I think Lovecraft is an astonishing visionary writer, and the source of his vision, in many cases, is race hatred. Now what do you do with that? Do you say, “I’m not going to read any of his stuff”? Do you say, “I’m impressed by the power of his ecstatic vision.” I am. Understanding that it comes from a really horrendous place is a way of saying that I’m not surrendering to those politics, but I’m also not denying what, in Michel Houellebecq’s words, raised him to the level of poetic trance, and it was race hatred.

I don’t think it’s impossible to have it both ways. You can read fictions symptomatically, which is and an important thing to do. But it always has many things going on. To understand the source of something and to denigrate it doesn’t necessarily mean turning your back on its power as well.

– Mieville in an interview

I, of course, agree with Mieville here, and I think there’s something beautiful there.