This was greatly illuminating and entertaining. S. T. has been a good friend and mentor to me for many years now, so I know some of this history, but certainly not all. One thing S. .T. and I both realized when we first finally met in 1983/84 or so, was that our respective local libraries (in my case Levittown, Long Island NY) were absolutely instrumental in our getting sucked into horror fiction, and Lovecraft, specifically and most importantly. My own high school library (which was kind of woeful) did have some horror anthologies and fantasy SF fiction, and I read some HPL there too, Bierce, and August Derleth, but the Levittown Public LIbrary (wherein I worked for four years in HS as well!) had an amazing Arkham House, Lovecraft, and other major weird fictioneer collection that, as I found on a recent visit to my esteemed library, is now long, long gone from their collections. But when I started to fall under HPL's spell and started writing fanzines and reviews for the field's publications, at a very tender age, this library was highly important. I first met S. T. after he'd moved from Princeton up to Hoboken/JC in 1984 or so, having already connected on a fateful visit to Providence with various other key figures in the field, and once this gang of people was cemented, a lot of things took off for me as well, and I'm forever grateful for it. Had I not gone to Providence (where we spotted S. T. one day but didn't say hi to him being on a guided tour!) then, I would never have found Crypt of Cthulhu and Lovecraft Studies magazines, and never met the Gang and S. T. later on! It was sheer Providence, in the most literal sense. S. T.'s sheer energy intellect and enthusiasm was (and still is) infectious. Unlike S. T. though my high school had a grad. class in the hundreds at least, and not many kids were into HPL or weird fiction. Some were into heavy metal music, and horror films, so there was that. A few kids knew Michael Moorcock's fantasy fiction and I at least was able to talk with some about that, but not many. I did have a few years of violin and orchestral education in middle school, however, and took five years of private guitar lessons from 1979-1983 or so, and these days playing tons of guitar again, one realizes how crucial a musical education and instruction are/is. S. T. is as big a fan of The Beatles as he is of classical, so on this front, we are able to communicate on music. I feel many schools lack even now, arts, philosophy, ethics/morals, civics, and comprehensive world history curriculi, which is a great shame. School did teach me to write, I wrote my first film review at age 11 or so, for a school assignment. Also the local NY and NYC film and music critics were great mentors! But when I met S. T., I learned to do real research and think a lot more analytically and critically. This is invaluable. I haven't even mentioned later attending various conventions with the gang and S. T. and others, and meeting pros and heroes like Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, King, Brian Lumley, and many others. That type of experience and wisdom you cannot get just from reading books. P.S. MY own high school had a large double cafeteria, even a "snack room", which was fabulous, (!) and we were allowed to go off campus in those days and would have lunch at a wonderful pizza joint, Dunkins, or the huge flea market that opened in 1983 and offered a very good food court with excellent Chinese food, even. In retrospect, while my own HS wasn't Hollywood High, at least it offered some amenities unlike Burris! Sorry for the essay! Anyway this was a fantastic interview.
You know Joshi is antiwhite, don't you?
Yawuhhuhn?
This was greatly illuminating and entertaining. S. T. has been a good friend and mentor to me for many years now, so I know some of this history, but certainly not all. One thing S. .T. and I both realized when we first finally met in 1983/84 or so, was that our respective local libraries (in my case Levittown, Long Island NY) were absolutely instrumental in our getting sucked into horror fiction, and Lovecraft, specifically and most importantly. My own high school library (which was kind of woeful) did have some horror anthologies and fantasy SF fiction, and I read some HPL there too, Bierce, and August Derleth, but the Levittown Public LIbrary (wherein I worked for four years in HS as well!) had an amazing Arkham House, Lovecraft, and other major weird fictioneer collection that, as I found on a recent visit to my esteemed library, is now long, long gone from their collections. But when I started to fall under HPL's spell and started writing fanzines and reviews for the field's publications, at a very tender age, this library was highly important. I first met S. T. after he'd moved from Princeton up to Hoboken/JC in 1984 or so, having already connected on a fateful visit to Providence with various other key figures in the field, and once this gang of people was cemented, a lot of things took off for me as well, and I'm forever grateful for it. Had I not gone to Providence (where we spotted S. T. one day but didn't say hi to him being
on a guided tour!) then, I would never have found Crypt of Cthulhu and Lovecraft Studies magazines, and never met the Gang and S. T. later on! It was sheer Providence, in the most literal sense.
S. T.'s sheer energy intellect and enthusiasm was (and still is) infectious. Unlike S. T. though my high school had a grad. class in the hundreds at least, and not many kids were into HPL or weird fiction. Some were into heavy metal music, and horror films, so there was that. A few kids knew Michael Moorcock's fantasy fiction and I at least was able to talk with some about that, but not many. I did have a few years of violin and orchestral education in middle school, however, and took five years of private
guitar lessons from 1979-1983 or so, and these days playing tons of guitar again, one realizes how crucial a musical education and instruction are/is. S. T. is as big a fan of
The Beatles as he is of classical, so on this front, we are able to communicate on music. I feel many schools lack even now, arts, philosophy, ethics/morals, civics, and comprehensive world history curriculi, which is a great shame. School did teach me to write, I wrote my first film review at age 11 or so, for a school assignment. Also the local NY and NYC
film and music critics were great mentors! But when I met S. T., I learned to do real research and think a lot more analytically and critically. This is invaluable. I haven't even mentioned
later attending various conventions with the gang and S. T. and others, and meeting pros and heroes like Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, King, Brian Lumley, and many others. That type of experience and wisdom you cannot get just from reading books. P.S. MY own high school had a large double cafeteria, even a "snack room", which was fabulous, (!) and we were allowed to go off campus in those days and would have lunch at a wonderful pizza joint, Dunkins, or the huge flea market that opened in 1983 and offered a very good food court with excellent Chinese food, even. In retrospect, while my own HS wasn't Hollywood High, at least it offered some amenities unlike Burris! Sorry for the essay! Anyway this
was a fantastic interview.