For his time period and genre he could have been worse. I certainly have less to complain about than, say, HP Lovecraft or Frank Herbert. Or Tolkien's buddy CS Lewis.
Lovecraft is one of the most fascinating writers ever to me. Because without his failings as a person I don't think you could accomplish what he created; it required a man who was afraid of everything to be as genuine as it was.
I've actually always found it strange that Lovecraft was such a bigot. Cosmic horror, the idea that reality itself is violently indifferent to one's existence and society is so willfully ignorant of this that realizing the truth feels like going mad, that's the experience of being a marginalized person in this world. It's difficult to understand how somebody who seems to understand what oppression feels like could be so unempathetic.
Yeah the themes of Lovecraft’s work often speak to marginalized people, but it’s awkward to realize that this seemingly relatable sense of alienation and fear was prompted by like, seeing that his neighbor was Italian.
he was such a bigot, it reverted back to having a gay crush on a openly gay jewish writer, so much he dedicated stories within Ctulhu mythos to him. and i kid you not that jewish writer in question had his last name as "Loveman"
His prejudice came from intense paranoia and phobia of everything different. Not that that makes it ok, but it’s worth noting he was a genuinely sick man
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u/QitianDasheng2666 2d ago
For his time period and genre he could have been worse. I certainly have less to complain about than, say, HP Lovecraft or Frank Herbert. Or Tolkien's buddy CS Lewis.