I've felt compelled to do a bit of digging about Lovecraft's racism, since the new anthology I put together is a tribute to his work.
I did know, though only by report, that Lovecraft had problematic racial views. I didn't really know the extent of them until I started poking around. We do not honor his racial biases with our modern cosmic horror writing. In fact, because his work is in the public domain, we are now able to (perhaps ironically) purposefully write 'Lovecraftian' fiction that benefits from the strangeness of Mr. Lovecraft's ideas while deliberately choosing a neutral view of race. [Or maybe this is too strong a statement. We don't deliberately choose it. We're just not racist, so it doesn't come up.]
When I look back at what he actually wrote or said about race, I am mortified.
When I was a kid, I lived in a very racially divided place. Maybe it's the way of kids, some instinct that has to be beaten or taught out of them, but by instinct I felt that this was wrong and inexplicable. I had many arguments with elders about race, in spite of threats. I remember trying to find books that would support my view of equality and because of where I lived, I found the opposite. My view of interracial marriage as completely fine and essentially just like any other marriage was completely unsupported. The most neutral view I could find in a book (in a library obviously controlled by people determined to reinforce their own racial biases) said that it would create problems because it wasn't culturally acceptable and therefore if you were willing to do it, there must be something psychologically wrong with you.
I was troubled by this, but it didn't influence my behavior or thinking. In this area, I had a strong sense of what was right and I never felt swayed from it. For this reason, I find it hard to forgive the kind of race based comments Lovecraft made.
Regardless of those comments, the eerie, atmospheric quality of his writing has influenced the course of literature. Even if you never read his work, you are likely only a few degrees of influence away from it. We have the opportunity now to take what was influential about his work and utilize it to make new art that doesn't have a racist stigma attached to it.
It's a step toward what we have to do still in the world, as we are reminded by recent events. We must learn how to take what works in our world, or in our literature, what we want to keep as modern and upright, and what we want to set aside as lessons for what we don't want to carry forward.
I did know, though only by report, that Lovecraft had problematic racial views. I didn't really know the extent of them until I started poking around. We do not honor his racial biases with our modern cosmic horror writing. In fact, because his work is in the public domain, we are now able to (perhaps ironically) purposefully write 'Lovecraftian' fiction that benefits from the strangeness of Mr. Lovecraft's ideas while deliberately choosing a neutral view of race. [Or maybe this is too strong a statement. We don't deliberately choose it. We're just not racist, so it doesn't come up.]
When I look back at what he actually wrote or said about race, I am mortified.
When I was a kid, I lived in a very racially divided place. Maybe it's the way of kids, some instinct that has to be beaten or taught out of them, but by instinct I felt that this was wrong and inexplicable. I had many arguments with elders about race, in spite of threats. I remember trying to find books that would support my view of equality and because of where I lived, I found the opposite. My view of interracial marriage as completely fine and essentially just like any other marriage was completely unsupported. The most neutral view I could find in a book (in a library obviously controlled by people determined to reinforce their own racial biases) said that it would create problems because it wasn't culturally acceptable and therefore if you were willing to do it, there must be something psychologically wrong with you.
I was troubled by this, but it didn't influence my behavior or thinking. In this area, I had a strong sense of what was right and I never felt swayed from it. For this reason, I find it hard to forgive the kind of race based comments Lovecraft made.
Regardless of those comments, the eerie, atmospheric quality of his writing has influenced the course of literature. Even if you never read his work, you are likely only a few degrees of influence away from it. We have the opportunity now to take what was influential about his work and utilize it to make new art that doesn't have a racist stigma attached to it.
It's a step toward what we have to do still in the world, as we are reminded by recent events. We must learn how to take what works in our world, or in our literature, what we want to keep as modern and upright, and what we want to set aside as lessons for what we don't want to carry forward.
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