Was Shadow Over Innsmouth really about race mixing?
I think that his xenophobia definitely bled through in SOI but I do not think that it was *about* race-mixing as such.
No.
I honestly don't think Lovecraft gave a fuck about human races much.
He described ports as full of unsavory foreigners which they were at his time.
Literally everything else is unrelated.
This large scale attempt to explain all his writing as racial based is so fucking tiring. He wrote one racist poem that was unpublished. Its not an explanation for the guys life or work.
>>7520447
fuck off back to /pol/
>>7520772
I don't think that post was particularly /pol/ anon.
>>7520447
>I honestly don't think Lovecraft gave a fuck about human races much.
This. He had racist views, but I really dont think he cared that much about this stuff to make his work about it. I dont see any reason to treat "Shadow Over Innsmouth" as anything other than fantasy.
>>7520447
>This large scale attempt to explain all his writing as racial based is so fucking tiring. He wrote one racist poem that was unpublished. Its not an explanation for the guys life or work.
Completely agree with that. Maybe his views on race and such (common in the 20's and 30's) did seep into his works often, but that can be seen in many authors from his time and even before that
It's about hereditary horror.
Both of Lovecraft's parents died insane, and he was utterly terrified he would end the same way. That the insanity could've been passed onto him, and that maybe he'd pass it on if he had kids of his own. I think that, and not race mixing, is what fueled most of his stories about people breeding fucked up things that should not be.
>>7521294
This. The guy definitely thought that evil begets evil, and while he did think this explained the civilizational differences between Europeans, Africans, and Asians, that was the scientifically and commonly accepted viewpoint until a) the Nazis made it unacceptable and b) the discovery of DNA and modern understanding of genetics, and for Lovecraft this was by no means limited to race.
I know how he felt. My paternal grandfather was severely depressed and committed suicide when my father was 13, and my father suffers from depression though he treats it with medication. When I started experiencing symptoms of depression and thoughts of suicide it terrified me that my own self destruction was inevitable.
Man, it is tough reading H.P. Lovecraft's work.
Everything is indescribable, morose, multi-angled, cyclopean, eldritch, unnamable, ghastly, abominations from unknown dimensions or unfathomable deeps.
And then niggers.
>>7520888
>>7521294
>>7521319
You anons are why I love /lit/. Amongst the memory and shitposting that can be found on any board, we in /lit/ are capable of critical thought and complex ideas.
>>7520447
This guy is painfully wrong.
Lovecraft cared a lot about current political trends, and, though we was an amazing writer, he was a pretty active and unapologetic racist.
From 1915 to 1923 Lovecraft self published The Conservative, a journal in which he exposed many of his racist, anti-democracy, and anti-liberal views. Lovecraft loved the movie The Birth of a Nation, and admired Adolf Hitler. He was also a devote anti-semite, and his jewish wife would later admit this was the main reason for their separation.
If you look at Lovecraft's story The Horror at Red Hook, it's basically the same formula as The Shadow Over Innsmouth, just replace the Deep Ones with foreigners.
Plus, the theme of miscegenation in The Shadow Over Innsmouth relates directly to racial ideas in the United States at the time. The breeding of a Deep One and a human creates a Deep One, just like the offspring of a black person and a white person would be considered black in American society.
To argue that Lovecraft was just this enigma whose stories didn't contain any of the racial ideas he himself believed and espoused is just plain stupid.
>>7521345
The fact that somebody applauds when /lit/ has a few ideas and observations just shows has shitty this board is.
>>7521496
no one cares
>>7521600
I care.
>>7521600
You must be 18 years or older to post on 4chan
>>7521600
>no one cares
>in a thread specifically for this topic
