The Lovecraft Thread

[DoomRulz]

Meaning...? You have long curls? lol

[Alienseseses]

Kippah and tzitzit.

Anyway, not really the point.

Some people say 'separate the artist from the art'-- I wouldn't say that's entirely accurate, since who the artist is and where he comes from can be relevant to the art itself, but we can find fault in something and still find value in it. What I'm trying to say is, I don't need to like a person to enjoy his art, and I don't need to like a person to find him personally fascinating.

[AvatarIII]

He didn't like Jews but he was more critical of jewish culture than jewish blood, and even then he didn't mind Jewish culture existing, he just didn't like it contaminating American culture, which he very firmly believed should be based on British culture and not the melting-pot philosophy.

As for [the Nazis'] much-advertised and hysterically condemned Jew policy––there is something to be said for one phase of it. Of course it is silly to ban Jewish books, to impose disabilities on Germanically cultured Jews, or to assume that––biologically speaking––a dash of Semitic blood unfits one for Aryan citizenship.

Chinamen ought not to let American missionaries dictate and interpret their policies––and by the same token Aryans ought not to leave their guidance and interpretation to persons of an irreconcilable Semitic culture. Of course, this does not mean that the crudities of Hitlerism are to be copied. It is absurd to think that a man of complete Aryan culture ought to be squelched because he has a quarter-share of Semitic blood, or anything like that. But it is not absurd to feel that something ought to be done to keep expression true to the real psychology of the nation involved. We really face the same problem in America-where the city of New York is virtually lost to the national fabric through its tragic and all-pervasive Semitisation.

By the way—it's hardly accurate to compare the Jewish with the negro problem. The trouble with the Jew is not his blood—which can mix with ours without disastrous results—but his persistent & antagonistic culture-tradition. On the other hand, the negro represents a vastly inferior biological variant which must under no circumstances taint our Aryan stock. The absolute colour-line as applied to negroes is both necessary & sensible, whereas a similar deadline against Jews (though attempted by Hitler) is ridiculous.

It remains a fact that many modern nations need to take steps to preserve the integrity of their own native cultures against shrewd and pushing alien influences.

source: https://greatmindsonrace.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/h-p-lovecraft/

so as you can see, although he was pretty damn racist, he was not anti-Semitic to quite the same degree.

[Alienseseses]

Well, that's a relief.

[Sabby]

Lovecraft: awesome writer, shitty person.

Good to read that from someone who knew him personally.

It's pretty well known that he was racist - according to some experts, even more than the average person in the early 20th century.  There are others who say that he mellowed out a little over the years.  I don't know one way or the other; I just think he shaped horror for the century that followed him.

I saw a documentary on his life that states he married a Jewish women, which did start to change his views a lot. I get the impression his racism and anti-semitism had never really been challenged before, and that his life really was upturned by this woman. Hell, his writing became a LOT less bleak after she entered his life, as if he was seeing the world differently. He even encouraged her to write her own story and submitted it under his name.

[Alienseseses]

His wife wrote,
"Although [Howard] once said he loved New York and that henceforth it would be his 'adopted state', I soon learned that he hated it and all its 'alien hordes'. When I protested that I too was one of them, he'd tell me I 'no longer belonged to these mongrels.' 'You are now Mrs H. P. Lovecraft of 598 Angell St., Providence, Rhode Island."

[KiramidHead]

Just read "The Horror at Red Hook." Tells you everything you ever needed to know about that.

[OmegaZilla]

Heh, try Medusa's Coil too.

Spoiler

No wonder she owned a link with that old witch-woman Sophonisba—for, though in deceitfully slight proportion, Marceline was a negress.

[close]

[Gilfryd]

ST Joshi writes a bit about Lovecraft's racism here -
http://www.stjoshi.org/review_baxter.html

[Born Of Cold Light]

Apparently the Necronomicon features a page with information about a familiar creature:

[DoomRulz]

That can't be an original Lovecraft creation, surely.

[Born Of Cold Light]

That can't be an original Lovecraft creation, surely.

No, it's from a fan creation:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/106848711/alien-formulae-necronomicon-fragment

Still, new creatures are always being added to the Mythos, so who knows?

[Magegg]

[Alienseseses]

I'm reposting my short from several months back. The audio was low, so I went back and raised the levels. You shouldn't need to turn up your volume all the way anymore.

THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS, based on the story by H P Lovecraft.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9LNoJFqJNA&feature=youtu.be

[KiramidHead]

I recorded a podcast discussing Del Toro's Mountains of Madness script back in April. Only just got to posting it here now:

https://soundcloud.com/kiramidhead/screenplay-archaeology-episode-1-guillermo-del-toros-at-the-mountains-of-madness

It's also available in two other formats. If you'd like the option, I'll post the links.