tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.comments2020-04-20T08:19:54.450-05:00The Devil's Exercise YardDavid Nicklehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072702212586811185noreply@blogger.comBlogger275125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-44196410213245336182020-04-19T18:48:30.769-05:002020-04-19T18:48:30.769-05:00Sorry about your your difficulties, David. Please ...Sorry about your your difficulties, David. Please keep us informed about your progress -- I only have digital copies,and I'd love for my son to discover your work.<br /><br />Take care,<br /><br />LukeTheShadowKnowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04931959710063574689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-35705110559824742412020-03-22T17:21:25.814-05:002020-03-22T17:21:25.814-05:00Thanks for the prompt reply.
Sounds promising.
I r...Thanks for the prompt reply.<br />Sounds promising.<br />I read the ebook of Rasputin's Bastards years ago, came across it yesterday on my ipad, and decided to try some more.<br />I found some links on your blog for a few short stories, so I'll give them a try.<br />Good luck! <br />MartinMarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18303381766038516079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-51918101404929826642020-03-22T14:05:32.413-05:002020-03-22T14:05:32.413-05:00Hi Martin,
There has indeed been some progress, b...Hi Martin,<br /><br />There has indeed been some progress, but nothing I can announce just yet. Hopefully, very soon. <br /><br /><br />DavidDavid Nicklehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08072702212586811185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-38964342863272124752020-03-21T09:42:51.454-05:002020-03-21T09:42:51.454-05:00Hi.
I was trying to find some of your books and ra...Hi.<br />I was trying to find some of your books and ran into difficulties, resulting in me finally finding this blog post.<br />Terrible news for you and, selfishly, for me.<br />Has there been any progress since December?<br />I really hope this gets resolved.<br />Thanks<br />MartinMarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18303381766038516079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-55054141599617252852017-09-12T14:41:30.030-05:002017-09-12T14:41:30.030-05:00And that, Peter, was my struggle. I'm not sure...And that, Peter, was my struggle. I'm not sure that the call I made with Jason's age was the right one. Best I can say was it was my own. There were a bunch of things that I was doing in Eutopia that were provocative, and because they served the story I kept all of them. Maybe I should have kept Jason at his original age, too. But it seemed to me like it was going to be a distraction from what I saw as the nub of the novel. Jason's youth combined with a sex scene didn't, in other words, serve the story at all.<br /><br />So I made the call. I think it worked out fine generally, but I did maybe leave a couple of seams here and there that a few people spotted, and because of that, I wonder...<br /><br />That said, I didn't really have difficult calls to make in VOLK; I think if I'd thrown more N-words in, it would have been gratuitous given the historical context, and another distraction. Which is just as well; it's a shitty word, and I don't like using it any more than other people like hearing it, or reading it. <br /><br />But when it serves the story...you're right, that's something else.David Nicklehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08072702212586811185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-40680348022493174972017-09-12T12:52:51.433-05:002017-09-12T12:52:51.433-05:00Dude, you're far too adept a writer to be seco...Dude, you're far too adept a writer to be second-guessing yourself like this. Seems to me the foremost question should always be "does this element serve the story?", not "will this element get me in trouble with the outrage brigade?". Saying that you're "less easy about using it even in a historically-correct context" is logically equivalent to "it's wrong even if it's right". With respect, I profoundly disagree.<br /><br />I mean, look at the source you cite (and appear to respect): over at io9, Julie Muncy decries the whole adolescent sex thing basically as creepy and gazey, while excusing the depiction of multiple child murders as existing "in a long continuum of socially accepted fictional violence". She's arguing that child-killing is okay because it falls under the rubric of "community standards"— i.e., that the metric of unacceptability comes down to "social acceptability". Portrayal of gay relationships? Bizarre and creepy, right up until the point where until enough people on main street say it's okay. Islam? In New York maybe, but keep it out of Buttfuck Kentucky. And no way should we teach evolution by natural selection in those communities where 80% of the population are God-fearing creationists.<br /><br />I suspect Muncy would deny that she's saying any of this; she's really only objecting to the things that <i>she</i> finds creepy. I'd argue that you don't get to draw those kind of lines after poling your tent on long continuums of social acceptance, although Muncy would probably respond in turn that I, like King, just don't "get it" (a favorite fallback among those who just know in their heart of hearts that they're right, even though they're utterly unable to mount a coherent argument to that effect).<br /><br />You're more than a good writer; you're a fucking brilliant one. You know better than I that the story comes first and last. Fuck this pussy-footing around identity politics; pandering to those clowns only makes them stronger.<br /><br />And we all know what happens when clowns go bad.Peter Wattshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06160557746794936786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-47322315130066250032017-06-29T10:13:34.294-05:002017-06-29T10:13:34.294-05:00Vivid and affecting stuff. Possibly infecting, but...Vivid and affecting stuff. Possibly infecting, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.Psychedelia Gothique - Dale L. Sproulehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00221857064520306287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-37750727641548373722016-02-03T18:20:47.396-05:002016-02-03T18:20:47.396-05:00David, Your father painted directly on all levels...David, Your father painted directly on all levels, a difficult task for any artist in any medium. I found him accidentally on Craigs List and had to buy the offering paintings. Their beauty drew me in and when I saw them first hand I immediately thought of the Impressionists Van Gogh in particular. His command of color and composition, kept fresh by painting directly and with a time constraint, made him re invent his style, experimenting each time. The last example you chose is spectacular and alone sets your father's painting on a master level with the greats of the last few centuries. We'll all miss him and some of us will seek out his paintings whenever they come up. There's a few on Ebay Canada right now.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12303758389011155590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-71297655671960231402015-06-23T12:24:22.168-05:002015-06-23T12:24:22.168-05:00Well said, both about your father (I would definit...Well said, both about your father (I would definitely buy his work, given the resources!) and about the current nasty silliness in the sff world.Claire Eamerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01823351025842604755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-44985029567701129462015-06-22T02:14:18.942-05:002015-06-22T02:14:18.942-05:00A great response, and a great portrait (pun UNINTE...A great response, and a great portrait (pun UNINTENDED) of your dad. I'm a writer and producer who's the son of a brilliant choral conductor and an essayist/published novelist who's been printed in the New York Times, and whose novel was good enough to be mentored and blurbed by a Pulitzer-Prize winner. Neither of them has gotten what I'd consider their due to be (granted, I'm biased), but the idea of either of them throwing some kind of tantrum about awards is, literally, inconceivable. <br /><br />Jesus, my online comedy series WRNG in Studio City didn't get any Webby or Streamy nominations for perfectly valid reasons (tech problems in early episodes, slightly muddy sound), and you know what? I'm okay with that. I'm not whipping followers into a frenzy to get myself a nomination.Greg Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12476688473774894464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-53416020937018560292015-06-21T09:39:52.953-05:002015-06-21T09:39:52.953-05:00.. Lovely.. & simply luminous .. thank you.. a..... Lovely.. & simply luminous .. thank you.. and your Dad especially so .. ! the salamanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06853337802990122289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-85330195030512148962015-02-10T18:06:44.056-05:002015-02-10T18:06:44.056-05:00Oops. Canada signed the extension to 70 years with...Oops. Canada signed the extension to 70 years with the TPP. Your book will now be illegal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-19650465518708415862014-10-27T17:58:33.984-05:002014-10-27T17:58:33.984-05:00You might be interested in an article I read about...You might be interested in an article I read about the existence of Post-Lovecraftianism amongst authors who have followed H.P. Lovecraft.<br /><br />http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2014/07/what-is-post-lovecraftian.html<br /><br />In a real way, there's no denying H.P. Lovecraft was a racist and his racism informs his writings. That doesn't mean his fans should feel ashamed of liking his stuff nor should they not play in his sandbox. However, really, I'm not sure what there IS to say about Lovecraft and racism.<br /><br />"Yeah, he was a really racist guy." Kind of a conversation non-starter.CTPhippshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04226189019351004118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-11246066231277384782014-09-17T07:45:06.114-05:002014-09-17T07:45:06.114-05:00I've also commented on Lovecraft's racism,...I've also commented on Lovecraft's racism, in a published piece which looks at the way he uses language to construct his racist tropes in his poetry. The reception of the piece has been muted but with no negative comments thus far.<br /><br />Lately, as a result of personal issues involving family dynamics, I have been considering what some writers call "the wound," the central, almost obsessive concern or concerns that remain unworked upon in many people's psyches. I see race as Lovecraft's wound, especially when we remember how his father, when he was sectioned as a result of tertiary syphilis, expressed delusional thoughts about blacks sexually assaulting his wife, Lovecraft's mother. Given, also, the codependency between Lovecraft and his mother, and her own problematic relationship with him, we can possibly argue that his upbringing was far more toxic regarding race, sex, gender and sexuality than it was for the majority of his peers.Phillip A. Ellisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-69253610282820253112014-09-14T03:11:37.529-05:002014-09-14T03:11:37.529-05:00As a long term fan of Lovecraft I am glad that you...As a long term fan of Lovecraft I am glad that you have raised the topic of H.P.L.'s racism. frankly it doesn't get enough air time as I am sure some people will think it would detract from his value as an author. <br /><br />HPL is a creature of his time and the USA in the 1920s and 1930s was a viciously racist place with KKK membership over a million and to whom Nazism played quite sympathetically in many quarters. Let us remember however that despite his racism that HPL did marry Sonia Greene who was Jewish.<br />That is enough excusing him however...<br /><br />I don't think there is any point apologising for HPL's racism though some may try. In fact I think his intense xenophobia is one of the driving neuroses that makes his horror fiction work. Without that terror of miscegenation, the inhuman, the sub-human, I don't think HPL's writing would have had as much force. <br /><br />I think mature people are able to see value despite the detritus of history and like people despite not agreeing with all their values. In many ways HPL's racism is a quaint historical artifact in which one may find a humor of the inappropriate imo.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430075732030860216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-44465971805004293882014-09-05T18:17:48.441-05:002014-09-05T18:17:48.441-05:00This is one of the finest blogs on this topic that...This is one of the finest blogs on this topic that I have yet read. Lovecraft is the perfect figure for the World Fantasy Award, since he worked in all three major genres of sf, fantasy and horror, and did so superbly with excellent fiction, fiction that has influenced other genre writers and will continue to do so.w. h. pugmire, esq.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06058736777591351323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-55134654919231272722014-08-27T12:35:56.831-05:002014-08-27T12:35:56.831-05:00I don't think the effect of all of Lovecraft&#...I don't think the effect of all of Lovecraft's fiction depends on racism, but if you've read enough of his stories, his racism is hard to miss, as evidenced by the examples cited above (including Call of Cthulhu). I would say that it adds an unintended humorous quality, which I somewhat enjoy, even if it doesn't earn Lovecraft any respect from me. The horrors he builds up crumble when you realize that the description is coming from a feeble (and in some ways, feeble-minded) white man who is scared of... darker-skinned people! One could argue that this quality fits the overstated, campy style of his fiction. Nonetheless, my favorite stories happen to be ones that are not race-related, so maybe his racism does take a little away from some of his stories.Robin Knoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-38714963081568136092014-08-27T07:45:00.247-05:002014-08-27T07:45:00.247-05:00Ramsey, thank you for stopping by the Yard! I'...Ramsey, thank you for stopping by the Yard! I've made the correction in the text as to your age-of-immersion. I was of a similar age when I read Lovecraft in any quantity, although I'd read Lovecraftian fiction much earlier. First, I think, was The Hounds of Tindalos, in an educational text.David Nicklehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08072702212586811185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-36781879814677095392014-08-27T06:32:09.511-05:002014-08-27T06:32:09.511-05:00Thanks for citing me, David! A small correction - ...Thanks for citing me, David! A small correction - I was fourteen, not ten, when I read my first book by Lovecraft. I had read tales of his in anthologies before that, but CRY HORROR was my immersion. "The Room in the Castle" is indeed under-motivated!Ramsey Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01212350036758421940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-25150016773825258032014-08-26T23:07:20.530-05:002014-08-26T23:07:20.530-05:00I would second what others here have pointed out: ...I would second what others here have pointed out: that this issue has been discussed before and that an acknowledgement of some of those people would have been good.<br /><br />That said, really well written, thought provoking piece. <br />"Bigoted neurosis"... I think that is a perfect way to describe it. I sometimes imagine the sickly little man who wrote some of my favorite stories cowering in his Brooklyn apartment, his mind filled with paranoid fantasies about his neighbors.<br />Perhaps we should approach the works of HPL with something akin to the surrealists' paranoiac-critical method, using the racist delusion-fantasies to uncover the subconscious fears that are the fiber of xenophobia.Jamesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-37937582334272083012014-08-26T16:33:11.128-05:002014-08-26T16:33:11.128-05:00Hey Tristan, Thanks for the reply. You've give...Hey Tristan, Thanks for the reply. You've given me a great deal to think about--in part because as I sat down to pen this essay, it was in hope of easing open discussion on the centrality of Lovecraftian racism--not with an exhaustive survey in mind (that was one of the reasons I linked to other essays in support of the premise of Lovecraftian racism). And you're right in many of the stories you cite; for instance, there's little xenophobia per se in the Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and the other dreamlands stories--those stories have a whimsical quality to them that mutes Lovecraft's horror, and although I've not read them in some years, are one of the few settings wherein he actually embraces the Other. I might suggest that the Dream Quest cycle represents an idealized depiction of white aristocratic privilege, but you might suggest I'm stretching the point, and I would have to agree...<br /><br />As for At The Mountains of Madness, I think there's a strong enough whiff of determinism in that novella--and an Innsmouth-like horror at the idea of being somehow related to an alien species--that it fits with Lovecraft's xenophobic if not racist tendencies. <br /><br />And as to some other major works, some quotations I've managed to dig up, supporting a sufficiently narrow group of views:<br /><br />The negro had been knocked out [in the boxing match], and a moment's examination shewed us that he would permanently remain so. He was a loathsome, gorilla-like thing, with abnormally long arms which I could not help calling fore legs, and a face that conjured up thoughts of unspeakable Congo secrets and tom-tom poundings under an eerie moon. The body must have looked even worse in life--but the world holds many ugly things.<br />-from Herbert West: Reanimator<br /><br />Perhaps one reason—though it cannot apply to uninformed strangers—is that the natives are now repellently decadent, having gone far along that path of retrogression so common in many New England backwaters. They have come to form a race by themselves, with the well-defined mental and physical stigmata of degeneracy and inbreeding. The average of their intelligence is woefully low, whilst their annals reek of overt viciousness and of half-hidden murders, incests, and deeds of almost unnamable violence and perversity.<br />-From The Dunwich Horror<br /><br />One might go on, and there are lots of other folk who have. But that's not a case that I want to make. I'm willing to concede that I might've been overly simplistic in suggesting that all of Lovecraft's literature is directly founded on racism/xenophobia and couldn't survive without it. I think it's fair to say that a great deal of his fiction does, though, and that there are enough data points visible in sharp relief indicating xenophobia to mark it as a fairly consistent motive force in Lovecraft's work: something much more than a distracting preoccupation. <br /><br />David Nicklehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08072702212586811185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-38375092910619885662014-08-26T16:17:47.427-05:002014-08-26T16:17:47.427-05:00I am amused by your apparent belief that the autho...I am amused by your apparent belief that the authors you read and love are largely free of racism. <i>Any</i> writer you admire from before, say, 1950 was almost certainly filled with racist prejudice. The only difference is that you know about it with Lovecraft.Freddiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749983229420234896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-630913446991517942014-08-26T13:43:34.456-05:002014-08-26T13:43:34.456-05:00Hey David. You argue that "Lovecraft's f...Hey David. You argue that "Lovecraft's fiction--and Lovecraftian horror--depends on the xenophobia that was endemic to Lovecraft's work to the point that without it, many of his stories lose their unique and uniquely profound effect." However, I'm not sure that you make a very strong case for this contention. In the main part of your argument, you mention just three Lovecraft stories ("The Horror at Red Hook", "The Call of Cthulhu", and "Nyarlathotep"). Racism is certainly crucial to the effect of "Red Hook", but the fact remains that it is not considered an important Lovecraft story by virtually anybody - it is barely anthologized or read today - so any claims regarding Lovecraft's fiction and Lovecraftian horror as a whole cannot be made on the basis of one lesser piece. Similarly, "Nyarlathotep" is a very short prose poem which is not really crucial to Lovecraft's enduring popularity at all. The one important and widely read Lovecraft story you mention in the main part of your argument is The Call of Cthulhu - and here you make what seems to me to be a very dubious argument. You suggest(if I'm reading you correctly) that the COC depends for its unique effect on the racism in the descriptions of the Bayou residents? This is a subjective and highly questionable view. For many readers, the effect of COC derives from its rich pseudo-historical mythology, its expression of the philosophy of cosmic indifference, and its intriguing idea of an interconnected global Jungian unconsciousness - far from being crucial to its impact, the racism is an incidental flaw that readers have endured only because they really dug the other stuff. Barring this questionable argument in relation The Call of Cthulhu, you damn all Lovecraft's fiction as being dependent on xenophobia for its effect, but actually made no reference to the greater bulk of his writing - no reference to At the Mountains of Madness, The Whisperer In Darkness, The Shadow Out of Time, The Color Out of Space - and none to The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath or any of the Dream Cycle. Without making some argument as to the centrality of xenophobia to the effect of these stories, your claim would have to be regarded as woefully overstated. Lovecraft's undeniable racism should not be swept under the carpet; but it seems to me that you would sweep everything but the racism under the carpet, without making a strong argument for the centrality of racism to the effect of any but a few of his lesser stories. Tristan Eldritchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10239386613395519115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-79412557300295250152014-08-25T20:07:39.637-05:002014-08-25T20:07:39.637-05:00It’s interesting to see two factions fight over a ...It’s interesting to see two factions fight over a trophy, and both totally missing the point of HP Lovecraft, the man. The Lovecraftian apologists pooh-pooh Lovecraft’s undeniable racism with the “product of his times” or “sheltered childhood” brush-offs, too terrified of speaking to their idol’s bald-faced bigotry. The other faction criminalizes him as some such KKK hoodlum with a seething hatred of any non-WASP. But if this debate is truly about busts and honoring writers, let’s not forget this trophy isn’t for some humanitarian award or the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s about writers who have demonstrated exceptional skill in their craft of weird fantasy. In that sense, we’re not honoring any saints here. I imagine if we unpacked the psychological closets of most of the WFA winners, it wouldn’t be a pretty sight. What I’m picking up here is not so much the latest round of Lovecraft bashing (which is nothing new) as much as deifying Octavia Butler as a more saintly and appropriate choice. <br /><br />The real question we must ask ourselves is how does such a writer with such lurid, over-blown phrasing such as Lovecraft hold so much sway over us? If his overuse of “cyclopean” and “unspeakable” weren’t enough, it’s peppered with enough racist imagery to make a minstrel songwriter blush. Yet here I am, HP Lovecraft’s #1 fan, commenting on this blog and remembering with fondness the first time I immersed myself in “The Call of Cthulu”. How did this racist, admittedly bad writer become such a literary force of nature?<br /><br />The genius of Lovecraft is his over-the-top, fearless baring of his tortured soul. In lieu of a good psychiatrist and perhaps anti-depressants, Lovecraft spewed forth his feverish psyche upon the page with no restraints, and with a dazzling breadth of imagination. The miracle of Lovecraft is that DESPITE his small-minded xenophobia and ridiculous plotlines, he sketched out a mesmerizing, haunting universe with implications we can barely plumb. What I’m saying is that even from a severely flawed vessel such as Lovecraft, we can still explore incredible worlds and contemplate terrible connotations. The paradox that is Lovecraft reminds us that we’re all humans, warts and all, prejudices and all. I’m not going to bore you with any cast the first stone bromides, but I’ll say this much. We should celebrate Lovecraft’s humanity and stupidity, and try to figure out why he continues to exert such an influence.<br /> <br />And that bust? I have a real bad idea that’s so crazy it might work. Why not make it a Janus figure? Lovecraft on side, Butler on the other. That way, everyone can be mollified, horrified, reassured, baffled, and entertained at the same time. Because isn’t that what weird fantasy is all about?Baron Grozniknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866265970015944265.post-38996457510265624622014-08-25T13:38:08.934-05:002014-08-25T13:38:08.934-05:00/* I'd make the case that Lovecraft's fict.../* I'd make the case that Lovecraft's fiction--and Lovecraftian horror--depends on the xenophobia that was endemic to Lovecraft's work to the point that without it, many his stories lose their unique and uniquely profound effect. */<br /><br />Bingo. That's been my exact point of view on Lovecraft for years.<br /><br />/* It's a telling thing in our little community of weird fiction afficionados, that as much as we fetishize those immense and indestructible beasts and beings of the Cthulhu Mythos, the one monster that we cannot bring ourselves to face is the frail and fearful one who put it all together. */<br /><br />Yet kind of oddly fitting, isn't it? In the end, we're just as scared of Lovecraft as he would be of us.Jonhttp://jonstout.netnoreply@blogger.com