Thoughts on H.P. Lovecraft?

What are you writing on?

Do you think Joshi is worth reading? Is there really that much to say about Lovecraft?

>>9267604
He feared everything that was alien to him. This is actually why his creatures often look like and relate to sea life. He hated animals living in water.

>>9267604
Can anyone post that nigger poem?

never read any, but heard a lot about him and he sounds interesting. what'd be a good introduction?

>>9268413
not Houellebecq

>>9268413
shadow over innsmouth

>>9268407
WHEN, LONG AGO, THE GODS CREATED EARTH

>>9268413
Shadow over Innsmouth or Call of Cthulhu

>>9267604
Hes fucking garbage

>>9267604
>I'm writing my dissertation on his works and how they relate to his political concerns of immigration and racism.
>>Thoughts on this?
I think you're an enormous faggot.

>>9267604
>I'm writing my dissertation on his works and how they relate to his political concerns of immigration and racism.
>Thoughts on this?
Joshi says it best:
>http://stjoshi.org/news2015.html
>It has come to my attention that the World Fantasy Convention has decided to replace the bust of H. P. Lovecraft that constitutes the World Fantasy Award with some other figure. Evidently this move was meant to placate the shrill whining of a handful of social justice warriors who believe that a “vicious racist” like Lovecraft has no business being honoured by such an award. (Let it pass that analogous accusations could be made about Bram Stoker and John W. Campbell, Jr., who also have awards named after them. These figures do not seem to elicit the outrage of the SJWs.) Accordingly, I have returned my two World Fantasy Awards to the co-chairman of the WFC board, David G. Hartwell. Here is my letter to him:

>Dear Mr. Hartwell:

>I was deeply disappointed with the decision of the World Fantasy Convention to discard the bust of H. P. Lovecraft as the emblem of the World Fantasy Award. The decision seems to me a craven yielding to the worst sort of political correctness and an explicit acceptance of the crude, ignorant, and tendentious slanders against Lovecraft propagated by a small but noisy band of agitators.

>I feel I have no alternative but to return my two World Fantasy Awards, as they now strike me as irremediably tainted. Please find them enclosed. You can dispose of them as you see fit.

>Please make sure that I am not nominated for any future World Fantasy Award. I will not accept the award if it is bestowed upon me.

>I will never attend another World Fantasy Convention as long as I live. And I will do everything in my power to urge a boycott of the World Fantasy Convention among my many friends and colleagues.

>Yours,
>S. T. Joshi

>And that is all I will have to say on this ridiculous matter. If anyone feels that Lovecraft’s perennially ascending celebrity, reputation, and influence will suffer the slightest diminution as a result of this silly kerfuffle, they are very much mistaken.

>>9270639
Or even better:
>http://stjoshi.org/news2015.html
>The current discussion of Lovecraft as a racist is a tendentious caricature. His views are far more nuanced than most people realise. (How many are aware that he expressed admiration for the Hasidic Jews in the Lower East Side of Manhattan for adhering tenaciously to their cultural and religious heritage?) It is easy to condemn Lovecraft for his views (although I have never been clear on what such a condemnation actually accomplishes, or how it contributes to combating racism in our own time); it is lot harder to arrive at a dispassionate understanding of the nature, origin, and purpose of his views. That takes actual work—a profound study of history, sociology, anthropology, and psychology, and a canvassing of the scholarship on the history of race prejudice. A few Internet searches will not suffice. (A good place to start is my own compilation, Documents of American Prejudice [Basic Books, 1999].)
>The assumption seems to have taken hold that racism somehow defines the totality of Lovecraft’s life, work, and thought—a preposterous assertion that anyone who knows anything about Lovecraft must realise is false. (Moreover, Lovecraft’s racial views have been known for at least five or six decades; it is odd that only now are they evoking sanctimonious outrage.) We all need to do a better job of explaining to the world that Lovecraft was a lot of other things than a racist—he was an atheist, a devotee of science (chemistry, astronomy, physics, anthropology), a traveller, a cat-lover, a student of colonial architecture, a mentor to dozens of younger writers, an acute commentator on the political, social, and cultural events of his time, and so much more.

>>9267604
Sounds fine, there's a lot to go on.
Use freud.

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>>9267604
I have an article on Lovecraft coming out this year, and was at NecronomiCon in 2015 to give a related paper (free Silver Key pass) and attended the talk about his racism. It was an interesting clusterfuck/apologia experience, and the "five white people and one person of color" panel said pretty much exactly what you'd expect. God forbid dead authors should have incorrect views. Worrying about it, for me, is like renouncing all the bands I listened to in my youth because they all did bad things to drunk groupies: a simple-minded confusion of how invested or connected I should be to an artist's behavior just because I enjoy their work.
http://scottnicolay.com/tod-lovecraftracism/

>>9268407
When, long ago, the gods created Earth
In Jove's fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a Nigger.

It's funny because it's true

>guise, Lovecraft was a racist and we should stop paying attention to him or let him loom so large in the genre. but also don't forget to check out my next stories coming out on Autumn Cthulhu, Eldritch Wings 5, Jazz Cats of Ulthar, and Shathoque: The Nameless Beast

>>9267604

Wrote a lot of stuff of varying quality, some amazing, some quite shit. As to be expected really.

His racism/xenophobia is appareant to varying degrees in the stories- one could argue that they fuel the sense of alienation and despair in his stories, but I think that's stretching it a bit to far. I find that the racism is pretty much laid out directly, and the alien and grotesque are their own, so to speak. It's simplistic to view them ALL as subtext for straight-up xenophobia.

His non-horror often gets overlooked, like "Dream-quest to an unknown Kadath", which is pretty interesting.

Also Rats in the Walls is the best story.

The guy had a cat he affectionately called "nigger man".

The ending of 'He' is probably most important in view of politics at the time and the view of Asians that he held.

>>9270856

'The Color out of Prison'

>>9272417
"The Deportation of Juan Romero."

More than anything else, it's important to remember that Lovecraft was a man of his time. His views were perfectly normal back then, and compounded with his extreme paranoia, there's no doubt that some of the Orientalist tropes he used stemmed from his fear of immigration.

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Tired: discussing how author's works relate to racism
Wired: discussing how author's work are related to establishing a Völkish state populated exclusively by men and women of athletical build and no shorter than 6 feet in height.

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>>9267604
>oh wow, ANOTHER trite paper on racism and Lovecraft
But seriously, I truly hope you're not getting any type of tax dollars if exchange for you sitting on your ass and writing about inane shit no one cares about, inane shit that doesn't even have the good grace to be entertaining. Pic related are my thoughts.

>>9268385
>He hated animals living in water.
woah, it's all suddenly so clear

OP have you read Michel Houellebeceq's "Against the World, Against Life"?

If not you should. It's free on scribd.

>>9267604
the key work is that one short story about how the protagonist's great grandpa was a monkeyfucker and the entire family, despite their noble status, are actually cross-species hybrids tainted by monkey blood and doomed to forever experience monkey lust. suicide follows. in other words, obsession with the subhuman is indicative of subhuman ancestry. now look at lovecraft's own obsessions, family history of insanity and constant use of self-inserts. it's not exactly rocket science.

his "political concerns of immigration" are a red herring because none of this shit is a stable political stance based on coherent reasoning. it's all a paranoid delusion of being besieged by a subhuman horde while your secret inner subhuman taint tells you that you actually belong out there yourself. the purely evil outside was your own essence all along.

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>>9267604
>I'm writing my dissertation on his works and how they relate to his political concerns of immigration and racism

>>9268385
He went to the beach once but immediately left when he saw a group of "greasy chimpanzees" swimming alongside white people.

>>9272417
>>9272598
>>9270856

The Nose Over Insmouth

>>9273254

fuck lmao

>>9273254
>The LurKANG WE WUZ
>The Doom that Came to Detroit
>The Statement of Rayqwan Carter
>The Strange High Negro in the Mist
>At the Projects of Madness
>Call of Childyouthservices
>The Dreams in the Crack House

>>9273325
At the Projects of Madness sounds legit terrifying.

>>9267604
Isn't a dissertation usually meant to be done on some new subject? Everyone under the sun knows this, and the author admitted it himself.

>>9274368
Anyone who does a dissertation on racism isn't trying to actually approach any new ground, intellectually.

>>9267604
Highly original, nobody has ever done that.

>>9270924
>Also Rats in the Walls is the best story.
>Dude, Nigger Man! LMAO XDDDD
You tards are the worst.

>>9274950

Are you trying to bait or was this really the best post you could make?

I mean, I'll hand over the (you) anyway, no problem.

And for the thread, I think "Polaris" is one of his more haunting shorter stories, and "the Doom that Came to Sarnath" is pretty legit as well.

>>9274950
I'm not even that dude, but based on that post, how did you pull out:
>>Dude, Nigger Man! LMAO XDDDD
?

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he looks kinda like Ergo the Magnificent

>>9274967
Isn't that Charlie's teacher in the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka?