small number for whom he could produce bona fide bills of sale either to slave-dealers at the great bridge or to the planters of the Narragansett Country.'

[[deleted user]]

Good quotations, Greg. It seems the HPL is obsessed with notions of "degeneration" and he usually associates "degeneration" with qualities of appearance very different from the white New Englander. I think he may also have a bit of fear of country folk. It's interesting to note that he was smart enough to mitigate some of these tendencies....

[William]

I think that I will jump rt in here on the 17th for my first Lovecraft as well. We will see... :~)

[Jason]

Hope you like it, William!

Greg, well said!

[Greg]

Michael wrote: "Good quotations, Greg. It seems the HPL is obsessed with notions of "degeneration" and he usually associates "degeneration" with qualities of appearance very different from the white New Englander...."

Thanks Michael and Jason! Yes, I agree - degeneration is very much one of his themes throughout his work whether in the sense of soembody losing his (is it ever her?) sanity or in some physical and genetic sense.

[Jenny]

This will be my first Lovecraft also. I started reading the first couple of chapters but I couldn't continue. I had just finished The House of Seven Gables which was very descriptive and detailed like the beginning of Charles Dexter Ward is. I needed to read something with more action. I do plan on finishing Charles Dexter Ward though, maybe this weekend when I'm house sitting? Although I've never read Lovecraft I've played Call of Cthulhu and it was great.

[Greg]

I've played CoC too, Jenny! It's been a few years alas since the last time though.

[Jenny]

Greg wrote: "I've played CoC too, Jenny! It's been a few years alas since the last time though."

Nice! I really like the character creation, it's different from the other RPGs I play.

[Greg]

Jenny wrote: "Greg wrote: "I've played CoC too, Jenny! It's been a few years alas since the last time though."

Nice! I really like the character creation, it's different from the other RPGs I play."

I wonder if there should be a horror RPG topic here?

I always played an anthropologist with an interest in the occult, which is a role closer to my real life (apart from the occult bit) than the characters I've played in other RPGs like D&D, Traveller, Gamma World, etc. What other games do you play, Jenny?

[Oscar]

Speaking of Lovecraft games, did anyone play the Cthulhu video game that came out years ago?

[Scott]

Didn't know there was one. But one of my favorite old Commodore 64 games was the Infocom text adventure The Lurking Horror.

[Jenny]

Greg wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Greg wrote: "I've played CoC too, Jenny! It's been a few years alas since the last time though."

Nice! I really like the character creation, it's different from the other RPGs I pl..."

Greg wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Greg wrote: "I've played CoC too, Jenny! It's been a few years alas since the last time though."

Nice! I really like the character creation, it's different from the other RPGs I pl..."

Greg wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Greg wrote: "I've played CoC too, Jenny! It's been a few years alas since the last time though."

Nice! I really like the character creation, it's different from the other RPGs I pl..."

Ooh, I'll have to look into Traveller and Gamma World. What are they about? I play D&D, Abberant, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and Hunter: The Gathering. I've played D&D and AFMBE the most though. However, I don't play enough now that my friends & I have conflicting work schedules. I miss the old days where we'd RP every week!

[Lori]

I haven't read this, and probably won't but I tried my hand at a collection of Lovecraft's stories and I find him to be insufferable.

Does anyone else have this issue? Or maybe I'm not reading the right stories?

[Jason]

It's possible that you haven't read the right ones, Lori. You never know. Have you read The Rats in the Walls or The Colour out of Space?

[Traci]

I do like Lovecraft but I wasn't thrilled over this one. Maybe I wasn't in the mood? Maybe I like him in shorter doses, although I loved At the Mountains of Maddness. It was very dry and hard to get into. I'm not a fan of medical journal type writing in general. I feel too removed from the main character. It's like you're reading two steps away from your lead. Reading a book within a book.
If you have read other things by him, Lori, and didn't like it you're probably just not meant to be a fan.
But if this was your first, for anyone else, and you didn't like it I would try another before you're certain.

[Nora aka Diva]

Lori wrote: "I haven't read this, and probably won't but I tried my hand at a collection of Lovecraft's stories and I find him to be insufferable.

Does anyone else have this issue? Or maybe I'm not reading th..."

I don't know if I'd go as far as insufferable but I don't care for his style.

[Lori]

Jason wrote: "It's possible that you haven't read the right ones, Lori. You never know. Have you read The Rats in the Walls or The Colour out of Space?"

That's funny you mention that! I am actually trying to read his story 'The Rats in the Walls'. I hate to admit but it's pretty much become bathroom reading material at this point. =\

[Eileen]

Nora wrote: "Eileen wrote: "Nora, I don't know how I missed that. I now enjoyed the story even more now that I reread parts. A new fan of HP Lovecraft!"

Glad I could help? lol.

Thank you for not decidin..."

You did help. I enjoy reading your and
everyone elses observations about HPL. It gives me a new prospective on what I've read. So the next time I read something by HPL I might read it with a new set of eyes. If that makes any sense?

[Nora aka Diva]

Actually that makes perfect sense. :)

[Jason]

Lori wrote: "Jason wrote: "It's possible that you haven't read the right ones, Lori. You never know. Have you read The Rats in the Walls or The Colour out of Space?"

That's funny you mention that! I am actua..."

LOL Yeah, you're probably not a Lovecraft fan. Which is totally cool. :)

[Jenny]

Ugh. The only good part of the book was the twist at the end. I hated reading this book. It was incredibly boring. The only reason I continued with it is because it was short and I don't like leaving a book unfinished. I'll give Lovecraft another try because I own The Mountains of Madness and a collection of his short stories, but I'm really hoping they're better than The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

[Jenny]

After reading some of the comments I will give it this- I did enjoy that it gave off a feeling as if the story was real. I think maybe it was the style of the writing I hated? I'm not sure. If the story was told in a different way I may have liked it more.

[Simon]

Someone (who was quite an authority on Lovecraft) once told me that much of the general history that was referred to in this story is actually real historical fact that was carefully interwoven with the invented story in an apparently seamless fashion, although you would need to be a bit of an expert on the local history to be able to notice that!

Personally, I felt upon reading this story (about four years ago now) that the intense detail that went into it sometimes obstructed the flow of the story. As such, I don't think it's one of his more accessible stories and I would never recommend this as a place to start with Lovecraft.

I have been realiably informed, and arrived at the same conclusion myself, that many of his stories will grow on you after careful re-readings as the significance of the seemingly unimportant details will become apparent. It's not light reading, that's for sure.

[Bandit]

I finally finished the book, now I can read everyone's comments without fear of spoilers. One thing I didn't mention in my review is that I found a mistake I think, Dexter Ward leaves home 1923 and comes back 1925 and Lovecraft says that four years have gone by. Anyway, I seldom find mistakes like in proper publications like Del Rey, so I was wondering if anyone noticed it. Anyway, thanks to everyone who voted for the book, without you I never would have read it and, as much work as it to plow Lovecraft's molasses-slow prose, I'd glad to have read it.
I really liked the plot, just didn't love the execution.
Also, I have to say I didn't find the book to be particularly racist of offensive in that way any more so than I would expect any work from that time to be.
Now I'm gonna go read up about Lovecraft, I'm interested.

[Jason]

Bandit, you should read H. P. Lovecraft: A Life by S. T. Joshi if you can find it. It's a great bio!

[Bandit]

Thanks, Jason. I've seen it mentioned on here several times, it looks very interesting, gonna check to see if the library has it.

[Lori Ann]

Hi, different Lori here. I'm usually a "needs lots of dialogue with minimal description" kind of reader. But for some reason I was able to plow thru this story and enjoyed it alot. I loved how Dr. Willet slowly emerged as the hero of the story. The climatic scene reminded me a bit of the climax from the film Primal Fear with Ed Norton and Richard Gere. Would definitely try Lovecraft again, actually i've always been curious about Chuthulu.

[Jason]

You should definitely read The Call of Cthulhu, Lori! If you liked Charles Ward, then you'll be blown away by Cthulhu!

[Nora aka Diva]

"Trisha wrote: "I think we understand you didn't like the story, Nora...
--------------
It's not about liking or disliking the story, the comment I made but about being suprised over people being suprised by the end. I have been suprised people didn't see the end coming in books I have read that I did like as well.
ETA: that I don't see the correlation between the statement I had made and my feelings about the novel. Explain? "

Yeah, I'm still waiting for that explanation.