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S. T. Joshi Pulls Out of NecronomiCon to Avoid "Lovecraft Haters" and Discussion of Lovecraft's Racism

8/10/2017

27 Comments

 
​As many of you know, fans of H. P. Lovecraft gather each summer for a Providence, R.I. conference called NecronomiCon, named of course for the fictional Necronomicon, one of Lovecraft’s most famous creations. This year the run up to the conference has gotten a little hairy. S. T. Joshi, the preeminent scholar of Lovecraft, pulled out of the conference because he refused to appear in the same venue with people he describes as “Lovecraft haters” who want to devote time to evaluating the horror master’s record of racism. Joshi delivered an ultimatum, telling conference organizers to disinvite critics or lose him as a speaker. In such a context, his joke in his August 6 blog entry that questioning his opinions was tantamount to sacrilege—“Imagine anyone questioning my view of Lovecraft! The very idea is surely a kind of lèse-majesté, no?”—seems less like self-deprecating humor than a serious opinion masquerading as a barbed jest.
​Conference organizers chose to lose Joshi as a speaker. They put out a statement on Facebook explaining the decision: “While we have no interest in promoting discussions that are unnecessarily negative, of Lovecraft or of any subject matter, we will always welcome critical discussion. So long as they do not serve to make others feel unwelcome or threatened and stifle other voices, we feel civil discourse is the only sensible approach.”
 
Joshi replied in a statement released to his online fan community (who knew there was such a thing?) that involved bizarre personal attacks against a number of individuals, beginning with Niels-Viggo Hobbs, the organizer of NecronomiCon, and extending to author Daniel José Older, one of the leaders of the charge a few years ago to remove Lovecraft’s image from the World Fantasy Award due to his racist writings, a move that Joshi loudly opposed at the time. This week Joshi had this to say:
[Hobbs] probably does not want this known, but prior to the 2015 convention he actually invited the odious Daniel José Older to participate in the convention. Imagine! This is pretty much like inviting the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan to an NAACP meeting. No doubt Niels would disingenuously say, “Oh, well, let’s give all sides of an issue a hearing.” But does anyone really believe that Older has anything intelligent or interesting to say about Lovecraft, or that he would use his appearance to do anything except make a spectacle of himself and kick Lovecraft in the pants? Or perhaps it is the case that Niels actually agrees with Older (and the many who think like him), and thinks of Lovecraft as nothing more than a “vicious racist”—and, presumably, a terrible writer.
​Just consider for a moment the intemperate language Joshi uses to discredit the undeniable. H. P. Lovecraft was a racist. Lovecraft himself did not hide this fact and was in fact proud of it. Joshi himself wrote once that “There is no denying the reality of Lovecraft’s racism…”, so it seems quite odd that his private behavior and published discussions are at such odds with one another, seeming to formally understand the necessity of evaluating Lovecraft’s racism in his publications but acting informally as though it were an irrelevancy whenever it impinges on hagiography and the cult of personality he has tried to establish for Lovecraft, and of which he has appointed himself high priest.

(Disclosure: S. T. Joshi has cited my work and even provided my publisher with the title of my book The Cult of Alien Gods. He was friendly to me until I asked him for help connecting with publishers to place some of my analysis of Lovecraft and weird fiction, at which point, perhaps because I would have been seen as a rival rather than a supplement, he stopped speaking to me.)
 
Joshi went on to complain about the presence of weird fiction writer Scott Nicolay, whom he denounced as a “Lovecraft hater par excellence,” presumably because he participated in past NecronomiCon panels on Lovecraft and racism and also called for Lovecraft to be replaced as the face of the World Fantasy Awards. In his interviews, Nicolay has praised Lovecraft’s work and cited it as his entry point into weird fiction: “I still return to ‘The Dunwich Horror’ year after year. […] Lovecraft became the first writer whose works I sought out by name.” That doesn’t sound like a “hater” to me.
 
Joshi also attacked the conference itself as being beneath the time and talent of a great man such as himself: “But the fact of the matter is that this convention is small potatoes. It really makes very little difference who attends or what is said there. The course of Lovecraft studies will not be affected in the slightest by this event. […] I will be in Providence and expect to have a fine time there with a small number of people whom I like and admire.”
 
The whole thing is clearly fallout from Joshi’s upset at the World Fantasy Award choosing another statuette a few years ago. The language is almost identical. At the time, he complained about many of the same people, blasting one author after another who he said expresses respect for the Cthulhu Mythos or uses elements of Lovecraft’s fictional universe and then “turns around and kicks Lovecraft figuratively in the posterior” by refusing to join his cult of personality. I’m not sure what the repeated image of ass-kicking implies, but Joshi loves Lovecraft with the simple adoration of the child for whom Daddy can do no wrong, and he seems uncomfortable with others recognizing that Daddy is just a man of flesh and blood, not a superhero and a saint.  
27 Comments
Only Me
8/10/2017 11:14:20 am

It seems Joshi has placed himself as the final authority on all things Lovecraft. Not only is disagreement or criticism not allowed, he appears to take both as a personal insult.

This is exactly the same attitude expressed by the fringe. I hope Joshi wakes up before his credibility is gone.

Reply
TONY S.
8/11/2017 01:21:19 am

Even if he doesn't, as long as he keeps writing his treatises on HPL's life and work, and publishing his correspondence (the only written work of Lovecraft's left that he has yet to complete) I'm OK with him becoming grumpy and curmudgeonly as he ages.

I don't agree with his dismissal of criticism and disagreement, but it's somewhat understandable. He's been a leading authority on HPL since the early 90s, before the popularization of the author and his works as a result of the increased awareness brought about through social media. He probably hears from a lot of Johnny-come-latelys who aren't nearly as well informed and his tolerance may have worn thin over the decades as a result. A lack of respect shown to his knowledge and expertise on the subject would produce that effect. I don't know that to definitely be the case, of course.

Regarding him and the issue of Lovecraft's racism, this is a subject that he's often been more than happy to discuss and try to contextualize for people in the past, so I don't understand this more recent attitude shift.

Reply
Americanegro
8/12/2017 04:52:43 pm

Let's apply Occam's Razor and attribute it to douchiness.

Shane Sullivan
8/10/2017 11:30:34 am

"...the cult of personality he has tried to establish for Lovecraft, and of which he has appointed himself high priest."

Don't worry, Jason. I switched the scrolls.

He'll be petrified for the next 100,000 years!

Reply
TONY S.
8/10/2017 10:04:35 pm

Nice reference to OUT OF THE AEONS!

Reply
Shane Sullivan
8/11/2017 02:50:33 pm

Nice catch. I hoped it wasn't too obscure.

Debra Murphy link
8/10/2017 12:16:08 pm

It's been forty-plus years since I read Lovecraft--he scared the hell out of me--but I keep running into him in assorted research on right-wing political groups with occult inclinations. (Seems for some of them Lovecraft puts the "cult" into "occult".)

Speaking of which, I'm in the middle of historian Eric Kurlander's new book, HITLER'S MONSTERS. A SUPERNATURAL HISTORY OF THE THIRD REICH. I recommend it, if you haven't seen it. He's picking up on Goodrick-Clarke--the real deal, not fringe.

Reply
An Over-Educated Grunt
8/10/2017 12:25:45 pm

Sounds like Joshi took the first steps on the road to irrelevance. When you issue an ultimatum like that and they take the or else, it's hard to recover gracefully.

Reply
TONY S.
8/11/2017 01:16:20 am

I doubt he cares. At this point, he has nothing to prove. His work speaks for itself.

Reply
An Over-Educated Grunt
8/11/2017 01:04:54 pm

Two points to that. If he doesn't care, why make an announcement? Joshi's Lovecraft work is almost as monumental as his ego in the field of Lovecraft, otherwise none of this would matter to him.

Second, perhaps his work does speak for itself, but that doesn't seem to stop him from opening his mouth.

TONY S.
8/11/2017 01:25:17 pm

I'm guessing he's making the announcement because people were expecting him to be there.

True, he could come off a little less arrogant, but he's probably tired of people asking him the same questions about HPL's racism over and over again.

Reply
Kal
8/10/2017 01:15:15 pm

STJ appears to be a right wing 'snowflake'. He is not willing to actually face the 'haters' in a public forum such as a convention. He can't just attend the con and enjoy it.

Lovecraft was a racist, but for this person to be personally triggered and offended is to be hypocritical. Would Lovecraft's heirs or fans even defend such an odd rant? He had nothing to lose by attending.

Oh well, no loss to Rhode Island.

Reply
Americanegro
8/10/2017 04:23:56 pm

Why a "right wing" snowflake, Lambchop?

"Oh well, no loss to Rhode Island."

True. Because AS THE ARTICLE SAID, he'll be in Providence during the conference.

Jeez Louise!

Reply
TONY S.
8/10/2017 10:13:21 pm

"This person" has been the foremost Lovecraft scholar for the past 25 years. Joshi has done more for lifelong fans of HPL and his works than anyone else in the modern day. That includes publishing writings his essays, poetry, and his correspondence, and writing the definitive two volume biography of the man.

Lovecraft had no heirs. The close friends that he had accepted that part of his world outlook (except for the poet Samuel Loveman).

Rhode Island has much to thank Joshi for, when it comes to one of its best known and famous sons.

Reply
Americanegro
8/10/2017 01:20:53 pm

Not small potatoes, sour grapes. What an Eeyore that fellow sounds.

Reply
Jean Stone
8/10/2017 03:15:51 pm

"I’m not sure what the repeated image of ass-kicking implies"

In the context of Lovecraft's mythos, I think the only proper response to this line is to quote from that fount of wisdom Jack O'Neill: 'They had asses?'.

Reply
Bob Jase
8/10/2017 03:54:07 pm

Ah, this reminds me of one of my favorite moments from NecronomiCon 1997 when there was a Johnny Carson parody panel featuring Al-Hazrad the Magnificent. To paraphrase -

Al-Hazrad, "The next answer is Psychopompous."

Moderator, "And the question is..."
(tears open envelope and takes out folded question)
"What do you call a panel discussion featuring Anthony Perkins and S. T. Joshi?"

Reply
TONY S.
8/11/2017 01:23:59 am

"... with ready axe, the serpent's head she cleaves"

Reply
TONY S.
8/11/2017 01:25:04 am

Nicely done, by the way!

Reply
Kal
8/11/2017 12:15:22 am

Providence is in Rhode Island, so I guess I meant 'the convention in RI will not miss him', but maybe it will. I don't really care. If he is that prominent, what is he worried about some haters? Just man up and go there. It's only fair to use that silly hyperbole 'snowflake' all the conservatives use to talk about liberals, on to describe one this guy, who might not be either.

Lovecraft was racist. That is not being a hater. He was. He wrote disparagingly about immigrants, minorities and anyone other than his race. Doesn't mean his literature was wrong somehow. Some of his monster stuff was pretty nuts and scary.

Reply
Kal
8/11/2017 12:16:26 am

Well the racist stuff was wrong.

Reply
Scott R Jones
8/11/2017 03:06:53 am

Well, as it turns out, Joshi has announced that he WILL be at NecronomiCon, "hanging out in the dealer's room" should anyone want him to sign things. So, *that's* not hypocritical or anything.

Reply
Americanegro
8/11/2017 03:51:16 pm

I thought about something like that, sort of a "why don't you guys come hang out with me" but I did not imagine anything as creepy as a Dealers' Room. Will he sign body parts, I wonder? I don't mean stuff in red coolers, just breasts and buttocks. Of course I might have a bone to pick with him about Mr. Lovecraft's racism.

BTW the British Lovecraft paperbacks had the best covers.

Reply
Eric P.
8/24/2017 11:54:26 am

Apparently he was glimpsed in the audience at a panel in the Biltmore on Sunday afternoon, so he did not just stay in the dealer room.

Reply
Kal
8/11/2017 04:15:39 pm

A 'Lovecraftian' dealer's room selling fake Halloween body parts would be kind of awesome, but it probably won't be that cool, unless he gets freaked out by a dude in a Cuthulu cosplay outfit and goes ape, ending up on YouTube.

Reply
Americanegro
8/12/2017 02:20:44 pm

Dude, don't even try. "Cuthulu"?

Reply
TONY S.
8/13/2017 07:31:33 am

Ha!


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