This evening, I got a Clerks 2 style wakeup call after doing my regular readings on the Internets. I've known for a while that H.P. Lovecraft, like many old people, had a dim view of native Americans, women, and Minorities in General. And I was more or less able to disassociate that from his writing. I am a huge whore for HPL, I've got most or all of his printed Mythos stuff, and a ton of related movies, books, CDs, etc.
In Clerks 2, one of the characters finds out the etymology of the phrase "porch monkey", a favorite phrase of a much beloved relative. Today, I found out about this poem.
That, ladies, gentlemen, and readers, is a full-on poem by HPL using "nigger" not in the Mark Twain 'this is what uneducated dudes called black people' sense, but the more general 'black people are an inferior sub-species' sense.
At this point, I am going to exercise my White Male Privilege (because I can!), and say "Can people who wrote stuff I find interesting stop being Assholes?" Stranger in a Strange Land was pretty good. Heinlein was a dickhead. Ender's Game was a lot of fun, as far as space books written about child warriors go. Orson Scott Card is an enormous piece of shit. I still re-read One Hundred Years of Solitude every so often, but Gabriel Marquez has some serious fuckin-related issues that need to be addressed, cancer and death notwithstanding. Do Not get me started on Piers Anthony, his books aren't even good.
So, am I supposed to chuck out my Lovecraft stuff? I really like At the Mountains of Madness, and Dreams in the Witch House, and Rats in the Walls, and and and. I also live in a city where we have ongoing race related issues. Some People would assume that since we have Solved Racism, this is probably not a thing I need to think about. They . . . do not live here.
Yeah. Well. For a goofy looking fucker who wrote about indescribable cosmic horrors, HPL is now part of the problem, in my book. I want to respect the writing, I can no longer tolerate the man.
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