Of all the Lovecraft reply guys on social media…

I have to say that the most annoying one I’ve dealt with is the dude who is still at it inserting himself in every single conversation about Lovecraft that speaks on his period atypical racism (as a person and in his work) and getting increasingly rude and angry about it.

(Last year, I think, he insulted my intelligence over a sentence about Lovecraft’s impact… A single sentence in an article about JK Rowling. And this was while he was following me. He didn’t term search, he wasn’t a new follower. He’s just an ass.)

And he’s still at it, I believe? Still rushing to defend Lovecraft from being called a racist – which includes making excuses for his cat’s name, racism in correspondence, racism in his work, and anecdotes told about him.

I still wonder if he thinks like… If he defends Lovecraft hard enough, that he’ll get something out of it? Because I can’t imagine riding that hard for such a mediocre dead writer?

[Book Review] The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson

The DQ of VB CoverTitle: The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
Author:
Kij Johnson
Rating:
Recommended
Genre/Category: Fantasy, Multiverses, Alternate Worlds, Adventure, Lovecraftian Horror
Release Date: August 16, 2016

Publisher: Tor.com

Order Here: AMAZON | AMAZON (KINDLE) | BARNES AND NOBLE

Note: I received a free copy of this novella from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of the views in review are my own which should be clear because no other weirdo would admit to their desire to fist-fight Lovecraft as often as I do.


Normally, I stay far away from stories inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and his writings because they do far too much reinforcing and celebrating Lovecraft’s racism and misogyny and not enough subversion of the tropes in his work. But there’s something so amazing about Kij Johnson’s The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe that makes me want to read more of these purposefully subversive takes on Lovecraft’s work.

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“A product of their time” – Observations on racist (but lauded) writers after Octopussy

Octopussy CoverYesterday I decided to use my last Audible credit on a collection of Ian Fleming short stories.

I’m working through Fleming’s original canon very slowly and when I saw that the audiobook for “Octopussy and The Living Daylights, and Other Stories” was read by Tom Hiddleston, I just had to have it. Tom Hiddleston reading James Bond seems like the perfect combination of my interests and I have been talking about how badly I wanted to see Hiddles in a Bond movie. I figured that this was the closest I’d get.

Here’s the thing though: as much as I have complained about the racism in the James Bond films, the books are much worse.

The audiobook does not help. In fact, hearing Tom Hiddleston narrate Fleming’s weird and clunky prose on top of the racism that the first story is rife with is pretty terrible.Read More »