His peculiar blend of cosmic dread, archaic prose, and invented mythologies may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s impossible to deny the depth of his impact. You find it not just in the realm of horror, where Lovecraft’s long been a fixture, but in fantasy, science fiction, RPGs and video games, heavy metal music, and even more arcane corners of contemporary popular culture. Entire subgenres owe their existence to his worldview; entire hobbies have been shaped, however subtly, by his conception of reality as a frail, human construct poised over a fathomless abyss.
The The Shadow Over August is, as I previously announced, a month-long meditation on Lovecraft's influence. I intend this series as neither a canonization nor a condemnation of HPL, but as a recognition of the indelible legacy left by the Old Gent from Providence. Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve long been fascinated by the threads Lovecraft wove into the broader tapestry of nerd culture, such as its obsession with "lore," its joy in piecing together fragmented bits of information, and the sense of awe before vast, impersonal forces. You can clearly see that influence in the rules of Call of Cthulhu, the bleakness of Alien, and the adventures of Mike Mignola's Hellboy, among many more. Even if you’ve never read a word of Lovecraft, you’ve probably encountered a tentacle or two in your travels.
Lovecraft’s legacy is not a monolith and this series reflects that. I’ve invited a number of others to participate – some who admire his work, some who challenge it, and some who do both. Disagreement is part of any healthy conversation, especially one about a figure as contradictory and complicated as Lovecraft. If we’re serious about understanding his place within popular culture, we have to reckon with all of it and do so from a perspective of curiosity, honesty, and critical engagement. Only by approaching Lovecraft in his full complexity can we appreciate the depth of his impact and understand why his legacy continues to provoke such passionate discussion nearly ninety years after his death.
I’m excited to see what you bring to the table in August. H.P. Is fairly well-trod territory at this point, but I’m confident you can offer insight.
ReplyDeleteI applaud your choice to consider all of Lovecraft, and to bring in voices with differing opinions on him. No consideration of the man would be complete if it didn't reckon with both the enormity of his cultural influence and his place in the ugly history of white American prejudice toward so-called inferior races and cultures. I will read these posts with interest and enjoyment, I suspect.
ReplyDelete"No consideration of the man would be complete if it didn't reckon with both the enormity of his cultural influence and his place in the ugly history of white American prejudice toward so-called inferior races and cultures."
Delete..and here we go..oh boy..
HPL was a product of his culture at the time. Taking the man's work out of historical context from which is was written and using a post-modernist lens to judge it, is intellectually dishonest.
You can't change the past. It is what it is. With HPL, you take the good with the bad. Yet some people today want to denigrate him, even though they're making a profit from the Cthulhu Mythos. I'm looking at you, Chaosium.
For me, I accept HPL for the was he was: an intellectual, a pioneer in melding horror with science fiction and bringing verisimilitude to the genre, and as a scholar.
Yes, he was a flawed man and I accept that. No person is perfect. But to dwell on his imperfections so much lately in the past few years is quite frankly tiring and boring. It brings nothing to the table of the discussion of his accomplishments as a writer of fiction.
Lest there be any concern on this point, none of my posts this month will really touch upon these topics, let alone dwell upon them. There's not much left to say that hasn't already been said dozens of times. My goal is, I hope, to some new and interesting things about HPL, especially as he relates to our shared hobby.
DeleteThank you, James! New and interesting things would be appreciated.
DeleteBlacksone, very well said. I could not agree more.
DeleteBlackstone, I am not confident that you understand what postmodernism is if you think I was indulging in it by noting Lovecraft's racism, which was acute even by the standards of his era.
DeleteI didn't bring it up to pick a fight, though, and I don't want to pick one now on James's nice friendly blog.
I get the impression you think I was trying to be provocative; in any case, you have allowed my innocuous words, all of which refer to matters of public record, to serve as a provocation. That was not my intention.
Anonymous,
DeleteI find your tone patronizing, arrogant, and you know you were provoking. The fact you post as anonymous tells me that either you're a coward or AI generated.
The fact of the matter is you brought up HPL's racism. You know it provokes people. I have nothing else to say upon the matter. Good day!
Blackstone, I am in 100% agreement with you on HPL. I winced a bit at the topic, given the tenor of the times, until I read James's clarification above. I might note, however, that not all of us post anonymously as cowards. I, for example, have an absolute aversion to any sort of online "identity" including all forms of social media. James could, I suppose, follow this ISP and the various proxies to figure out where and who I am, though that way leads to paranoia and anyway, why would he care? It's less about hiding, for me at least, and more about keeping just one more remove, to the extent that that's possible.
DeleteBut to the present discussion, yes, if one is going to proclaim one's present virtue over all supposed past evils, adopt a scolding attitude towards all who are not similarly enlightened, and then proffer a weak "who me?" when confronted with one's crass, immoral, and opportunistic virtue signaling, I cannot but agree with you - put your name on it, or shut up.
Looking forward to reading what you have to say!
ReplyDeleteLooking very forward to this series. Bravo, James.
ReplyDeleteJim Hodges---
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great! I'm excited.....
The things that spring to mind immediately include:
ReplyDeleteThe Shrine of the Kuo-Tua
Erol Otus and The Colour Out of Space
The forging of magic items and Through the Gates of the Silver Key (also maybe the Hound Amulet from The Hound)
Lovecraft's contributions to Hyperborea
The Necronomicon and magic books
Clark Ashton Smith at play in Lovecraftscapes (esp. the Carnby Brothers as sorcerer archetypes.
Ephraim White as Magic User archetype.
The Thing on the Doorstep, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the Shadows of Alignment
If you touch on even one of these things, I'll be very happy.
Excellent ideas. I hope we see some of these explored here.
DeleteI think one of the big underlying influences on Alignment, particularly Alignment change penalties (losing spells, unable to use items, or ally with former factions) is Lovecraft - The Thing on the Doorstep, At the Mountains of Madness, the Dunwich Horror are exemplars of the descent from Law - to existential Neutrality - and ultimately to Chaos.
ReplyDeleteThe Thing on the Doorstep, especially, shows the interplay of Alignment and how a Lawful man exercises his loyalty to his (unknown to the world, possessed) best friend to the point of Chaos.
If you're taking requests, James, I think it is important to discuss the times of an author. No, not HPL's racism. I mean how the times impact an author's work.
ReplyDeleteRobert E. Howard's Conan voices a rich critique of "civilization" when its robber barons had just brought the world the Great Depression.
Without Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," I don't think there would have been a Jekyll and Hyde, or H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine." In the latter, time travel is just the means to witness the future evolution of Man.
In Lovecraft's time, the true scale of the universe was just being understood. Having been the center of creation for so long, it was canny to tap into mankind's growing realization of utter insignificance.
Likewise, the mass Catholic immigration to America during the 19th and early 20th centuries clearly inspired "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." As a descendant of those immigrants, I see this historical event differently than Lovecraft did, but I still recognize Innsmouth as one of his greatest masterpieces, especially its ending where the WASPy New England protagonist discovers his true blood line and willingly assimilates with those outsiders(!).
The connections to real life lend these stories greater meaning and resonance. So it's interesting to understand what life was like when they were written.
Superb comment. Concur!
DeleteYes, a good comment.
DeleteIt’s nice to see someone else reading “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” the same way I do. Its theme of miscegenation is commented on a lot, but I rarely see mention of how the ending subverts that, with a sympathetic view of the Deep Ones from their own perspective. (Unlike, say, in “The Dunwich Horror”.)
It strikes me how HPL did that a number of times, presenting some horror and then turning it around, like the Old Ones in “At The Mountains of Madness” or the ghouls and nightgaunts in “Dream-Quest”.
Thanks guys. Bonnacon, I always thought (perhaps incorrectly) that the willful assimilation at the end of "Innsmouth" was intended as a climax of sublime horror by HPL, who feared what was being lost in the melting pot of America.
DeleteEither way, God damn what a story!
A lot of Lovecraft's influence is through Derleth I feel like. I saw the monsters in Deities & Demigods, shortly after got the Call of Cthulhu rulebook, but only much later got a Lovecraft collection to read. I enjoyed it a lot but it wasn't what I expected from the RPG materials. Only a decade later when I read Trail of Cthulhu and Quest for Cthulhu did it connect.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that gets missed too often is that Lovecraft did not just invite others to contribute to Cthulhu, but he encouraged it. He absolutely saw himself, Howard, and CAS as the initial contributors to a dynamic and even contradictory shared fictional realm that would only continue to be relevant if later generations contributed to it.
DeleteIt is pretty obvious that Derleth didn't quite "get" original Lovecraft, but he clearly loved it nonetheless. In fact, I'm somewhat persuaded that when you compare photos of Derleth to Lovecraft, that Lovecraft did not die but instead occupied the "Innsmouth Look" of Derleth's visage.
Nevertheless, I think the real Lovecraft likely would have been amused to see where Derleth went right: in posthumously popularizing Lovecraft's Mythos for the Atomic Age, tying it more closely to the SFX capabilities of B-movies and Baby Boomers, the original Deep Ones could still be found, lurking in Depths beyond the mainstream. Yes, Derleth's Catholic infusion of structured demonology in one sense absolutely makes no sense in a fluid universe of doom. But in another sense, it provides a shocking new insight into Lovecraft's cosmology: HPL never claimed to be its god or maker, but its investigator.
In other words, Derleth provides a take that suggests what Lovecraft had been admitting all along: that despite his certain, factual illustration of a doomed, uncaring cosmos, he could be wrong.
After all, though Lovecraft generally portrayed the "holy vampire hunter" archetype as a hopeless and vulnerable eventual victim against madness or death...he also created and closely identified with the Henry Armitage, a purely courageous and hopeful character of that type who claims victory over the Dunwich Horror.
Maybe at some point, it is we who only get HPL originals within narrow confines that Lovecraft never put upon himself. Although Lovecraft commonly portrayed his fictional events as the dark chaos and incidental violence of an indifferent universe, he didn't do this universally. I imagine he would have been pleased by Derleth's fresh perspective: that a man who chooses a fate of madness, death and horror in his foray into the Unknown may not, by definition, be a fool, but a martyr, saving humanity's life by sacrificing his own.
CoC certainly owes much to Derleth for its promotion of pulp-style, active investigation , and the lack of inevitable fates...but CoC also goes in its own direction, in ways that contradict Derleth's more formal conspiratorial pantheon, and instead blend the amorphous Lovecraftiana of "Descent" with demi-human-centric cultism.
CoC works so well because, above all, it does a great job of embracing the Howardian playground of "Loose Canon"