HP Lovecraft

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Colonel Mustard
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Robin wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:32 am My understanding that this business about being raised as a girl was due to a photograph of him in a dress as young child. However, such attire was not unusual even for small boys in the Victorian era. I'm happy to learn otherwise.
I worked for a company where they had a picture of the founder - a male - on the wall who was also dressed as a girl in a childhood photo from the early 1900's. I'm told that was "a thing" back then to dress all children in dresses. I'm not sure the reasoning. Maybe it was just quicker and easier to get them in and out of.
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skerrigan
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I'm using Joshis bio as a 2nd hand source. They have mentioned these facts on the Good Friends of Jackson Elias podcast. And I just assume they know their stuff. :)
Robin wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:32 am
Can I ask your sources on this? It's been about three decades since I read L. Sprague de Camp's biography of HPL, and I still haven't had time to even dip into Joshi's two-volume one. One of these days. (I'm currently finishing the first of Joshi's Variorum Editions of HPL's works, but I'm taking a break with some Clark Ashton Smith after that.)

My understanding that this business about being raised as a girl was due to a photograph of him in a dress as young child. However, such attire was not unusual even for small boys in the Victorian era. I'm happy to learn otherwise.
And for his time and relative isolation he was quite an advocate for the sciences. I wouldn't describe his as ignorant.
I meant ignorance in relation to race and culture.

Regards,

Robin
Verdant Castellan of Bretonnia and Purveyor of the Perilous Realm Podcast
Robin
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skerrigan wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:32 am I'm using Joshis bio as a 2nd hand source. They have mentioned these facts on the Good Friends of Jackson Elias podcast. And I just assume they know their stuff. :)
Yeah, fair enough. Joshi's an arrogant SOB, but he's probably the authority on HPL. I still wouldn't class HPL as disturbed though.

Regards,

Robin
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skerrigan
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I count myself as disturbed, so YMMV. :mrgreen:
Robin wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:17 pm Yeah, fair enough. Joshi's an arrogant SOB, but he's probably the authority on HPL. I still wouldn't class HPL as disturbed though.

Regards,

Robin
Verdant Castellan of Bretonnia and Purveyor of the Perilous Realm Podcast
satakuua
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I love Lovecraft’s stories. Sure, the man was racist, but still. I do like Roman Polanski’s films, too. And he is a convicted rapist. And Louis C.K. was good. As was Kevin Spacey.
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Orin J.
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i think the modern "political correct" culture is going to be seen in the same hinky light the all-encompassing racist undertones of lovecraft's era were, honestly. there's so much gatekeeping and virtually no teaching about the reasons behind it (admittadly, sometimes there's very little reasoning there), that you see a natural pushback to it that's leaving the door unfortunately open to the most virulent strains of racist thought. it's better to go into the books understanding the gist of how racism affected the era rather than making assumptions of his adoption of the popular culture.
satakuua
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It is the Age of Hysteria.

Tough to stomach it all, but, thankfully, there are good things happening, too.
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Wyrmslayer
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HBO have released the first episode of a based on Lovecraftian themes. Lovecraft Country. Deals as much with America's segregation era and Lovecraft's own racism as it does with the Cthulhu mythos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za8PP4x ... fFiL8ZLY6s

Quite clever of the mythos as a means to explore the racism angle, when some of Lovecraft's own writing was him using it to demonise the "others" of his racist views.

It worked fine for me with IE but if you run into the "not available in your area" the Opera browser comes with a VPN you can enable to get around the national issue.
Herr Arnulfe
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Wyrmslayer wrote: Fri Aug 21, 2020 5:36 amHBO have released the first episode of a based on Lovecraftian themes. Lovecraft Country. Deals as much with America's segregation era and Lovecraft's own racism as it does with the Cthulhu mythos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za8PP4x ... fFiL8ZLY6s

Quite clever of the mythos as a means to explore the racism angle, when some of Lovecraft's own writing was him using it to demonise the "others" of his racist views.
Thanks, it looks great! Chaos seems like a perfect device for these kinds of social justice stories in Warhammer, considering it's based on the inherent evils of humanity.
Herr Arnulfe
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Having seen 9 of the 10 episodes of Lovecraft Country, I'll definitely read the novel after watching the series finale this weekend. Actual "Lovecraft canon" is very loose, it's really just a social justice story in the cosmic horror investigative genre. Naming the series after HPL is a double-edged homage/condemnation of the author & genre. There's some really brutal, graphic and emotionally upsetting material in this show, but at its heart the story is sensitive and intelligent IMO. It's a deliberate inversion of the CoC genre with recurring themes of role-reversal and humanizing "the other". Highlights of some notable race/gender reversals include:

- no white protagonists (well it's complicated, but not really).
- indescribable horrors that are sympathetic to black protagonists.
- sex change magic.
- potions that induce temporary race changes.
- Frankenstein monster with a black man's body and a white man's head.

For WFRP to tell this kind of story using Chaos, I believe the old interpretation works better (i.e. Chaos feeds on primary human emotions). One of the show's main inversions is the use of "dark" magic to embrace otherness and thereby gain insight on humanity. I believe the new Chaos paradigm could work as well (i.e. Chaos is an alien force infiltrating humanity). However, there would have to be Law cult extremists (or another similar faction, maybe vampires?) to provide the PCs with constant "lesser evil" type dilemmas.
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Totsuzenheni Yukimi
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Herr Arnulfe wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:30 am - indescribable horrors that are sympathetic to black protagonists.
I'm curious what is meant by 'sympathetic' in this instance. An example might help.
Herr Arnulfe wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:30 am - potions that induce temporary race changes.
Is this simply skin colour or are there other changes?
Herr Arnulfe
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totsuzenheni wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 9:13 am
Herr Arnulfe wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:30 am - indescribable horrors that are sympathetic to black protagonists.
I'm curious what is meant by 'sympathetic' in this instance. An example might help.
I'll keep it general to avoid spoilers. Some (but not all) of the Cthulhu-type creatures spare the black protagonists, meanwhile attacking the white antagonists.
totsuzenheni wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 9:13 am
Herr Arnulfe wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:30 am - potions that induce temporary race changes.
Is this simply skin colour or are there other changes?
General body type remains the same, but skin colour, facial features and voice/accent switch to the other race.
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Wyrmslayer
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Herr Arnulfe wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 9:23 am
totsuzenheni wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 9:13 am
Herr Arnulfe wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:30 am - indescribable horrors that are sympathetic to black protagonists.
I'm curious what is meant by 'sympathetic' in this instance. An example might help.
I'll keep it general to avoid spoilers. Some (but not all) of the Cthulhu-type creatures spare the black protagonists, meanwhile attacking the white antagonists.
totsuzenheni wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 9:13 am
Herr Arnulfe wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:30 am - potions that induce temporary race changes.
Is this simply skin colour or are there other changes?
General body type remains the same, but skin colour, facial features and voice/accent switch to the other race.
First episode a bunch of monsters go for some racists leaving the main characters to leg it. Though a few episodes later a haunted house scenario is less safe for them and in ep:9 a young family member is targeted by some creepy monsters so no-one should feel safe. I expect the monsters targeting the racists in episode one was as much to give the audience a "yeah, get 'em" moment as it was we learnt later they were controlled by a person who had reason to spare our investigators.

One interesting aspect of the body swap one of the black ladies develops is that she switches into a white lady we saw toting a shotgun and leading a guard dog who probably perished in an earlier episode, so possibly such magic can only be done into the form of a deceased person.
For our potion purposes something distilled from a doppelganger perhaps, or from a corpse to assume their form.
Herr Arnulfe
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Wyrmslayer wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 11:33 amFirst episode a bunch of monsters go for some racists leaving the main characters to leg it. Though a few episodes later a haunted house scenario is less safe for them and in ep:9 a young family member is targeted by some creepy monsters so no-one should feel safe. I expect the monsters targeting the racists in episode one was as much to give the audience a "yeah, get 'em" moment as it was we learnt later they were controlled by a person who had reason to spare our investigators.
Yes those were the main ones. In a later episode there's even a tender moment between the protagonist and a multi-eyed monstrosity. I was also thinking of the sex creature in the Korean War episode.
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