I've been reading Lovecraft recently, going through all his works, and have noticed a trend in his writing...

I've been reading Lovecraft recently, going through all his works, and have noticed a trend in his writing. No it's not the constant over-indulgence in huge archaic words, nor is it that he revels in confusing the reader with long strings of describing the scene in too much detail. It's his use of semi-colons.

It's my understanding that when writing fiction it's better to not include them, that they keep each sentence from standing on its own.

I'm mostly just curious as to what you think about his, or any author's, use of semi-colons in their work.

Also as a bonus question: Do you think Lovecraft is a good writer? Or are his ideas the only compelling thing?

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I don't think he's an extraordinary writer persay but I love some of his descriptions and his ability to come up with some crazy shit, just a really cool experience to read his stories

Holyshit get a fucking life. Who gives a shit

Apperently you do, seeing as how you decided to reply instead of scrolling away from it like a normal human being. But we're both here on Veeky Forums so I know that neither of us have much a life.

Me too, I really love the stuff he was able to come up with. Awesome imagery and an interesting trip into the horrific.

Personally I always felt that his whole "and the horrors I witnessed were too maddening, too appalling for me to describe them here!" shtick was a lazy cop-out, and people conflate his laziness with willful ambiguity.

>The one creature playing two flues
Cute

This is how I know you're a horrible pleb who has read nothing outside his comfort zone. Older books just use semicolons more often, and this is amplified by Lovecraft's deliberate archaism. It's just a stylistic choice for writers to avoid them today.

I think a hyphen achieves what a semi-colon does but with more punch -- there's a kind of innate pause built into the vertical structure of it. Semi-colons are only really good for long list descriptions, Pynchon will use them sometimes well.

Having said that, there's something pretty about semi-colons ; I don't know, they remind me a surprised man, or a tadpole beneath a stream.

Also, is anyone getting a connection error if they use speech marks in a post now?