The Montreal/Vancouver room Sunday afternoon was standing-room only for the presentation of “Lovecraft’s Legacy.” The panel consisted of James A. Moore, Phil Nutman, Cherie Priest, Scott Allie, Stephen Segal, Mike Mignola, and the moderator, Clay Gilbert.
The panel agreed that H. P. Lovecraft had a significant impact on horror fiction. Mike Mignola stated that “he put a spin on previous horror fiction and brought it into the pulp market.” James A. Martin put it as “a pattern that left ripples.” The rest readily agreed.
The guests stated that Lovecraft portrayed people that were not stupid. His use of language and cadence drew the readers in. It was not his use of dialogue, since there was not a lot of this in his works, but how his stories were not full of drama. They were more of the nature of man versus himself rather than other forms of conflict.
Lovecraft, in real life, was scared of everything. He had a history of hardship and illness, as well as paranoia of “foreigners.” He was not really prolific with his works until the last few years of his life. Those few years made for an eternal path of aspiring horror writers to follow.
