Current Events > Starting to think HP Lovecraft may have been a lil racist

(+) Yeah! (+)

Listening to his complete fiction audio book and got to the story about the rats in the walls.

He chose an interesting name for the cat that he refers to about 200 times.

Oh you should check out a poem he wrote called on the creation of.... Something

Tyranthraxus posted...

Oh you should check out a poem he wrote called on the creation of.... Something

That was a short poem but he was very to the point.

I once heard that the 1920s KKK asked him if he could tone it down a little cuz it made them look bad. I doubt the authenticity of that story, but it would be interesting if true.

Flauros posted...

That was a short poem but he was very to the point.

I once heard that the 1920s KKK asked him if he could tone it down a little cuz it made them look bad. I doubt the authenticity of that story, but it would be interesting if true.

Don't know about that but his friend Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian) asked him to tone the racism down because even publishers in the 1920s wouldn't touch his work. He was extreme even for his time.

If he was alive today he'd name his cat Trump

HP Lovecraft had a meltdown when he learned he was part Welsh.

What would he think of Lovecraft Country?

Is he just a traditional racist of calling all non-whites inferior, is he a mein campf type, or how exactly is his racism perpetuated because I still haven't gone near his work yet

There's a theory that all that horror-cosmic stuff was his allegory for miscegenation. Makes you wonder.

Noumas posted...

Is he just a traditional racist of calling all non-whites inferior, is he a mein campf type, or how exactly is his racism perpetuated because I still haven't gone near his work yet

He was very mentally ill and afraid of pretty much everything. It made him an awful person but amazing horror writer. >_>

Irony posted...

If he was alive today he'd name his cat Trump

The only thing HP Lovecraft hated more than black people were belligerent obnoxious loudmouths. He was all about proper etiquette and classy behavior. Dude would have been a never Trumper if he was around today.

He was also so racist that he probably would not have considered Trump an American.

You lost me at the last part

Noumas posted...

Is he just a traditional racist of calling all non-whites inferior, is he a mein campf type, or how exactly is his racism perpetuated because I still haven't gone near his work yet

Depends on where in his life you check him.

Early in life he viewed slavery as a necessity to protect Black people from themselves. Later in life his views changed to something closer to the segregationists of the early 90s. He probably would have supported a black ethnostate if it meant getting them out of America.

Lovecraft's racism wasn't restricted to black people. Like I said he was damn near afraid of everything and didn't like/trust anyone not a WASP from his hometown. He was also anti-Semitic but married a Jewish woman.

Irony posted...

You lost me at the last part

IIRC, Trump traces his roots to Germany. Racial purity was important for Lovecraft.

Also, even if he got over the German thing, Trump's crassness wouldn't be acceptable.

His books were pretty great though. He goes super into the lore of everything and connects a lot of the stories together.

Also, there needs to be another Re-animator movie that follows the book more closely.

Ivynn posted...

Lovecraft's racism wasn't restricted to black people. Like I said he was damn near afraid of everything and didn't like/trust anyone not a WASP from his hometown. He was also anti-Semitic but married a Jewish woman.

I went to college in his hometown. They have a Lovecraft tour that is....enlightening. Really, really unstable guy.

brestugo posted...

IIRC, Trump traces his roots to Germany. Racial purity was important for Lovecraft.

Also, even if he got over the German thing, Trump's crassness wouldn't be acceptable.

German isn't a race

He hated everyone that wasn't an upper crust WASP

did you just hear about him because it's well known lol

Irony posted...

German isn't a race

Hasn't stopped people before. Hitler included.

Irony posted...

German isn't a race

It's not Anglo-Saxon which is the issue. Trump was also a first generation which wouldn't have won him any brownie points with Lovecraft either.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Depends on where in his life you check him.

Early in life he viewed slavery as a necessity to protect Black people from themselves. Later in life his views changed to something closer to the segregationists of the early 90s. He probably would have supported a black ethnostate if it meant getting them out of America.

Strikes me as one of those dudes who would have supported that 19th century project of "shipping them back to Africa!"

While not willing to pay for the boat or get into the logistics at all

hes definitely racist

brestugo posted...

There's a theory that all that horror-cosmic stuff was his allegory for miscegenation. Makes you wonder.

Every time I Google that word I'm little bit disgusted that it's basically just "interracial relationships" but dressed up in a disingenuous fancy word. Like phrenology

A little racist? The dude was overtly racist and insane. Which sucks because he wrote good stuff but as a black person i cant read it.

I know people say "separate the art from the artist" but when he names his cat what he named it and not to mention the stuff he said about other races. I cant support it at all

Noumas posted...

Every time I Google that word I'm little bit disgusted that it's basically just "interracial relationships" but dressed up in a disingenuous fancy word. Like phrenology

I am still feeling the disappointment from when I learned scientology has nothing to do with science or any other kind of -ology.

He was a special sort of racist where he gave racists of the time secondhand embarassment. Try reading his old story The Street, which is maybe one of the worst things he ever wrote (and bad writing was not uncommon for Lovecraft) in which is 90% a tugjob to colonial British ancestry and 10% cosmic horror where the wrong type of white people move in and the earth itself rebels against them and kills them.

I4NRulez posted...

A little racist? The dude was overtly racist and insane. Which sucks because he wrote good stuff but as a black person i cant read it.

I fought through about 1 1/2 books but there's soooo much racist stuff to wade through to get to the good parts that that's enough for me too.

MarcyWarcy posted...

He was a special sort of racist where he gave racists of the time secondhand embarassment.

Yeah, people in the 1920s - Jim Crow's peak- were embarrassed. That's how bad he was.

brestugo posted...

There's a theory that all that horror-cosmic stuff was his allegory for miscegenation. Makes you wonder.

Also seen a theory that The Shadow of Innsmouth was partially related to him finding out he wasn't "pure" English and that he was part Celt.

wanderingshade posted...

Also seen a theory that The Shadow of Innsmouth was partially related to him finding out he wasn't "pure" English and that he was part Celt.

That story was the result of his meltdown finding out he was part Welsh, yep.

He should be cancelled

is there a youtube vid that explains his backstory and him being a complete nutjob

SSJ2GrimReaper posted...

is there a youtube vid that explains his backstory and him being a complete nutjob

In Praise of Shadows has a pretty good video on him

SSJ2GrimReaper posted...

is there a youtube vid that explains his backstory and him being a complete nutjob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmdzptbykzI

PMarth2002 posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmdzptbykzI

This is pretty interesting if true

damnit, if this is all true, someone needs to stop this guy!

Love his mythos but dude was racist AF. He literally has a story called the N-word man about a white dude turning into a well, you know, and it was written like a transformation into a monster so...

dude was writing books like one hundred years ago and he's dead as fuck. Life already cancelled him.

indica posted...

Love his mythos but dude was racist AF. He literally has a story called the N-word man about a white dude turning into a well, you know, and it was written like a transformation into a monster so...

That's weird even comic books did stories like that, there was even a superman comic.

"Is that an Italian? AHHHH save me I'm going insaaane!"
~ H.P. Lovecraft, probably.

Here's some interesting papers detailing the relationship between Hispanics, Spaniards and Latin Americans, and H.P. Lovecraft as well as the author of Conan the Barbarian.

https://graduateway.com/the-shadow-out-of-spain-part-1/

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/9/AAMY_UAAEXpL.jpg