Post by shawnhartnell on Aug 7, 2014 0:32:27 GMT -6
LOVECRAFT'S CRAFT: WAS LOVECRAFT A RACIST?
Was Lovecraft racist or have some kind of sense of superiority over lower classes of people?
The answer to the above question seems plainly obvious to me. [1] But before I get into that, let's discard the politically correct notions which give rise to the question in the first place, give no positive or negative value to either possibility, and look at the whole thing objectively. In other words, view the question from the point of view that it's only important to establish whether or not he was a racist but it doesn't matter which.
Certainly Lovecraft wrote stories that included characters which seem to be stereotypes of race and class. Two which immediately come to my mind are Beyond the Wall of Sleep and Call of Cthulhu.
These stereotyped portrayals certainly seem to be the kind that would flow from the pen of a racist with a superiority complex, but I believe they're not what they seem to be at first glance.
Make no mistake about it, these portrayals are like the kind that a racist would write; the problem with the theory that "Lovecraft was a racist" is that he didn't write racist propaganda -- he wrote tales of horror, specifically weird tales of horror focusing on the fear of the unknown.
The focus on the fear of the unknown is what I believe to be the key to understanding how Lovecraft used these kinds of stereotypes -- he exploited them because there's another emotion tied to racism other than hate -- fear.
The kind of fear that is implicit in racism has a specific name -- xenophobia, the fear of the unknown.
In conclusion, I believe that Lovecraft wasn't a racist but a good horror writer who intentionally used racist stereotypes for type of fear they tend to invoke.
[1] I have to note that I'm writing this in sort of a vacuum: I haven't read anything non-fiction which Lovecraft himself wrote about race and class. All I've read are his *fictional* stories and opinions on whether or not how someone portrays characters in fiction is enough to determine whether or not someone is racist. I'm planning on buying the books of his collected letters and I may have to update this after reading those -- or not. The point is my view doesn't trump the directly stated view of Lovecraft himself.
Was Lovecraft racist or have some kind of sense of superiority over lower classes of people?
The answer to the above question seems plainly obvious to me. [1] But before I get into that, let's discard the politically correct notions which give rise to the question in the first place, give no positive or negative value to either possibility, and look at the whole thing objectively. In other words, view the question from the point of view that it's only important to establish whether or not he was a racist but it doesn't matter which.
Certainly Lovecraft wrote stories that included characters which seem to be stereotypes of race and class. Two which immediately come to my mind are Beyond the Wall of Sleep and Call of Cthulhu.
These stereotyped portrayals certainly seem to be the kind that would flow from the pen of a racist with a superiority complex, but I believe they're not what they seem to be at first glance.
Make no mistake about it, these portrayals are like the kind that a racist would write; the problem with the theory that "Lovecraft was a racist" is that he didn't write racist propaganda -- he wrote tales of horror, specifically weird tales of horror focusing on the fear of the unknown.
The focus on the fear of the unknown is what I believe to be the key to understanding how Lovecraft used these kinds of stereotypes -- he exploited them because there's another emotion tied to racism other than hate -- fear.
The kind of fear that is implicit in racism has a specific name -- xenophobia, the fear of the unknown.
In conclusion, I believe that Lovecraft wasn't a racist but a good horror writer who intentionally used racist stereotypes for type of fear they tend to invoke.
[1] I have to note that I'm writing this in sort of a vacuum: I haven't read anything non-fiction which Lovecraft himself wrote about race and class. All I've read are his *fictional* stories and opinions on whether or not how someone portrays characters in fiction is enough to determine whether or not someone is racist. I'm planning on buying the books of his collected letters and I may have to update this after reading those -- or not. The point is my view doesn't trump the directly stated view of Lovecraft himself.