The Complicated Friendship of H. P. Lovecraft and One of His Fans

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-complicated-friendship-of-h-p-lovecraft-and-robert-barlow-one-of-his-biggest-fans

by lermontov • 9 years ago

57 13 9 years ago

newyorker.com

mcguire2• 9 years ago

"The Night Ocean" (http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/no.aspx) is rather haunting, as is "Till A' The Seas" (http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/tas.aspx).

rrdharan2• 9 years ago

Interesting article. As someone he would have likely considered a "beast of semi-human nature" myself, I'm admittedly biased against Lovecraft.

At any rate I found it interesting that the New Yorker didn't squeeze in a throwaway mention of this awful aspect of Lovecraft's personality, given the sympathy it evokes for the member of another oppressed class (homosexuals): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft#Race.2C_ethnic...

Although actually now having read through it more carefully, it's really an article about Barlow, and I can see how delving into Lovecraft's despicable attitudes would just be a distraction.

EDIT: Actually, they did squeeze in exactly said throwaway mention I would have expected, so my original observation was just plain wrong. Thanks ffm for the correction.

ffn• 9 years ago

The article actually does actually mention something along the lines of "Lovecraft's literary legacy is threatened in the 50s by his rumored homosexuality and today by his latent racist attitudes". But yes, you're absolutely right, an article about a man's tragic life really has no place in loudly screaming that one of his early influences was racist.

rrdharan2• 9 years ago

Shows how carefully I was reading it. Thanks for the correction.

yummyfajitas3• 9 years ago

Should every article about people from historical eras discuss the fact that they held views which were extremely common then, but are uncommon now?

For example, should every article about Lincoln mention his opposition to miscegenation, his views on blacks being unsuitable as voters and jurors (and generally inferior) and his desire for them to emigrate? Should every article about any particular Roman mention their lack of opposition to gladiatorial combat and crucifixion?

mynameishere• 9 years ago

Well, if the elite consensus view of Lincoln changes, you can be sure they will mention all that and more. (Did you know he was a shameless shill lawyer for railroad interests?)

aomurphy• 9 years ago

Lovecraft's racism was significantly more extreme than for his time. He constantly called New York "Jew York", even while married to a Jew. He was a complicated fellow, but explicitly wished not to be a product of his time, but an imagined better era (Specifically he calls out the time of Queen Anne in one of his letters0.

cwyers2• 9 years ago

Lovecraft's racism and xenophobia were not simply ordinary to his time, or removed from his work as a writer - "The Horror at Red Hook," as just one example, is a story that's just loaded with that sort of thing. I don't think you can discuss Lovecraft without it.

The Complicated Friendship of H. P. Lovecraft and One of His Fans

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