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109 votes
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What are some examples of Lovecraft's racism in his published short stories?

This is a poem and not exactly a short story, but it's still a work of literature written and published by Lovecraft in 1912: "On the Creation of Niggers". Content warning: this is probably the most ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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66 votes

What are some examples of Lovecraft's racism in his published short stories?

Leaving aside his poetry and his collaborative works, here are some other examples of racism in Lovecraft stories. "The Rats in the Walls" features a cat named "N----- Man" "The Horror at Red Hook" ...
Kenny's user avatar
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46 votes
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Gloomy H. P. Lovecraft adventure quest with de-hydrated water

From the details given in the question, I'm sure this is "The Night Land" by William Hope Hodgson. Although not a Lovecraft work, it is very much in his style, and as the questioner recalls ...
Clara Díaz Sanchez's user avatar
42 votes
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Lovecraft story about a man who doesn't know he's a monster

This is definitely The Outsider: In this work, a mysterious individual who has been living alone in a castle for as long as he can remember decides to break free in search of human contact and light.
Anton Hinkel's user avatar
39 votes

What are some examples of Lovecraft's racism in his published short stories?

The story that comes to my mind is “Medusa’s Coil” by Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop. It’s a typical Lovecraft story in many ways, and at the end the ultimate horror is revealed: Marceline is black! ...
Kenny's user avatar
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38 votes
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Was Lovecraft's "Shunned House" a real building?

Yes, it was based on the Stephen Harris House, 135 Benefit Street, Providence. Here's a picture by Flickr user Andrew Kuchling: And here's Lovecraft on his letter to Lillian Clark, 4 November 1924 (...
melissa_boiko's user avatar
32 votes
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Why do people refer to "cultists" in the Lovecraftian mythos, if Lovecraft himself never used the word?

The word "cultist" wasn't common at the time. Lovecraft's productive period was 1908~1936. In the Google book corpus, the word “cultist” only pops up around the 1920s, and then again only gets ...
melissa_boiko's user avatar
27 votes

What are some examples of Lovecraft's racism in his published short stories?

From "The Call of Cthulhu" Duty came first; and although there must have been nearly a hundred mongrel celebrants in the throng, the police relied on their firearms and plunged determinedly ...
Keith Morrison's user avatar
26 votes

Did any of Lovecraft's stories actually have a protagonist who keeps writing even as they are about to die?

In addition to Dagon I found a few stories that kind of fit this, but only a few from the large number of stories that Lovecraft wrote. The closest I know of is The Haunter Of The Dark, which ends: ...
John Rennie's user avatar
21 votes
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Necronomicon short story about a twin brother who is killed by a wizard, and comes back to take revenge

Not Lovecraft but it was a Lovecraftian author. The story is The Return of the Sorcerer by Clark Ashton Smith. The protagonist, Mr. Ogden (I don't think we learn his first name), goes to work as a PA ...
John Rennie's user avatar
20 votes

What are some examples of Lovecraft's racism in his published short stories?

It's perhaps a bit more subtle than some other examples, but the theme of "miscegenation" is strong in Facts concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family (a.k.a. The White Ape). The basis of the ...
Noldorin's user avatar
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19 votes

What works did Lovecraft and his "Cthulhu Mythos" draw from?

I'm going to post the results of my own reading and research here, although honestly I was hoping someone already had a list from Lovecraft scholarship that they could share! This list is subject to ...
Tim Pederick's user avatar
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19 votes
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Why does Lovecraft write that Mount Nansen (approx. 9000 ft.) is 15,000 feet high?

It is believed he is referring to Mount Fridtjof Nansen in the Antarctica (13,350ft). This is noted in The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft edited by Leslie Klinger--see footnote #23
wcullen's user avatar
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16 votes
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Why did the Laundry allow Lovecraft to publish the truth about Cthulu, etc?

Because Lovecraft (in Laundry-verse) was a fraud whose work was, by and large, not very close to the Truth. Even so, the Laundry and its counterparts in other countries did censor some of his works ...
S.T. Veje's user avatar
  • 440
15 votes

What works did Lovecraft and his "Cthulhu Mythos" draw from?

The King in Yellow, by Robert W Chambers, is one known influence to Lovecraft. HP Lovecraft himself included references to "the King in Yellow" in some of his works, although mainly as a written play ...
Steve-O's user avatar
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14 votes

Which HP Lovecraft story features a private detective?

The protagonist of Lovecraft's short story The Horror at Red Hook is Thomas Malone, a detective with the NYPD.
Kyle Doyle's user avatar
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13 votes
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How do Kaiju and Lovecraftian stories relate?

They come, independently, from two different cultures but have a the same root. That root is helplessness. The commonality is that there are things that are bigger than you are and that you are ...
ShadoCat's user avatar
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12 votes

Why are reactions to Old Ones and other horrors so different in Lovecraft's works?

Not all Great Old Ones induce madness. Looking upon Cthulu will drive all humans insane, but viewing Yig, the "Father of Serpents", does not. Yig is described as "shapen like a man, except ye look at ...
Aeroradish's user avatar
12 votes

Who is sample No. 118 in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward?

It is completely unknown. There are no clues in the story that suggest a particular individual. Based on his use of Dark Ages Latin, the skilled wizard whose salts were number 118 would seem to be ...
Buzz's user avatar
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12 votes
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Who is sample No. 118 in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward?

I think HPL did leave a clue that he intended Merlin. Our modern view of the character Merlin comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136. He based Merlin on an ...
Zurls's user avatar
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12 votes

Is there an intentional pun in this quote from the Necronomicon?

A pun is more than just a word that has multiple meanings; it's a word with multiple meanings that both/all make sense in context. I'm a big fan of whiteboards. I find them re-markable. Since "...
PlutoThePlanet's user avatar
12 votes
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Where did Lovecraft write about Carcosa?

He did not, at least not in his works meant for publication. (His letters might be another matter.) There is no mention of Carcosa in any of his prose fiction or poetry. His works (including some ...
Buzz's user avatar
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11 votes

Where did Lovecraft write about Carcosa?

The Whisperer in Darkness. It mentions the Lake of Hali, the Yellow Sign, and Hastur. I found myself faced by names and terms that I had heard elsewhere in the most hideous of connexions—Yuggoth, ...
Sandra's user avatar
  • 210
11 votes

Looking for a letter from H. P. Lovecraft to R. E. Howard

MF.210 is referenced here on Reddit, in the original English. I envy you your sight of a meteorite's fall—or rather, the blaze and report incidental thereto. Visitors from outer space always ...
Valorum's user avatar
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10 votes

Why are reactions to Old Ones and other horrors so different in Lovecraft's works?

A normal "cthulhu mythos" creature (like a deep one) is much less scary than a god monstrous avatar (probably the worst thing in the universe). But not all the avatars are the same, not even from the ...
pfernandez's user avatar
10 votes

Why are reactions to Old Ones and other horrors so different in Lovecraft's works?

Why do different characters react differently when seeing the same monster? In this, you suggest your own answer. Psychological trauma is a result of the individual who perceives the phenomenon, and ...
Lynn Fredricks's user avatar
10 votes

Who is sample No. 118 in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward?

To me it's pretty obvious that it is "the mad Arab" Abdul Al Hazred. I can't be the only one who notices the hint in the number of the sample... And it seems like Lovecraft deliberately put ...
user164913's user avatar
10 votes

What are some examples of Lovecraft's racism in his published short stories?

The short story "Winged Death" is about doctors in South Africa who breed poisonous flies and experiment on local members the native population. Lovecraft uses very negative language when ...
MikeQ's user avatar
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10 votes
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Why did the victims in H.P.Lovecraft's stories happen to be very intelligent?

As I've written about before, people tend to write horror about what they fear most. For much of his life, Lovecraft was fixated on the concepts of decline and decadence. — Wikipedia A lot of ...
AncientSwordRage's user avatar
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