HBO’s Lovecraft Country creates a strange world in which the horrors of author H.P. Lovecraft‘s writings collide with the dark history of bigotry in 1950s America. In using fantastical horror as a mirror for real-life historical and societal horrors, Lovecraft Country effectively makes viewers realize and reconsider American history. The same is also true for the man who inspired this macabre world, horror writer pioneer, H.P. Lovecraft. For as Lovecraft Country reminds us in a key scene during the premiere episode, H.P. Lovecraft was a staunch racist and elitist for most of his life. The show may celebrate the Lovecraftian world, but it doesn’t let the man himself off the hook.
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Warning: Lovecraft Country SPOILERS Follow!
In the Lovecraft Country series premiere, Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) travels back home to Chicago from Florida, to investigate his father’s disappearance. Atticus catches up with his Uncle George, as the two compare notes on what made Montrose Freeman vanish into the Massachusetts region known as “Lovecraft Country.” As Atticus is looking over George’s library, a H.P. Lovecraft book catches his eye. George waxes fondly about how Atticus loved to read those fantastical books; Atticus, in turn, reminds George how his father scolded him for liking Lovecraft, forcing him to memorize the author’s poem, “On the Creation of Ni**ers”.
“On The Creation of Ni**ers” is indeed a real-life work by H.P. Lovecraft, published in 1912. You can read the full poem below (note, the offensive language has been edited):
“When, long ago, the gods created Earth
In Jove’s fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th’Olympian host conceiv’d a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a Ni**er”
So yeah… there you have it. By 2020 standards H.P. Lovecraft would be getting canceled without mercy for that work. Hilariously enough, a scroll through social media finds people still trying to cancel the horror icon, even as we speak.
In any event, Karma’s hand strikes without mercy: H.P. Lovecraft went through his career as a writer broke and never really famous until after his death. In fact, Lovecraft himself isn’t so much responsible for the success of his characters and myths as the long line of writers who expanded on the mythos of creatures like Cthulhu and the Outer Gods. So, hopefully, while “Lovecraftian Horror” gets to move forward into a new (and more diverse) era in Lovecraft Country, H.P. Lovecraft’s work like the one above will be left behind to fall into obscurity.
Lovecraft Country airs Sundays on HBO.
