HP Lovecraft by Michel Houellebecq

Sunday, June 5th, 2005

From HP Lovecraft by Michel Houellebecq:

Paradoxically, Lovecraft’s character is fascinating in part because his values were so entirely opposite to ours. He was fundamentally racist, openly reactionary, he glorified puritanical inhibitions, and evidently found all ‘direct erotic manifestations’ repulsive. Resolutely anticommercial, he despised money, considered democracy to be an idiocy and progress to be an illusion. The word ‘freedom,’ so cherished by Americans, prompted only a sad, derisive guffaw. Throughout his life, he maintained a typically aristocratic, scornful attitude toward humanity in general coupled with extreme kindness toward individuals in particular.

The “great texts”:

The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

The Colour Out of Space (1927)

The Dunwich Horror (1928)

The Whisperer in Darkness (1930)

At the Mountains of Madness (1931)

The Dreams in the Witch House (1932)

The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1932)

The Shadow Out of Time (1934)

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