and then we know that we have looked back through the ivory gates....
There are those who have accused Mr. Lyon Sprague de Camps "Lovecraft: a Biography" of being unduly critical. One begs to differ: if anything, it has been too influenced by the understandably one - sided positive biographies before it. Camps treatment is all the more impressive considering he was about as well - equipped to understand Mr. Lovecraft as a man born without testicles (Michael Moorcock, for example) would be to understand the cinematic efforts of Miss "Ava Devine".
Take one of Mr. Lovecrafts more modern (for the times) & directly - expressed interests: racism. Camp seems unable to grasp something available to even the most simple - minded: in the Biography, after floundering about in some unfortunate comments about "obvious" biological differences obscured by "Marxists", but also some surprisingly relevant ironic reflexions on how the so - called supirior "nordic" races have spent long aeons in utter barbarity, his conclusion is... well, lets just quote wikipedia: "He pointed out that no scholar comparing the merits of various ethnicities has ever sought to prove that his own ethnicity was inferior to others, a point that is not actually true (see, for example, the idea of the Model Minority)." Not suprisingly, there is an attempt to show that "Providences" racial adventure had an happy ending, mostly by focussing on his (always rather ambivalent) racial stereotypes of Jewery being cast aside after Nazism had made their anti - intellectualist aspect monstrously evident, as well as (also fairly constant) moments in which his hatred of "negroids" was blessedly overcome by politeness. Camp himself quotes the evidence against this rosy view - even right up to the end, Lovecraft considered criticism of atrocities such as lynchings of black "rapists" evidence of "christian slave morality" (one wonders what he would have made of the US "christian" right?) - but of course blithely ignores it.
Mr. Lovecrafts more complex thought - both the lower, such as his Romantic depersonalized nihilism, and the Higher, such as his Aristotelian gentlemanly objectivity - is completely invisible to eyes dulled and prosaic with the poison of life, evident in ever - more desperate attempts to explain why Mr. Lovecraft did not devote his entire life to becoming a "productive citizen", culminating in (though to Camps credit, only after several other theories have been touched upon) Freudian "diagnosis". But, even so: after simply claiming that art does not exist (a logical conclusion given the evidence available to him), Camp surprises us by suddenly stating that Mr. Lovecrafts writings have special value due to their inventive mythology: indeed, he seems to hint at something like Inkling "Mythopoetics". His analysis rather stops there - he actually goes on to praise Derleths clownish Lovecraftian writings for their portrayal of "character"- but it does show that even someone merely enjoying the purchased atmosphere of extinct nobility can gain glimpses of the gaily painted galleys that sail out of the harbour toward distant regions where the sea meets the sky.
As for his tangle of biographical facts - where did he get the idea that Mr. "Houdini" died of stomach cancer? - they are also complete enough to allow conclusions of ones own. So, in awe of the dead (even though, Kadath help me, Camp though "In the Vault" was one of the best Lovecraftian tales ever), let us focus on the biographers evident efficiency, and merely smile politely at his charmingly Alice - like attempts at "common sense" - such as his asking what DID the protagonist of "The Outsider" get to eat?.
For when as children we listen and dream, we think but half-formed thoughts.
Take one of Mr. Lovecrafts more modern (for the times) & directly - expressed interests: racism. Camp seems unable to grasp something available to even the most simple - minded: in the Biography, after floundering about in some unfortunate comments about "obvious" biological differences obscured by "Marxists", but also some surprisingly relevant ironic reflexions on how the so - called supirior "nordic" races have spent long aeons in utter barbarity, his conclusion is... well, lets just quote wikipedia: "He pointed out that no scholar comparing the merits of various ethnicities has ever sought to prove that his own ethnicity was inferior to others, a point that is not actually true (see, for example, the idea of the Model Minority)." Not suprisingly, there is an attempt to show that "Providences" racial adventure had an happy ending, mostly by focussing on his (always rather ambivalent) racial stereotypes of Jewery being cast aside after Nazism had made their anti - intellectualist aspect monstrously evident, as well as (also fairly constant) moments in which his hatred of "negroids" was blessedly overcome by politeness. Camp himself quotes the evidence against this rosy view - even right up to the end, Lovecraft considered criticism of atrocities such as lynchings of black "rapists" evidence of "christian slave morality" (one wonders what he would have made of the US "christian" right?) - but of course blithely ignores it.
Mr. Lovecrafts more complex thought - both the lower, such as his Romantic depersonalized nihilism, and the Higher, such as his Aristotelian gentlemanly objectivity - is completely invisible to eyes dulled and prosaic with the poison of life, evident in ever - more desperate attempts to explain why Mr. Lovecraft did not devote his entire life to becoming a "productive citizen", culminating in (though to Camps credit, only after several other theories have been touched upon) Freudian "diagnosis". But, even so: after simply claiming that art does not exist (a logical conclusion given the evidence available to him), Camp surprises us by suddenly stating that Mr. Lovecrafts writings have special value due to their inventive mythology: indeed, he seems to hint at something like Inkling "Mythopoetics". His analysis rather stops there - he actually goes on to praise Derleths clownish Lovecraftian writings for their portrayal of "character"- but it does show that even someone merely enjoying the purchased atmosphere of extinct nobility can gain glimpses of the gaily painted galleys that sail out of the harbour toward distant regions where the sea meets the sky.
As for his tangle of biographical facts - where did he get the idea that Mr. "Houdini" died of stomach cancer? - they are also complete enough to allow conclusions of ones own. So, in awe of the dead (even though, Kadath help me, Camp though "In the Vault" was one of the best Lovecraftian tales ever), let us focus on the biographers evident efficiency, and merely smile politely at his charmingly Alice - like attempts at "common sense" - such as his asking what DID the protagonist of "The Outsider" get to eat?.
For when as children we listen and dream, we think but half-formed thoughts.