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some writers are important because their use of the language is second to none. (Most of these writers I could give a fuck about. fuck your use of language. I hate florid shit. I want to read a story, not a fucking dipshit showing off how many gerunds he can disseminate)
some writers are important because the subjects and themes they write about had never been done that way before. (Lovecraft is this way. so is Twain, so is conan doyle. Lovecraft was not a good prose writer. no one claims that. his work is more like reading a news account of horrible shit happening. Conan Doyle had very utilitarian prose, but he created the form of the detective novel as we know it. Twain was the best writer of the lot I mention by FAR, but even he is not praised for his prose as much as he is for his ideas, humor, and observation of human nature)
Poe was both. he crafted precision in his stories, but he also created whole genres out of thin air.
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