H.P. Lovecraft is one of the most influential horror writers ever, inspiring many writers inside and outside that genre. You can find his imprint all over geek culture — in role playing and board games, in fanfiction and fan art, in filk music, in cosplay, and in countless crafts.
Unfortunately, he was also a racist.
How do you reconcile your love for someone’s art when you can’t stand their beliefs? In Lovecraft’s case, many people have written their own books within the Cthulhu Mythos that directly engage with racism.
I first encountered this sort of fresh take on Lovecraft when I heard an interview with Victor LaValle, author of The Ballad of Black Tom. About a year later, I learned about Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys. Intrigued, I decided to read these books… but to truly understand them, that meant I needed to read Lovecraft.
Until recently, virtually all of my knowledge about Lovecraft’s literature was second-hand. I read The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath when I was a kid, but with its armies of cats and glibbering, meeping ghouls, it is more weird fantasy than horror. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t feel the desire to read more Lovecraft either. Instead, I took in Lovecraft in other ways. I saw The Curse (a horrible movie based on “The Color Out of Space”) with a college boyfriend. That same year, I played endless games of Call of Cthulhu. When I started going to cons, I enjoyed Cthulhu sightings among the arts and crafts on display. And I read Neil Gaiman’s amusing “A Study in Emerald,” a mashup of Lovecraft and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
I finally picked up a collection of Lovecraft’s short stories and novellas last year. I read “The Horror of Red Hook,” on which LaValle’s book is based, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” which inspired Winter Tide, and much more. At first I thought, “This isn’t that scary.” Then one night I had a disturbing dream that mixed “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” with “At the Mountains of Madness,” and I had to set Lovecraft aside for a while. Other people may have had different experiences, but I found that Lovecraft’s horror is the kind that creeps up on you, grabbing you just when you thought you were safe.
Once I was better acquainted with Lovecraft, I was prepared for the books by LaValle and Emrys. In addition to those, I also read Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, which I ran across in a library display.
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
The Ballad of Black Tom is a short but masterful retelling of “The Horror at Red Hook” from the point of view of a black man. Tom is drawn reluctantly into the world of Robert Suydam, a white man with an interest in the Old Ones. I don’t want to give too much away, because the story didn’t go where I expected it to go. I will say that LaValle has developed a brilliant twist on Lovecraft’s original story. Tom is a complex character, neither victim nor hero — and in the end, that’s what makes this book so good.
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
Unlike the other two Lovecraft-inspired books in this post, Winter Tide isn’t horror. It’s a melancholy, beautiful novel that turns “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” on its head. Lovecraft’s Innsmouth is peopled by monsters. Emrys asks, “What if the people of Innsmouth were viewed as monsters simply because they were different?”
The story takes place shortly after World War II. Prior to the war, the U.S. government rounded up the people of Innsmouth and placed them in an internment camp. By the time Japanese Americans were sent there, only a few of the original prisoners were left. At the war’s end, Aphra Marsh and her brother, Caleb, were the only “people of the water” to walk free.
Aphra surrounds herself with others on the fringes of society: the Japanese American family that became her second family at the camp, the gay bookseller she works with, a gay Jewish FBI Agent she sometimes assists, a college student who — as a woman — is denied access to the knowledge available to men, a black woman who is a secret agent for the FBI. At the government’s request, Aphra and her teammates search for someone who has knowledge of bodyswapping. But Aphra and Caleb have a more personal quest: to find what remains of their heritage and their people. Winter Tide is a good read that adds depth to the Mythos. In July, Tor released Emrys’ follow-up novel, Deep Roots.
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
Lovecraft Country is a novel made up of short stories, each of which propels the plot forward. The book is set primarily in 1950s Chicago, though characters journey to other places, even outside the known universe. Lovecraft Country begins with Atticus Turner, a black man who discovers that he is a descendant of Titus Braithwhite, a slave-trader and dabbler in the occult. The current living Braithwhite patriarch and his son have also discovered Atticus’ ancestry. They’re eager to make use of the fact that he is related to them, yet “lesser” in their eyes. Each story within the novel is told from the point of view of one of Atticus’ family members or friends, all of whom are drawn into the orbit of the Braithwhite family and its enemies — living or dead.
The stories range from terrifying to amusing. “Horace and the Devil Doll,” told from the point of view of Atticus’ young cousin, is truly frightening. “Dreams of the Which House” has occasional tense moments, but the main character’s stubborn determination to own a house, even though it is haunted and in a white neighborhood, pushes the story from horror to comedy by the end. I loved all three of the books I mention in this post, but Lovecraft Country is my favorite — the sort of book that is hard to put down.
LaValle, Emrys, and Ruff are hardly the only people to re-imagine Lovecraft in liberating ways. Bryan Thao Worra’s essay (linked to above but also here for your convenience) has given me new avenues to pursue. And since I started my Lovecraftian journey with The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, I almost certainly should read The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe. There is no shortage of writers willing to use Lovecraft’s Mythos to engage the very things that trouble us most about him. Looks like humankind is triumphing over the bleak chaos of Lovecraft’s gods after all! 😉