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Nemoroth in its prime was not truly a place of Lovecraftian horror,
although life there could be cruel. It was an innocent unthinking cruelty,
as of children, not the deeply evil cruelty of the unspeakably ancient
Powers that the few survivors of Nemoroth eventually became.

'We spectres are a jollier crew than you perhaps suppose' is, however, a
much too disneyfied interpretation of what the place was like.

At least, that's how I see it; of course, pronouncing the place name
correctly just might draw the attention of one of its survivors, and
therefore is not advisable.

In the Lovecraftian ethos, evil and ancientness are often paired, and so my
picture of the young city of Nemoroth, innocently cruel, wielding great
powers beyond our understanding, but not yet grown to full and mature evil,
seems to me to be consistent with Lovecraft.

In our days, faceless and intangible incorporeal Corporations use invisible
forces to manipulate 'electrons' that form images and symbols on television
screens, images and symbols which cast a spell compelling their viewers to
buy! buy! buy!; and therefore we have modern referents that make the Powers
of ancient times seem to us to be not so strange after all.

In defense of Ruddigore, I will say that any excuse to have its excellent
words and music repeating in one's mind is quite good enough. And, after
all, if a man can't listen to Ruddigore in his own head, whose head can
he...