Lovecraft has always left critics like myself in a difficult position. While I have always considered him a poor writer, and an awful racist, his impact on science fiction and horror cannot be overstated. In the same way that Tolkien is the grandfather of Black Metal, Christian Metal, and Crust Punk, Lovecraft is the racist, inbred redneck stepfather of modern entertainment. Everyone knows he's there, but no one really wants to talk about him.
His work, after all, was little more then a masked metaphor for race mixing. Take The Shadow over Innsmouth, for instance. A story about a town the bred with a species of fish people, and birthed a generation of "sub human" monsters. The meaning of this work was obvious. Lovecraft was terrified of the idea of different races "inbreeding." The main character himself discovers, to his horror, that his distant ancestors were part fish, giving us a glimpse into lovecrafts fear that his own genes were perhaps inpure, or tainted. With innsmouth, lovecraft attempted to warn us of the dangers of race mixing and inbreeding. This leaves horror and sci fi in a very difficult position. Some people, such as myself, have suggested that we throw the genres out entirely. Yes, we would lose films like 2001 a space odyssey, solaris, and silent hill 2, but the drastic action may be necessary if we didn't find a way to redeem these genres from lovecrafts tainted influence. Who would step up to save these genres?
The answer, of course, was hentai artists. Far from being frightened by Lovecraft's warnings about race mixing and fish sex, hentai artists were inspired. Free from americas history of racism and division, the japanese porn artists were able to look at lovecrafts work, and imagine a world where a woman and a fish could copulate in peace. They sought out to retake the genre in the name of social justice, and they succeeded. Classic hentai masterpieces like Kuroki Irie no Shouka ni te, Aiyoku Gensou no Kai, and Fukakisha-Tachi showed us that the type of hate that lovecraft espoused could be inverted, deconstructed, and, ultimately, saved. This eventually led other creators to follow suit. Alan Moore wrote his own hentai book, Neonomicon, considered one of his strongest works. This, then, was adapted into 2017's Shape of Water, which took the idea mainstream, and later won an academy award for best picture in honor of saving the genres of both sci-fi and horror. Freed from their racist connotations, Jordan Peele was finally free to make his masterpiece Get Out, which released just a few months later, where it competed with The Shape of Water at the Academy Awards.
Truly, we cannot give enough thanks to the artists and writers who worked tirelessly to forward social justice, save lovecrafts legacy, and turn the horror genre into a vehicle for progress, instead of hate, and, frankly, made Cthulhu sexy again.
His work, after all, was little more then a masked metaphor for race mixing. Take The Shadow over Innsmouth, for instance. A story about a town the bred with a species of fish people, and birthed a generation of "sub human" monsters. The meaning of this work was obvious. Lovecraft was terrified of the idea of different races "inbreeding." The main character himself discovers, to his horror, that his distant ancestors were part fish, giving us a glimpse into lovecrafts fear that his own genes were perhaps inpure, or tainted. With innsmouth, lovecraft attempted to warn us of the dangers of race mixing and inbreeding. This leaves horror and sci fi in a very difficult position. Some people, such as myself, have suggested that we throw the genres out entirely. Yes, we would lose films like 2001 a space odyssey, solaris, and silent hill 2, but the drastic action may be necessary if we didn't find a way to redeem these genres from lovecrafts tainted influence. Who would step up to save these genres?
The answer, of course, was hentai artists. Far from being frightened by Lovecraft's warnings about race mixing and fish sex, hentai artists were inspired. Free from americas history of racism and division, the japanese porn artists were able to look at lovecrafts work, and imagine a world where a woman and a fish could copulate in peace. They sought out to retake the genre in the name of social justice, and they succeeded. Classic hentai masterpieces like Kuroki Irie no Shouka ni te, Aiyoku Gensou no Kai, and Fukakisha-Tachi showed us that the type of hate that lovecraft espoused could be inverted, deconstructed, and, ultimately, saved. This eventually led other creators to follow suit. Alan Moore wrote his own hentai book, Neonomicon, considered one of his strongest works. This, then, was adapted into 2017's Shape of Water, which took the idea mainstream, and later won an academy award for best picture in honor of saving the genres of both sci-fi and horror. Freed from their racist connotations, Jordan Peele was finally free to make his masterpiece Get Out, which released just a few months later, where it competed with The Shape of Water at the Academy Awards.
Truly, we cannot give enough thanks to the artists and writers who worked tirelessly to forward social justice, save lovecrafts legacy, and turn the horror genre into a vehicle for progress, instead of hate, and, frankly, made Cthulhu sexy again.