| Re: Was HPL really a racist?
To me, it's not so much that he was racist as that he was xenophobic. This is really obvious from his writing. Anything that deviates from everyday experience is generally depicted as dangerous or scary. Racism can be seen as part of that, but just a small part. I think Lovecraft basically had a fear of that which he did not understand. So much of his writing points to this. He saw science as a tool for better understanding things, but he was even afraid of that in some ways. He seemed to have a deep-set idea that anything outside his own regular experience was something not as good.
I love his writing, but to me this is one thing about it that has always bothered me. |