STORY BY JOHN CARTER JR
This past Wednesday, Forsyth Library hosted an HP (Howard Philips) Lovecraft discussion panel. The topics of discussion made for excellent commentary on the life of the legendary author. Discussions concerning his racist tendencies were the central themes throughout. In particular, Lovecraft’s creatures being what he equated to racial minorities. Even when compared to his contemporaries, Lovecraft’s racism was in a league of its own. The work of HP Lovecraft is still read and dissected today by many readers and authors. Pieces like The Call of Cthulhu, The Nameless City, Necronomicon, and many more have gone on to inspire a plethora of works. Cthulhu itself is an iconic creature, who was even noted to have been made into “plushies”.
The conversation even discussed Lovecraft having seemingly influenced directors like Peter Jackson. His savage animalistic portrayal of Africans in his 2005 King Kong remake is an example of this. This was fascinating to hear given Jackson’s work in New Zeland and his involvement in the exploitation of their people during work on the Tolkien films (The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings franchises). Then again there have been many positive works created by people influenced by Lovecraft’s fantasy and yet disgusted by his racism.
View the panel discussion here.
Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country, for example, has Atticus Turner and his family who are African American. Jeffery Cranor and Joseph Fink’s hit podcast Welcome to Nightvale having also being inspired by Lovecraftian Lore has its narrator Cecil in an openly homosexual relationship with a Latino Scientist named Carlos. The list of inspired works goes on and on. Psycho, Conan the Barbarian, Hellboy, some Spiderman works, Dungeons and Dragons, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, and the Call of Cthulhu tabletop game are all works that have some inspiration from Lovecraft.
Lovecraft was a racist monster who is overall completely different than other science fiction writers (Shelly, Vonnegut, and Bradbury for example). His influence although is still being seen today.