World views of M.R. James and S.T. Joshi

Commentary from Omnia Exeunt In Mysterium on S.T. Joshi, the preeminent scholar in the study of weird fiction:

Nowhere are Joshi’s faults more manifest than in his interpretation of the work of M.R. James. His failure to fully appreciate James’s achievement has been extensively rebutted in the collection of essays, Warnings to the Curious (which Joshi himself graciously edited), but despite the instructive title of that volume, none deal with what I perceive as a dominant theme in James’s stories, one that is problematic for Joshi’s analysis on two fronts.