3mo ago

The horrors

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The man was a neurotic anxious mess who was scared of everything around him in his time and checked into the psych ward multiple times. I guess it shows in his writings
- Both of his parents were extremely mentally ill from syphilis. That's why the theme of generational curse is so prominent in his work.
  As for how racist he was, You just need to know that he wrote a book where the big revelation and last sentence of the book was something along the lines of, "worst of all, she was an n-word". The book's name is Medusa's coil
  
  Yeah he was a homophobe and a racist for sure. But how much more than anyone else from his time. I love the themes he brings in but I think other people have done a good job of showing his ideas without the fear he had in him, Shape of water comes to mind and I think del Toro does a great job in showing those themes of the unknown and all.
  There's a video on his (HP) work by HBomberguy which I think is really good.
  I didnt know about the reason for his generational curse.. That's pretty cool!
  
  Personally I think Lovecraft having these issues makes him a more fascinating author to me. The fear of otherness is so prevalent in his work, it's like looking directly into his soul
  
  Ooh that's a cool perspective! He was a scared scared man.
  
  A ton more than other people of his time. Like, diehard racists told him to chill out and be less racist.
  
  showing his ideas without the fear he had in him,
  Shadow over Innsmouth, the fish people were his fear of interracial breeding. Once you start applying the lense to his work, it becomes hard to not break the 4th wall even when he's not spouting the N-word.
  
  Yeah which is why I think "Shape of water" is a better Lovecraftian style of work than HP could ever achieve. He was a troubled scared man, who created an entire genre of horror. Hope we may never be as consumed by our fears as he was.
  
  He was racist to the point where friends, and acquaintances, of his, at the time, were put-off by it. Their expression of how uncomfortable it made them was one of the factors that went into him renouncing his bigotry.
  
  His racism was bad enough that his friends, and acquaintances, at the time, found it off-putting. Their expression of how uncomfortable it made them was one of the factors that eventually lead to him renouncing his bigotry.

62 comments