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naraburns  nihil supernum  3yr ago (text post)   3927 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 24, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I'm been slowly working through HP Lovecraft's complete works. I uh... gotta be honest. I'm starting to see the claims that Lovecraft was abnormally racist even for his time. His description of an African boxer in Reanimator as a grotesque apelike creature, before the reanimator serum makes him even more monstrous is pretty brutal. Although the black cat named "Nigger Man" in The Rats in the Walls is kind of funny.

But I guess I never really felt strongly about whether Lovecraft was or was not racist. I more got up in arms about the over reactions about what to do about "it". But that's a discussion for another thread.

Check out Medusa's Coil, the ending is so racist it's actually hilarious!

"ONE... PERCENT... WELSH!?!?!"

Especially in comparison with the whole raising from the grave stuff lol.

Lovecraft is an unabashed white supremacist, which has no bearing on my opinion that "The Rats in the Walls" is one of the best horror stories I've ever read.

I find it helps to see him as a flawed man of his time from an era where many ideas we take for granted today were still unheard of.

That modern racist authors are capable of reaching far greater heights of racism means only that they stand upon his shoulders, and we owe him a great debt for paving the way for them long before the invention of tools like genetics or FBI crime statistics.

I'm starting to see the claims that Lovecraft was abnormally racist even for his time.

Huh? Was that claim ever in question?

...

As WhiningCoil notes, I suppose it's not in question that Lovecraft was racist, at least by our modern standards, it's more the question of how to handle Lovecraft. I'd say that, as far as degree goes, Lovecraft is maybe a notch above the typical old-timey Anglo racism, which probably stems from him having such a sheltered life.

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