That's probably fair. I don't think he is somebody high school seniors ought to be studying in AP English. Within the realm of horror fiction, I think he was fairly innovative. He brought a sort of humor to the gothic genre that was kind of his signature, but which I thought actually increased the effectiveness of the horror. I like to write as well, and I take stabs at horror fiction now and again. I call his technique 'leaving the light on'. It is just something I extrapolated from reading him, and that I took with me because it seemed valuable. The idea is no matter where you go in the haunted house, you leave the light on in the room prior to the next dark room. Lifts you up to let you down. In terms of most contemporary fiction, would the world be hurt by its loss? Probably not. These aren't necessarily definitive of 'high culture'. That said, writing entertaining fiction that a person wants to sit down and read in their free time isn't something to dismiss either. Most people read Dante because they had to, not because they'd give up their Sunday night to sit down for a few hours with his work. It's just a different goal.