Crafting the Love?

I’d known about the Mythos (i.e. Cthulhu and his sometimes lesser known, but no less sanity blasting cohorts) long before I ever read my first Lovecraft story. This fell knowledge originated in the main from the Call of Cthulhu RPG by Chaosium.

                Really, I would have been drawn to their titles by the Chaos in their Chaosium, but I digress.

                That is a topic for another time.

                It wouldn’t be until I was a freshman in college that I first read my first, actual HP Lovecraft story, or the original stories of the Mythos as it were. Our school library had all of Lovecraft’s works in a three-piece set: all black binding and gold lettering. It needed only the Elder Sign engraven upon the spine to complete the dread pull of dark knowledge.  

                I remember being enthralled by the things that man was not meant to know. As much as I adore my darkness, I actually find much of Lovecraft’s writings too bleak. There is no respite, for humankind is insignificant and meant to die terribly or have their sanity shorn away, leaving them a drooling wretch drowning in their own filth.

                In a way, Lovecraft’s stories helped shape my own worldview, which is reflected in my work. I see strength and perseverance in my worlds. There is never a moment that is the end, if the will endures. Sure, there is darkness aplenty along with potential madness, but it is not a foregone thing. So, there is some influence on me, from Lovecraft, which goes in the opposite direction of his insectile view of humankind, which is a good thing, when you look at some of his other writings.  

                I revisited Lovecraft recently.

 I found a podcast that narrated his stories and listened, while I worked on other things. What I remember about my early, Lovecraft readings was the vehement disgust in which he described subhuman races, like his aquatic-dwelling Deep Ones. I also remember reading the “The Horror at Red Hook” and his ascribing monstrous attributes to those dwelling in the area. When I read it as a freshman, I thought it was an inhuman race he was describing, much like his Deep One. With less naivety (I hope) and experience, I believe he was actually describing people of color.

                There are Reddit posts full of Lovecraft’s racism and I know when I first read his stories, almost twenty years ago, I didn’t see it, and was generally confused when I heard it mentioned casually, after first reading his work. Hearing his stories again, now, it clicked with a literal, “Oh, there it is.”

                The Mythos is a wonderful, shared universe of cosmic horrors, and I appreciate the perspective Lovecraft’s early writings gave me to go in the opposite direction. But, when I revisit the Mythos in the future, it won’t be to Lovecraft that I go. It’ll be to those that have come after and write purely of fantastical monsters not born from prejudices.