Blue Milk Special

Okay, so Leanne and I made a T-shirt, and it has nothing to do with Star Wars. But that’s also why we were able to make merchandise for it. It’s a shirt celebrating H.P. Lovecraft, another interest of ours. For those that don’t know much about him, I’m about to try and dispel some misconceptions about him and his work, and explain why I think his work might interest many of our readers. As you guys know, we will never be able to do anything financially with Blue Milk Special as it is a fan project, and regardless of parody laws we have no intention of perturbing LucasFilm and Disney. That’s why it is always awesome to interest our primarily Star Wars readership in our other projects and work. And for those that already love H.P., you can support us and represent Lovecraft with Leanne’s cartoon portrait of him, complete with a tome with the Elder Sign under his arm!

For those people not steeped in the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, the impression they tend to have is often far from the actual source material written between 1917-1936. People have probably seen some of the tacky B-movies that have been awful “adaptations” of some of his works, or they have seen the cutesy Cthulhu octopus monster, or think Lovecraftian means tentacles.

I even get the odd person who says “you like Lovecraft? Wasn’t he a racist?” Yes he was, and so was Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, and sadly so were the majority of people in the past. Many of the famous painters and writers all the way back to the Renaissance were probably racist and perhaps even homophobic too. Sadly, because a good friend of mine asked me that very question about Lovecraft, I feel I have to address the matter as part of this conversation here too.

His views, which he did express in writing since a teenager, thankfully were views that evolved and matured as he slowly began to come out of his sheltered upbringing and explore the world. I’m not an apologist in any way, but Lovecraft’s ignorance, was massively widespread among citizens of the world in that time period. Individuals of the 19th and 20th century that were progressive and championed anti-racist attitudes were sadly an exception. It took generations of work and reasoned arguments to get us to the point we are at today, and we still have a long way to go ourselves. We still have a big problem, particularly from my point-of-view here in the United States, with what is now a more underground and repressed form of racism. Sadly, most Americans I know, will not have to look far within their own circles and families to find someone voicing their sickening attitudes toward humans whose differences are purely superficial.

What’s important is that Lovecraft didn’t dress up in black face, or endorse a return to slavery. I can try and put it in perspective by using Walt Disney as an example. Not for racism, but for his black listing of artists from his studios, pronouncing them communists and destroying their careers after they had participated in a strike. These artists were forced to give up their careers or move out of the country due to the McCarthism / Hooverism of the era. Taking a direct hand in destroying someone’s future is a terrible and malicious act. Do Mr. Disney’s action get brought up when we want to appreciate or discuss a Disney movie? I’d say almost never. Did Disney do other things that were admirable? Yes. What I’m trying to say, is that if you have a preconception about Lovecraft, but really don’t know much about the man and his work, then perhaps try and keep an open mind and give yourself another chance to properly explore or reappraise the subject matter. Perhaps you didn’t even see the real deal anyway?

For example, do you know of Lovecraft and Cthulhu from roleplaying games? Perhaps the Video games? Comics? Television pop culture references? These are all far removed from the original works of H.P. Lovecraft from the early 20th century. Few of these reinterpretations and adaptations reflect very well on H.P. Lovecraft’s actual stories, and most tend to re-imagine his monsters in a typical Christian sense of black & white, good vs evil. In fact, Lovecraft’s own nihilistic vision of man’s insignificance in the universe is much more materialistic and complex. Humans are confronted with the might of truly alien and omnipotent beings, whom they can not blow up or defeat. The best they can hope to do against these beings from the outer dimensions of space and time is duck, dodge, stay low and maybe use their wits to buy more time for human kind.

These monstrous pseudo-deities aren’t spending their time trying to corrupt people, or build up human cults to worship them. They could care less. That’s the irony and the intelligence of Lovecraft’s fictional world. The cults that worship these alien gods are deluded by their own human egotism and read magic and the supernatural into what they can not understand. It’s a sci-fi universe in which humans are not at the center. And if you don’t like that, you can always read 99% of all other sci-fi out there. The point, I think, is that Lovecraft offers something interesting and unique –at least as far as he was the original proponent of this type of cosmic level horror. It has gone on to inspire, most notably in my opinion, Stephen King. Think of Pennywise, Randal Flag or the creatures from the Mist being some off-the-top-of-my-head examples.

So, what makes it fun to read Lovecraft’s work? Although Lovecraft’s literary style is heavily influenced by the old-fashioned prose of Edgar Allen Poe and Lord Dunsany, its quaintness is part of the charm. But the real magic comes from his imagination more than his execution. A lot of Lovecraft’s stories have purple prose and plot holes, but the concepts and the atmosphere are both awesome and creepy enough to get under your skin. His version of New England takes on a life of its own throughout the many stories set in the fictional locations north of Boston, such as Arkham (from which DC comics named Gotham city’s Arkham Asylum), Kingsport and Innsmouth. There are a million puzzle pieces for readers that help draw them into his universe and immerse you in it.

I personally think that Lovecraft’s stories being set in his own era of the 1920s and 1930s is the extra ingredient that really draws me into his New England world. I’ve always liked sci-fi and horror that is set in the past. I think this begun when I first saw the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. We can see the modern and futuristic sci-fi and horror any day, but Lovecraft’s world has all the sexiness of Boardwalk Empire, bootlegging gangsters, Downton Abbey and post-Edwardian class. Seeing people from this era dealing with the otherworldly lights up my imagination. As a kid raised on classic Doctor Who, I like a bit of horror and sci-fi mixed in with my history. It creates something special.

“Remember that as Lovecraft beat the twilight byways of New England –looking for insights that must remain nameless and ineffable to be spied just beyond the limits of our capacity for knowledge– he found not only horror, but beauty.” writer, Mark Laidlaw.

Lovecraft created a sandbox full of wonderful toys and ideas, and most amazingly he encouraged other writers to come and play. I don’t know of any other writer who was so non-proprietorial about the world he created and even though his works are now all in the public domain as of 2008, both during his short life time and for decades after, writers have delved into his spooky New England and the wider world and universe, for better or worse.

Lovecraft nurtured a huge amount of talent, simply through the amateur fiction boom of the early 20th century as well as corresponding with fans. Young budding writers such as Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Donald Wandrei, August Derleth, E. Hoffman Price, and Fritz Leiber. Robert E. Howard was just 14 years old at the time Lovecraft wrote “The Terrible Old Man”. Lovecraft was born in 1890 and was not only of an older time, but might have seemed an intimidating figure for this young wave of pulp era writers to whom he was a hero.

“I think that’s soooo cool that he was encouraging younger writers. So many people do not have an appreciation for the next generation because they are threatened by them. Older artists just don’t like these kids, these people in general are just bashing kids which just drives me nuts. I think it’s so cool that he supported these younger writers and they gave back just as much. They were clearly interested in his work.” – Chad Fifer, H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast.

If you want to get started with Lovecraft, then I recommend listening to the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, aka HP Podcraft. All these episodes covering his stories are free to download from their website, and I believe via iTunes as well. I discovered them a few years ago and have listened to them over and over many times. It is a great companion for your first serious delving into these short stories and novellas, the text of all of which are available to read for free via HPLOVECRAFT.COM