| Was HPL really a racist?
Lovecraft did name a cat Nigger-man, but it was a black cat, and he was fond of it, in fact it was a pretty good kitty.
He also tended to make the minions and disiples of the GOO non-white, as did many other writers who were active at this time(Sax Rohmer did a lot to foster the Yellow Peril myth).
But HPL was never really vicious about it, and at the time he wrote, this was a common attitude.
Using non-whites, and especially the more obscure ethnic types added to the mystery for the audience he was reaching.
Today, this would be unacceptable, and if HPL was writing now, doubtless he'd have been more PC.
He also cast rural whites as minions and disciples in many stories.
The Whateleys,et al, were old Yankee stock, and easily could have been touched with the tar brush(as they said it back then), had it been desired.
No, we are guilty of what Diana Gabaldon calls presentism, applying our attitudes to people who lived in the past.
HPL as no more racist than the times he lived in, when tacit racism was the norm.
I enjoy the tales, I avoid the tomes, I mark the Elder Sign and I don't sweat the small stuff- I don't use ethnic perjoritives, either, because I'm a man of my times.
As HPL was a man of his. |