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I've given this a lot of thought. Now, it's still entirely possible that I'm just not understanding the historical context of the story, I can accept that. But it doesn't make the story any better.
It really should qualify as sci-fi and not horror, and I'm not sure how anyone could make such a mistake. Granted, the genres cross. But they don't typically cross during scientific expeditions where giant plant-animals and germ wads are discovered in Antarctica. That is solidly sci-fi territory, where horror geeks get phasered by Trekkies on a near-daily basis. All the other horror writers know to stay away, and there Lovecraft is flossing his Ancient Ones right in the middle of the Kirk-Picard debate.
I hereby lodge my objection to the subtitle of the Lovecraft book that I have, which goes "and other tales of terror". It should be adjusted, such that it reads "a mildly unsettling tale; followed by some other stories sure to make you walk home at night at the exact same speed you always do, confident in the knowledge that no monsters or madmen are behind you, and that your world is remarkably understandable and in no way alarming". I realize it's long, but it's accurate.
It's a little embarrassing. The truth does that sometimes.
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