Creative works you enjoyed until politics happened - "How politics made me hate Welcome to Nightvale and other things"

[MAPK phosphatase]

See the book Lovecraft Country.

Got it for free when I was subbed to audibles.

The protagonist is black and is traveling through the United States for research on the Green Book, updating it as necessary. Alright, original concept and a good vehicle for why they are going from point A to point B and getting into their adventures.

But every goddamn story is "what's worst then cosmic horrors beyond our comprehension? Then the nihilistic dread of realization we are a speck of dust floating in a giant uncaring universe? Then alien Gods and their worshippers far advance then us?

Racism.


I think the current Hollywood houseboy Jordan Peele is making a movie based on it because of course.

Apparently he did it as a tv series. Checking tv tropes for a quick rundown and...

This could be great in the original book but I don't trust current hollywood in the slightest to make it not feel like a damn anvil to the groin.

The original concept is interesting and if today's political climate towards race wasn't so hot I'd give it a go to see how well it did (some of the plot points seem fine with race and mythos, but I prefer more focus on the mythos), but Hollywood's interpretation will probably be awful if Peele doesn't have his heart in it. Not to mention people will either recommend it to me over and over or will reeee that I like the mythos still in the first place. I just want to enjoy my shitty lovecraftian horrors in peace....
I like lovecraftian horror and works based on it too much to be ruined FOREVER on it if push comes to shove. I just don't look forward to a year of people annoying me and others in the fandom.

Lovecraftian Horror is right wing, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who understands Lovecraft the person. He was bigoted even for the 1920's, but his horror goes beyond his crippling xenophobia. It relies on an understanding and appreciation of the distinction between the fear of the divine and fear of the demonic. Fear of the divine comes from the fear that by coming into the presence of the divine it will burn us away (justly) in our imperfect state. Fear of the demonic comes from knowing that no matter how attractive the demonic is, if we accept it it will ultimately corrupt us and remove anything worthwhile from our lives and souls. Both are fears of things beyond human understanding, but it should be clear that Lovecraft explores the later more-so than the former.

But the closest thing a leftist has to an objective concept of good and evil is the Marxian dialectic of oppressed and oppressor. The current left frames those ideas within race (and class, but these days race often supersedes class in this regard), so what we see in horror that has fully embraced leftism is racial politics superseding all other forms of morality and terror. The inconsequential existence of man is itself made inconsequential next to the ultimate threat of racial prejudice, the ultimate evil of the oppressor, and the ultimate plight of the oppressed. The threat of Cuthulu cults is laughable next to the threat of white supremacy. There is no moral distinction between anything beyond human understanding, none of it is really good nor really bad. What matters is only whether or not the ideas of what is good and what is bad are constrained by hegemonic discourses.
You can also see this in "the switch" that is so common in leftist fiction, where they take something that used to be bad/evil/the villain and say "but actually the good guys were the real villain and the bad-guy was just oppressed". Everything is power dynamics between oppressed and oppressor, and if the dominant culture (white, western, male) says something was bad or evil in the past that idea must be challenged.

This isn't merely an adaptation or a look through a different lens, it is a rejection of the core horror present in the stories. What this all means is that the left will never capture Lovecraft in any leftist adaptation.

 

[AMHOLIO]

Lovecraftian Horror is right wing, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who understands Lovecraft the person. He was bigoted even for the 1920's, but his horror goes beyond his crippling xenophobia. It relies on an understanding and appreciation of the distinction between the fear of the divine and fear of the demonic. Fear of the divine comes from the fear that by coming into the presence of the divine it will burn us away (justly) in our imperfect state. Fear of the demonic comes from knowing that no matter how attractive the demonic is, if we accept it it will ultimately corrupt us and remove anything worthwhile from our lives and souls. Both are fears of things beyond human understanding, but it should be clear that Lovecraft explores the later more-so than the former.

But the closest thing a leftist has to an objective concept of good and evil is the Marxian dialectic of oppressed and oppressor. The current left frames those ideas within race (and class, but these days race often supersedes class in this regard), so what we see in horror that has fully embraced leftism is racial politics superseding all other forms of morality and terror. The inconsequential existence of man is itself made inconsequential next to the ultimate threat of racial prejudice, the ultimate evil of the oppressor, and the ultimate plight of the oppressed. The threat of Cuthulu cults is laughable next to the threat of white supremacy. There is no moral distinction between anything beyond human understanding, none of it is really good nor really bad. What matters is only whether or not the ideas of what is good and what is bad are constrained by hegemonic discourses.
You can also see this in "the switch" that is so common in leftist fiction, where they take something that used to be bad/evil/the villain and say "but actually the good guys were the real villain and the bad-guy was just oppressed". Everything is power dynamics between oppressed and oppressor, and if the dominant culture (white, western, male) says something was bad or evil in the past that idea must be challenged.

This isn't merely an adaptation or a look through a different lens, it is a rejection of the core horror present in the stories. What this all means is that the left will never capture Lovecraft in any leftist adaptation.

This is an interesting take on it, but I always interpreted it as the fear of the unknown as a whole. Eventually Lovecraft shifted more towards sci-fi, and still focused on how insignificant humanity was compared to creatures like the Mi-gos who collect brains of other species and the Yith randomly switching from host to host and treating you slightly better than the Mi-gos. The horror of At the Mountains of Madness the Elder things were like us but balled too hard with genetic splicing and ended up with Shoggoths. The Shoggoths can represent corruption, sure, but they're more a warning on no matter how advanced your race is, you can fall too, and the lost society of the Elder things crumbles into dust and despair.

Lovecraft also feels more like "us" vs the "other", rather than the divine and unholy you'd have "us pure white folk who believe in sciences vs the backwater lower class folk (white or black depending on what he was feeling that day) who will drag us down back to animals along with ancient horrors" (thats really simplified but you get me). You could think its more conservative fearing foreign or what have you, but honestly, "Us pure PoC/LBGT+ folk who stay true to our roots and fight for our culture Vs the giant conspiracy of white/cis hetero folk making us an insignificant cog to be stepped on and squashed into place in an uncaring cold universe" would fit the glove too. It's bigotry, but towards different people. The problem imo isn't leftist won't get lovecraft, it's that they can't balance a message with actual goddamn writing a story with compelling and terrifying scenes. They're using the mythos, the creatures who could snuff out humanity or worse by somone sneezing wrong, as a set dressing for politics instead of the main attraction, like if Jason was the background event for a Jason movie but the true horror is some gay ass "no greed is the real horror" shit. Neil Druckman did the same thing in TLoU2 to a lesser extent.

If some tard 20 years ago did a christians vs cthulhu with the leftist being nyarlathotep worshiping hedonist (and also maybe muslim) and the christians super persecuted and forever crying over everything they would fuck up the Lovecraft mythos just as much by not knowning an ounce of subtly and only using the mythos as an occasional spoopy scare instead of the main event. (However, if someone made a team Jesus vs Cthulhu shlock horror comedy I'd watch the fuck out of that - hollywood, call me).

 

[Pink Gooze]

Only thing I can think of right off the bat is Tales of Arcadia: 3Below, the second part of the ToA series.

It’s about literal Aliens, not so subtly taking on human disguises that are supposed to make them “invisible” (ie a woman, an Hispanic, and an old man). So that was the first eyeroll, but easy to overlook considering the disguises do nothing to make them practically invisible since they’re all so strange.

However they really REALLY fixate on making a parallel of the Aliens as illegal aliens / immigrants. In fact the characters are actually political refugees, being royalty on the run from a coup. So really not like illegal aliens at all. Also they hate being called Aliens. And then we have one of the teachers, a German immigrant, taking a special interest in looking out for them. But worst of all was when the military, fed up with their shenanigans and not being aware of the larger picture going on, confronts the main characters and outright calls them Aliens, saying they don’t belong here, while in front of their classmates.

So naturally their classmates rally around them and it all just comes off as so very preachy.

It would be a decent show, tho not as good as ToA: Trollhunters, if it wasn’t for all of that.

I managed to watch it until the end and plan on rewatching it just so I can watch ToA: Wizards and have it make sense. But I’m not looking forward to watching all that again.

 

[MAPK phosphatase]

This is an interesting take on it, but I always interpreted it as the fear of the unknown as a whole. Eventually Lovecraft shifted more towards sci-fi, and still focused on how insignificant humanity was compared to creatures like the Mi-gos who collect brains of other species and the Yith randomly switching from host to host and treating you slightly better than the Mi-gos. The horror of At the Mountains of Madness the Elder things were like us but balled too hard with genetic splicing and ended up with Shoggoths. The Shoggoths can represent corruption, sure, but they're more a warning on no matter how advanced your race is, you can fall too, and the lost society of the Elder things crumbles into dust and despair.

Lovecraft also feels more like "us" vs the "other", rather than the divine and unholy you'd have "us pure white folk who believe in sciences vs the backwater lower class folk (white or black depending on what he was feeling that day) who will drag us down back to animals along with ancient horrors" (thats really simplified but you get me). You could think its more conservative fearing foreign or what have you, but honestly, "Us pure PoC/LBGT+ folk who stay true to our roots and fight for our culture Vs the giant conspiracy of white/cis hetero folk making us an insignificant cog to be stepped on and squashed into place in an uncaring cold universe" would fit the glove too. It's bigotry, but towards different people. The problem imo isn't leftist won't get lovecraft, it's that they can't balance a message with actual goddamn writing a story with compelling and terrifying scenes. They're using the mythos, the creatures who could snuff out humanity or worse by somone sneezing wrong, as a set dressing for politics instead of the main attraction, like if Jason was the background event for a Jason movie but the true horror is some gay ass "no greed is the real horror" shit. Neil Druckman did the same thing in TLoU2 to a lesser extent.

If some tard 20 years ago did a christians vs cthulhu with the leftist being nyarlathotep worshiping hedonist (and also maybe muslim) and the christians super persecuted and forever crying over everything they would fuck up the Lovecraft mythos just as much by not knowning an ounce of subtly and only using the mythos as an occasional spoopy scare instead of the main event. (However, if someone made a team Jesus vs Cthulhu shlock horror comedy I'd watch the fuck out of that - hollywood, call me).

I think the Elder Things think fits well with a concept of demonic fear. They were attracted to a path of evolution that ultimately killed their soul and degenerated their society. To draw attention to "but they're more a warning on no matter how advanced your race is, you can fall too". That idea is pretty Calvanist. It mirrors their ideas about sin, only without atonement or salvation (hence horror). No man (or race of man-like beings, to stretch calvanism further than it was meant to go) is free from the moral weakness and death that comes from sin and leads to folly.
As for the Mi-go and Yith, I will admit there isn't a "seducing corruption" element in those stories (at least not one I can see) but I will say that the horror is more specific than a general fear of the unknown. It's still an encounter with something not just unknown but beyond human understanding, and beyond it in a way that is decidedly not benevolent, virtuous, or just.

Us vs Them is absolutely a part of Lovecraft's work. As I mentioned, he had crippling xenophobia. But you just mentioned in the above paragraph cases where the horror came from fear of the unknown and fear that nothing can save you from the horrors of existence or degeneracy (as in their society degenerated into dust and despair).
The whole "folk who stay true to our roots and fight for our culture" misunderstands the definition of progressivism and the state of the modern left. They want continual revolution and societal change. Fighting to preserve a status quo is conservative, literally, by definition. If PoC/LGBT+ people started fighting to maintain some sort of status quo rather than advance, revolt, or change things, they would be conservative PoC/LGBT+, e.g. TERFs.

I'm not saying Christians and conservatives couldn't create a bad Lovecraft adaptation. Bad christian and conservative writers exist. I'm also not saying that a leftist couldn't create a good Lovecraft story. Good writers exist on the left. What I'm saying is that the story itself would need to be right wing, it would need to have a traditionalist/conservative rather than a progressive view of horror as a concept.
Also somebody fund Jesus vs Cthulhu. It's going to be terrible and I'm going to love every second of it.

 

[Emperor Julian]

Personally I always found Demonic horror relatively tame compared to cosmic horror this prachett quote sums it up

Rincewind stared, and knew that there were far worse things than Evil. All the demons of Hell would torture your very soul, but that was precisely because they valued souls very highly; evil would always try to steal the universe, but at least it considered the universe worth stealing. But the grey world behind those empty eyes would trample and destroy without even according its victims the dignity of hatred. It wouldn't even notice them.

I think neither side is particulry well suited for cosmic horror. Their are perhaps two paradoxical approaches to the mythos lovecraft proposes.
-typiclly the stories recommend we stay on our side of street. That society is fortress protecting us from the terrible things and we should maintain it.(conservative)
-the only way to stand a fighting chance against these things when we show up is with science and wisdom applied against them we must push forward(progressive)

Lovecraft doesnt really fit ideologically except in the crudest terms. Cosmic horror writter probably have to reject humanistic approaches so left vs right are redundant.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Jesus vs Cthulhu. It's going to be terrible and I'm going to love every second of it.

Very quick plot Synopsis - The Resurrection made Jesus Immortal, dude has been wandering the earth doing good for 2000 years, allowing humanity to decide it's own fate because "choice" is something that god values, God and Jesus can't force humans into being good. But the big J does what he can, He wandered the west as a gunslinger..didn't kill no body Vash the Stampede style..cause he is Jesus he can do small miracles nobody can notice..maybe have him in WW1 and 2 as a medic trying to save people as best he can.

Fast-forward to modern day, Jesus is out..in the middle of nowhere taking a decade or two to himself. Catholic Bishop shows up at his door because The Catholics knew he was alive and were keeping tabs (cause of course) tells him that there is something Demonic going down in a Coastal New England town, proper demonic something Humans can't handle, they all go insane so they need The Dude with the Divine spirit cause he won't go mad.

Jesus goes with Bishop dude, Bishop dude gets killed not long after they get to the town, but Jesus meets a slick, gun toting dude able to kick all sorts of ass...and not go insane (Hint: Lucifer) The pair do the action Duo thing through the C'thulu Cult, at some point Lucifer's disguise gets revealed and he goes. "Hey, if this thing eats all the human souls there won't be none for me." and takes on the rest of the cult while Jesus takes on C'Thulu..while Dual Wielding Mjolnir and Excalibur.

 

[Matthew216]

Very quick plot Synopsis - The Resurrection made Jesus Immortal, dude has been wandering the earth doing good for 2000 years, allowing humanity to decide it's own fate because "choice" is something that god values, God and Jesus can't force humans into being good. But the big J does what he can, He wandered the west as a gunslinger..didn't kill no body Vash the Stampede style..cause he is Jesus he can do small miracles nobody can notice..maybe have him in WW1 and 2 as a medic trying to save people as best he can.

Fast-forward to modern day, Jesus is out..in the middle of nowhere taking a decade or two to himself. Catholic Bishop shows up at his door because The Catholics knew he was alive and were keeping tabs (cause of course) tells him that there is something Demonic going down in a Coastal New England town, proper demonic something Humans can't handle, they all go insane so they need The Dude with the Divine spirit cause he won't go mad.

Jesus goes with Bishop dude, Bishop dude gets killed not long after they get to the town, but Jesus meets a slick, gun toting dude able to kick all sorts of ass...and not go insane (Hint: Lucifer) The pair do the action Duo thing through the C'thulu Cult, at some point Lucifer's disguise gets revealed and he goes. "Hey, if this thing eats all the human souls there won't be none for me." and takes on the rest of the cult while Jesus takes on C'Thulu..while Dual Wielding Mjolnir and Excalibur.

Something like this?

I should be offended by this film, but it’s just so..........ridiculous.

 

[Terrifik]

Because of (2:02 ) Jk rolling did it first & everyone and the mom are trying to change their past work appease twitter & hate the memes.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I read a few Lovecraft stories and it felt for me like the horror was based on the idea that the religeous rules humans live by: Humans are the apex of creation, there is a caring god, earth is the center of the universe... are false. Humans are ants compared to other life forms, there are no real gods but malevolent or uncaring cosmic forces and the earth is just a tiny part of the universe. Because those rules are so inherent to humans, even if they are atheists, the thought of them being false is disturbing, we can all die tommorow by a giant putting is foot at the wrong place.
And because of that Lovecraftian horror isn't based on any political wing.

 

[Terrifik]

yep because why not just make cartoon gay ship contest .

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

John Scalzi without a doubt.

Old Man's War was pretty good, even if it never much explored the journey of an old man turned young as a soldier; by the sequels a lot of that was put by the wayside.

But when he came out as a rabid SJW and went on a personal crusade to ban wrongthinkers from scifi...yeah I won't buy any of his new books. And that's a big thing for me because I'm pretty good about separating Art from the Artist in most cases.

 

[Leaf-eon]

yep because why not just make cartoon gay ship contest .

The video is right, cartoons aren't made for made for children any more. There made for 20 somethings shippers that are into yuri/yoai .

 

[Deepland Bystander]

Because of (2:02 ) Jk rolling did it first & everyone and the mom are trying to change their past work appease twitter & hate the memes.

Funnily now that people who are still Harry Potter fans managed to outwoke her, and JK is now a TERF shitlord to their eyes. Everytime I come across Harry Potter related discussion in the wild, it is always about some random things in it being racist, or her view on gender.

I didn't mind the early reveals like gay Dumbledore, that was 2007, people didn't care about politics as much as today. What made me eventually put off from Harry Potter related things are more to nonsensical story decisions like the whole deal with Cursed Child (there's too many stupidity in that thing to count), and shit like how Nagini was a human before. The woke pandering is just a cherry on the top of the whole mess.

But I can say that I now just hate everything the Wachowskis do, and have done since they trooned out (Especially it was very obvious too that they trooned out because fetish)

 

[Chan the Wizard]

So Lovecraft Country is just “the real cosmic horror is the racism we met along the way”?
That sucks.
Sounds like the same thing they did to Watchmen even though it didn’t fit the original work and made even less since in the future.

 

[Antipathy]

The SCP foundation was originally a badass pseudo-post-apocalyptic collection of dossiers about cosmic horror. Then people forgot to gatekeep and

Spoiler

I fucking swear, something like this in universe would be considered a cognitohazard.

 

[Lonely Grave]

The SCP foundation was originally a badass pseudo-post-apocalyptic collection of dossiers about cosmic horror. Then people forgot to gatekeep and

Spoiler

View attachment 1529932

I fucking swear, something like this in universe would be considered a cognitohazard.

The thread here on SCP has far more disturbing things than that...

 

[Antipathy]

The thread here on SCP has far more disturbing things than that...

The fucking genderqueer planet thing?
I swear, reading about what happened to SCP is like reading an old school SCP about the babblings of an agent from a ruined timeline. The one decent thing that came out of that shithole is Confinement by Lord Bung, and despite the tumbr-esque artstyle, it seems to be clean of bullshit for now.

 

[Lonely Grave]

The fucking genderqueer planet thing?
I swear, reading about what happened to SCP is like reading an old school SCP about the babblings of an agent from a ruined timeline.

No. Child-grooming in the IRCs and abuses of power bad.

 

[Antipathy]

No. Child-grooming in the IRCs and abuses of power bad.

Potential gayops but posting allusions to that on site in character in an entry about an agent in containment who's actually an SCP agent from the future would be fucking hilarious.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

The SCP foundation was originally a badass pseudo-post-apocalyptic collection of dossiers about cosmic horror. Then people forgot to gatekeep and

Spoiler

View attachment 1529932

I fucking swear, something like this in universe would be considered a cognitohazard.

1. What in the fucking fucking hell is "lithromantic." Do I even want to know? Does it mean he fucks stones?

*googles*

Nope, it means he feels attracted to people but doesn't want them to reciprocate.

2. Why do they all look like such fucking stereotypes.

3. This explains an awful lot why there's so much fart-huffing pretention about later SCP entries.