"about"

[sophiaserpentia]

So lately my interest has been piqued in the Cthulhu mythos. With its emphasis on bizarre geometry, nameless unspeakable horrors lurking just outside the edges of one's line of sight, and the concept of cosmic secrets known to ancient civilizations and since forgotten, it seems almost tailor-made for a nerd like me.

But as I re-read the seminal story "The Call of Cthulhu" over the past few days, I began to perceive a rather different set of unspeakable horrors lurking just outside of sight.

I've reached a point where everything I listen to, everything I read, everything I watch, gets filtered through a certain perceptual bias. It's impossible for me to not notice references to social power or imbalance. By the time I was done reading the story I was forced to conclude that it was about the "evil danger" of people of color.

"About" is a funny thing. I've written previously that I believe that the meaning of an utterance or artistic work is "primarily that reaction which is intended to be provoked by the work's creator". But I think that I have to include in that any agenda of which the author is only subconsciously aware. IOW, whether it was Lovecraft's intention or not to produce a work intended to provoke fear of people of color, this is what he produced, and it is not accidental, it is not something one "reads into the text now 91 years later."

As an aside to illustrate the point of "about", and just because it's on my mind today, and just to prove that I wasn't kidding when I said I am always viewing the world through this lens, consider the 1985 video to "Some Like it Hot" by the Power Station. The model featured prominently in the video is Caroline Cossey, also known as Tula; the video contains so many Terrible Tranny Tropes that it's practically "about" the fact that she is transsexual, though the 'obviousness' of this is only obvious to me in hindsight.

Anyway, back to Lovecraft and his story. It's not enough to say that the story draws a contrast between civilized, rational, yet unsuspecting white people, vs. violent and savage, yet knowing of the hideous horrors lying at the ocean floor, people of color. It's not enough that several times he refers to people of color as "mongrels," or suggests that the cultists are barely human, or avers at one point that to kill them would be an act of mercy. The story hangs its entire bid for effectiveness on the notion that voodoo and other "primitive" religions are evil and dark. Lovecraft presumes the reader is white and expects him or her to be complicit in his view that wherever we find people of color we might find the violent members of an ancient, savage, global cult. The cult and its secrets live "out of sight" in dark jungle type places until the beacon of white anthropology shines on it and reveals the terrible secret.

Furthermore, what of the "unspeakable horrors" this cult may usher in? What of the bizarre, otherworldly geometry in which they dwell? The popular interpretation is that Lovecraft was an anti-modernist concerned about what terrors might be ushered in by Twentieth Century science. In the post-atomic age this does not seem an unreasonable interpretation; indeed it almost seems to cast Lovecraft as a prophet. I'm inclined to suspect, though, that what Lovecraft feared was the thought of a populist uprising in the non-white or even the Eastern European nations. Perhaps the "otherworldly geometry" he feared was the upheaval of the Newtonian clockwork universe and the safe hegemony of the European colonial world order that proclaimed it.

Comments

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

As a side note - the punch line is that "Cthulu", or the giant lurking sea monster spoken of by sailors for hundreds or even thousands of years, actually exists.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/photogalleries/giant_squid/

but yeah I know what you mean. Sometimes I go back and read something I haven't read for years and the sexism/racism of it jumps out and practically assaults me, whereas when I was 15 I would never have recognized it.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Indeed. It's particularly jarring when the sexism or racism is so prominent that you're forced to say that it's pretty much the main point of it. The story is as much "about" numerous terrifying threats to civilization (as represented by people of color) as it is "about" a giant squid sleeping on the bottom of the ocean.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Lovecraft is notoriously racist, far more so than "people of his time." Though it didn't make it as much into his work, his anti-Semitism is also very clear. Wikipedia discusses this explicitly; it's just so obvious that there's no way to read his work without the subtext becoming clearly part of the text.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

I can't quote chapter & verse here, but in other tales Uncle Howie speaks of the unspeakable horror of things covered in slime, giant rugose cones, etc. showing he had a horror of sex.

He lived in poor neighborhoods of mixed ethnicity. My experience of such neighborhoods has shown me crime, poor education, and negative superstitions. I feel these sterotypes arise from class repression, but Uncle Howie probably never considered the horrors of capitalism run amok.

Both Lovecraft and Grant share a dread and horror of the things they writ about. Tanith, my once superior in the Typhonian OTO, pointed out that one can get energized enough to get out-of-body thru fear and revulsion, or thru love and acceptance. Is one adrenergic? Or Cholinergic?

I can ignore the sexual fears, fear of all who are not prim proper Victorians White folks, and fear of entities I meet. I can ignore the hang-ups of occult authors. I can simply use their writings to connect.

When it comes down to it, I never met a non-corporeal entity whom I feared would do me harm.

While is is very very useful to realize when an author is sexist, a prude, a racist, or any other kind of fearful purist, I also find I need to transcend my political correctness in order to enjoy the works of those I do not always agree with.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

While is is very very useful to realize when an author is sexist, a prude, a racist, or any other kind of fearful purist, I also find I need to transcend my political correctness in order to enjoy the works of those I do not always agree with.

Oh, to be clear I'm not saying that the writings of someone who proves to be racist and/or sexist are of no merit -- just that it is always helpful to be aware of reality funnels that affected said writers.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

I most certainly agree with you!

[lassiter.livejournal.com]

Oh, certainly, HPL was a mess of repression and fear. I think he feared, in descending order of importance: A.) Sex, women, and the associated gooeyness of it all, B.) the ability of sex to break loose the moorings of prim, proper rationality, C.) ethnic immigrants of uncertain beliefs and lower-economic class pedigree, who might just embody or embrace a familiarity with A. and B.

Can't remember which tale it is, but I think it's "The Horror at Red Hook" which has the most overt racial panic vibe to it.

HPL didn't think too highly of immigrants of any kind, and it shows, but at least he could bring himself to portray them in a story. But women? I think there are only two stories in his entire body of work that have female characters, and neither of them are sympathetic protagonists.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

HPL didn't think too highly of immigrants of any kind, and it shows, but at least he could bring himself to portray them in a story. But women? I think there are only two stories in his entire body of work that have female characters, and neither of them are sympathetic protagonists.

Good point. His stories make up the most asexual body of literature I know of. I don't know that he wrote anything explicit about his loathing of women, so it's hard to know exactly what he thought or felt. But rendering women entirely invisible in his stories was not a sign of indifference...

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

lameautarch and I were chatting about this the other week. I just happened to mention Call of Cthulu and he said that it was too bad that Lovecraft was such a huge racist.

I guess his reputation is well-known (or at least well-perceived).

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

It's not just the not-very-subtle at all racism of his fiction, but the considerable collection of racist comments he made in correspondence as well. It's not an item of speculation -- it's an established fact, so it's hard to avoid.

As to sexism: this seems to be less well-perceived, largely because he did everything possible to render women completely invisible in his world.

On the political overtones I've mentioned: I haven't really seen much commentary on them.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I just visited the Wiki page previously suggested, and I must agree with you about the private correspondence. That is astonishing.

I haven't read any Lovecraft personally. I had planned to, as many of my friends in college were fans of his mythos, but after the conversation I had with lameautarch I doubt if I'll pick up any of his stories, ever.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

It's kind of a shame that he was so hateful, because as a wordsmith he had some actual talent. But probably the only reason to read anything by him now is to be familiar with cultural references, which is a pretty weak excuse. Some of his works should be in the public domain by now, so if you do ever read those, you wouldn't be enriching anyone.

Clive Barker is able to evoke many of the same moods, but without the racism and misogyny, so you'd be better off just going with his writings, I think.

[sable-twilight.livejournal.com]

Some of his works should be in the public domain by now, so if you do ever read those, you wouldn't be enriching anyone.

And indeed they are:
The Complete works of H.P. Lovecraft

[akaiyume.livejournal.com]

Personally I think his talent as a wordsmith is accidental. If I attempt to read his works with the standard idea of protagonist as sympathetic character, having 'correct' pov, etc, I find his writing atrocious.

If read without that idea, then the language shows the depths of isolation and horror the mind can inflict on itself when trying to gain power over what one hates, refuses to understand and accept anything outside of self-imposed tunnel vision of unquestioning self-righteousness - then the writing becomes damned near brilliant.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

As others have said, Lovecraft was a notorious racist.

Some of his work focuses on the horror of interbreeding: The Dunwich horror, Shadow over Innsmouth

Some of it is about humans degenerating:
The Rats in the Walls (with some of the most blatent racism), The Lurking Fear, The Picture in the House.

I make no claims to his psychological state, only to say he was a product of his times and probably influenced by the eugenics movement.

I take what I can from his tales, and have written an homage in my own right, but a lot of it still makes me go "blergh!"

[sable-twilight.livejournal.com]

I feel "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is both about inbreeding as well as what HPL viewed as the inevitable decline and degeneration cased by breeding with those other races.

[sable-twilight.livejournal.com]

Yep, everyone has said it already. HPL was a racist and had fears about sex. And it's very much not surprising given the time frame and location we was raised and his family environment. He might even be representative of a good portion of the population of the time, given his popularity.

However, that does not mitigate the huge impact HPL had on the horror genre. HPL is, I believe, the prime contributor to moving horror away from the theme of evil having some sort of innate supernatural source. From Lovecraft we get the "man messing around with things not meant to be known" and "conflicts alien/other intelligences" style of horror.

[sable-twilight.livejournal.com]

Oh, and it's good to see you writing again.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) I finally thought of something to say that didn't seem quite like repeating the same stuff over and over again. Only just sorta.

[akycha.livejournal.com]

I had nearly the exact same reaction on first reading Lovecraft. My reaction was so extreme that I continue to be utterly astonished at the popularity of his work and at the constant barrage of references to "The Mythos," which seems to point, to me, to tacit acceptance of his racism.

As far as I'm concerned, the fact that the stories are founded on racism rather completely poisoned the well, as it were.

In addition to the lack of women in the stories, he also tampered with the work of women writers, while he was an editor. Some of the work he altered to fit in with his own ideas, and I think that some of it was published under his own name. I'm sorry I cannot give you the names of the women he stole from; I found this out in a volume of "Lovecraft" I picked up at a library sale and I was so revolted that I got rid of the book immediately.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Wow, I've never heard that, that's pretty appalling. If you come across more information about that I'd love to see it.

[kitkatlj.livejournal.com]

*Has only read 2 paragraphs so far, but...*

What. The. Heck.

Are you aware that so far you're really, really on w/ this one amazing track on the Speak! CD?

http://speakmediacollective.com/ "On Cartography and Dissection" – E. Rose Sims

[kitkatlj.livejournal.com]

http://takingsteps.blogspot.com/2006/09/on-cartography-and-dissection.html (but the SPEAK! CD is worth every penny.)

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I adore Little Light, and I'm honored to be compared to her.