The World Fantasy award trophy will no longer be modelled on HP Lovecraft, it has been announced, following a campaign last year that called the author out as an “avowed racist” with “hideous opinions”.Dear god, is there no area these ghastly little nonentities won’t seek to ruin?
…authors including Daniel José Older (Ed: who..?) have expressed delight at the news. “THEY JUST ANNOUNCED THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD WILL NO LONGER BE HP LOVECRAFT. WE DID IT. YOU DID IT. IT’S DONE. YESSSSSSSS,” tweeted Older.
The writer, who was nominated for best of editor of an anthology for Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, later told the Guardian by email: “If fantasy as a genre truly wants to embrace all of its fans, and I believe it does, we can’t keep lionising a man who used literature as a weapon against entire races. Writers of colour have always had to struggle with the question of how to love a genre that seems so intent on proving it doesn’t love us back. We raised our voices collectively, en masse, and the World Fantasy folks heard us. Today, fantasy is a better, more inclusive, and stronger genre because of it.”Dream on!
It’s become another cesspool of politically-correct suckups who try to make a name for themselves not by writing stories that everyone actually wants to read, but by hurling themselves on every self-loathing bandwagon that hurtles into view. Good luck with that.
I fondly predict that in 20 years time, people will still be reading Lovecraft. You’ll probably be washing cars for a living. You certainly won't be a well-known author.
But you have just boosted Lovecraft's sales figures, because when I read this, I bought everything available on Kindle... :)
Thanks for making me laugh, I don't laugh enough these days. Think I'll buy one of his paperbacks. YeS!
ReplyDelete"Daniel José Older creates female black heroes to make fantasy more real" http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/29/daniel-jose-older-black-heroes-ya-science-fiction
ReplyDeleteBut no cripples? Bloody disabledist should check his privilege.
And I hope he doesn't end up washing the cars of white men. I hope he ends up in a taco joint where he won't feel "oppressed".
SJWs strike again. They have a few scalps under their belt now but they are starting to face resistance. SJWs will all be forgotten in a few short years while their targets will be remembered for generations.
ReplyDeleteOh, FFS!! Lovecraft's output was in the first third of the twentieth century. Even those cretinous enough to want to do it should be aware that we can't turn the clock back and apply today's (ridiculous) social attitudes to an era one hundred years in the past.
ReplyDeleteGod give me strength!!
Ever since the SJWs started howling at the moon SF&F has been going downhill. There are very few SF or F writers of today that are worth reading because they are all stuck in the social mud and navel gazing rather than looking to the future possibilities of where technology could take mankind.
ReplyDeleteIt would appear the film 'Idiocracy' is looking much more like prophecy than entertainment.
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is well worth a read and freely available online.
ReplyDeleteLovecraft was a great fantasy/horror writer. Some of his stories I really found unsettling when I first encountered them, especially "The Haunter of the Dark".
ReplyDeleteAs you say, these SJWs will be forgotten while he will continue to be revered. Didactic fiction never lasts.
The days of ripping yarns set in mysterious worlds peopled by Conans and Red Sonjas are gone. Contemporary writers of SF&F seem to be mostly women, wading through the PC can be annoying although sometimes it's worth it. My Moorcock collection gets frequent re-readings, that's proper writing with short words, short sentences, and loads of magic swords and such. I wonder if Rupert the Bear still has friends such as the pickininny girl,complete with ribbons in her peppercorns. I am taking my Gollywog to bed with me tonight while I read a Biggles book. I have got a Lovecraft book lurking around the house somewhere, time to see what all the fuss is about.
ReplyDeleteLovecraft's writing was truly unique for the time, took the fantasy and horror genres to a new level with a totally alien (no pun intended) concept of what should constitute horror. I would steer clear of the 'dreamlands' stuff though unless you are a fan of the Dunsanian style of the fantastic. Shadow Over Innsmouth is probably his best next to The Call of Cthulhu itself.
ReplyDeleteThere is even, I kid you not, a Kickstarter for a Cthulhu Mythos RPG whose authors specifically say they have designed it to be SJW-friendly because Lovecraft was such a dreeadful old racist ninety fucking years ago - not stopping them trying to make money of his legacy though, is it?
Even the 'Flaxen Haired One' has been affected by the all-pervading PC mire which we all have to wade through these days Henceforth, I will aim to sprinkle more gypos in my writing.
ReplyDelete"But no cripples? Bloody disabledist should check his privilege."
ReplyDeleteI wonder who reads these books? As Andrew Scarborough points out, the entertainment value is virtually nil. It must be to be seen by other SJWs reading them. So literary virtue signalling.
That's sad.
"It would appear the film 'Idiocracy' is looking much more like prophecy than entertainment."
A truly frightening sentence to read!
"...not stopping them trying to make money of his legacy though, is it?"
I hope something unspeakable comes for them one night... :/
“That is not dead which can eternal lie,
ReplyDeleteAnd with strange aeons even death may die.”
The Prophecy might be fulfilled when an SJW somewhere discovers a sense of humour... and doesn't persecute its owner.