Re-reading HP Lovecraft collected works. Been years since I read his stuff. I'm surprised by three things: almost no dialogue in any of his work, almost everything written in first person, and LOTS of stories are not much more than "moments" with lots of atmosphere and creepy crawlies, etc., but no real story: e.g., The Nameless City. I like his florid writing which is his signature, I guess, but wondered if anyone else picked up on these things? Or is it just me (very possible).
On Writing : HP Lovecraft ... Hmmmm.... by Jeff Lyons
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You're right; on the other hand, isn't "The Call of Cthulhu" a series of tales-within-tales with a fair amount of weird stuff on almost every page? And "Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" is a whole novel in third-person, right? Not a heck of a lot of dialogue, though! :)
Yeah... reading "The Call" right now and it rambles on and on ... don't remember it being so disjointed. Even where there is dialogue it is mostly long exposition in the form of dialogue... so.. does that count? :) Only Cthulhu knows....
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You know...I don't think "The Call" rambles...it's been a couple of years since I last read it but I think HPL was trying to make his weirdness more palatable by layering it. It's a series of clues, and people died collecting them, and then you finally get the monster at the end. By establishing a little distance you create a sense of reality. If it had only been the story of a weird temple and a big jelly octopus getting sliced by a Norwegian skipper, I don't think there'd be the same kind of resonance. The layers are also like the door that hides the monster in the closet. Anyway, maybe!