Was Lovecraft meming his racism?

[Cristobal’s Colon]

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Creation_of_Niggers
He had a black cat named Nigger-Man.

Some say he was no more racist than his eugenicist anglophile contemporaries, and that his language was not exceptional for the time. I've read accounts to the contrary that he was already regarded in his time as racist.

 

[Rumpled Foreskin]

No he was not, because of the way he was raised and the times he lived in.

 

[Cristobal’s Colon]

No he was not, because of the way he was raised and the times he lived in.

I'm interested in a retrospective assessment of his racial attitudes, not a relativistic comparison to his peers

 

[Rumpled Foreskin]

I'm interested in a retrospective assessment of his racial attitudes, not a relativistic comparison to his peers

I would still give you the same exact answer.

 

[Cristobal’s Colon]

I would still give you the same exact answer.

Do you think his racial language was used to imbue his aesthetic with an otherworldly, supernatural vibe?

 

[Pop-Tart]

No he was not, because of the way he was raised and the times he lived in.

The kinda of racism he had wasn't normal for the time he lived thou. This is a man who into the 1930s hated the Irish and Germans. He literally wished New England was still a colony of the crown. Even for his day he was way out there with his racism compared to what may have been the contemporary norm. He was a pariah for his time, and his work reflected that.

 

[Cristobal’s Colon]

I suspect he was actually meming. He probably didn't hate blacks as much as his writing would suggest. His anglophilia on the other hand is irreconcilable.

To clarify, an unironic racist wouldn't use ephitets gratuitously. I doubt Goebbels used the German equivalent of "kike" in his speeches for example.

 

[eldri]

I truly dread the day the modern pitchforks come for Lovecraft's supposed racism.

In general, he hated immigrants, that is clear in his letters. However, what people fail to understand is that his hatred was born out of jealousy. He believed society considered him as an "other" or, by his own literature, an eldritch horror. And society did. He was a weird person, which is obvious and expected given his upbringing, and people treated him as such.
Unfortunately, he could not reconcile why this occurred. As someone who looks similar to the bulk of society at that time, he couldn't understand why he was being treated so differently as opposed to the immigrants who looked far different from him. He later came to believe that he was a real-life eldritch horror and even dreamed about being whisked away in the sky by other eldritch horrors.

 

[Fuck you jewish cunt]

OP this is low quality bait

 

[KimCoppolaAficionado]

Lovecraft was a profoundly isolated man who was intensely xenophobic in a pathological sense; he feared people who were too "different" from his safe and familiar norm of urban New England, with a few exceptions (he viewed the French as a people of great culture, for example, and was an araboo: when he was a boy, he often fantasized about being an Arab astronomer in the time of the early Ottoman Empire and called himself "Abdul al-Hazarad"). As a result of this xenophobia, he often vilified many different ethnic groups in his early work; later on in life, however, he repented of his attitudes and began to embrace more classically liberal attitudes towards other peoples. Also the first half of eldri's post is somewhat accurate, although Lovecraft never believed that he was literally inhuman; his geneology of the Outer Gods that put him as a distant descendant of Nyarlathotep was something he made as a joke for his friend Clark Ashton Smith (he also connects Smith to a different Outer God).

 

[Cristobal’s Colon]

Lovecraft was a profoundly isolated man who was intensely xenophobic in a pathological sense; he feared people who were too "different" from his safe and familiar norm of urban New England, with a few exceptions (he viewed the French as a people of great culture, for example, and was an araboo: when he was a boy, he often fantasized about being an Arab astronomer in the time of the early Ottoman Empire and called himself "Abdul al-Hazarad"). As a result of this xenophobia, he often vilified many different ethnic groups in his early work; later on in life, however, he repented of his attitudes and began to embrace more classically liberal attitudes towards other peoples. Also the first half of eldri's post is somewhat accurate, although Lovecraft never believed that he was literally inhuman; his geneology of the Outer Gods that put him as a distant descendant of Nyarlathotep was something he made as a joke for his friend Clark Ashton Smith (he also connects Smith to a different Outer God).

Lovecraft is otherkin confirmed

 

[AF 802]

I could've sworn I was in Deep Thoughts.

 

[Judge Holden]

 

[Toucan]

In his letters Lovecraft states that in certain parts of his work he played up his racism in order to either better suit the personality of his character or to portray himself as a sort of old world aristocrat. A great deal of what is seen in his work is placed there intentionally and its purpose is not necessarily a reflection of his own feelings. He was a very precise and exacting writer after all.

However a lot of his New York writings defiantly see his personal feelings seeping in. Mainly due to how desperately unhappy he was there. We must remember that he was a sheltered and reclusive weirdo who fancied himself as an english lord who was thrust into poverty in a very racially diverse and loud part of Manhatten.

To his credit however he really did overcome upon his return to providence both personally and as a writer.

 

[BoomerPhil]

who cares if he was racist or not. Most people during his time were racist. Hell, when the Irish started to pour into america in the million's due to disease and the Famine. The majority of American's(who were mainly British, French, Dutch, Jewish, German, Black, Polish or Irish) viewed the Irish as actual White Niggers. Promoting posters and propaganda to get people to vote against allowing the Irish a place in America to begin with. During the civil war, they forced anyone getting off the boats in New York to immediately sign up into the military and go fight in the south if they wanted to be citizens. The Movie "Gangs of New York" briefly covered this in a sense as Irish were seen as 3rd class citizens for many years to come, creating the Irish Slave Trade in the process.

Lovecraft grew up in that timeline, expect some racism in every single person during that time. It's the reason why I personally roll my eyes when I hear black people today make statements about "Slavery and persecution still effects us to this very day!" because the reality is that nothing in 2018 reflects post 20th century views, cultures and social stigma's.

Spoiler: Irish People circa 19th-18th Century America

 

[Cristobal’s Colon]

who cares if he was racist or not. Most people during his time were racist. Hell, when the Irish started to pour into america in the million's due to disease and the Famine. The majority of American's(who were mainly British, French, Dutch, Jewish, German, Black, Polish or Irish) viewed the Irish as actual White Niggers. Promoting posters and propaganda to get people to vote against allowing the Irish a place in America to begin with. During the civil war, they forced anyone getting off the boats in New York to immediately sign up into the military and go fight in the south if they wanted to be citizens. The Movie "Gangs of New York" briefly covered this in a sense as Irish were seen as 3rd class citizens for many years to come, creating the Irish Slave Trade in the process.

Lovecraft grew up in that timeline, expect some racism in every single person during that time. It's the reason why I personally roll my eyes when I hear black people today make statements about "Slavery and persecution still effects us to this very day!" because the reality is that nothing in 2018 reflects post 20th century views, cultures and social stigma's.

Spoiler: Irish People circa 19th-18th Century America

Are you saying the Irish slave trade was not a problem because everyone hated the Irish?

 

[Rand /pol/]

I always thought it was funny he was openly anti semetic yet married to a Jewess.

However, what people fail to understand is that his hatred was born out of jealousy

I never got the idea that someone only hates something because they're jealous/are that thing/want to have sex with that thing

 

[BoomerPhil]

Are you saying the Irish slave trade was not a problem because everyone hated the Irish?

Not even close. What I am saying is, Whether or not Lovecraft was a racist it is irrelevant to him "memeing" it. Everyone was racist to a degree during his time and it was viewed as a social norm, not a hated stigma that people obsess over like they do today. With that said, who cares if he was racist or not

 

[Cristobal’s Colon]

Not even close. What I am saying is, Whether or not Lovecraft was a racist it is irrelevant to him "memeing" it. Everyone was racist to a degree during his time and it was viewed as a social norm, not a hated stigma that people obsess over like they do today. With that said, who cares if he was racist or not

Who cares if the Anglo-Americans were mistreating the Irish or not?

 

[Doc Cassidy]

He was serious and he was also right. Niggers are the worst, there's a reason their skin is the same color as shit. It's because they're shit.