JASON COLAVITO
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Legends of the Pyramids
    • The Mound Builder Myth
    • Jason and the Argonauts
    • Cult of Alien Gods >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Foundations of Atlantis
    • Knowing Fear >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Hideous Bit of Morbidity >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Cthulhu in World Mythology >
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
      • Necronomicon Fragments
      • Oral Histories
    • Fiction >
      • Short Stories
      • Free Fiction
    • JasonColavito.com Books >
      • Faking History
      • Unearthing the Truth
      • Critical Companion to Ancient Aliens
      • Studies in Ancient Astronautics (Series) >
        • Theosophy on Ancient Astronauts
        • Pyramidiots!
        • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • Fiction Anthologies >
        • Unseen Horror >
          • Contents
          • Excerpt
        • Moon Men! >
          • Contents
      • The Orphic Argonautica >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • The Faust Book >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • Classic Reprints
      • eBook Minis
    • Free eBooks >
      • Origin of the Space Gods
      • Ancient Atom Bombs
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Ancient America
      • Horror & Science
  • Articles
    • Skeptical Xenoarchaeologist Newsletter >
      • Volumes 1-10 Archive >
        • Volume 1 Archive
        • Volume 2 Archive
        • Volume 3 Archive
        • Volume 4 Archive
        • Volume 5 Archive
        • Volume 6 Archive
        • Volume 7 Archive
        • Volume 8 Archive
        • Volume 9 Archive
        • Volume 10 Archive
      • Volumes 11-20 Archive >
        • Volume 11 Archive
        • Volume 12 Archive
        • Volume 13 Archive
        • Volume 14 Archive
        • Volume 15 Archive
        • Volume 16 Archive
        • Volume 17 Archive
        • Volume 18 Archive
        • Volume 19 Archive
        • Volume 20 Archive
      • Volumes 21-30 Archive >
        • Volume 21 Archive
        • Volume 22 Archive
    • Television Reviews >
      • Ancient Aliens Reviews
      • In Search of Aliens Reviews
      • America Unearthed
      • Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar
      • Search for the Lost Giants
      • Forbidden History Reviews
      • Expedition Unknown Reviews
      • Legends of the Lost
      • Unexplained + Unexplored
      • Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
    • Book Reviews
    • Galleries >
      • Bad Archaeology
      • Ancient Civilizations >
        • Ancient Egypt
        • Ancient Greece
        • Ancient Near East
        • Ancient Americas
      • Supernatural History
      • Book Image Galleries
    • Videos
    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
      • Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
      • Of Atlantis and Aliens
      • Aliens and Ancient Texts
      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
  • About Jason
    • Biography
    • Jason in the Media
    • Contact Jason
    • About JasonColavito.com
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Search

H. P. Lovecraft and the Debate Over Scientific Racism

9/2/2014

107 Comments

 
Our dear friend S. T. Joshi has taken the time to debase himself again on his blog (Sept. 1 entry) by asserting that he is more important than novelist Daniel José Older and therefore more entitled to an opinion on whether the World Fantasy Award should continue to bear the likeness of H. P. Lovecraft, whom Older correctly accused of virulent racism. That issue, discussed last week, has decayed into a more general complaint that Lovecraft’s racism should not be emphasized above his atheism. Joshi continues to be outraged by the assumption that we should judge Lovecraft for his racism, arguing anew that historical figures cannot be judged by contemporary standards.
The overriding philosophical error made by those who jump on Lovecraft for his racism is the stolid expectation that all historical figures should conform to our own perfect moral, social, intellectual, and cultural stances—and if they don’t, they must be furiously denounced as aberrant. But one begins to wonder…might we ourselves be subject, in a hundred years, to just such criticism? Difficult as it may be to comprehend, the disturbing thought lingers.
Here, I think, Joshi errs because of his devotion to Lovecraft—whom he calls his “mentor.” The question isn’t whether to judge Lovecraft for his racism (though we can do that as easily as we might judge Poe for his alcoholism, or Conan Doyle for his belief in fairies) but whether an honor should take the shape of a man whose life and work stand in opposition to mainstream contemporary values. In other words, do we celebrate the man rather than his work, and does doing so imply an endorsement of the man in all his facets?

Let us, for example, note how wildly inappropriate it might be to name a speech therapy award after the first president of the Anthropological Society of London (later the Royal Anthropological Institute), James Hunt (1833-1869). Hunt was a colleague of Richard Burton, a distinguished speech therapist who treated Lewis Carroll, and a virulent racist whose views were outrageous even by Victorian standards. Would his speech therapy work make him worthy of praise such that we could justify ignoring his racist views?

In 1865, Hunt published his most famous paper, “On the Negro’s Place in Nature,” in which he defended slavery and the idea that Black people were a separate species, closer to the apes than to Europeans.
Young Negro children are nearly as intelligent as European children; but the older they grow, the less intelligent they become. […] There is no doubt that the Negro brain bears a great resemblance to a European female or child’s brain, and thus approaches the ape far more than the European, while the Negress approaches the ape still nearer. […] Not only has the Negro race never civilized itself, but it has never accepted any other civilization. […] The many assumed cases of civilized Negroes are generally not those of pure Negro blood. […] It is simply the European blood in their veins which renders them fit for places of power, and they often use this power more cruelly than either of the pure blooded races.
Could we set aside these beliefs to honor him for his work in speech therapy? It would be impossible to do so. Therefore, I find it difficult to see why it is illegitimate to complain, however mildly, about H. P. Lovecraft, a man who made claims virtually indistinguishable from those of Hunt, in the very letters that Joshi famously claimed were equally or even more important to the legacy of Lovecraft than his fiction:
The black is vastly inferior. There can be no question of this among contemporary and unsentimental biologists — eminent Europeans for whom the prejudice-problem does not exist. But, it is also a fact that there would be a very grave and very legitimate problem even if the negro were the white man’s equal. For the simple fact is, that two widely dissimilar races, whether equal or not, cannot peaceably coexist in the same territory until they are either uniformly mongrelised or cast in folkways of permanent and traditional personal aloofness. … All told, I think the modern American is pretty well on his guard, at last, against racial and cultural mongrelism. There will be much deterioration, but the Nordic has a fighting chance of coming out on top in the end. (letter of January 1931)
Joshi would have us dismiss Lovecraft’s views as the unfortunate product of the 1920s milieu in which he lived and wrote. But consider this: In 1865, when Hunt delivered his paper on the inferiority of the Negro, his own society booed and hissed, outraged at the racist views that even Hunt himself acknowledged were increasingly unfashionable. Richard Burton wrote to Hunt to express his shock at such ill treatment, and comforted Hunt that the capital-T Truth about the Negro “turning stupid” at puberty would far outlive the catcalls and hisses, for, he said, the Negro at any time might relapse into “semi-gorilla” state and prove this Truth for all time. Burton went down in history as an imperialist and a scientific racist despite his literary output, including the most famous English translation of the Arabian Nights. (Consider, for example, the difference between his celebration as the hero of Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld novel in 1971 and his demotion to the villain of the piece in the 2010 Syfy Channel miniseries.)

Colonial and imperial politics would ensure that racist beliefs remained current and under semi-official (and often official) sanction, but by the 1920s, when Lovecraft wrote, Franz Boas was one of the leading lights opposing scientific racism, particularly in terms of the arguments for white supremacy. In 1925, while Lovecraft was living in New York City, Boas and his colleagues published a series of essays in The Nation arguing for the view that humans were of one race, that racism was not “instinctive” but the product of white (“Nordic”) colonial-imperial culture, and therefore humans were not the products of race but of culture:
The behavior of an individual is therefore not determined by his racial affiliation, but by the character of his ancestry and his cultural environment. We may judge of the mental characteristics of families and individuals, but not of races.
In those same essays, the Jewish-American immigrant writer Konrad Bercovici wrote of the choices made by Nordic supremacists and how their own choices fed into a false sense of superiority, citing of the experiences of my own ancestors, who came from Italy and the Austrian section of what is today Poland:
The American Nordics speak of assimilation. But what they mean by assimilation is other than what they want us to believe. The Nordic maniac considers a people civilized in the measure in which it has imitated his external way of life. Imitation of Anglo-Saxon life, masqueradery instead of cultural contributions, is what they want of all the peoples. They clamor that we bury our past, deny our present, and kill our future; and, bending our necks, promise henceforth to attempt to be as good as they are, that we may in a few thousand years reach their level of culture and accomplishment.

The most injurious and mendacious insult to the different populations of the United States are the tests of intelligence from which conclusions are drawn by those who want to legislate out of the country on the ground of unassimilability all non-Nordic elements.

Hundreds of thousands of Italians in this country were imported by contractors years ago, when pick-and-shovel men were needed to build the roads and lay the tracks from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from east to west and north to south. The contractors and the steamship agencies who induced these laborers to leave their land and home deliberately and purposely sought out only the lowest cultural element from Italy. Not only were they not anxious to get intelligent people, literate people, to come to this country; but the stupid and the illiterate were considered more valuable for the purpose. Then similar types were brought in from Poland and Hungary.
These seven essays, now collected in an eBook as the Savage Minds Occasional Papers No.12, were written in protest of America’s harsh immigration laws and the way blatant race prejudice was dressed up in the language of objective science to hide the hatred beneath the surface. The Newbury-winning history Hendrik Willem Van Loon summed up the hypocrisy well:
But let them be honest and let them explain that they are grinding their own little axes and that they are not engaged in furthering a scientific solution to the world’s manifold difficulties. […] I repeat, let them have the courage of their convictions and join the KKK. That excellent organization, with all its mummery, is entirely open and aboveboard. “We want all the business we can get,” so it proclaims, “and we don’t want to hustle in competition with Niggers and Jews and Catholics.” That, at least, is plain English.
None of this is to say that Lovecraft’s racism wasn’t shared by many in the America of the 1920s and 1930s—the Jim Crow laws, lynchings, nativist protests, and KKK marches make that plain—but that H. P. Lovecraft was on the wrong side of history even in his own time, not just by our own standards. The tools were available for Lovecraft to make better choices, and he did not do so. He cannot be absolved through claims of his ignorance or his absorption of the prevailing cultural milieu.

“We are not perfect; and our schoolmasterly lecturing of dead people only reveals our own smugness and historical ignorance,” S. T. Joshi wrote yesterday. But Joshi seems to prefer that we not recognize that the 1920s and 1930s were not uniformly benighted by racism, that there were those who promoted more enlightened views, and that Lovecraft chose racism in the face of the arguments he would have been exposed to in the New York press and elsewhere. Lovecraft claimed that his views were based in scientific European biology, and yet Boas (German by birth) and his colleagues offered lessons from anthropology and history in direct opposition to Lovecraft’s stated reasons for holding racist views. There was a debate within anthropology in those days, to be sure, and Lovecraft chose the wrong side. It is not anti-historical to note this.

To conclude, briefly, with one final point: Joshi sees complaints about Lovecraft’s racism not as a principled view on racial opinion but as a political line of attack on Lovecraft himself by any means due to dislike of the author rather than disapproval of his views:
There is also the significant question as to whether racism should be regarded as so much more significant a moral, intellectual, and personal flaw than many other stances one could name. In my opinion, religious fanaticism can easily be shown to be a far more serious problem, both historically and currently, than racism, and many of the world’s most intractable problems today can be directly attributed to it. But Lovecraft’s detractors cannot attack him on the issue, since he was, as an atheist who condemned religious intolerance, on the “right” side of it; so they have to seize some other issue, and racism is conveniently presented to them on a silver platter.
Notice the construction: Lovecraft’s detractors are the problem, simply scheming for some reason to knock him off his perch.

107 Comments
Scott Hamilton
9/2/2014 04:33:02 am

--the hell?! Joshi could also be seen to be saying, "So long as you're an atheist, nothing else you believe can have a negative effect on the world." That's just crazy. I don't think Joshi is one, but he certainly seems to be giving cover to the "Dark Enlightenment" douchebags infesting the internet.

Reply
Walt
9/2/2014 05:31:21 am

You're still assuming that what you believe today is right, and will always be right. I think Joshi is looking at a bigger picture than you are, and it's refreshing. In the future, your current beliefs may be on the "wrong side of history". I think that's the point he was trying to make, and I agree. We all believe what society teaches us because we think it's right, or we wouldn't believe it.

I'd include your opinions of alcoholism and "believing in fairies" too. You seem quite confident that you know all there is to know about those two subjects and that all people of the future will always think exactly what you think today. I'd never make that assumption, and I'm guessing Joshi wouldn't either.

Reply
Scott Hamilton
9/2/2014 05:38:54 am

If Joshi "would never make that assumption," how do you explain Joshi saying that Lovecraft's atheism was admirable? Surely that's just another moral relativism just waiting to be swept away by the winds of history, right?

Defend racism all you want; it's still detestable and Lovecraft was wrong about it, morally and scientifically.

Reply
Walt
9/2/2014 05:54:31 am

Reading comprehension is obviously not your strong suit. You're just a worthless, clueless idiot if you really think I was defending racism.

Steve StC
9/2/2014 12:55:38 pm

I just love what Jason's race-baiting blog makes possible. Invariably a morally superior jerk accuses another person of being a racist, as we see here. We're hearing that throughout society these days. "If you don't believe what I believe, then you're a racist." It's called race baiting, and Jason's blog enables and encourages it.

Jason-and-his-keyboard had to work hard to dig up the completely unrelated case of James Hunt. "Would his speech therapy work make him worthy of praise such that we could justify ignoring his racist views?"

You don't quote sources Jason. That makes it impossible for your acolytes to check up on your work (like they would anyway).

Where did you and your keyboard dig that one up, Jason? Please let us know. Is there a Racists-We-Hate.com website we're missing? We could cut to the chase and save you from having to go there to cut and paste other racists. Then we could just all feel righteously indignant together rather than you feeling morally superior by yourself.

EP
9/2/2014 01:12:24 pm

This "Jason-and-his-keyboard" thing gets funnier every time you do it.

Also, is it race-baiting to point out that Scott Wolter participated in a Barnes Review revisionist coneference alongside Holocaust deniers, in spite of having been warned about them?

Walt
9/2/2014 02:19:52 pm

There does seem to be an attitude here that you either agree or you're a racist devil. That may have been the first time "Scott Hamilton" did it though, so I overreacted. But they all run together.

Harry
9/2/2014 02:37:09 pm

Oh, Steve! Oh, Steve! Pay attention:

1. Jason cites and/or links to every source we quotes.

2. Seriously, dude? Do you really think it is race baiting to disapprove of actual racism? Because I certainly hope you don't think there is any question that Lovecraft's and Hunt's statements cited above are racist.

Only Me
9/2/2014 07:18:46 pm

@Steve StC

It's been a while, uninspired commentary. Do those hand-picked orgasms you posted not seem especially over-the-top?

I'm still waiting for you to make an intelligent, non-attention whoring comment...but I'm practical enough not to hold my breath.

Jason Colavito link
9/2/2014 11:29:12 pm

I think Steve just got upset because he realized that his (putative) august family faces a similar problem: The leading nineteenth century Sinclair family proponent of the effort to honor Henry Sinclair, Thomas Sinclair, was similarly a virulent racist who argued that venerating the Nordic Sinclair heritage was an essential part of a program to stop white America from falling to a horde of inferior Latin peoples, much the way the Nordic Sinclairs once ruled over inferior Native Americans as kings.

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/thomas-sinclairs-wildly-racist-claim-for-henry-sinclairs-discovery-of-america

Steve StC
9/3/2014 12:34:42 am

No, Jason. Nice attempt to distract. However, what I got upset at, and continue to be sickened by is your race baiting in
yet
another
blog
post
about
race.

Out of all the approaches you might reach for in your study of Xenoarchaeology, your go-to "happy place" is accusing others of racism. (Wait for it…this last sentence is the one that triggers one of your acolytes to write "Do you dare to claim that - insert name of favorite racist here - is not a racist?" - or fall back to your other favorite, "functionally racist.")

There are so many other ways to dissect your subject. But you so often go to the same tired drumbeat. Your nonstop racial posturing, delivered with such a scarcely concealed level of sanctimony, must even be getting sickening to your acolytes.

Jason Colavito link
9/3/2014 01:10:56 am

At the risk of feeding the troll, you might notice, Steve, that this post wasn't about xenoarchaeology but was instead about a literary feud in the realm of fantasy-horror literature, and that S. T. Joshi and Daniel Jose Older are engaging in a debate over Lovecraft and racism. I did not invent the subject, unless you'd like to accuse others who have weighed in on it, like David Nickle and China Mieville, of also trying to bait you with sexy, scary racism talk.

As you might note, I am not just a writer on xenoarchaeology but also a critic of the horror genre, having published a well-regarded study of the genre, "Knowing Fear" (McFarland, 2008), and a scholarly anthology of horror criticism, "A Hideous Bit of Morbidity" (McFarland, 2009). If you read "Knowing Fear," particularly my chapter on the horror literature that followed Darwin, you will see that it is impossible to divorce a discussion of Victorian and early 20th century monster fiction from the period's attitudes toward race.

EP
9/3/2014 02:44:29 am

As a man special special magical DNA, Steve StC correctly believes that he is a voice of indisputable authority for genetically inferior subhumans. Obviously it is out fault for not taking him seriously.

Once The Empire rises to reclaim what is rightfully his, we'll all get our due!

spookyparadigm
9/3/2014 04:18:36 am

Wait, are we talking about Emperor Norton now?

EP
9/3/2014 09:15:19 am

@ spookyparadigm

Pretty much. Isn't there some hare-brained St. Clair claim to having claimed America via discovery plus Jesus blood?

Steve StC
9/3/2014 11:12:16 am

fantasy-horror literature
xenoarchaeology

Two very different interests, and yet you continually dwell on evidence of racism in both of them, clearly to the exclusion of other angles. Perhaps you should admit that your major agenda here, or at least one of the most important to you, is that theme that makes you feel so morally superior and capable of passing judgement - racism.

Steve StC
9/3/2014 11:32:43 am

Harry, If you go back and read my comments to this august group, you will see that I did not in any way mention whether or not Lovecraft's ideas are racist.

And yet, in your sanctimony you penned, "Seriously, dude? Do you really think it is race baiting to disapprove of actual racism? Because I certainly hope you don't think there is any question that Lovecraft's and Hunt's statements cited above are racist."

Do you see the strange logic you're using? In fact, what you did was precisely race-baiting.

Urban Dictionary (one of my favorites) defines it: "Attempting to cloud logic and facts by appealing to emotion through false accusations of racial discrimination. A favorite spin tactic of politicians used to manipulate people of low intelligence."

While you didn't accuse me of being a racist, Harry, your technique is a typical one on this blog. It gives me great pleasure to call it out for all your race-baiting friends here. Here's what you did:

You ignored my post and questioned whether or not I think Lovecraft's and Hunt's ideas are racist. In so doing, you're attempting to cloud the logic of my comments and divert the conversation over to a subject - much beloved by this blog - the moral superiority of some in these comments to others. When Jason posts
yet
another
blog
post
about
racism,
then the comment section invariably devolves into passing judgement on anyone who dares to espouse any notion of moral relativism.

Witness Scott Hamilton's method of completely ignoring Walt's point so as to more easily attack him on what? Defending racism, of course.

That attack, and so many more like it among the comments of this blog, are repugnant.

I now submit myself to the thrashing of the acolytes.

EP
9/3/2014 11:33:24 am

Steve StC, do you see yourself as the God Emperor of America? How would you have us address you? "Your Majesty", or something more exotic? If you want to draw on the Akhenaten connection, I recommend checking out the Amarna Letters.

Only Me
9/3/2014 11:58:21 am

@Steve StC

What are your comments in this very thread, if they aren't an attempt to feel "morally superior"? What is your DNA study, if it isn't an attempt to feel "superior" by claiming lineage to a minor Scottish nobleman, who wouldn't deem you competent enough to be the piss boy (that's a History of the World-Part 1 reference)? You're deep personal hatred of all things Jason Colavito blinds you to your own hypocrisy.

You would serve a better purpose by getting on the phone with Scott Wolter, to collaborate damage control efforts. Jason updated his Twitter alert box with a link to a Rhode Island newspaper stating Scott claims the Narragansett Runestone is proof of the Knights Templar making landfall in America before Christopher Columbus. In that same article, Scott said the stone's inscription is at least a hundred years old, making the potential year of its carving 1914. A modern day inscription isn't proof of a voyage that occurred 500 YEARS before the inscription was placed on the stone. Hop to it, loyal Wolterian, your hero needs you!

EP
9/3/2014 12:23:13 pm

@ Steve StC

So, you like Urban Dictionary, eh?

St. Clair: "The most amazing last name a human being can ever be born into. The name itself just breeds winners. The reason for this is because of the legend named in "The DaVinci Code" the legend states that people named St. Clair are descendant of Jesus Christ, allegedly giving them the power of said figure. There is also a clan known as the St. Clair Clan whose entire purpose is to get drunk and enjoy life."

"For a male to perform oral sex on another male at a unrinal in an open area of a bathroom for everyone to see."

Only Me
9/3/2014 12:31:34 pm

@EP

OHMYGOD!

I thought this was a joke, but I looked it up. It's legit! Sweet seven string harmony, I can't stop laughing now!

EP
9/3/2014 12:33:39 pm

UPVOTED! :D

Steve StC
9/3/2014 02:01:37 pm

Class act, EP. Thanks.

Other than the last part, I agree with every part of that definition.

Let's have some more fun, shall we? Here's the Urban Dictionary's definition of this blog favorite word - "Racist" -

"If you're a white man, this is what you are. It doesn't even matter if your wife is black and you have an adopted child from India, or how many black friends you have, somehow you're going to end up being a racist according to how the media portrays the white man as "racist whities".

"All of this is funny because the white man is the one that is stereotyped as being racist, which is hypocrisy at its best. It's racist to assume that white men are racists.

"If you don't get offended by racial insults, then you're apparently racist too, but an actual racist would get offended by it. When you hear a certain word too much (I'm sure we've all heard "cracka" hundreds of times thanks to standup comedy) then you become desensitized to it.

"Well, that and the words white people get called sound stupid or non-offending. "cracker" came from cracking whips. Indiana Jones cracked whips too, and he was a badass. "honkey" sounds like some kind of gigantic sandwich, and "white boy" makes you seem like the lone white kid in breakdance movies that stands out amongst the other races and white kids. Most people only really think of rednecks when they think of "white trash" so they don't get offended by it if they're not rednecks.
Statistics guy: It was found out that the majority of blacks in America listen to hip hop---
Overzealous guy: WTF YOU RACIST I HAVE A BLACK FRIEND THAT DOESN'T LISTEN TO HIP HOP
Statistics guy: But I said the majority, meaning not all of th---
Overzealous guy: YEAH WHATEVER HITLER"

Jason Colavito link
9/3/2014 02:03:43 pm

Steve really likes to pick out the references to race among the 360+ blog posts and book(s) I write each year, totaling something like half a million words annually. Imagine how much of my work he must be reading to pick out each and every reference to race to gripe about. But of all the things he said the one I take issue with is the idea that horror-fantasy-scifi is somehow "very different" from fringe history and ancient astronautics! That was the biggest whopper of all.

Steve StC
9/3/2014 02:18:58 pm

Remember, I didn't drive the bus into the ditch, but I'm happy to follow you there EP.

I thought a few other folks might like to join in on EP's fun Urban Dictionary name game - -

Spooky Paradigm -
Paradigm - "The most annoying and misused word in the English language; used intentionally by stupid people to sound smart or by smart people to sound unintentionally stupid."
"Ah yes, it is indeed the great post-modern paradigm of our age."


Jason -

2 - "Something you would/should name your penis"
(scroll down to the 2nd definition, it's there)

6 - "A jason is a cute, awkward, dorky boy."

16 - "the fuckin' psycho from Friday the 13th. a really gory, but bad ass movie. the nigga kills off those mother fuckers like flies."

18 - "Someone who often tends to over-analyze everything, while still being partially lazy in most efforts. Easily distracted unless upset and very sensitive to others' feelings…A Jason can be summarily defined as clueless for a large majority of his life until someone throws it in his face, and then is still a little clueless."


Harry -

5 - "A man's testicle."

6 - "To masturbate in a public toilet e.g School, pubs, clubs etc."

7 - "A harry is someone that will randomly hump the shit out of anything in sight."

9 - nah

12 - "To think your all big and swing arms in fights."


Last, but most certainly not least -

Steve -

7 - The name given to all those people who seem to dazzle everyone with their expert knowledge on every subject known to man. There is none that can compare to Steve. There isn't a subject on Earth that Steve hasn't mastered. There isn't a question that Steve cannot answer. One who is a remarkably intelligent individual. Steve is not allowed to participate in game shows that requires general knowledge, ie, Jeopardy. Ordinary individuals tend to feel small and insignificant in the presence of a Steve. It's only natural to feel that way because not only are Steves incredibly smart, they are all talented and quite gifted in every aspect of life, including music and fine arts.

EP
9/3/2014 02:57:49 pm

Their Majesty is not amused...

Only Me
9/3/2014 03:00:27 pm

Awesome, Steve! It makes sense that #7 would give you a raging hard-on. You finally admitted that it really is all about you. Narcissistic personality disorder seems to go hand in hand with being a troll.

Your frustration has led you to a point that you now have to try and claim some moral victory just so you can walk away from this feeling like you've won something. Cry me a river, build a damn bridge, and make your way across.

When you show up to drop your Pampers, for no other reason than to bother people, you never fail to show you're also full of shit.

EP
9/3/2014 03:03:55 pm

@ Only Me

"narcissistic"

Would St. Clair St. Clair St. Clair?! :)

Steve StC
9/3/2014 03:42:52 pm

Only Me, I keep waiting for your blood pressure to get so high that your head explodes. Any day now...

Among your other attacks on me and others, you penned, "You're [sic] deep personal hatred of all things Jason Colavito blinds you to your own hypocrisy."

Quite wrong, oh arrogant one. You will note that I distinguish between Jason and his acolytes. Most of my vile is reserved for the acolytes. You, for instance.

EP
9/3/2014 03:51:27 pm

Steve StC said "Most of my vile [sic] is reserved for the acolytes."

I believe Your Majesty was intending to say "bile" there...

Only Me
9/3/2014 04:56:31 pm

Oh no, Steve, you insulted me. I now agree with everything you've ever said. BWA HA HA HA HA HA! You mad, you so mad.

You know why my blood pressure will never rise? You are a huge joke, unfortunately, no one got around to telling you! Every time you speak you invite more laughter.

So, oh toothless lap dog, have you returned to your master's side in his hour of need? You need to be in the loop if you're going to mount a feeble defense of his latest buffoonery. Or are you still too wet from that Urban Dictionary definition of your name to care?

Go to bed, princess, and dream of the day when you'll be more than a bit player in Z-list movie.

EP
9/3/2014 05:08:38 pm

@ Only Me

"So, oh toothless lap dog, have you returned to your master's side in his hour of need?"

Scott Wolter doesn't always need a St. Clair, but when he does he needs one that is toothless :)

Steve StC
9/3/2014 05:12:35 pm

Only Me, you seem to be making more typos than usual. Are your hands sticky from holding Jason's jason?

EP
9/3/2014 05:17:52 pm

Your Majesty, methinks thou dost protest too much...

Steve StC
9/3/2014 05:26:48 pm

How did I miss these, EP??

Round 3 of EP's Urban Dictionary game:

EP -
#8 - "Eat Pudding." In your case, that would be white pudding EP.

#10 - "An acronym for Emergency Poop; used in times where it is questionable whether or not one will make it to the bathroom without an accident. Most often characterized by diarrhea or explosive excrement."

#14 - "Acronym for "Epic Phail." it means the same as saying "fail," or "epic fail," but just not as cool."

EP
9/3/2014 05:30:11 pm

I was a bit unclear about why Steve St. Clair registered the domain name superheroesofautism.com

With every post he makes in this thread, the mystery is dissipating...

Steve StC
9/3/2014 05:35:09 pm

I registered the URL because I do free work for a company who helps kids with Autism, you utterly arrogant and thoughtless prick.

I've now reached the point where I will be pulling screen grabs of your posts EP, just in case you decide to commit libel.

EP
9/3/2014 05:47:00 pm

LOL OK

Steve StC
9/3/2014 05:51:58 pm

You're a laugh riot, Emergency Poop.

EP
9/3/2014 05:56:00 pm

I wonder what Alyssa and Jaime would say if they knew you were using this kind of language onf the internet...

Steve StC
9/3/2014 05:59:13 pm

Isn't EP clever folks? He's showing me that he can find me on the Internet and publish public information here.

Careful EP, you'll end up getting yourself in trouble and making severe headaches for Jason.

EP
9/3/2014 06:02:43 pm

Really? What kind of trouble will I get in for looking up openly available information on the internet?... Or are you feeling cyber-bullied? :)

Only Me
9/3/2014 06:04:13 pm

Well, it seems Steve is utterly infatuated with penis references, so any hope of intelligent discourse-though it was not expected from the beginning-is officially dead.

Strange, how you would call EP an "utterly arrogant and thoughtless prick", when you have proven yourself to be a pretentious, lie-vomiting, ad hominem spewing hate beast, with plenty of hot air in your lungs...but no point or argument to make.

Go away and stew in quiet rage-fail.

Saintclair1398@gmail.com
9/3/2014 06:05:33 pm

Based on your thoughtlessness, I get the strong feeling that you're under age. In that case, if you go too far online, your daddy and mommy will have to pay money to get your out of trouble. Libel is a crime.

EP
9/3/2014 06:08:26 pm

@ Only Me

Also, Steve is the last person who should be threatening anyone with screen grabs, because his posts on this blog are enough to keep him from holding a respectable job for the rest of his life. (And politics? Foggedaboudit!)

EP
9/3/2014 06:09:23 pm

Libel requires making false assertions. Name one false thing I said.

.
9/3/2014 10:17:50 pm

For the public record, 99.99% of the postings of mine that
Jason has deleated have had more of a socially and morally
redemptive nature than this string of postings that has arrived
after Walt's comment to Scott Hamilton's post/comment on
09/02/2014 at 12:38 p.m and no... i don't really want to do
a screen capture. I know i was basically laughed at here when
i said "EP' had lied about the content of the deleated postings
i made. Anyway, some of these specific postings are rather
vulgar and could be obscene and not fit for ten or twelve year
old children to read. They are rather impolite even as they
try to be on topic or accurate. I feel that i need to clarify this.

.
9/3/2014 10:24:39 pm

Besides, why not freedom of choice each year? Why not give
the winner of the award 3 choices? Choice "A" is a HPL bust.
Choice "B" is an O.E.B bust for those who are "New Wave" and
Choice "C" is something abstract that brings to mind the wise
fractals of Benoit Mandelbrot, because they drive all our CGI.

Harry
9/4/2014 12:38:14 am

Steve,

It wasn't my intent to question whether you were a racist, nor was I ignoring the content of your post. The point of my point no. 2 was that it is not race baiting to disapprove of actual racism and that what Jason was criticizing was, in fact, actual racism. The "seriously, dude" was directed solely at your characterizing Jason's disapproval of racism as "race baiting."

I suppose I could have made the meaning of my last sentence clearer by saying, "I assume you would agree that there is no question...." So, sorry if I confused the issue, but my real point still stands and is germane to your comment.

As for the Urban Dictionary, whatever.

Joe
9/4/2014 02:23:49 am

Steve,

I am curious on how you can continue to call others on this blog comment section "acolytes" and not see the hypocrisy when you use it. You are the biggest acolyte at the church of Wolter, no matter the comment about Wolter you are the first here to defend him. This being the case even though you have admitted on several occasions that you do not believe everything Wolter talks about.

Now you have taken a second step to hijack comment sections on blogs that deal with race. Just a couple of days ago Jason was talking about HPL in regards to its relation to theosophy so it is not all about race on this blog.

But the real question is how do you not see that several fringe historians and sci fi writers of HPL's time had a racists leaning in their writing and ideas? I am not saying all but there is an obvious trend with the thinking and writing of individuals from the 1860's to the 1930's about the racial superiority of northern Europeans over other races and cultures and HPL is a strong example of this thinking.

Finally, I know there are a 1000 different ridiculous definitions of Joe in urban dictionary. Make sure you pick out a really good one

EP
9/4/2014 08:45:49 am

I just want to point out that earlier in this thread Steve StC admitted that he believes that his blood gives him Jesus powers.

a Dickey
9/4/2014 09:04:31 am

URBAN DICTIONARY

3. An article of clothing originating from the era of thoracic dignity. Comprised of a finely pruned turtleneck vaguely resembling a miniature poncho, the dickey served no purpose other than to warm the neck and cover the cleavage produced by a significant bust. Often referred to as a 'turtleneck illusion', the dickey continues to become an increasingly obsolete garment as the age of the breast falls upon us all.
"Have you seen the new girl in the office, I think she's wearing a dickey?

I hear she used to be a substitute teacher or a librarian"


4. dickey
adj:

Somebody who can't help themselves but be a argumentitive and condescending person when they are trying to explain themselves.

adj:

Somebody who is rude and abusive towards women whilst appearing joyful (in this case, they 'Dickey' would usually want to sleep with the women who he is tormenting).
I asked my teacher to elaborate a little further about this history lesson he was giving and he became a total dickey

I was out with the lads last night and I saw this guy being a total dickey, but you know what he was after



5.
Dickey
A grumpy, hairy, garbage eating hobo. A Dickey's undergarments are prone to spontaneous combustion if left unattended.
Mo's luck went down hill when a Dickey became his roommate.


EP
9/2/2014 05:49:43 am

I'm quite confident that fairies don't exist and that anyone who doubts that is an idiot. Ditto for Earth being neither flat nor hollow.

As for your claim that we all "believe what society teaches us because we think it's right, or we wouldn't believe it", it's obviously false. Otherwise, there would be no way to explain disagreement or change of views.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
9/2/2014 05:55:09 am

I'm not assuming anything about the future. The question is whether we, today, should honor and therefore implicitly endorse views that we today find repugnant. Our current moral view remains our view today, no matter whether the people of 2114 are extreme racists or equalitarians. Your view, to the extent you seem to have one, would render moral judgment impossible, even within the context of the culture in which we live today (as this argument is predicated), because someone somewhere sometime might disagree.

Reply
Walt
9/2/2014 06:08:15 am

I agree that morals are subjective, even in our own times. I can look back at Lovecraft or at current white supremacists and say how wrong their racist ideas are, but I can't judge them based on that without knowing what they were taught at an impressionable age. For a lot of people in this country at this time, it's no different than looking back at their own grandparent's beliefs about race.

It would just be nice if at some point you stated that morals are loosely defined by society and that you only believe certain things are right because those are the things that we as a society decided are right. And the same is true for people in the past that you're judging.

EP
9/2/2014 06:13:15 am

Wait, when did Jason say that morals are subjective? I think reading comprehension isn't *your* strong suit (though I won't stoop to your level to call you a "clueless idiot" like you did Scott).

Walt
9/2/2014 06:19:30 am

He said I believe "moral judgement is impossible because someone somewhere sometime might disagree" and I agreed saying, "yes, morals are subjective." Pretty simple, and shouldn't be constroversial since not everybody shares the same morals.

EP
9/2/2014 06:23:10 am

Actually, these are different claims. Moral judgment and morality are different things.

Uncle Ron
9/2/2014 10:19:50 am

Walt

Jason was responding to YOU when he said "YOUR (Walt's) VIEW... would render moral judgment impossible... because someone somewhere sometime might disagree." He was not expressing that opinion.

Uncle Ron
9/2/2014 10:28:17 am

And EP- you claimed that Walt's remark, "We all believe what society teaches us because we think it's right, or we wouldn't believe it" was NOT true. Obviously it IS true; we believe what we believe because we think it's true. If we didn't think it was true we wouldn't believe it (duh!). WHAT we believe may not be true and THAT is the basis for disagreement and changing of views.

666
9/2/2014 10:39:38 am

>>>>Moral judgment and morality are different things.

And morality is different things to different people.
Morality is subjective (like "God")

EP
9/2/2014 10:48:34 am

@ Uncle Ron

"Walt's remark, "We all believe what society teaches us because we think it's right, or we wouldn't believe it"... obviously IS true; we believe what we believe because we think it's true. If we didn't think it was true we wouldn't believe it (duh!)."

Speaking of "duh!", Walt's remark, read in context and in accordance with literate English, implies that we believe what society teaches us. Otherwise, it's just making a claim that is both vacuous and a red herring.

@ 666

Clearly you don't understand what the word 'subjective' means. But keep making sweeping, categorical claims. I'm sure that'll get people to take you seriously.

Walt
9/2/2014 11:04:44 am

EP, are you bringing religion into it and saying that God determines what's right and wrong rather than society? If so, I can't address that. But if not, what other option is there? What are you getting at?

EP
9/2/2014 11:18:00 am

Walt, if you really think that the only options are subjectivism and divine command, then you really need to learn the basics of the topic before speaking so categorically about it (unless you don't care about the truth or exhibiting your ignorance in public).

Here is a good place to start: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaethics/

666
9/2/2014 11:22:52 am

I know very well what subjectivity and morality is - don't patronise people.

They will soon find moral justification to negotiate and make a deal with Islamic State if it was Prince William who was kidnapped and facing beheading.

About that, there is absolutely no doubt - and wonderfully demonstrates the shapeshifting guises of morality.

EP
9/2/2014 11:29:22 am

"I know very well what subjectivity and morality is - don't patronise people."

I've yet to see evidence of you knowing anything very well. Why don't you tell us more about how you think religion is bad. I don't think you've gotten though to everyone yet.

666
9/2/2014 11:33:44 am

Not to the likes of you, you're too busy indulging in the fantasies of religion. You're beyond rehabilitation.

Walt
9/2/2014 11:33:53 am

That addresses how and why we as a society make the decisions we do, and doesn't contradict anything I've said.

EP
9/2/2014 11:36:59 am

@ 666

LOL OK

@ Walt

*What* addresses it? You're being unclear.

666
9/2/2014 11:37:19 am

>>>Metaethics is the attempt to understand the metaphysical, epistemological, semantic, and psychological, presuppositions and commitments of moral thought, talk, and practice.<<<

Different things to different people.
No 2 people are going to reach agreement on subjective motifs.



666
9/2/2014 11:48:33 am

Also, the British Prime Minister likes pontificating to the Russian President, lecturing him about morality - but he's got his own dirty laundry. The news keeps repeating the word "separatists" in relation to Ukraine without providing a definition of who these people are. A history lesson wouldn't come amiss. Or an analogy with Northern Ireland.

Walt
9/2/2014 11:52:09 am

EP, the paper you referenced on metaethics doesn't contradict anything I've said, and by exploring the reasons why and how we make the decisions we do, seems to agree that society determines what's right and wrong.

EP
9/2/2014 12:01:01 pm

@ 666 & Walt

OK, I can only recommend things to read. I cannot make you good at readig comprehehnsion. Not sure what else I expected from the two of you.

Only Me
9/2/2014 07:32:02 pm

@EP

I suspect you expected intelligent discourse. Walt can be hit or miss, depending on the topic, but 666 is a lost cause.

EP
9/3/2014 02:45:55 am

@ Only Me

Hold me! :)

Paul Cargile
9/3/2014 02:57:09 am

Here's the way I see it: Acts and behaviors beneficial to the Group can be deem morally Right, and acts and behaviors detrimental to the Group can be deemed morally Wrong. One advocates survival and life, the other extinction and death.

.
9/3/2014 11:12:13 pm

There are days like this when i feel pleased Charles Sumner,
Edmund Gibson Ross, John Quincy Adams & Andy Johnson
had gone to their graves quite convinced they had done the
right thing. Senator Ross of Kansas later on is to be a military
governor in N.M and he dies in 1907. The "heat' in this thread
is reflective as to how fierce the debate between Scalawags
and Copperheads is circa our Civil War. Yes, Charles Darwin
revolutionized the sciences but the Social Darwinists were way
worse than all Newtonians of limited vision. The rhetoric of the
Civil War era is either quaint or pertinent as is our Constitution.

Shane Sullivan
9/4/2014 04:39:44 pm

Walt, EP is saying that there are ethical paradigms that aren't predicated on "it's right because God says it's right" or "every society makes up its own ethics". There is, for instance, ideal observor theory ("it's right because an unbiased and perfectly wise person would say it's right"), and ethical naturalism ("it's right because rightness and wrongness are objective qualities that exist outside of the human consciousness, and rightness is present in the thing I'm talking about").

For the record, I subscribe to subjectivism as well, but there certainly are other theories.

EP
9/2/2014 05:45:30 am

Jason, contrary to what you seem to suggest, the heyday of *scientific* racism actually came *after* 1865. The notion that humanity consists of several unequal species or subspecies, for example, was endorsed by such eminent scientists as Ernst Haeckel as part of their defense of evolutionary theory. Indeed, evolutionary theory provided scientific respectability to racism - so much so that for a while the views many may still have found objectionable in 1865 became the received view of educated Westerners.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
9/2/2014 05:50:58 am

I know it did, and it was tied to imperial and colonial politics, but the idea that blacks were an inferior species stretches back at least a century before. In the early 20th century, as the Boasian essays note, seemingly "scientific" intelligence test were the key to "proving" the elaborate racial hierarchies built in the 1880s and 1890s. At the same time, Lovecraft was spouting these opinions when the tide was starting to turn against the hierarchical view of races, retaining the old views of the 1890s and 1900s as though time had stopped.

Reply
EP
9/2/2014 05:59:48 am

The situation was a bit more complicated than Boas et al. would lead one to believe. For your purposes, however, my point is only a matter of emphasis. Though I would say that Lovecraft was nowhere near as backward as you suggest (his opinions were still pefrectly mainstream, if increasingly challenged, even among many scientists well into the 1920s).

spookyparadigm
9/2/2014 07:14:02 am

"At the same time, Lovecraft was spouting these opinions when the tide was starting to turn against the hierarchical view of races, retaining the old views of the 1890s and 1900s as though time had stopped."

But one must understand that while we see Boas as an elder statesman of the field today and one of its founders, he wasn't seen that way then. He was a radical in a number of respects. The American Anthropological Association infamously kicked him out because he spoke out during the height of the first Red Scare, against anthropologists working as spies. Sylvanus Morley was a very important Maya archaeologist, but he was also a major intelligence agent for the Office of Naval Intelligence, and developed a cell out of other anthropologists he worked with in Latin America. When Boas learned of this, he didn't name names, but he did write to protest how this is both ethically wrong (since anthropologists work as guests of other nations, and collect sometimes intimate data on subjects) and also pragmatically dangerous (anthropologists and other field scientists are already accused of being spies, no reason to make that worse).

Into the 1930s, Boas would be contrasted in the press with elder anthropologists on issues including race.

Lovecraft openly recommended which anthropologists he liked, and unsurprisingly, they are the set that held the old views. A number were the set involved with Piltdown Man, a hoax tailor-made to support their racial views.

I think Joshi has in the past been wrong to criticize Lovecraft for not immediately falling into line with Boas because he was cutting edge. Lovecraft was a racist asshole, but I suspect that was only partly due to, or guiding, his experience with anthropology.

I don't have much to say about Joshi's new post except that

- it continues torpedoing his reputation. I can only speak for myself but this incident has reduced the space between him and any other well-read fanboy. It reminds me of some Robert Price's less formal writings, except Price at least occasionally wrote about topics I find interesting, instead of just hitting the same basic notes (even if Joshi accompanies them with prodigious and important primary research). Having Lovecraft's most important academic student acting this way is doing more to damage the modern reputation of HPL than the legitimate concerns about race are. They're already on the page and speak for themselves (and as noted in this post and some comments, they speak even more when put into the full context of the time)

- I can only hope he is purposely emulating HPL's letter-writing style in that post. Because otherwise, he has solidly absorbed it. If you know HPL's letters, the voice is unmistakable. I could see the value of doing so among friends all familiar with the letters. But why he would do so for the general public is beyond me.

EP
9/2/2014 07:25:10 am

"Having Lovecraft's most important academic student acting this way is doing more to damage the modern reputation of HPL than the legitimate concerns about race are."

This. Especially since the legitimate concerns about race in Lovecraft's case have to do with him being hateful, not with him accepting theories which we know to be false, but which were commonly accepted by educated people of his age. Instead of believing that it's our moral duty to "uplift" the "inferior" races (which is what many progressives believed on the basis of the same theories), he raved about "mongrels" and "prairie dogs".

Jason Colavito link
9/2/2014 07:46:00 am

I know that Boas wasn't an elder statesman in his day, and indeed the higher echelons of anthropology were solidly in favor of scientific racism. But at the same time, Lovecraft seemed dogmatically closed to new ideas, including those of Boas, and appealed to authority and tradition to underpin his racism, but calling it science. It is undoubtedly a complex issue, and I was only trying to show that Joshi is being simplistic in asking us to imagine Lovecraft's world as a giant Klan rally, when there was a spectrum of beliefs, and Lovecraft tended to fall close to one extreme.

As for Joshi's writing style: If you've read some of his less edited more recent work (since publishing largely with small presses), it tends toward the verbose.

Mark link
9/2/2014 08:11:35 am

I actually read Joshi's novel, The Assaults of Chaos. It was... not good.

spookyparadigm
9/2/2014 01:24:56 pm

Jason, I think Lovecraft's inherent intellectual conservatism held for _everything_.

Joshi has written that he suspects Lovecraft had a mental breakdown due to his poor showing at school, and I would agree (see, I can say nice things about him). I haven't looked into HPL's specific schooling and actions in his late teens any more than Joshi has summarized.

But what I do know is that Lovecraft clearly had ambitions to be a scientist or a scholar or something along those lines: there is nothing else he talks about in any serious sense. He considered himself an intellectual, he was clearly precocious. And then he hit a wall he couldn't overcome, and shut down for _ten years_ sulking in his mother's house.

Decades later, when he finally finds his own voice, one that isn't Poe or Hodgson amongst others, nearly all his protagonists are either (a) thinly veiled versions of himself or his friends or (b) professors and students. While the college angle at times made narrative sense due to professors going and doing things, many of his academic characters could easily have been someone else. And as everyone has noted, Lovecraft proceeds to mentally or occasionally physically destroy these characters. Interestingly, those that are more like Lovecraft himself are more likely to be transformed than simply destroyed.

And I know that while Lovecraft continued to read new scientific material (though typically in popular format, not actual literature), it generally doesn't seem to have sunk in. He read several sources discussing Gertrude Caton-Thompson's evidence for Great Zimbabwe as medieval and African, and yet he continued to joke and muse about it as some place of deep dark evil mystery as he had always done. He may well have read Boas for all I know, at least popular accounts, but would it have made a difference.

Whatever happened to Lovecraft, or however his personality was, for most of his life he never escaped his precocious childhood. The Silver Key is obviously autobiographical. As in so many other ways, Lovecraft has triumphed amongst the geeks because he is one of the first of them. He was more a blogger than a professional author, banging away at correspondence in his mother's, and then his aunts', house, making up characters to roleplay and creating shared fantasies with his fandom friends. He was vibrantly social, but largely online/post, but had a hard time holding work or living amongst "mundanes" of whom he didn't have a very good opinion. Especially when it hit his various "superiority" issues related to gender and race. As I've said several times, if Ayn Rand and Lovecraft ever got together, they'd have been the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper of unholy atheist self-delusional superiority. Can anyone imagine Azathoth Shrugged, where all of America's skilled dreamers and antiquarians "Go Carter" and leave the rest of the boring humdrum machine society at the mercy of the racial inferiors who rise up and bring about the return of the Great Old Ones? Jesus, Rand's brutal sex scenes meet Lovecraft? It's like hentai appearing 50 years early.

Anyway, Lovecraft as a person is no different than the stereotypical geek today obsessively trying to maintain a precious childhood full of wonder (Gen X geeks go on about being latchkey kids or children of divorce, which doesn't quite match up to "my parents died in an asyum"). The big difference is that Lovecraft grew up with the raw materials (both in his family's possession and what was considered proper education) of a classical education. Had he been born 80 years later, he'd be obsessing about Star Wars and D&D and Saturday morning cartoons rather than Greek myth or Arabian nights. Instead of slowly collecting bits of antiquities, he'd be stocking action figures in his smaller and smaller apartments. And instead of traveling to see places of colonial America, he'd travel to cons to meet the people he trades fanfic stories with. His homebrew gaming universe would be so legendary that it would spawn a new form of fantasy gaming, but he's such a terrible capitalist he'd give it away.

spookyparadigm
9/2/2014 01:28:41 pm

As for Joshi's writing style, it isn't the verbosity. In that most recent post, it's the seesaw formality turning to semi-self-deprecating joking, with overpunctuated facetious ironic emotion.

Jason Colavito link
9/2/2014 01:54:51 pm

You're quite right that for the most part, Lovecraft froze in place, though this isn't entirely the case. He did take on some quasi-socialist views late in life, and while Relativity wasn't exactly "new" in the 1920s, he did show enthusiasm for it. But in a real sense he did spend his life replaying and revisiting childhood fantasies.

spookyparadigm
9/2/2014 02:54:53 pm

I suspect Lovecraft's turn to New Deal politics was largely self-interested, or rather quasi-self-interested. Not so much literally that he'd get money, but he could easily reconcile government funding jobs, including jobs for artists, with his other existing ideals. The man was never a capitalist, the business world never even entered into his thinking. There isn't anything wrong with that. But it isn't like he suddenly had some political epiphany.

As for physics, that was the one thing I was thinking about him changing. But the question is, how much did he change? AFAIK his two primary science loves were astronomy and chemistry (his interests in history and archaeology were definitely on the humanities side of those fields). I don't remember him talking much about physics until he was well on in years, and mostly in his stories, where he is using new physics as magic, the way "quantum" is used today - to allow one to give some credibility to ages old fantasies.

Lovecraft preferred certain kinds of anthropology and history because it worked with his pre-existing notions, and because it allowed for good stories. I'd argue he did the exact same thing with physics. The weirdness of relativity and quantum theory allowed him to have science magic, just as older anthropology serviced his colonialist views and story ideas.

I forget in which recent conversation it was (possibly it came from the World Fantasy discussion) but the idea that Lovecraft was a master recycler is quite correct. He's not alone in this of course, great artists steal, but while the early and serious Lovecraft circle (including some that wrote to him) knew this, the post-1970s Renaissance, the "Copernicus of fiction" that has become established wants to credit him as a mad genius loner who invented everything (see also Tesla and everyone on the internet).

EP
9/2/2014 03:30:12 pm

"The weirdness of relativity and quantum theory allowed him to have science magic"

It's worth pointing out that many "hard" sci-fi authors do the same thing with recent physics. Stephen Baxter immediately comes to mind.

.
9/4/2014 01:13:26 am

Horrid thought--- admittedly a tad Objectivist. Loosely put...

the prototype for Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead

is loosely based on HPL. see the superficialities! he

casts a spell, is influential, is known by the chosen few,

and invents a universe his followers in~dwell inside. he

seems to want to revive the auld gods or pursue power

but lives past his limits. the ideal nemesis to her hero.

EP
9/2/2014 07:10:13 am

Joshi's continuing effort to combat his own credibility includes a "cast the first stone" argument that lists many "atrocities" of our own age.

Along the side of environmental damage and global poverty, he lists cussing and video games.

LOL

Reply
Residents Fan
9/16/2014 01:58:16 am

Joshi: "our absurd overuse of profanity in speech and writing (and, in general, a slovenliness in the use of English that would make HPL cringe)".

I don't have a problem with people using profanity, although
obviously children's shouldn't be exposed to it.

Joshi:
""our grotesque addiction to video games, cellphones, and other meaningless stimuli""

I have no interest in video games. But the public's
use of them is not a serious problem on the level of poverty,
violent crime and environmental damage. Joshi undermines his point
about social problems by confusing his personal dislikes
with them.

It seems to me Joshi has a very negative view of popular culture-
the sort you would associate with cultural critics like F. R. Leavis
and Dwight Macdonald.

Reply
666
9/2/2014 10:35:37 am

>>>historical figures cannot be judged by contemporary standards

No, they cannot.
For example, French left-wing politician Maurice Barrès (1862-1923) and French Novelist Victor Hugo (1802-1885) were passionate active anti-semites.



Reply
666
9/2/2014 10:41:51 am

Correction: Not Victor Hugo, but Jules Verne (1828–1905)

Reply
Only Me
9/2/2014 07:35:52 pm

Yes, they can. Contemporary standards were born from new ideas that challenged the old. It's called progression. If you had any courage, you'd accept it.

Reply
.
9/3/2014 10:38:58 pm

Worst of it is, "Steve StC" defines Jason in a classic manner.

Someone who often tends to over-analyze everything, while being partially lazy in most efforts. Easily distracted unless upset & very sensitive to others' feelings…A Jason can be summarily defined as clueless for a large majority of his life until someone throws it in his face, and then is still a little clueless. (i did a slight edit. forgive me, Steve!)

Medea's husband is the classic example of a clueless male,
whereas Jason Colavito hopefully has more Social I.Q points
than the Greek guy who took a boat trip over to the site of
a placer mine on the Black Sea. I still like the travel episode
Michael Woods did, it helped bring to life in a visual way the
very old myth. I'd recommend it in tandem with Jason C's new book! http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/tguide_jason.html

666
9/2/2014 10:36:48 am

>>> Conan Doyle for his belief in fairies

Conan Doyle didn't just believe in Fairies...

Reply
Only Me
9/2/2014 07:27:57 pm

At least he believed in something, which gives him a leg up over you.

Reply
lil ole moi
9/3/2014 04:14:19 am

TripleSix believes in the lack of something, he postulates
a void, but is comfortable with the idea of an ethics code.
As a reasonably good Christian, i cannot knock down all the
ideas of the Druids, plants have a bio-energy, hence sprites.
We like the idea of a Creator Being in human form, why not
extend human form to the souls of the trees we cut down? I
rather like the idea of a universe that is vibrant and alive, as
opposed to one where cosmic rays sterilize all life save on this
small planet. The more human C.Doyle's fairies are, the closer
they are to the delightful people Hoskie Wilde often talked to...

BillUSA
9/2/2014 10:53:21 am

As society continues to grow and morals mutate with the times, history becomes the unkind judge of significant figures.

Its fair to keep our morals on a track which doesn't violate our morality through the constant scrutiny of such historical people. But its a far worse thing to edit or redact their contributions for their faults. On the other hand, you cannot treat them as heroes by the extreme definition of the word.

When people clamor for changes to a building name or a statue, I don't always agree with their measure of the subject whom they want removed. I understand the reasoning, but at times I think it's a-whole-lotta-sumthin'-'bout-nuthin' as I used to say to my English teachers. But to each their own.

This is why I said in response to an earlier blog entry that organizations which issue awards on an annual basis would be doing themselves a favor by designing the trinkets in such a way as not to bear a persons' likeness.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
9/2/2014 11:47:36 am

I didn't really associate Lovecraft with fantasy in the first place, but then again the mystery writers give out buts of Edgar Allan Poe as their awards even though Poe wrote just three detective stories, albeit among the first ever. I agree that abstract shapes work better for awards. It's harder to get mad at a triangle or a pillar.

Reply
Uncle Ron
9/2/2014 01:17:57 pm

" buts of Edgar Allan Poe"

Now THERE'S and award I'd like to see! :)

EP
9/2/2014 01:21:10 pm

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/38/01/7d/38017d628b1b3aa7b6faee9fdb54db93.jpg

Uncle Ron
9/2/2014 01:29:36 pm

aw jeez...

spookyparadigm
9/2/2014 01:31:17 pm

This sort of gets you there, Ron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Z0VynTR84

Screaming Eagle
9/2/2014 02:51:17 pm

I am sure there is a way for me to have these comments scrolling on my big screen TV and updated as they appear but I cannot pull my teenagers away from homework to help me.
So, I must make popcorn in the microwave and pause for 3:48 seconds until I hit the refresh button again on the lapper.
(Sadly I feel 21 but am actually 41 and apparently behind the times.)
I can only imagine a time when all of you will get together physically and have a round table discussion of these topics. I will be first in line to buy tickets. I respect that most of you are keeping this academic but some topics remain so hot that there will not be some personal attacks.
Please continue this fantastic discourse so those of us following will continue to learn and enjoy!


Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Blog
    Picture

    Author

    I am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.

    Become a Patron!
    Tweets by JasonColavito
    Picture

    Newsletters

    Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.

    powered by TinyLetter

    Blog Roll

    Ancient Aliens Debunked
    Picture
    A Hot Cup of Joe
    ArchyFantasies
    Bad UFOs
    Mammoth Tales
    Matthew R. X. Dentith
    PaleoBabble
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Alternative Archaeology
    Alternative Archaeology
    Alternative History
    Alternative History
    America Unearthed
    Ancient Aliens
    Ancient Astronauts
    Ancient History
    Ancient Texts
    Ancient Texts
    Archaeology
    Atlantis
    Conspiracies
    Giants
    Habsburgs
    Horror
    King Arthur
    Knights Templar
    Lovecraft
    Mythology
    Occult
    Popular Culture
    Popular Culture
    Projects
    Pyramids
    Racism
    Science
    Skepticism
    Ufos
    Weird Old Art
    Weird Things
    White Nationalism

    Terms & Conditions

    Please read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    RSS Feed

Picture
Home  |  Blog  |  Books  | Contact  |  About Jason | Terms & Conditions
© 2010-2023 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Legends of the Pyramids
    • The Mound Builder Myth
    • Jason and the Argonauts
    • Cult of Alien Gods >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Foundations of Atlantis
    • Knowing Fear >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Hideous Bit of Morbidity >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Cthulhu in World Mythology >
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
      • Necronomicon Fragments
      • Oral Histories
    • Fiction >
      • Short Stories
      • Free Fiction
    • JasonColavito.com Books >
      • Faking History
      • Unearthing the Truth
      • Critical Companion to Ancient Aliens
      • Studies in Ancient Astronautics (Series) >
        • Theosophy on Ancient Astronauts
        • Pyramidiots!
        • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • Fiction Anthologies >
        • Unseen Horror >
          • Contents
          • Excerpt
        • Moon Men! >
          • Contents
      • The Orphic Argonautica >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • The Faust Book >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • Classic Reprints
      • eBook Minis
    • Free eBooks >
      • Origin of the Space Gods
      • Ancient Atom Bombs
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Ancient America
      • Horror & Science
  • Articles
    • Skeptical Xenoarchaeologist Newsletter >
      • Volumes 1-10 Archive >
        • Volume 1 Archive
        • Volume 2 Archive
        • Volume 3 Archive
        • Volume 4 Archive
        • Volume 5 Archive
        • Volume 6 Archive
        • Volume 7 Archive
        • Volume 8 Archive
        • Volume 9 Archive
        • Volume 10 Archive
      • Volumes 11-20 Archive >
        • Volume 11 Archive
        • Volume 12 Archive
        • Volume 13 Archive
        • Volume 14 Archive
        • Volume 15 Archive
        • Volume 16 Archive
        • Volume 17 Archive
        • Volume 18 Archive
        • Volume 19 Archive
        • Volume 20 Archive
      • Volumes 21-30 Archive >
        • Volume 21 Archive
        • Volume 22 Archive
    • Television Reviews >
      • Ancient Aliens Reviews
      • In Search of Aliens Reviews
      • America Unearthed
      • Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar
      • Search for the Lost Giants
      • Forbidden History Reviews
      • Expedition Unknown Reviews
      • Legends of the Lost
      • Unexplained + Unexplored
      • Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
    • Book Reviews
    • Galleries >
      • Bad Archaeology
      • Ancient Civilizations >
        • Ancient Egypt
        • Ancient Greece
        • Ancient Near East
        • Ancient Americas
      • Supernatural History
      • Book Image Galleries
    • Videos
    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
      • Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
      • Of Atlantis and Aliens
      • Aliens and Ancient Texts
      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
  • About Jason
    • Biography
    • Jason in the Media
    • Contact Jason
    • About JasonColavito.com
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Search