S. T.'s response to World Fantasy
S. T. Joshi has pofted a new blog in which he addresses the matter of World Fantasy's decision to retire the wonderful Gahan Wilson trophy that has been ye World Fantasy Award. His blog may be read at www.stjoshi.org/news.html. I am entirely with him on this--World Fantasy no longer exists for me. I don't feel anger as much as I feel an intense sadness over this situation. As a Lovecraftian artist, I feel personally slighted by the Lovecraft-haters and their misguided gloating in thinking they have won some kind of victory and are helping to banish H. P. Lovecraft and his influence. I am, more than ever now, dedicated to my task of paying homage to H. P. Lovecraft and his art with any and every book that I will henceforth compose.
The social justice warriors do naught but strengthen the Lovecraftian's resolve to pay HPL the homage he deserves.
ReplyDeleteLovecraft remains one of the world's greatest prose writers. He was a superb fantasy writer and one the most genuine epistolarians. The Realms of Lovecraftian Fantasy are bursting with his influence of course, but this stretches much farther in film, music, online - his reach is greater than than that of the WFC ... he would be amazed and delighted at the joy and related terror his works and their successors give. If people enjoy living and writing in a Lovecraftian Universe, that is enough. The WFC will do its own thing and good luck to them. Their silliness betokens their worth. Neither Mr. Lovecraft nor Lovecraftian Acolytes need them. Our fantasy lands remain yet in our mind. Cthulhu fhtagn!!! G. ;-)=
ReplyDeleteIt is comforting to know that there are people like you and Joshi in the world when these ugly incidents happen - and they seem to happen more and more often lately. Obviously it is because of Lovecraft's increasing popularity. I'm currently working on a PhD dissertation specifically about Lovecraft, and it was originally intended as a reaction and corrective to various "radical" approaches that have been in vogue in one way or another since the 1960s. Thus, my original aim was simply to analyse Lovecraft's letters in order to see how his fiction was shaped by his life, and this remains my goal, but I have lately also come to see the need for a separate chapter that will deal in exhaustive detail with the question of Lovecraft's racism as it relates to his fiction. Added to this are the further accusations of misogyny (this one I have never understood where it comes from) and fascism. The idea is not to "defend" Lovecraft as a fan, but simply to bring clarity to these questions, for if there is one thing the Lovecraft-haters have in common, other than their politics, it is their complete ignorance about Lovecraft himself. Anyway, I doubt I'm the only one working on these things, so hopefully there will be much interesting stuff coming out in the future. And please do start that other blog you mentioned in the Ligotti forum, H. P. Lovecraft and His Influence. It is needed.
ReplyDeleteAn intelligent examination of Lovecraft's racism as it relates to his fiction is something that I want very much to study! I, alas, am not in any way a scholar, and so if I decide to do that new blog it won't be much more than a fan-boy proclaiming his admiration for Lovecraft's fiction; but the purpose of such a blog wou'd be to encourage dialogue, and then people who really know what they're talking about cou'd add to the discussion.
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