this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2025
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Microblog Memes

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[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 127 points 11 months ago (9 children)

Things that freaked H. P. Lovecraft out:

  • Geometry
  • Stars
  • Cool air
  • Subways
  • Old houses
  • Corners of rooms
  • Violin music
  • Flute music
  • The very concept of dreams
  • Realistic paintings

It would be easier to list the things that didn't freak Howard out.

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 74 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Plus everyone who wasn't white and from his home town.

[–] Meron35@lemmy.world 58 points 11 months ago (4 children)

On the Creation of N*ggers

When, long ago, the Gods created Earth, In Jove's fair image Man was shap'd at birth. The beasts for lesser parts were next design'd; Yet were they too remote from humankind. To fill this gap, and join the rest to man, Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan. A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure, Fill'd it with vice, and call'd the thing a N*GGER.

H.P.LOVECRAFT.

😬😬😬

[–] spacecadet@lemm.ee 40 points 11 months ago (3 children)

You’re just taking him out of context. /s

[–] evidences@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

It's just a bad translation, in the original Roman it's a passage about love.

[–] Sergio@slrpnk.net 6 points 11 months ago

We should have “a bit of grace” and give the “benefit of the doubt.” ~/s~

[–] pufferfischerpulver@feddit.org 6 points 11 months ago

It's well known that he was a socially awkward and autistic.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

I am not surprised that this is actually something he wrote.

[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 8 points 11 months ago

Please put something like this behind a spoiler or something; there are those of us who've had that word hurled enough in our daily life that it suddenly appearing while browsing social media is alarm-inducing.

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 29 points 11 months ago

My favorite way of explaining how racist he was is that his contemporaries over a century ago in the "Birth of a Nation" period of racism were like "Dude - tone down the racism."

[–] Godnroc@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] Godnroc@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago

Of light. But also black people too, but that's not what I meant!

[–] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Things that made him cum:

  • Gambreled rooftops mostly

Honorable mentions:

  • Gables
  • Central chimneys
  • Providence
[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)
  • Maine

see also: Stephen King

[–] lime@feddit.nu 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)
  • his cat

...that's probably it

[–] Rusty@lemmy.ca 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

And his cat's name freaks out all of us

[–] cactusupyourbutt@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

what do you mean, surely it cant be that bad

oh

oh noooooo

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yep, the n-word kitty.

If you are curious, you can read more about the man and find him nearly frightened by his own shadow, thus filled with hate and bias to the brim. His fragile antics are probably why he wrote a lot of foundational horror stories. Guy was clearly unwell in the head department, and although it gave us a lot of creative lit, all of it is stained with things he was himself afraid of.

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[–] AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 11 months ago
[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Lol, apparently I'm a double threat against H.P.L. I was first chair flute and first chair violin.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

Orchestral miscegenation probably also freaked him out

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A kender with two different instruments AND two chairs, you say? 🤔

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Ummm, my band teacher wouldn't let me play violin in band, so I earned first or second chair in every section of the band out of spite.

I earned first chair violin in university.

Funnily enough bard is my least favorite D&D class....

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well you've told us about the first chairs, so what instruments did you get second chair with?

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Mostly brass. French horn, and trumpet were difficult

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

But at least French horns look really cool

[–] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

Angle of a wall.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago

Corners of rooms

Is this a mf "Hounds of Tindalos" reference.

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Paying more than a few cents for coffee Spending more than $3 a day on food

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 42 points 11 months ago

My favorite fact about Lovecraft was that he was so fucking racist, the KKK told him to chill the fuck out on his racism.

[–] DharkStare@lemmy.world 37 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Lovecraft being a neurotic mess afraid of everything is probably why his books are so good. He did a great job with filling his books with that sense of existential dread.

[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 14 points 11 months ago

neurotic mess

I see I've got something in common with him

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

"I'm terrified of everything, and you can too!"

[–] TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Take a shot every time Lovecraft says something is unknowable or indescribable.

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No. No, no. No no no no. NO.

We don't need to go through a 40 in ten minutes.

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[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 10 points 11 months ago

I'd need another liver or two to complete it on one single short story of his.

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[–] LengAwaits@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I wish we'd gotten to see the rest of Lovecraft's redemption arc.

He died so soon after beginning to realize and acknowledge that his views about the world had been abhorrent.

Edit to add:

If anyone's curious to read an example of the beginnings of his realization, check out this letter, written about a month before his death:

https://github.com/punchmonster/Lovecraft-Letters/blob/master/19370207-Catherine-L-Moore.md

It's a fairly long letter, but the whole thing is interesting. He seems to have been radicalized and was becoming quite critical of capitalism, if not a full blown Marxist. You'll find the following quote in the last paragraph:

I looked around for a 1924 photograph of myself to burn, spit on, or stick pins in! Holy Hades—was I that much of a dub at 33 ... only 13 years ago? There was no getting out of it—I really had thrown all that haughty, complacent, snobbish, self-centered, intolerant bull, & at a mature age when anybody but a perfect damned fool would have known better!

There's more evidence in there than just that passage, but this is already becoming a wall of text!

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago

I once read that Lovecraft went on a big antisemitic rant only to be gently reminded by his wife that she was Jewish.

[–] MeatPilot@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Most writers or artists of any kind are not as cool as you want them to be. H.P. was essentially a nerdy upper class dandy. He was horribly sheltered and coddled all his life by his mom and her sisters. He'd probably faint if he had to go out in the rain without an umbrella.

I enjoyed his writing but you have to separate the art from the artist. Just like not all action heros are badasses, they just look like that on film.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The only issue with Lovrecraft and separating the art from the artist is that there's a shit ton of bigotry in his art as well.

I will not deny that he was a creative powerhouse with amazing ideas, but he was also a guy who wrote about big-lipped, dark-skinned savages and a cat with a name I shall not repeat.

[–] MeatPilot@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Oh I was saying that people view the art created by the artist to be the artist. Like they are capable of living the lives they portray.

Like I came across a comic series where H.P. was the protagonist and it made him out to be some edgy defender against the occult horrors he wrote about. Think I've seen something similar with Poe, maybe a movie? I hate that so much.

Don't insert those guys into those scenarios, they both would probably shit their pants and die immediately if they encountered what they wrote.

[–] Thorry84@feddit.nl 16 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 13 points 11 months ago

The woman is wearing trousers!

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 9 points 11 months ago

A union man too!

:: clutch pearls ::

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

or sharing an elevator with an Irishman.

The New York Times calls Going Down, "Lovecraft at his spine-chilling best! An Arkham professor of antiquities steps into a lift and gets the ride of his life!"

[–] PotatoMoon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The great artists are wizards, they bring us magic.

They are insane.

They are not like us.

Judging them is like trees judging frogs.

[–] Anarki_@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I like this! Where is it from?

[–] PotatoMoon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)
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[–] mke@programming.dev 8 points 11 months ago

I've never seen anyone try to sell horror this way, far from enough for it to be a thing.

[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

at my work my favorite customer ive ever talked to was a funny ass Irishman who made jokes about his ex wife
I saw him once and never again but I'd love to ride an elevator with him, dude was funny AF in the 2 or 3 minutes I talked with him

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