>>2185316OP here. Joshi's book is one main source here, yes. I avoid the parts where he guesses or includes conjecture etc.
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On Lovecraft's hostility to dogs and appreciation of cats
>"In essence, Lovecraft's argument is that the cat is the pet of the artists and thinker, while the dog is the pet of the stolid bourgeoisie. "The dog appeals to cheap and facile emotions; the cat to the deepest founts of imagination and cosmic perception in the human mind." This leads inevitably to a class distinction that is neatly summed up in the compact utterance: "The dog is a peasant and the cat is a gentleman.""__________
On Lovecraft's new hobby
>"Lovecraft [...] was not actually doing much during this period aside from writing; but he had discovered one entertaining form of relaxation - moviegoing. [...] Lovecraft reports that the first cinema shows in Providence were in March 1906; and, even though he "knew too much of literature & drama not to recognize the utter & unrelieved hokum of the moving picture," he attended them anyway [...] One develops the idea that watching films may have occupied some, perhaps much, of the "blank" years of 1908 - 1913, as a letter of 1915 suggests: "As you may surmise, I am a devotee of the motion picture, since I can attend shows at any time, whereas my ill health seldom permits me to make definite engagements"__________
On Lovecraft losing interest in motion pictures
>"Save for a few Triangle, Pramount & Vitagraoh pictures, everything I have seen is absolute trash [...] I have yet to see a serial film worth the time wasted in looking at it - or dozing over it. The technique could be surpassed by most ten year old children." [...] With rare exceptions, Lovecraft did not care for the surprising number of films he saw in the course of his life."__________
