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Everyone has flaws. Viewing the entirity of one's accomplishments constrained through the lens of one flaw is absurd and unsupported by evidence. In other word

Everyone has flaws. Viewing the entirity of one's accomplishments constrained through the lens of one flaw is absurd and unsupported by evidence. In other words, there is no evidential reason whatsoever to suppose that the larger fears he played off of categorically stemmed from racism. Criticism of that nature is unscientific and irrational, based on nothing more than arguments of the form, "it seems to me.." Further, making such an argument is inherently a moral absolutist position. You are imposing the cultural mores of your own society on a very different society from another time and place -- and ironically, condemning Lovecraft for having done exactly that. It is, at the very least, hypocrisy.

cjslep 11y ago
Wow, so I think you must have really set up a really flammable strawman for me, really tried to read into what I said, or mistaken me for someone else. All I was trying to say is his racism is occasionally (story-dependent) not insignificant because for a reader to fully appreciate the fears Lovecraft is invoking, the reader needs the capability to understand the fears racists had (such as voodoo). You are trying to make me sound like I am saying Lovecraft was some sort of propaganda machine for the KKK; I am not. Lovecraft is about the slowly creeping rise of terror and horror in his stories; to miss a step along the way is to miss a subtle piece that makes his works enjoyable. I am suggesting the very thing you are accusing me of not doing: saying readers need to put aside their own cultural mores of their own society to view a very different society from another time and place.
- armitron 11y ago
  You are projecting here. Lovecraft's "racism" has nothing to do with silly superstitions. He was a cultured, educated man and knew better than what you're assuming. You'd know that had you read even a small percentage of his letters. Which was also parent's point.

cjslep 11y ago

Wow, so I think you must have really set up a really flammable strawman for me, really tried to read into what I said, or mistaken me for someone else. All I was trying to say is his racism is occasionally (story-dependent) not insignificant because for a reader to fully appreciate the fears Lovecraft is invoking, the reader needs the capability to understand the fears racists had (such as voodoo). You are trying to make me sound like I am saying Lovecraft was some sort of propaganda machine for the KKK; I am not. Lovecraft is about the slowly creeping rise of terror and horror in his stories; to miss a step along the way is to miss a subtle piece that makes his works enjoyable. I am suggesting the very thing you are accusing me of not doing: saying readers need to put aside their own cultural mores of their own society to view a very different society from another time and place.

armitron 11y ago
You are projecting here. Lovecraft's "racism" has nothing to do with silly superstitions. He was a cultured, educated man and knew better than what you're assuming. You'd know that had you read even a small percentage of his letters. Which was also parent's point.