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Shit people get wrong about Lovecraft

Started by Q. G. Pennyworth, October 28, 2013, 05:07:00 PM

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Q. G. Pennyworth

Okay, first, let's air out the racism thing. Dude was hella racist, even for his time. Some of his short stories are completely unsalvagable because of the racist bullshit, others you have to cringe for a couple pages to get past it. The Deep Ones (horrible fish monsters) are frequently cited as one of the best examples, but the story he ghost-wrote for Houdini is much more blatant. Sadly, Call of Cthulhu is also pretty much scrap heap material with all the "terrible cults" that are suspiciously full of brown people and intentionally resemble real world religions. This is going to come up more, but I wanted to make sure it got the front and center place it deserves. Now, the point:

Lovecraft wrote horror because he was a terrible little man and was scared of progress.

It's funny how nerds have latched onto the guy, when he literally represents the backwards attitudes most of them despise in the world around them. He was afraid of scientific progress, of racial diversity, and so utterly confused by women that barely any appear in his stories. The time he lived in (1890-1937) was full of massive cultural and scientific upheaval, and his response to this was to dig his heels in and screech about the horrors all around. A contemporary of Tesla and Einstein, all he could see from their amazing work was that MAN IS LOOKING INTO THINGS HE SHOULD NOT KNOW and he filled his stories with fevered dreams of what nightmares science might unleash. Only a few generations removed from slavery, he was terrified of the idea that western culture might get influenced by all these BROWN PEOPLE and wrote multiple stories on the horrors of mixing races. The world around him was forever in decay.

He contributed something to society, it's true. He and Mary Shelly paved the way for modern horror: terrifying stories based not on ancient superstition or religion but new and terrifying things outside the scope of human understanding. Scientific horror. The rich shared background of his short stories has given generations a jumping-off point for their own otherworldly horror, and many of these successors have salvaged the good and the interesting from the bad writing and backwards attitudes. But he deserves to be made fun of, because little man couldn't handle the idea that the world was changing all around him. Not everyone is cut out to live in interesting times.

The Good Reverend Roger

He certainly had a problem with race, there's no doubting that.

And "his times" aren't really an excuse, because other writers that dealt with race that preceded him (Kipling, Twain) had a far more realistic attitude.

And of course they are vilified for using the colloquial terms of the day in stories that depict brown  people, etc, as PEOPLE, and Lovecraft gets a pass even though the smudgy people are invariable evil and degenerate in ALL of his stories in which they were included.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

This is very interesting; never having been into Lovecraft I didn't know any of this at all.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Q. G. Pennyworth

Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on October 28, 2013, 05:09:50 PM
He certainly had a problem with race, there's no doubting that.

And "his times" aren't really an excuse, because other writers that dealt with race that preceded him (Kipling, Twain) had a far more realistic attitude.

And of course they are vilified for using the colloquial terms of the day in stories that depict brown  people, etc, as PEOPLE, and Lovecraft gets a pass even though the smudgy people are invariable evil and degenerate in ALL of his stories in which they were included.

The one thing worth mentioning is that his stories are full of evil, degenerate characters, the brown folks do not have a monopoly on being the villains. They are universally excluded from being the good guys, which is worse.

Usually when you see people complaining about Lovecraft, they stop at the race thing, which I think leaves out the very important anti-science aspect. He wasn't just willfully racist, he was scared of all kinds of progress.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Mrs. Nigelson on October 28, 2013, 05:16:43 PM
This is very interesting; never having been into Lovecraft I didn't know any of this at all.

Understandable.  His writing style is sort of like Herman Melville on tranquilizers.  And he cheats.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Q. G. Pennyworth

Quote from: Mrs. Nigelson on October 28, 2013, 05:16:43 PM
This is very interesting; never having been into Lovecraft I didn't know any of this at all.

If you ever have the time for some casual reading, Mountains of Madness is one of the best pieces. Scientific expedition to Antarctica uncovers an ancient abandoned city and pieces together some of the history. No voodoo cults, no horrors of race mixing, not even his usual LOL POOR PEOPLE.

Drinking game: every time he uses "Cyclopean," drink.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Q. G. Pennyworth on October 28, 2013, 05:24:13 PM
Drinking game: every time he uses "Cyclopean," drink.

Alcohol poisoning ITT.

Also, "indescribable", "unnameable", and "retreated into madness".
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Q. G. Pennyworth

Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on October 28, 2013, 05:25:11 PM
Quote from: Q. G. Pennyworth on October 28, 2013, 05:24:13 PM
Drinking game: every time he uses "Cyclopean," drink.

Alcohol poisoning ITT.

Also, "indescribable", "unnameable", and "retreated into madness".

If you stick to just Cyclopean, and you don't read it all in one night...

The Good Reverend Roger

The worst part about him is he CHEATS.  When the big reveal on the monster happens, it's "indescribeable".

HP Lovecraft should be dug up and fired out of a cannon full of shit.  Into a landfill.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Q. G. Pennyworth

Also: Lovecraft is what happens when Providence gets you.  :lulz:

hooplala

This is all true.  I don't remember which story it is, but in one he descibes an unconscious black man in New York City in completely gorrilla-eesque terms.  Miiight be Horror at Red Hook?

But yeah, the man completely loathed his times... to the point of using archaic words and spelling.  He was like one of those guys today who longs for the 20s, except he longed for colonial times.
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

Suu

Quote from: Q. G. Pennyworth on October 28, 2013, 05:32:55 PM
Also: Lovecraft is what happens when Providence gets you.  :lulz:

No.

Lovecraft IS Providence, he said it himself and it's on his headstone.

The city in itself is scared of change, and a great majority of older established families that still live here, including the Philips clan, are still very much against a lot of things. The entire Eastside and a certain Ivy League named for the color of shit was built with slave money thanks to John Brown. Of COURSE Lovecraft was racist and reclusive. He grew up around and was apart of Providence Old Money atop the sheltered College hill. He literally could look down on the world from Prospect Street near the bones of ol' Roger Williams. 

The man actually just wrote what he saw. Both of his parents landed in Butler, which was the pioneer for shock therapy in the nation AND STILL USES IT, while up in your neck of the woods, Danvers invented the lobotomy. New England is full of fucking crazy, none of this is new. Providence just happens to have a darkness about it. I've watched several people completely go mad. I mean, go from being good A-students at Johnson and Wales or Providence College and then turn around a month later as emaciated heroin addicts, for no reason other than Providence. While working at the mall, I got to witness 2 suicides and someone try to drive out of the parking garage onto 95 via the roof, because it sounded like a good idea at the time. I also got pushed down the stairs at my old job from some unseen force.

I mean, we set our river on fire willingly every other weekend BECAUSE WE CAN.
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."

Suu

Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on October 28, 2013, 05:30:57 PM
The worst part about him is he CHEATS.  When the big reveal on the monster happens, it's "indescribeable".

HP Lovecraft should be dug up and fired out of a cannon full of shit.  Into a landfill.

Good luck finding him.

No, really, he's not under his headstone. Some cultists found that out the hard way. We know he's somewhere in his family plot, but the Philips Family has moved him before and threatened to move him again. Even Swan Point Cemetery says they aren't 100% sure exactly where he is. I've only been there once. It's very hard to find, and someone from the Philips' are sometimes there and will chase you off.  :|
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Suu on October 28, 2013, 06:37:58 PM
Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on October 28, 2013, 05:30:57 PM
The worst part about him is he CHEATS.  When the big reveal on the monster happens, it's "indescribeable".

HP Lovecraft should be dug up and fired out of a cannon full of shit.  Into a landfill.

Good luck finding him.

No, really, he's not under his headstone. Some cultists found that out the hard way. We know he's somewhere in his family plot, but the Philips Family has moved him before and threatened to move him again. Even Swan Point Cemetery says they aren't 100% sure exactly where he is. I've only been there once. It's very hard to find, and someone from the Philips' are sometimes there and will chase you off.  :|

Then I guess we'll have to turf up the entire clan. 
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Suu

Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on October 28, 2013, 06:38:37 PM
Quote from: Suu on October 28, 2013, 06:37:58 PM
Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on October 28, 2013, 05:30:57 PM
The worst part about him is he CHEATS.  When the big reveal on the monster happens, it's "indescribeable".

HP Lovecraft should be dug up and fired out of a cannon full of shit.  Into a landfill.

Good luck finding him.

No, really, he's not under his headstone. Some cultists found that out the hard way. We know he's somewhere in his family plot, but the Philips Family has moved him before and threatened to move him again. Even Swan Point Cemetery says they aren't 100% sure exactly where he is. I've only been there once. It's very hard to find, and someone from the Philips' are sometimes there and will chase you off.  :|

Then I guess we'll have to turf up the entire clan.

I know where they live. We'll start with the living.

But seriously, even talking about this is giving me the jim jams all of a sudden. It's hard to explain. Honestly, I'd rather just leave the bastard be. We all live on the Westside for a reason.
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."