Comments | narfnitsirk: Swastikas over Innsmouth?

narfnitsirk

Swastikas over Innsmouth?

Mar 08, 2010 22:16

Lovecraft, as any enthusiast knows, didn’t have the warmest or fuzziest feelings towards persons of different races. Also, though, enthusiasts know he married a Jewish woman. I don’t know precisely how Lovecraft felt on the topic, but I am fairly certain he didn’t feel quite as much ire as Benett Lovett-Graff seems to think he did in his paper “ ( Read more... )

Comments 5

ctwriter March 9 2010, 16:26:18 UTC

Nice essay!

Also, if you have a need to look up a symbol (obscure or otherwise) in the future, I know where to find you some cool online visual dictionaries.

Contrariness calieav March 10 2010, 14:56:55 UTC

You know, I like your point about Lovecraft and his use of the swastika.

However, I'm not sure he succeeded - or that it was the wisest choice. When you start working with a symbol that dense with meaning (particularly when one meaning has come to the historical front), like it or not, readers will interpret their own way. Which may not be your way. Which means, as writers, we have to be very careful working with symbols.

No, historically at Lovecraft's time, the swastika didn't have the significance it does today, but today's readers will interpret according to their own culture set.

The meaning of a work does change as the times around it change.

anonymous March 10 2010, 23:24:49 UTC

I remember finding three books of my great grandfather's. He died in like 1962 way before my time, they were Rudyard Kipling, and bore a swatstika. that's when I learned the difference. Much later, I found pentagrams on old tombstones in local graveyards. Of course these were normal pentagrams not the satanic kind, but that gave me the idea to do more research. So much of symbology of today reflects on how evil groups have taken rather pleasant symbols and turned them into horrible things. Think what Lovecraft would have done with the Jesus fish?

Also does that mean Jesus was from Innsmouth?

Liked it, didn't love it anonymous March 12 2010, 02:16:10 UTC

While I can see where someone could get racism from "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" I also don't think it's as prevalent as critics want to make it. The narrator hearing descriptions of Innsmouth's residents and the legends surrounding the town before he gets on the bus could certainly be read as racist in tone.

But as soon as he sees Joe Sargent and especially when he arrives in Innsmouth proper, the idea of racism left my head and the fish-frog supernatural elements filled in the "oddities" and "non-English" language references. Neck gills, non-blinking eyes, and big limbs aren't racist. Fishist maybe, but not racist.

Dave J

anonymous March 12 2010, 05:10:44 UTC

Wow! Really? I definitely think that Graff took this too far. I mean look at the clouds tomorrow and see if you see any shapes that pop up. Do shadows cast crazy images sometimes? Yeah. Is the Bible that we read today the "actual" version that was written those many years ago or were they written by several dudes, through several years, and yet it's the "actual" version as it was meant to be? Highly doubt it. Is HP the racist that he is charged with? Don't know. I didn't know the guy. So how could I make that claim? I know. It's what has been said. Again, the Bible. Hearsay? My point is that people today still have different meanings for the bible, see different things in clouds and shadows. And we can only rely on actual letters or journal entries from HP's own handwriting that would indicate that his intentions were really about Swastikas, and that he was indeed a racist. So are we racist for reading his work then because he may have been one himself? No. Some people take things too far and more than likely out of context. Because ( ... )