August 13, 2024

Greetings Everyone!

My new book, Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White Fragility in the Weird Tales, was recently published by Bloomsbury, the foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!

I hope that all of you will pick up a copy; you can order it online from the publishers and, of course, from Amazon and other online booksellers around the world.  The book is also available in bookstores here in the states as well as overseas.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107690/

Lovecraft, in his theory of evolution,  argues that Anglo-Saxons and the other white races are descended from different, more advanced types of apes than the apes that Blacks are descended from; therefore, Blacks and whites are  separate species and Blacks should not be considered as human beings.

In his fictional works, especially in the early works—the tales that I refer to as the hybrid, degenerative monster tales—Lovecraft carries this argument even further.  He  suggests that when it comes to separate, but similar species such as Blacks and whites, there is a built-in genetic barrier that excludes members of the “lower” species from becoming members of the “higher” species.  However, the reverse is not true— members of the higher species can move between the barriers  and de-evolve if they so desire, but this will force them to leave their “humanity” behind.

You can read all about Lovecraft’s theory of evolution and how he uses it to justify his xenophobic political beliefs in Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft!

 In my next posting, I will examine one of Lovecraft’s main sources for his views about de-evolution—Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.    JLS