January 1, 2024

Greetings Everyone!

 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.

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.

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.

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.

Happy New Year!

https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Racism-H-Lovecraft-Fragility/dp/B0C5CPHCR2

JLS

December 26, 2023

 Please check out my new book, Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft!  And I hope everyone will have a Happy New Year! 

   

December 25, 2023

 Merry Christmas Everyone!

JLS

December 4, 2023

 

Check out my  new  book!  

The title is : Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White Fragility in the Weird Tales.  The release date is January 11, 2024.

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.

Building on recent debates about Lovecraft and drawing on the concept of "white fragility," I argue  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.

The book can be pre-ordered now in bookstores across the world and on Amazon, Google, Bloomsbury and other online sites.

JLS

October 31, 2023

 Happy Halloween Everyone!

October 25, 2023

 Greetings Everyone!

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.

*  Ray Bradbury talks about the autumn people and warns us against them, claiming that they are soulless, evil things that seek to ensnare humans.  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.

* Bradbury, again,  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  the celebration of the everlasting life to come after death. 

* H. P. Lovecraft personifies October as a “mystic pilgrim” who comes from a far land down the road to farther lands.  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.

* Finally, Edgar Allan Poe describes a man journeying on Halloween night through a nightmarish place, encouraged to keep going  by the beautiful vision of a ghost planet. But he  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.  

This is the ultimate Halloween trick or treat. But it is also a blessing.  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. 

JLS

October 15, 2023

 Greetings Everyone!

It is the third week of  October!

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. 

In his greatest poem “Ulalume”, Poe describes the October dream-scape that his narrator is journeying through on his way to a mysterious destination.  It is clear that this nightmarish experience is taking place on Halloween night.

The skies they were ashen and sober;

The leaves they were crisped and sere-

The leaves they were withering and sere:

It was night, in the lonesome October

Of my most immemorial year:

It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,

In the misty mid region of Weir:-

It was down by the dark tarn of Auber,

In the ghoul-haunted woodland  of Weir.

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.

The narrator has been tricked by the woodland ghouls into a confrontation with Death.   And this is the ultimate Halloween trick or treat!

JLS