Posted on 05/11/2016 10:33:36 AM PDT by EveningStar
I am not a Lovecraft devotee, since horror is not really my niche. I've been tangentially aware of the surge in Lovecraft-bashing, ever since World Fantasy Convention caved in on their trophy squabble. Now that the man's literary works are falling into the public domain, it seems there are a heap of people who want to re-do, un-do, re-work, or otherwise "colonize" the man's fiction legacy.
Ah, cultural Marxism: same as it ever was.
Here's the rub, though. Seeing people who are literally babies in the field, already planting their flags as "historic" persons, come to overturn the smelly old H.P. and his badthinky stuffs and things . . . this is what happens when you tell kids they are priceless, peerless, astoundingly perfect snowflakes—from the cradle on up. They don't realize they actually have to *DO* things, and do them extraordinarily well, and do this for DECADES, before they even have a glimmer of a ghost of a chance of making a mark large enough that their work will survive beyond their lifetimes.
Lovecraft—for all his faults, as a human being—has already become immortal. He is the Grand Canyon of horror. Only Edgar Allan Poe—the Olympus Mons of the macabre—casts a longer shadow.
Most of Lovecraft's determined detractors . . . are not even scratches in the dirt yet. They are not even molehills. They are urinating on the statue of a giant, believing that somehow part of that giant's power will be transferred to them.
This is not a defense of anything H.P. thought or said, as a man. Though, doubtless, the cultural Marxists will interpret all criticism of their rhetoric and tactics, as a defense. That's just how cultural Marxists roll: everything and everyone who is not them, is either maliciously evil, or unforgivably ignorant.
When one particular Lovecraft critic remarked, "The history books are ours, dammit," I just kind of shook my head, and thought of Nikita Khrushchev declaring, "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in."
Be careful what you proudly predict, cultural Marxists.
You just might get it—in ways you least expect!—
ping
I read HP Lovecraft when I was a teenager. I loved his stories...................................
Lovecraft’s works are horrors of fiction. Marxists on the other hand are living breathing monsters of the original Roman meaning of the word.
Cthulhu sleeps in R’lyeh, but occasionally has to get up to piss all over SJW’s and their stupid imperatives.
I like the Dunwich Horror movie in 1970. Kind of cheesy but a fair representation of the story. Limited in special effects, it was still entertaining to me, mostly because the acting wasn’t quite so good which made it kind of humorous to me. It’s even funnier when you switch the language to French. Sort of like the flaws in Night of the Living Dead. My favorite there was the zombies waiting for cue.
The Mountains of Madness scared the heck out of me when I read it at age 12. It still holds up.
I did, too. I still think Shirley Jackson is the best although her output was more limited since she died young.
Lovecraft had an giant contribution to the history of American Horror literature, which is largely a New England and Eastern States regional cultural phenomenon. Nathaniel Hawthorn, Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and our contemporary Stephen King, are all from either eastern states, or New England.
To try and undermine the ideas and philosophy of Lovecraft’s universe, is to betray a deconstructionist unraveling of classical ideas of good and evil, the potential evil of the unknown, and of the nature of the original sin of mankind. Just what you might expect from the juvenile and shallow thinkers of today’s left.
Little people trying to make themselves taller by pulling down a giant... just about sums it up.
One thing that people miss in this debate about Lovecraft is that even if you re-edited his works to remove every “n word”, every politically incorrect racial description, his works are still INHERENTLY xenophobic. The “fear of the other” is the bread and butter of every single HP Lovecraft story, and they can’t edit that out.
That same fear is inherent to every human being, whether they like it or not, no matter how many sensitivity training sessions they attend to try and suppress it. That’s why Lovecraft’s works still strike a nerve and resonate with us, because they appeal to universal fears.
I enjoyed reading Lovecraft as a teenager. His work is culturally significant, unique and worth reading. As many others have pointed out, he held racist views that would not be acceptable today. There’s no denying that (at least I can’t) nor should we. But if we are going to get rid of every artist or author who held views that aren’t acceptable today, we aren’t going to have much to read.
Oh no. I like Morgan Freeman. Good actor.
Loved him in The Shawshank Redemption. (great ‘feel good’ movie)
Why can’t HW stars just keep their opinions to themselves?
Where is Morgan Freeman mentioned?
The “fear of the other” is the bread and butter of H.P. Lovecraft stories? Well, when Cthulhu is the “other,” I would say the fear is justified.
Although I suppose Obama and his immigration czars would find such fears to be xenophobic and racist, and would make Cthulhu a specially protected class under federal regulations, and give it privilged access to girls’ bathrooms and showers.
Thanks.
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” —Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
Seems plausible for most of the time. Of course before the fall I would say the strongest emotion was love, if you go biblical as far as going back far enough. But I don’t think HP was too terribly down with that.
Freegards
L. Sprague de Camp, a sci-fi hack writer who penned new Conan stories, or rewrote other pulp fiction by R.E. Howard into Conan stories, wrote the first bio, if memory serves, info here isn’t what I was looking for though:
Lovecraft: A Biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraft:_A_Biography
S.T. Joshi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T._Joshi
http://www.hplovecraft.com/study/bios/iap.aspx
Cthulhu is not amused.
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