tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16126361032064012362024-03-27T07:02:18.825-07:00John L. Steadman's BlogJohn L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.comBlogger210125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-42761083309750725882024-03-27T07:01:00.000-07:002024-03-27T07:01:41.175-07:00March 27, 2024<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Greetings Everyone!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White
Fragility in the Weird Tale</i>s, has recently been released by Bloomsbury, the
foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">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 and overseas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107706/">https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107706/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">H. P. Lovecraft, in his hybrid, degenerative monster tales,
makes use of the miscegenation
narrative, which holds that sexual liaisons or intimate, non-sexual
associations between members of different races, or species, pose a threat for
Anglo Saxon whites. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOpwyBdumWop2XnXQnsUxE082qpSyBE-WnlYjG11TROyI-HN-thYcaafT2qMzrkxGKq_CKqjZNb3Q2xDbjVQkGrW1GfXHnXqWo8iGENwheB056hPwbhicLEst21RBYjKakGLTc6u-m58PpeOedqTFRbFSiecRvmzEp0MjbmkTg-vlg3BQuTH3Eh3aQkHU/s900/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOpwyBdumWop2XnXQnsUxE082qpSyBE-WnlYjG11TROyI-HN-thYcaafT2qMzrkxGKq_CKqjZNb3Q2xDbjVQkGrW1GfXHnXqWo8iGENwheB056hPwbhicLEst21RBYjKakGLTc6u-m58PpeOedqTFRbFSiecRvmzEp0MjbmkTg-vlg3BQuTH3Eh3aQkHU/s320/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In Lovecraft’s view, miscegenation always debases the white
partner — male or female — and it can lead to the production of mixed race
children, which are, in effect, not only an abomination against natural law,
but also a threat to the longevity of the white race and to the survival of
western civilization in general.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">As a further elaboration of the miscegenation narrative,
there are two types of miscegenation narratives in Lovecraft’s fiction. First, there is miscegenation by blood; in
these cases, the relationship between the two parties is always sexual, and
hybrids are produced. Second, there is
miscegenation by association; in these cases, no sexual contact occurs; the
danger, thus, arises merely from the contact between the partners. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p>Check out my book for analysis of how Lovecraft uses his
miscegenation narrative in some of his
most popular tales: “Herbert West—Reanimator,” “The Lurking Fear,” “The Rats in
the Walls” and one of his greatest
tales: “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">JLS</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-78170652501687841152024-03-18T09:53:00.000-07:002024-03-18T10:02:39.642-07:00March 18, 2024<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Greetings Everyone!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft:
White Fragility in the Weird Tales</i>, has recently been released by
Bloomsbury, the foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the
United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">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 and overseas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107706/" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107706/</a> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgordEx7rGjoUr3Qw05NIL3SdV3pe6aqZw9SW8S3Fm9cB0L6GD_TvMYL8wVoQWsn9su1i4ySLDybhtaCIIE_dTbTyVw71rZm9o-yI6yziyIlB9cDQSWj8cSO4YeYukStrA1xNUXlSwhwmdTLlSJwqDqlcB3XsI7k3Xsg7h_b8JwW-cXT1ZZcukQ1QM_WW4/s900/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgordEx7rGjoUr3Qw05NIL3SdV3pe6aqZw9SW8S3Fm9cB0L6GD_TvMYL8wVoQWsn9su1i4ySLDybhtaCIIE_dTbTyVw71rZm9o-yI6yziyIlB9cDQSWj8cSO4YeYukStrA1xNUXlSwhwmdTLlSJwqDqlcB3XsI7k3Xsg7h_b8JwW-cXT1ZZcukQ1QM_WW4/w213-h320/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Lovecraft makes extensive use of racist images in both
his early and later works. These images
are drawn from Lovecraft’s observations of members of the non-white race that
he most despised and abhorred, African
Americans, especially as he observed
them in the slums of his hometown Providence, Rhode Island and at close
quarters during his brief residence in the Red Hook district of New York. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Lovecraft focuses on the simian and ape-like
characteristics that he insisted on seeing in the faces and forms of the locals and then simply projects these
onto his monsters. He does this in a
very conscious and deliberate manner in order to enhance the horror and the
repugnance that these creatures inspire in the minds of his readers (or at
least, so Lovecraft presumed). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Check out my book for analysis of how Lovecraft uses
these images creatively in some of his most popular tales: "Arthur Jermyn," "Herbert West—Reanimator," and "The Rats in the Walls"!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">JLS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><br /></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-77558574033054209592024-03-10T19:57:00.000-07:002024-03-10T20:58:24.528-07:00March 10, 2024<br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Greetings Everyone!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">My new book, Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft:
White Fragility in the Weird Tales, has recently been released by Bloomsbury,
the foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
book is also available in bookstores here in the states and overseas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;"><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107706/">https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107706/</a></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 16pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ArEEaT0HIZYYWA50RDSh2rdYlbAN_dapDTwxPwMmhOIOsljicjQ9Af19NqkPUEt8AqBWxpz_YPx1DYkQYHHn4YtfLxj-zNuNHglVCbsTe1Mctby15XaGhUspSvZsnwoB_zrjByU1cfAUTf3OymLw27DfuivDkRUSHVRSyuxY82wngZlkwe3cFXZRwZk/s900/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ArEEaT0HIZYYWA50RDSh2rdYlbAN_dapDTwxPwMmhOIOsljicjQ9Af19NqkPUEt8AqBWxpz_YPx1DYkQYHHn4YtfLxj-zNuNHglVCbsTe1Mctby15XaGhUspSvZsnwoB_zrjByU1cfAUTf3OymLw27DfuivDkRUSHVRSyuxY82wngZlkwe3cFXZRwZk/s320/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Lovecraft’s theory of evolution reveals a fear on his
part that devolution is a stronger force than evolution.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">In my previous posting, I argued that
Lovecraft’s theory derives, in part, from</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Lovecraft was also influenced by</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Dorian Gray (1891).</span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">The plot is fairly well-known: Dorian Gray, a
beautiful young man, wishes that he could stay young and beautiful while his
portrait ages.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">He gets his wish; he
looks exactly the same for twenty years; the painting, however, grows old and
ugly.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Dorian complicates the issue by living a terrible,
evil life—he commits murder and he drives men as well as women to suicide.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">The portrait reveals Dorian’s inner
corruption and it ends up looking even worse than simply an ugly, old man; it
looks like a</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">misshapen, degenerate
monster—a half-human, half simian monster.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">At the end of the book, Dorian can no longer stand
seeing himself like this and he stabs the portrait; then,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">the painting</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt; mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">becomes beautiful again, but Dorian dies, and he leaves behind</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">the ugly, deformed body of his alter ego—much
as Dr.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">Jekyll in death left behind the
hideous body of Mr. Hyde.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">The moral of Wilde’s story is the same as Stevenson’s:
devolution is stronger than evolution!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">JLS</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-61379828647098455712024-03-03T11:23:00.000-08:002024-03-03T11:25:19.409-08:00March 3, 2024<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White
Fragility in the Weird Tales</i>, has recently been released by Bloomsbury, the
foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book
is also available in bookstores here in the states as well as overseas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzPxzqvRJcl13Jyj31XdsRLKeLN2txSmdhzGkiFtFjAibfrMngQalYypZ2jWOLSitbRRWWMGSXPAfTjAalobjpBmIVEpRf7gmKHmnLncAebIAnSY-7Yl6Y_E2zZYctXKc-FvVsBzFnjGnM5DKxvO_wTX1tq9pm1R_x46IlEtcHQN1LtIfx0w5MKbY6LQ/s900/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzPxzqvRJcl13Jyj31XdsRLKeLN2txSmdhzGkiFtFjAibfrMngQalYypZ2jWOLSitbRRWWMGSXPAfTjAalobjpBmIVEpRf7gmKHmnLncAebIAnSY-7Yl6Y_E2zZYctXKc-FvVsBzFnjGnM5DKxvO_wTX1tq9pm1R_x46IlEtcHQN1LtIfx0w5MKbY6LQ/s320/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Lovecraft’s theory of evolution reveals a fear on his part
that degeneration is a stronger force than development; that human beings can
more easily degenerate than they can regenerate. Lovecraft’s theory derives, in part, from
Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel: <i>Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</i> (1886), a book
that Lovecraft was very familiar with.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p>Mr. Hyde is described by numerous characters in the novel
who get a close look at him as “deformed” or “degenerate.” When
Jekyll transforms into Hyde, this can be interpreted as a devolution
from a higher form of life into a lower one.
Over the course of Jekyll’s transformations, Hyde begins to dominate
Jekyll, such that Jekyll finds it increasingly difficult to make the transition
back to his integrated self.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p>Finally, in the climax of the novel, Jekyll cannot return to
being Jekyll, and frustrated, he commits suicide and dies. Interestingly, however, Jekyll still cannot
break free; the dead body that remains is Hyde’s body. The transformation is permanent, even in
death.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p>Here, Stevenson seems to be making the same argument that
Lovecraft makes in his hybrid,</span> <span style="font-size: medium;">degenerative monster tales: degeneration is a
stronger force than regeneration. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p>Or, to put it more bluntly, devolution is stronger than
evolution!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">JLS</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-47861424142835120002024-02-24T20:30:00.000-08:002024-02-24T20:38:03.395-08:00February 24, 2024<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Greetings Everyone!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft:
White Fragility in the Weird Tales</i>, has just been released by Bloomsbury,
the foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2">https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2</a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWrsgCy4njboc5oegBh6c7IWgH7Gez8Pbr4ih96WhfeHW4YI4PHuNPjKYqBgaMszFQ3K34nQjZ1G7cqUws-_J0wv14scL2Oxmsm2itHwBJBxSSkpqz-I_XU2VLwRzZTveqIPXoAKPqHtCss-w840B3YkiZ_SAhPBfRHvKq78lMXDLo_yrKOtm_3JoI7yc/s900/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWrsgCy4njboc5oegBh6c7IWgH7Gez8Pbr4ih96WhfeHW4YI4PHuNPjKYqBgaMszFQ3K34nQjZ1G7cqUws-_J0wv14scL2Oxmsm2itHwBJBxSSkpqz-I_XU2VLwRzZTveqIPXoAKPqHtCss-w840B3YkiZ_SAhPBfRHvKq78lMXDLo_yrKOtm_3JoI7yc/s320/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In my previous posting, I examined Lovecraft’s theory
of evolution, where he 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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">You can read all about Lovecraft’s theory of evolution
and how he uses it to justify his xenophobic political beliefs in <i>Horror as
Racism in H. P. Lovecraft!</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">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: <i>Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">JLS</span> </p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-62566037277164517302024-02-17T00:15:00.000-08:002024-02-17T00:17:20.852-08:00February 17, 2024<p><br /> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft:
White Fragility in the Weird Tales,</i> has just been released by Bloomsbury, the
foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
book is also available in bookstores here in the states as well as overseas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2">https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2"></a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS3iwJFwC-NejczRbqIKSIKgzfT9GcKidG9jJ2xDJ5pAbCKyUenjlqZPWrZnvYZ74mm37BAAiOxN1rKwyCEizW7MpcIJfVFVXSQPlaaixQ7N85Rpc-FksEBaglC4wIE31QAXqXnLc7WkZ3oYncwNoctnI9-KDHVJC3QuAJBOREMwt6jJ1OO1Lgt5UvLSQ/s900/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS3iwJFwC-NejczRbqIKSIKgzfT9GcKidG9jJ2xDJ5pAbCKyUenjlqZPWrZnvYZ74mm37BAAiOxN1rKwyCEizW7MpcIJfVFVXSQPlaaixQ7N85Rpc-FksEBaglC4wIE31QAXqXnLc7WkZ3oYncwNoctnI9-KDHVJC3QuAJBOREMwt6jJ1OO1Lgt5UvLSQ/s320/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In two of his earliest poems, “De Triumpho Naturae”
(1905) and “On the Creation of Niggers”(1912), Lovecraft upends Darwin’s theory
of evolution by proposing a theory of polygenesis, arguing that humans,
including the superior types of humans—white Anglo Saxons—evolved from some
type of highly developed quadruped, complete with pointed ears and a tail, like
its distant cousin the monkey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
Blacks evolved from different, lower quadrupeds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, since white Anglo-Saxons and Blacks are
not descended from the same quadrupeds, they are separate species, and
therefore, Blacks should not be considered as human beings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">You can read all about Lovecraft’s theory of
polygenesis<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in <i>Horror as Racism in H.
P. Lovecraft</i>, and how Lovecraft uses this theory to insist that Blacks,
like monkeys and apes, must be kept separate from humans—they represent, in
fact, a threat to the purity of the white race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-77696773148315644112024-02-09T09:41:00.000-08:002024-02-09T09:41:18.947-08:00February 9, 2024<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Greetings Everyone!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White
Fragility in the Weird Tales</i>, has just been released by Bloomsbury, the
foremost academic publisher in the United States and the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2">https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2</a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuFM92NvBBhF-6eeXAO776l4e_Ys5TL8KhmryzlShosm0N25mTUrA0DP43W8ysVKJf9nByvl7NT6aZH8l0afmtxesGqCPe0zTHFOucCmMgNY8WLg51q3HocmZgxDEwTiTZfiOc7yakQVcbRjPEwpJZbNGSYigbG_9E7O8gxxtDX1p4pCw9fHPfhVobWco/s900/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuFM92NvBBhF-6eeXAO776l4e_Ys5TL8KhmryzlShosm0N25mTUrA0DP43W8ysVKJf9nByvl7NT6aZH8l0afmtxesGqCPe0zTHFOucCmMgNY8WLg51q3HocmZgxDEwTiTZfiOc7yakQVcbRjPEwpJZbNGSYigbG_9E7O8gxxtDX1p4pCw9fHPfhVobWco/w255-h346/JLS%20-%20Book%20Cover.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lovecraft lost his privileged lifestyle in his teen years,
when he and his mother were forced to move out of their Providence Rhode Island mansion and live
instead in rented rooms located just blocks from their birthright. This was the most traumatic event in
Lovecraft’s life and it activated his white fragility, which had been latent up
until this time. Lovecraft’s racism
intensified as well, for he could see that he wasn’t as privileged or superior
to the so-called inferior, non-white races as he had believed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lovecraft’s loss of his privileged lifestyle, also,
triggered a pattern of loss and failure that characterized Lovecraft’s life
from that moment onwards: whenever he found himself facing a “crisis,” he would
freeze up and be unable to act—thus, whatever he was trying to accomplish ended
up in failure. This pattern is evident
not only in the various personal crises that Lovecraft found himself having to
face in his adult life, but we see this same pattern of behavior reflected in
the lives and careers of the fictional protagonists in his major works.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">You can read all about Lovecraft’s personal traumas and the
psychological & psychosomatic problems that plagued him in <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft </i>! </span></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-11829897780764379642024-02-01T09:36:00.000-08:002024-02-01T09:36:48.016-08:00February 1, 2024<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft:
White Fragility in the Weird Tales</i>, has just been released by Bloomsbury,
the foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
book is also available in bookstores here in the states as well as overseas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2">https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2</a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOvkqWRc09lm_4kTzytfVnBvevo-gmoB6rS9QIB9M-KDa35CV6ZgmPifPQoySl8-uyrF7mrUeGik1wxceTNDONwm7_43fkyMuqTX-Ix4NfJT8fZor_jUCVHrPGl-sK2w8Qov2EP_xsnn4Crsm47n7BzejJGIv0aLOgkAhT7_OnecZ8zIoIxSekGAskPZs/s900/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOvkqWRc09lm_4kTzytfVnBvevo-gmoB6rS9QIB9M-KDa35CV6ZgmPifPQoySl8-uyrF7mrUeGik1wxceTNDONwm7_43fkyMuqTX-Ix4NfJT8fZor_jUCVHrPGl-sK2w8Qov2EP_xsnn4Crsm47n7BzejJGIv0aLOgkAhT7_OnecZ8zIoIxSekGAskPZs/w247-h342/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Popular author Matt Ruff, in his Afrofuturistic novel,
</span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Lovecraft Country</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> (2016), melds Lovecraftian horror with the horrors of
mid-twentieth century racism and links Lovecraft directly to Afrofuturism.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This novel has been praised for its use of Lovecraft’s
subject matter and tropes. But <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Horror
as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft</i> examines these claims and shows that the Ruff
novel isn’t really Lovecraftian at all and, in fact, has little relevance to
either Lovecraft or his work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">John L. Steadman</span></span></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-17180557636483076092024-01-25T08:30:00.000-08:002024-01-25T08:30:13.769-08:00January 25, 2024<p> <span style="font-size: x-large;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White Fragility in the Weird Tales,</i> has just been released by Bloomsbury, the foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book is also available in bookstores here in the states as well as overseas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2">https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQya_suio9PM3o8Ua_KOeJvIbcEj-YpKmASDeKaflq9_qDu5yOZu4x5PIQdkSeAJ-S0pnjFUxsZgsnLaW8v9cXgV0_I6BPcHiM37VF3MZFvLdACuBUn2UiNzL5xw4GzL7-zwMS952RNJ7fYsg0j4-FTIfPLK5wkZbA5EMaLkb7XXLs7UThtiBB0QfVeQQ/s900/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQya_suio9PM3o8Ua_KOeJvIbcEj-YpKmASDeKaflq9_qDu5yOZu4x5PIQdkSeAJ-S0pnjFUxsZgsnLaW8v9cXgV0_I6BPcHiM37VF3MZFvLdACuBUn2UiNzL5xw4GzL7-zwMS952RNJ7fYsg0j4-FTIfPLK5wkZbA5EMaLkb7XXLs7UThtiBB0QfVeQQ/s320/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><p class="MsoNormal">Lovecraft scholar Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, in his essay
“Tekeli-li: Poe, Lovecraft, and the Suspicion of Sameness” (2017) poses these
questions: “If the affective power of a text is derived from retrograde
sociopolitical points of view, to what extent is the reader who enjoys the
works implicated in approving of and disseminating those opinions? How, in short, should we read—and
teach—racist texts?” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After reading <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft</i>, the
reader should be in a better position to answer these questions, and though a
few readers might find the answers easy, the majority, I think, will find them
even more difficult.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">John L. Steadman</p></span>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-73834015212739427302024-01-17T08:26:00.000-08:002024-01-17T08:26:55.635-08:00January 18, 2024<p><span style="font-size: large;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White Fragility in the Weird Tales,</i> has just been released by Bloomsbury, the foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book is also available in bookstores here in the states as well as overseas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2">https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQya_suio9PM3o8Ua_KOeJvIbcEj-YpKmASDeKaflq9_qDu5yOZu4x5PIQdkSeAJ-S0pnjFUxsZgsnLaW8v9cXgV0_I6BPcHiM37VF3MZFvLdACuBUn2UiNzL5xw4GzL7-zwMS952RNJ7fYsg0j4-FTIfPLK5wkZbA5EMaLkb7XXLs7UThtiBB0QfVeQQ/s900/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQya_suio9PM3o8Ua_KOeJvIbcEj-YpKmASDeKaflq9_qDu5yOZu4x5PIQdkSeAJ-S0pnjFUxsZgsnLaW8v9cXgV0_I6BPcHiM37VF3MZFvLdACuBUn2UiNzL5xw4GzL7-zwMS952RNJ7fYsg0j4-FTIfPLK5wkZbA5EMaLkb7XXLs7UThtiBB0QfVeQQ/s320/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><p class="MsoNormal">Paul Rolland, Lovecraft scholar and author of The Curious
Case of H. P. Lovecraft (2014), writes: “The deficiencies of the man do
not...debase the quality of his best work.
If anything, they invest it with a twisted passion that is missing from
his more fantastic fiction.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You may agree with this, or not. But “twisted passion” is the perfect phrase
to describe Lovecraft’s work, especially the racist works. Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft is, at
the very least, an attempt to study and understand exactly how passionate and
twisted Lovecraft really was.</p><p class="MsoNormal">So, please check it out!</p><p class="MsoNormal">John L. Steadman </p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-17679579734705097672024-01-10T22:20:00.000-08:002024-01-10T22:20:43.365-08:00January 11, 2024<p> <span style="font-size: medium;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">My new book, <i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White
Fragility in the Weird Tales,</i> has just been released by Bloomsbury, the
foremost academic publisher in the United States and in the United Kingdom!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book
is also available in bookstores here in the states as well as overseas. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2">https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQya_suio9PM3o8Ua_KOeJvIbcEj-YpKmASDeKaflq9_qDu5yOZu4x5PIQdkSeAJ-S0pnjFUxsZgsnLaW8v9cXgV0_I6BPcHiM37VF3MZFvLdACuBUn2UiNzL5xw4GzL7-zwMS952RNJ7fYsg0j4-FTIfPLK5wkZbA5EMaLkb7XXLs7UThtiBB0QfVeQQ/s900/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQya_suio9PM3o8Ua_KOeJvIbcEj-YpKmASDeKaflq9_qDu5yOZu4x5PIQdkSeAJ-S0pnjFUxsZgsnLaW8v9cXgV0_I6BPcHiM37VF3MZFvLdACuBUn2UiNzL5xw4GzL7-zwMS952RNJ7fYsg0j4-FTIfPLK5wkZbA5EMaLkb7XXLs7UThtiBB0QfVeQQ/s320/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft</i> is the first,
book-length study that addresses the topic of Lovecraft’s racism and white
privilege. The book will show for the
first time the full extent of Lovecraft’s racism, which ranges from the early
works—the hybrid, degenerative monsters tales, as I refer to them, to the
later, mature works—the great tales, as they are sometimes called, where
Lovecraft’s extra-terrestrial alien races—all of them cosmic slave
masters—square off against their own manufactured slave races and, in certain
cases, human slaves as well.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The book, in particular, studies how Lovecraft uses his
racial hatred creatively by developing racist images and narratives to advocate
for his xenophobic political beliefs: that western civilization is in decline
due to unrestrained immigration, miscegenation and hybridism; and that slavery
is not only endemic, but justifiable among superior civilizations, especially
the white, Anglo-Saxon civilizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">There is no writer in the English language, and certainly,
no writer of comparable magnitude to Lovecraft, who even attempts to do such a
thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is, quite literally, an
unprecedented phenomenon. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">So, please check it out!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">John L. Steadman<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-79574993801321158522023-12-31T15:50:00.000-08:002023-12-31T15:50:19.548-08:00January 1, 2024<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">It is common knowledge among readers that H. P. Lovecraft, the greatest writer of horror and science fiction since Edgar Allan Poe, was a racist—a particularly vitriolic, more than average racist, in fact, whose fictional and nonfictional works are peppered with racist images.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzSmFOEH7eBeCvsJWjC7N24q_tDl9utJiJKNouRX8mHWtYMm9wOWtZrFboXxKeL8HZwyyD1QsdOA1xtLFCkYQHwwYlfWclw2aDpEOfk0x9N0L8rG5UbnYFzyhAk2LsvzcJEhE65i5hx-8WlxcOcYfi7_QJqMEWq2v4yEGuwnoOa_2HC0X6Ia0m3S8DQSo/s900/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzSmFOEH7eBeCvsJWjC7N24q_tDl9utJiJKNouRX8mHWtYMm9wOWtZrFboXxKeL8HZwyyD1QsdOA1xtLFCkYQHwwYlfWclw2aDpEOfk0x9N0L8rG5UbnYFzyhAk2LsvzcJEhE65i5hx-8WlxcOcYfi7_QJqMEWq2v4yEGuwnoOa_2HC0X6Ia0m3S8DQSo/w226-h338/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">Most readers, also, can point to Lovecraft’s two most egregious racist works: “The Horror at Red Hook” and the particularly noxious poem “On the Creation of Niggers,” as especially disheartening examples. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">However, the extent of Lovecraft’s racism is not generally understood. Nor is it commonly understood how Lovecraft’s racial hatred impacted nearly all of his greatest fictional works, making them even greater and ultimately transforming them into disturbing, anxiety-ridden masterpieces.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">Check out my new book, Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft! The book will be released on January 11, 2024 and it is the definitive, book-length study that addresses all of these issues and concerns.</span></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br />Happy New Year!</span><br /><br /><a class="x1fey0fg xmper1u x1edh9d7" href="https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2</span></a><br /><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">JLS</span></span></div>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-22624761009280600422023-12-26T12:19:00.000-08:002024-01-02T13:38:24.047-08:00December 26, 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Please check out my new book, Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft! And I hope everyone will have a Happy New Year! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NKCbkTJsQOSCriYVRBsolEA3HJ2tGZ8Qa-Sj27hoYROi2ZB6ZRd30rLarS9m4q03MTISVT0F6w71vKBmS7y_CUKBZipPdefnzTsKIqMU1FQKKkqR0bnYTRWtn9KCo-bPywRdFAdZFVOGEj3kWenj78lP7RckGJfZFZVhkCh4tIgaYUeJtS9NS7ANmOo/s1600/JLS-Author%20Photo.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1063" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NKCbkTJsQOSCriYVRBsolEA3HJ2tGZ8Qa-Sj27hoYROi2ZB6ZRd30rLarS9m4q03MTISVT0F6w71vKBmS7y_CUKBZipPdefnzTsKIqMU1FQKKkqR0bnYTRWtn9KCo-bPywRdFAdZFVOGEj3kWenj78lP7RckGJfZFZVhkCh4tIgaYUeJtS9NS7ANmOo/w324-h458/JLS-Author%20Photo.jpg" width="324" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpi7QulSjL7PrLQnr1ysN0PEdm39u9CgxLY5UYnGg1eR8ws455aD6tqtcI09VvhxNENY6lOPFnW_rsh-_3VSI7uZGLD8s5_kesmKNEltT0WpSFtaWDFgJcOla6FS9ACkLXdH2OBM8kCjyfSdHiezAig2Pd-2ac4JGj1r4O5sjO1oxJJSWfIRrdYVSpRsU/s1600/JLS-Author%20Photo.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-37286827723927843582023-12-25T17:51:00.000-08:002023-12-31T21:17:14.214-08:00December 25, 2023<p> <span style="font-size: x-large;">Merry Christmas Everyone!</span></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6UNEwBgnDLROlpcUfI_zDZT9FIkk_DHFzDUdBUJsf-6fK44hX-cpQeqREifNWrHOfaK1mjGLaiBsBk5ZnEVcm6npiOMUtKQ7_2FDESEdX5-ONMN0-SL3HcIPtZ_5ZD6WH704jcDvLXUbk-BjxX1BOa9z1m5Ql648qUtSyDW_Xsv8URSL28vsZfjhhrKQ/s647/Lovecraft%20Christmas%20Card.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="572" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6UNEwBgnDLROlpcUfI_zDZT9FIkk_DHFzDUdBUJsf-6fK44hX-cpQeqREifNWrHOfaK1mjGLaiBsBk5ZnEVcm6npiOMUtKQ7_2FDESEdX5-ONMN0-SL3HcIPtZ_5ZD6WH704jcDvLXUbk-BjxX1BOa9z1m5Ql648qUtSyDW_Xsv8URSL28vsZfjhhrKQ/w398-h440/Lovecraft%20Christmas%20Card.jpg" width="398" /></a></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">JLS</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-24082452022038878442023-12-04T07:51:00.000-08:002023-12-04T07:54:55.188-08:00December 4, 2023<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhweNUHI7ehLKeYuCmiZp8wa2fPWPW7Oqv-5j1RxfuoXFD1uncjgwDBQ5JfIDLw8Mf1wlNZURTPCZa5txfVXnByQT0XNt1aG8CLWkoCj1dO7Vu8-nH_s0mWLPvROAkXCQFqKYYMA-_m0KRJS70VOobqxy_pBonTiAALxfkqegclHOaJUT-m9WC317PLXIg/s900/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhweNUHI7ehLKeYuCmiZp8wa2fPWPW7Oqv-5j1RxfuoXFD1uncjgwDBQ5JfIDLw8Mf1wlNZURTPCZa5txfVXnByQT0XNt1aG8CLWkoCj1dO7Vu8-nH_s0mWLPvROAkXCQFqKYYMA-_m0KRJS70VOobqxy_pBonTiAALxfkqegclHOaJUT-m9WC317PLXIg/w267-h400/Horror%20as%20Racism%20in%20H.%20P.%20Lovecraft-Cover.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Check out my
new book! <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The title is : Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft:
White Fragility in the Weird Tales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
release date is January 11, 2024. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In this book, I provide a new perspective on
Lovecraft's life and work, focusing on the overlap between the writer's
personal beliefs and the racist images and narratives in his speculative
fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Building on recent debates about Lovecraft and drawing
on the concept of "white fragility," I argue<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that the writer's fiction reflects his
feelings of resentment and anger towards non-white persons and was used to
advocate for his racist, xenophobic political beliefs – that western
civilization was in decline and slavery was justifiable among
"superior" civilizations. In making these claims, Lovecraft's tales
pit humans against extra-terrestrial aliens, developing a terrifying,
futuristic vision of the Earth as a plantation planet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">The book can be pre-ordered now in bookstores across
the world and on Amazon, Google, Bloomsbury and other online sites.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: large;">JLS</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-58722678348501784182023-10-31T09:58:00.002-07:002023-10-31T10:01:44.510-07:00October 31, 2023<p><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="color: #ffa400;">Happy Halloween Everyone!</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbZ11EVkj_NtNHupGhXtupRGSgh3MnErrjqrbNv7E4JCw8VrlNElhRNohOxin-nyNyKuD9coQyjiBm1vThJzGsbI5rqvB1X-BZCX8hkrAiT0bwlEzr6ZsS6upm9wzpIYqZb4XpZkDTQnRpigkhd3QIw-T2Z9ifDT4dNFyfSSGXL3R1eC_3RDXOQwwLnI/s960/Halloween-Tree.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="960" height="407" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbZ11EVkj_NtNHupGhXtupRGSgh3MnErrjqrbNv7E4JCw8VrlNElhRNohOxin-nyNyKuD9coQyjiBm1vThJzGsbI5rqvB1X-BZCX8hkrAiT0bwlEzr6ZsS6upm9wzpIYqZb4XpZkDTQnRpigkhd3QIw-T2Z9ifDT4dNFyfSSGXL3R1eC_3RDXOQwwLnI/w510-h407/Halloween-Tree.jpg" width="510" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-87548794806131867852023-10-24T21:08:00.000-07:002023-10-24T21:08:27.357-07:00October 25, 2023<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">This is the last week of October and in this, my final
October posting, let us sum up what we have learned during the month. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ray Bradbury
talks about the autumn people and warns us against them, claiming that they are
soulless, evil things that seek to ensnare humans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there are also autumn people who have
souls and are not evil; they love autumn and celebrate the death of the year
and the renewal that always follows. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOnetJheBARS9FDUTbMOfowjmf6cLS_b80UeHOM6CUYeJiTUddZay8NZLtWlCyKmWs5pWbNXG4mMGNXX_Jl8d8e_X3MoV1Kh9E4yMVm7Ad8pGxXZLvLNL5fQp1uZG_NClW60VW51U7udFP1ij5tIDhQZjWQ7eKSeGGM3k1fqtOyiaCusyatER9IVHyXqs/s1280/The.Dunwich.Horror.1970.720p.BluRay.x264-%5BYTS.AG%5D.mp4_snapshot_00.42.00.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="1280" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOnetJheBARS9FDUTbMOfowjmf6cLS_b80UeHOM6CUYeJiTUddZay8NZLtWlCyKmWs5pWbNXG4mMGNXX_Jl8d8e_X3MoV1Kh9E4yMVm7Ad8pGxXZLvLNL5fQp1uZG_NClW60VW51U7udFP1ij5tIDhQZjWQ7eKSeGGM3k1fqtOyiaCusyatER9IVHyXqs/w508-h438/The.Dunwich.Horror.1970.720p.BluRay.x264-%5BYTS.AG%5D.mp4_snapshot_00.42.00.jpg" width="508" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">* Bradbury, again,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>describes Halloween with images that seem to suggest death: the cold
wind; the velvet grave-cerements; the smoke like funeral plumes; images that
seem to be a threat to our existence. But Halloween is not about death—it is
about life. And the candles burning in jack o’ lanterns represent life and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the celebration of the everlasting life to
come after death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">* H. P. Lovecraft personifies October as a “mystic
pilgrim” who comes from a far land down the road to farther lands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lovecraft did not believe in “farther lands,”
but I do—and I think that most of you do as well—farther lands of beauty and
promise where we can, if we have enough love, hope and faith, make all of our
dreams come true.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">* Finally, Edgar Allan Poe describes a man journeying
on Halloween night through a nightmarish place, encouraged to keep going<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by the beautiful vision of a ghost planet.
But he<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ends up standing before the tomb
of his dead lover—the Lady Ulalume; he has been tricked by the woodland ghouls
into a confrontation with Death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">This is the ultimate Halloween trick or treat. But it
is also a blessing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For now, he can come
to terms with his sadness and his emptiness and put them to rest, just as his
lover is now at rest. And then he can move on to a new life and to the future
that always waits for those who keep moving forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">JLS<o:p></o:p></span></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-60734425961616745512023-10-15T20:12:00.001-07:002023-10-15T20:14:32.253-07:00October 15, 2023<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">It is the third week of October!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">Before ending my series of October postings, it is only fitting to cite Edgar Allan Poe, an autumn person to the roots of his heart & soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">In his greatest poem “Ulalume”, Poe describes the October dream-scape that his narrator is journeying through on his way to a mysterious destination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is clear that this nightmarish experience is taking place on Halloween night.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQ1BTxLWbysxLvmG4mvgUTxPtvQSiQ7OSwm0ZuGN_MWGWxHd-YTOVjuWnnxr83hj4hOFiz6o4iqqLMEfFITLTh06mum-vBDgR_y_MDwgfY7LxfeHEAPppfz4oxgW54rZOnQxsrL3Vw3ozUvpVfb593GQXcHeFW-P0HwCqB4uC-Je_sXEj8nALPeOn/s800/Girl%20spider.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="800" height="516" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQ1BTxLWbysxLvmG4mvgUTxPtvQSiQ7OSwm0ZuGN_MWGWxHd-YTOVjuWnnxr83hj4hOFiz6o4iqqLMEfFITLTh06mum-vBDgR_y_MDwgfY7LxfeHEAPppfz4oxgW54rZOnQxsrL3Vw3ozUvpVfb593GQXcHeFW-P0HwCqB4uC-Je_sXEj8nALPeOn/w500-h516/Girl%20spider.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt;">The skies they were ashen and sober;</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The leaves they were crisped and sere-</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt;">The leaves they were withering and sere:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt;">It was night, in the lonesome October<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Of my most immemorial year:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt;">It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt;">In the misty mid region of Weir:-<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt;">It was down by the dark tarn of Auber,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt;">In the ghoul-haunted woodland<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of Weir.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The narrator encounters weird visions- including the “specter” of a planet- a ghost planet! – and ends up standing before the tomb of his beloved- the Lady Ulalume.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">The narrator has been tricked by the woodland ghouls into a confrontation with Death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is the ultimate Halloween trick or treat!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">JLS</span></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-49097937905682821582023-10-10T05:39:00.001-07:002023-10-25T07:40:19.500-07:00October 10. 2023<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Greetings Everyone!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is the second week of October.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>H. P. Lovecraft, surely as much of a patron
saint of autumn as Ray Bradbury, personifies October as a “mystic pilgrim” in
his poem “October.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58LRp0xD4y5ZJQKPHHXsBTdV-HaAF9yRVI42F5bcUpwadbQ7BiEsbijB5JP4SueehR6Glumcei_h2nYIApljEeRntAHMTV-vMBwtWyN7WuZf6Oi9KVDxKfDWqpbfoZIyoRA_IGz2HNifr9e0O-s9O52E-fV1Zt3YeNBCMr5fMl9HvGXigfklpygSFYXA/s1000/clay-rodery-lovecraft-final.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="717" height="481" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58LRp0xD4y5ZJQKPHHXsBTdV-HaAF9yRVI42F5bcUpwadbQ7BiEsbijB5JP4SueehR6Glumcei_h2nYIApljEeRntAHMTV-vMBwtWyN7WuZf6Oi9KVDxKfDWqpbfoZIyoRA_IGz2HNifr9e0O-s9O52E-fV1Zt3YeNBCMr5fMl9HvGXigfklpygSFYXA/w465-h481/clay-rodery-lovecraft-final.jpg" width="465" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Mellow-faced with eyes of faery, wistful clad in tinted
leaves,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">See the brown October tarry by the golden rows of sheaves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Oak and acorn in his garland, fruit and wineskin in his
hands,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mystic pilgrim from a far land down the road to farther
lands.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p>This is a bit ironic because Lovecraft didn’t believe in the
existence of “farther lands.” Lovecraft
had no love for humans, no hope that human beings could perfect themselves and
no faith that higher, spiritual beings exist who care about us. He
saw only a bleak, frightening cosmos waiting in the future—a cosmos indifferent
to us and filled with malevolent entities that seek to insure our destruction.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">But this is Lovecraft’s belief and there is no reason why we
have to accept it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">For my part, I believe in the farther lands—the lands of
beauty and promise— where we can, if we have enough love, hope and faith, make
all of our dreams come true.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">JLS<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-44730832820703605252023-10-03T06:18:00.001-07:002023-10-03T06:18:35.083-07:00October 3, 2023<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is the first week of October. Ray Bradbury, who can
be considered as the patron saint of October, describes the last day of the
month in his book The Halloween Tree—a book that adults as well as children
should read to get into the spirit of this timeless season. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBF5n1TxVgYfYQ0jxe2QDm4UrJPc4o8vUvhwTtFHdlBC8HvN94S96baB_-sIvnsUBMfTX6Ccph6pzGNWFLZMad9LHbsxsqIFSY6jm6RHdiIBNXSbnZH5mFzGTJW8-uEtti3d_dwhN85i8G75xNMb1g7a058VAIN9egLac7rAjaA2P00zISIygUJiggBo/s1920/My%20Jack%20O%20Lanterns%202.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBF5n1TxVgYfYQ0jxe2QDm4UrJPc4o8vUvhwTtFHdlBC8HvN94S96baB_-sIvnsUBMfTX6Ccph6pzGNWFLZMad9LHbsxsqIFSY6jm6RHdiIBNXSbnZH5mFzGTJW8-uEtti3d_dwhN85i8G75xNMb1g7a058VAIN9egLac7rAjaA2P00zISIygUJiggBo/w399-h235/My%20Jack%20O%20Lanterns%202.png" width="399" /></a></div><br /><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was the afternoon of Halloween.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And all the houses shut against a cool wind. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And the town full of cold sunlight.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But suddenly, the day was gone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Night came out from under each tree and spread...</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Anyone could see that the wind was a </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">special wind this
night and the darkness </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">took on a special feel because it was All </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hallows’ Eve. Everything
seemed cut </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> from </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet. Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">These words seem to be permeated with death.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The cold wind; the velvet cerements; the
funeral plumes; all of these seem to be a threat.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But Halloween is not about death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is about life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The candle burning in the jack o’ lantern is life and,
perhaps, the celebration of the everlasting life to come after death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JLS <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-39477702747797213082023-09-20T23:07:00.000-07:002023-09-20T23:07:40.075-07:00September 21, 2023<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Greetings Everyone!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Autumn is here! My
favorite season, and right around the corner, October—my favorite month!</span><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2kt41lZJMmghfYnyakgaDJsYk5q3vcUNhGhle2A3aEyF827DYsae6diOX-Gw66jMuHPLFVqemzU-JEQr7vU18WCISMYrtjTuauHZpWlvGytm89nfwE4he66v54rbQUClp9cWvnw98J4QJs9CRemBG0YnbkSjFAvL2d5QvzO5lT-Uix9Yf1h25HzHtVOY/s500/Halloween%20Tree%20Final%20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="500" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2kt41lZJMmghfYnyakgaDJsYk5q3vcUNhGhle2A3aEyF827DYsae6diOX-Gw66jMuHPLFVqemzU-JEQr7vU18WCISMYrtjTuauHZpWlvGytm89nfwE4he66v54rbQUClp9cWvnw98J4QJs9CRemBG0YnbkSjFAvL2d5QvzO5lT-Uix9Yf1h25HzHtVOY/w671-h469/Halloween%20Tree%20Final%20.jpg" width="671" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I’ve got a new book coming out the first of the new
year. I’ll provide more information
about that in November and December. The
title is Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White Fragility in the Weird
Tales, published by Bloomsbury, the #1 academic publishing firm in the UK and
the US. The book is available in both
hardcover and paperbound and it can be pre-ordered now on Google, Amazon, and
numerous other sites and bookstores. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ray Bradbury describes autumn in his book The October
Country<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That country where it is always turning late in the
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That country where the hills are
fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights
linger, and midnights stay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That country
composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and
pantries faced away from the sun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whose people passing at night on the empty
walks sound like rain....”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In another book, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury
warns us against the autumn people, whom he claims are soulless, evil things
that seek to ensnare humans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
Bradbury is wrong about that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">For there are autumn people who have souls & are not
evil; they love autumn & celebrate the death of the year & the renewal
that always follows. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">JLS</span><o:p></o:p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-28258675330612922092022-12-25T13:24:00.000-08:002022-12-25T13:24:16.317-08:00<p><span style="font-size: large;">Merry Christmas Everyone! </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKNYMm213zx45Zf3F5QoZSmlF-nCUgbmmEt9s1z__CMsS_llhFT1WwsUp3pMW3-QuPo1ntcBmBKWjPCVaM-Qgi9n2mgOwK4-BiuQsm3IbB9ZjYVqtv6Jru0K0J5QvaGOFEJg1MaCihLURqsUXHDcg7nloKyjEWRlVwcI6MQ4PF-C9lixQKSEovYfyC/s647/Lovecraft%20Christmas%20Card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="572" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKNYMm213zx45Zf3F5QoZSmlF-nCUgbmmEt9s1z__CMsS_llhFT1WwsUp3pMW3-QuPo1ntcBmBKWjPCVaM-Qgi9n2mgOwK4-BiuQsm3IbB9ZjYVqtv6Jru0K0J5QvaGOFEJg1MaCihLURqsUXHDcg7nloKyjEWRlVwcI6MQ4PF-C9lixQKSEovYfyC/w566-h640/Lovecraft%20Christmas%20Card.jpg" width="566" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-74185814816277346202022-12-08T04:54:00.003-08:002022-12-08T05:22:34.709-08:00December 8, 2022<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">There was a west in ancient days, a place for the west
wind and for the raging sea, and the ancients named the sea the Ancient of Days
and put him in a blue robe, safely anthropomorphic.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">But the Gods of
the Earth knew the sea as Leviathan.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">There was a east in ancient times; the sun rose there
and so, the sun was thought of as immortal by those who should have known
better. But things always seem to rise
in the east no matter what we think we can do about it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And we really can’t do anything about it except talk
and notice and hope and pray: “Yes! The
sun will rise! Yes, the sun must rise!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">But there is still the west, the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">A</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">ncient of Days. And there is still the east, waiting for the
sun that will surely rise, not because it must, but because humans need it so
much.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157863587X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p1_i0">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157863587X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p1_i0</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/178904510X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p1_i1">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/178904510X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p1_</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="1791" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQzCCkHzVP-OKahJ9Eq_V7BYW51K7AL6AbwLJeEDskEJOdroSJ4sz0l6y0cvu8ugpvLrD6v87rfiJEORi5QeD8cDZPpubMphyd62RHfz3YTzMlsd_1rB8bmLTZDLP_-0-_VyCPUoRXylrpvl99T9VeDcB2lvnSJ8RnxQdXo-n5NkTC0xMsji7obyN/w212-h327/HP%20Lovecraft%20&%20the%20Black%20Magickal%20Tradition-Book%20Cover.jpg" style="text-align: center;" width="212" /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZxqKXEKAJBMCXUkr829p1Pzy3Z2smInoEBsDmvLi7mNA7ah80y-dAAnm3mo6Z09azSsXoI2FLeMRwJkQ_A5pGpcsSn_oO_vKo5gjGklKnjlQN93wIM7Ml0OPJFyE5bqS3nE-RITVGK634BLQHl67vONAeeKRXv4XfpLt96aomTbImE4d0aMfCImg/s612/Aliens,%20Robots%20&%20VR%20Idols-Book%20Cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="397" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZxqKXEKAJBMCXUkr829p1Pzy3Z2smInoEBsDmvLi7mNA7ah80y-dAAnm3mo6Z09azSsXoI2FLeMRwJkQ_A5pGpcsSn_oO_vKo5gjGklKnjlQN93wIM7Ml0OPJFyE5bqS3nE-RITVGK634BLQHl67vONAeeKRXv4XfpLt96aomTbImE4d0aMfCImg/w208-h330/Aliens,%20Robots%20&%20VR%20Idols-Book%20Cover.jpg" width="208" /></a></p></div><p> <br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-11708716921326211242022-11-21T13:49:00.003-08:002022-11-21T19:13:51.966-08:00November 21, 2022<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In isolation, we often can see the truth of something
that has plagued our minds with doubt and inconsistency. Today, I see young
people and older people becoming increasingly isolated.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">They stare down at the screens of their smart phones
as though hypnotized, irrespective of where they are, or whatever they are
doing. They could be sitting on the white sands of a beach, a gorgeous sunset
taking place right in front of them, and they can't be bothered to lift their
eyes to glance at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they are sitting on
that beach with others, the others are, likewise, hypnotized by their glowing
screens. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Is this a bad thing?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">I really don't know, but I can't say that I disapprove.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZxqKXEKAJBMCXUkr829p1Pzy3Z2smInoEBsDmvLi7mNA7ah80y-dAAnm3mo6Z09azSsXoI2FLeMRwJkQ_A5pGpcsSn_oO_vKo5gjGklKnjlQN93wIM7Ml0OPJFyE5bqS3nE-RITVGK634BLQHl67vONAeeKRXv4XfpLt96aomTbImE4d0aMfCImg/s612/Aliens,%20Robots%20&%20VR%20Idols-Book%20Cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="397" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZxqKXEKAJBMCXUkr829p1Pzy3Z2smInoEBsDmvLi7mNA7ah80y-dAAnm3mo6Z09azSsXoI2FLeMRwJkQ_A5pGpcsSn_oO_vKo5gjGklKnjlQN93wIM7Ml0OPJFyE5bqS3nE-RITVGK634BLQHl67vONAeeKRXv4XfpLt96aomTbImE4d0aMfCImg/s320/Aliens,%20Robots%20&%20VR%20Idols-Book%20Cover.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQzCCkHzVP-OKahJ9Eq_V7BYW51K7AL6AbwLJeEDskEJOdroSJ4sz0l6y0cvu8ugpvLrD6v87rfiJEORi5QeD8cDZPpubMphyd62RHfz3YTzMlsd_1rB8bmLTZDLP_-0-_VyCPUoRXylrpvl99T9VeDcB2lvnSJ8RnxQdXo-n5NkTC0xMsji7obyN/s2700/HP%20Lovecraft%20&%20the%20Black%20Magickal%20Tradition-Book%20Cover.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="1791" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQzCCkHzVP-OKahJ9Eq_V7BYW51K7AL6AbwLJeEDskEJOdroSJ4sz0l6y0cvu8ugpvLrD6v87rfiJEORi5QeD8cDZPpubMphyd62RHfz3YTzMlsd_1rB8bmLTZDLP_-0-_VyCPUoRXylrpvl99T9VeDcB2lvnSJ8RnxQdXo-n5NkTC0xMsji7obyN/s320/HP%20Lovecraft%20&%20the%20Black%20Magickal%20Tradition-Book%20Cover.jpg" width="212" /></a><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Isaac Asimov argued that we, as a culture, are
evolving into a specialized form of human beings known as "Spacers",
who prefer living alone on large plantations on other planets, attended by
hundreds of robots, but keeping other humans at bay, and unwilling to engage in
any human contact except by phone, or computer monitor.</span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">It is possible that we may be seeing, perhaps, the
emergence of the spacer in our own time and on our own world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">For more speculations such as these, please check out
my two books; they are both committed to seeing the truth of things that have
plagued human minds with doubt & inconsistency.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">JLS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157863587X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p1_i0">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157863587X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p1_i0</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/178904510X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p1_i1">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/178904510X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p1_i1</a><o:p></o:p></p> <br /><br />John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1612636103206401236.post-50186198014595632322022-10-31T09:06:00.001-07:002022-10-31T09:07:36.980-07:00<p> <span style="color: #ffa400; font-family: times; font-size: x-large;">Happy Halloween Everyone!</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCBk9hl3G_HTnggp15DIZVJxucV07lifBQTSKrpB0J6v1YzKZ394d3n0AzZzTJfLT2WXO3n7Ok72swcyCX0hydIwxNWBjR4BPFRnc_iE3tv-V9E5rw_CupRy0kAFlB6ydCF2wB5qcOsqqKYGpV1-LadndNUdaYVtHA_M4Ua1qYpi3bULh3of-654p/s960/Halloween-Tree.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="960" height="537" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCBk9hl3G_HTnggp15DIZVJxucV07lifBQTSKrpB0J6v1YzKZ394d3n0AzZzTJfLT2WXO3n7Ok72swcyCX0hydIwxNWBjR4BPFRnc_iE3tv-V9E5rw_CupRy0kAFlB6ydCF2wB5qcOsqqKYGpV1-LadndNUdaYVtHA_M4Ua1qYpi3bULh3of-654p/w640-h537/Halloween-Tree.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><br /></p>John L. Steadmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199284274223506956noreply@blogger.com0