Not simply anti-Semitic, he was also a rabid white supremacist and regarded all non-WASP people as being of lesser races. It's difficult to overstate the extent of his prejudices. It isn't only in his letters, essays and conversations, it is explicitly present in his poetry and surfaces in his fiction. It was far more accepted in his day to be openly racist, but even here his attitudes are at the extreme end.
I don't know where to draw lines or how to treat writing by despicable people. In some cases we can't even know whether authors were good or not. I know people who can't bear to watch a film by Woody Allen or Roman Polanski. Somebody told me that they wouldn't read Graham Greene because of his attitude to disability and deformity in
Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The bomb party. Then there's Roald Dahl with his anti-semitism and general unpleasantness to those he worked with, Jack London, darling of the left (all episodes of
Call of the Wild currently available on the BBC) another racist who advocated genocide against the Chinese. Marion Zimmer Bradley would be a giant of women's writing in Science Fiction and Fantasy were it not for the fact that she's now known as a horrendous paedophile, procuring children for her husband and participating in rape etc. herself. And do people still hum along to the Lostprophets? Or the Smiths for that matter since Morrissey has outed himself as a
For Britain arsehole? Hands up if you enjoyed the movie
Ender's Game? You may have even read the book. Does it bother you that the author, Orson Scott Card, uses his money to fund extreme rightwing anti-LGBTQ groups?
But we all love Dickens, surely? David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and what Christmas would be complete without
A Christmas Carol? After all, he was a kind of early socialist, a spokesman for the poor, defender of women, advocate of compassionate mental care. But he was also an all-round bastard to his wife once he’d got bored of her and their ten children who were, it seems, all her fault. Instead of the publicly passionate social reformer, he emerges as a hypocrite and shit of the first order* with his vicious attempts to get his wife committed, slandering her in print, separating from her within the home and then forcing her out, so that he could pursue alternative liaisons.
So, I don't know and I'm not really looking for answers. Just saying as they say. And in case anybody isn't put off HPL, and fancies relaxing with a G&T to listen to some of his writing, there's
a 22 hour long YouTube recording of Ian Gordon reading the entire Cthulhu "mythos". Stories are included in line with the recommendations of HPL expert Lin Carter.
*although, as Simon Callow has pointed out, it appears he repented of his bad behaviour and subsequently provided for his wife with a house, carriage and substantial allowance.
EDITED: 6 Mar 2020 14:03 by WILLIAMA