Lovecraftian Text Adventure The Innsmouth Case Is Out On Switch Today

H.P. Lovecraft was a terrible racist. His work shouldn't be celebrated or turned into video games or any other medium. He told some cool stories, but he was a terrible person.

In his 1912 poem entitled “On the Creation of N*****s,” the gods, having just designed Man and Beast, create blacks in semi-human form to populate the space in between.

Yeah. He wrote that too.

@AbejaGrande Literally everyone knows this, it’s not a “horrifying secret” in the slightest, it’s just that others have learned how to separate art from artist.

@Noid I can separate some art from some artists...but not this one.

@Noid But hey that's revealing how ok you are with it.

@AbejaGrande to be fair, "Lovecraftian l" is basically a descriptor or arguably a subgenre. If you want to debate if we should so much as use his name, I guess that's a discussion to be had. But in general, it isn't like this game is funneling money into his estate. It just means it will touch on themse of cosmic horror and personal madness.

@AbejaGrande The guy lived 100 years ago where unfortunately most white people were incredibly racist. That doesn't justify his behaviour and he was definitely wrong.
But the choice of being celebrated or not is not yours, that falls to the public. Worse people than him have been celebrated and better condemned. If you don't like his work stay away from it, but trying to convince people through agressive confrontation like you did with Noid is not gonna earn you any points.

@AbejaGrande Avoiding Lovecraft Lore (this isn't even original work/story by him) for that reason is like not eating certain foods because Hitler, Stalin, etc. liked them too.

Shouldn't we read the ancient greek philosophies and great stories of adventure because society back then was OK with having little boys for fun?

I do get where you're coming from but cancelling historical figures/texts without learning from them (even if it's just what to avoid doing) will doom us to repeat history over and over again.

And by the way, if you have such high standards, welcome to the world, there is hardly ANYTHING that's pristine, not in history, not now, not in our future.

If you now think that I am racist because I have a different opinion than you have, well then I am sure you just made the world a much better place by calling me out.

@Pat_trick Easy to agree with what you said and want to add, that racism is still very much alive today, it just hides in different places. What about China not wanting to have Finn as large on their movie posters for Star Wars and Disney gladly obliging. What about giving jobs to people based on their non-white race? Reverse-racism is just racism. The only way to not make everything about race sexuality and gender is to just not make it about race sexuality and gender.

"Oh we opressed people X for 500 years, lets mend it and make it all good by opressing different people now for the next 500 years." is todays college logic.

Personally I don't care for differing opinions, skin color, sexual orientation or what not. Because it doesn't matter, until society makes it matter.

Sorry for venting.

@AbejaGrande
And there it is, someone doesn’t agree with you and right away they are wrong. It was a different time. I bet you get offended at old bugs bunny cartoons don’t you. And Uncle Bens Rice well that must really get you shorts in a knot.

@AbejaGrande yes this is true and wholly reprehensible. Should his work be shunned as a result? Absolutely not.

On a different subject, "With a cast of over 30 creepy, weird, and suspicious characters to interview", they should have called the game 'HR Department'.

@AbejaGrande he was profoundly racist, even by his era's standards he was profoundly racist, but using his work that started the Cthulhu mythos doesn't benefit him. He never really benefited from his works certainly not financially he didn't even retain control of his creation he didn't want it called the Cthulhu mythos. I see it as justice to use his creation without it benefiting him, especially in ways that are counter to his cruel, heartless and sadistic beleifs about others and in which parallels are drawn between people like him and the evilness of the cosmic horror(s).

It would probably save a lot of arguments if the genre was just known as cosmic horror and the whole ‘Lovecraftian’ adjective went in the bin. Lovecraft or Loathecraft, he was stupendously racist even for his time and it does a disservice to the other writers in the genre who, y’know, aren’t a waste of skin. It’s also worth noting however that the genre is deeply, deeply rooted in his own personal bigotry, the ‘fear of the other/unknown’ is an extremely thinly veiled metaphor for non WASPs. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff deconstructs the genre in a brilliant way and exposes the very real link between cosmic horror and systemic racism.

@AbejaGrande boreoff

@AbejaGrande OH MY GOD! Who the Hell actually cares!? And so what!? Winston Churchill fought the Nazis and is a WWII hero, but he was a huge racist. J.K Rowling made Harry Potter, but she's a transphobe. Tom Cruise is a fantastic actor, but he's a crazed drama queen and a faithful scientologist. Frank Miller wrote the greatest and most iconic Batman and Daredevil stories in comic history, but is sexist towards women and racist towards all Middle Eastern races since 9/11. You need to learn to grow the Hell up, forget the ***** behind the creation, stop criticizing everyone who enjoys the work, get over yourself, and learn to enjoy the work.

@EveryoneHere I love how you all want to make his racism passable just so you can enjoy his other writing and lore. Good job people. Just because he lived a long time ago doesn't make it ok. There were plenty of people back then that weren't racist. A lot of people were, but to assume "he lived a long time ago so it's ok" is extremely stupid. He was a vile man, and his work should be shunned along with him.

@AbejaGrande Good people do bad things; bad people do good things. We are more complex than the Manichean view you put forth in your comments.

Ghandi was a horrible misogynist. Should we demoize the reforms he brought to India?

MLK Jr. was a womanizer. Yet he was instrumental in the American Civil Rights movement.

Mother Teresa is a saint in the Catholic canon, yet she has an incredibly questionable record when it comes to the care of people in her hospitals, often going so far as to baptize them (regardless of their religion) without consent if they were dying.

Thomas Jefferson (along with many American founders) enshrined "equality" in American law, while owning slaves.

I think the world would be a better place for all if we try to remember that people are complex, not always internally consistent logically, and if we celebrate the good in each of us, while trying to reduce or eliminate the bad. After all, if there is no chance for redemption, there is no reason for oneself to stop the bad.

@Pat_trick "most white people were incredibly racist" is a sweeping generalization that covers up his awful views. I'm not disputing that racism was rampant at the time (as it is now) but we don't need to act like he was just one in a vast majority either.

@AbejaGrande
"Just because he lived a long time ago doesn't make it ok."

Not by today's standards no, but he wasn't a person of today was he?

I am loving all of you coming in here trying to make the case that old racism is ok. The mental gymnastics are amazing. Please continue.

@nessisonett @GrandScribe @AbejaGrande Guys, read this: https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2002/against-presentism

As for @nessisonett I highly suggest he read this also:
https://calcoastnews.com/2020/09/the-myth-of-systemic-racism/

God bless.

@Dog I do not care what some historian says we should all believe and feel regarding this stuff. Lovecraft was a blatant racist and even through the lens of history he is a piece of shet.