The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Story 3/31:

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

by Howard Phillips Lovecraft

"But for all of their monstrousness they were not unfamiliar to me."

Librivox Listening Time: 190 minutes

Listening Link: http://librivox.bookdesign.biz/book/107042

Themes: Racism

Mr Lovecraft objected to Weird, Supernatural Horror, or Cosmic Horror being put into a moral or intellectual framework.

"Atmosphere" He says, "is the all-important thing, for the final criterion of authenticity is not the dovetailing of a plot but the creation of a given sensation. [...] a weird story whose intent is to teach,
produce a social effect, or one in which the horrors are finally explained away by natural means, is not a genuine tale of cosmic fear..." (Source: Supernatural Horror In Literature)

Well, I'm going to do something Mr Lovecraft probably wouldn't like.

(Because putting his stories into a moral and intellectual framework is just too freaking easy!) 

I'm not trying to suggest that Mr Lovecraft does not create that 'authentic' atmosphere of fear he was aiming for. I rather think that, because he was so effective in creating that atmosphere, and because he pretty much only wrote about things that made him afraid, he gave me a sympathy for a group of people who I would normally look at with a degree of skepticism and contempt.

For Mr Lovecraft, the origin of racist ideology isn't a feeling of superiority over other races: It's the fear that the process of assuming a multi-racial identity will take something away from you...either individually or collectively (For Robert Olmstead, it is literally a dehumanizing process).

In some ways, I think that's true.

(Not the 'We'll-Turn-Into-Fish-People' part...just to be clear...)

The cultural-landscape in American is supposed to be dynamic, so dealing with cultural change is enviable as we adopt new customs and old ones become obsolete.

So, when this happens, are we loosing something or are we gaining something? When is cultural change something we should be wary of, and when should it be embraced?


Just for fun: here's a cool video of an octopus stealing a camera!