A literary-aesthetic appreciation arguing that geek culture's ironic memeification of Lovecraft (Hello Cthulhu, Campus Crusade for Cthulhu) betrays his artistic aim. Via a long 'Silver Key' passage (Randolph Carter losing the key to dreams, becoming an ironic humorist who saps the life from his own work), Scott argues Lovecraft deliberately avoided ironic humor because his aim was transcendent OTHERNESS — something beyond the mundane world of politics/commercialism/status, where aesthetic senses could wander free (wonder, not just horror). Observes that the more inappropriate a subject is for humor (dead babies, racism, Lovecraft), the more it gets joked about — but the mockers often haven't read the serious work.

Quality 65 · Strong. Strong: a thoughtful, well-written aesthetic appreciation with a genuine argument (Lovecraft's anti-ironic transcendence; wonder-not-horror; the inappropriate-subjects-get-joked-about observation), but a niche literary-appreciation piece. 65.

Claude’s paradigm shift 46 · Moderate. A fresh aesthetic take on Lovecraft + the irony-mockery observation. B46.

Real-world impact 1 · Negligible. Niche literary appreciation; trivial reach. RWI1.

I liked Lovecraft countless primaeval aeons before it was cool