The Worst of H.P. Lovecraft: Gut-Busting Paragraphs of Unintentional Comedy

[Jeff Coleman]

I think the other Lovecraft thread here has made people a bit touchy, making people wonder if they are going to be castigated as racist, if they are actually racist, or if they will be seen as politically correct and castigated for that if they speak out against racism (I wonder about all three.)

It gets a bit confusing in these situations.

I think Justin Isis, in his wisdom, might have created this thread to take the edge off of all of that, and I might have fouled the waters a bit (the dark, dank, nautical-looking negro infested waters of the deep) by spilling that over into this thread. Please continue posting funny quotes from Lovecraft, everyone, and don't mind me.

[Druidic]

guess you have to be on boula weed to get the humor.

[ramonoski]

Now I strongly suspect Lovecraft might had been blazing it when he wrote that creation-themed poem.

[Jeff Coleman]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

guess you have to be on boula weed to get the humor.

Maybe.

Or people just have different senses of humor.

I could send a link to my previous post to my black friend (yes, I don't have many friends, for obvious reasons). See if he finds it amusing or offensive. I'm guessing it would be the former.

[Ancient History]

Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Coleman

Does it make me bad person that I found that "nautical-looking negro" passage Justin quoted unaccountably hilarious this morning?

No, it doesn't make you a bad person. In fact, I believe Peter Cannon wrote a whole story based around the "nautical-looking negro" line; and of course Neal Stephenson had the section on "tactical negro impersonation" in Cryptonomicon which I suspect it might have inspired.

For what it's worth, Lovecraft maintained that he never smoked marijuana, and he was a strict teetotal.

[brendanconnell]

There is a reason Cthulhu wings are shaped like pot leaves.

[Jeff Coleman]

I can't tell if Druidic was intimating that I am somehow an accomplice to Lovecraft's racism (and a historical dunce) by making that post, or that it was just a bad attempt at humor. (Maybe both? I will concede the latter.)

[Jeff Coleman]

Sorry, I know, no discussion of Lovecraft's racism, I forgot the first rule of this thread.

[Jeff Coleman]

Just noticed my initial post from the other night was deleted (I'm assuming by the admins).

I'm not complaining here. It was rather dumb, admittedly (I can understand how it was the kind of thing that might put off people from contributing who might otherwise contribute here, and I don't want to be that kind of jerk.)

Since socially signaling one's non-bigotry and goodness is what all the cool kids are doing these days, let me point out that I agree with other people here that dehumanizing people in order to harm them is cruel.

I'm WELL aware of the historical nightmare we find ourselves in.

I guess part of me thinks that making dumb jokes might lighten the whole thing a bit. I'm possibly wrong. Another part of me thinks that the part of me who wants to make such jokes is an insensitive asshole.

Anyway, to be clear, I found the discussion at the other Lovecraft thread interesting, and I was being sincere in saying it's notches above most those kinds of discussions I've read, people were mostly being civil and intelligent about it. But, I will admit a growing weariness about how people seem to feel obligated to signal their goodness and in-group status by being overly reverent about the history of racial bigotry.

It is very ####ed up, our twisted history.

But a lot of people are, frankly, assholes, including many minorities (and myself), so I guess that realization makes me feel a tad... irreverent? (I was assaulted at a bus stop by a group of black people once, for example, and I imagine they would have found it quite the funniest thing if they had knocked me out and I fell down and my head cracked open on the pavement. Like I was so much garbage. But, different senses of humor, amirite? I think my goofy jokes about nautical-looking negros were considerably more harmless than that, though I'll admit that it might be worse in a way since my possible insensitivity reaches a larger audience than my personal audience of one while being attacked.)

[Druidic]

Personally, Jeff, I found nothing insensitive in your joking. It just didn't strike me as funny.But others apparently got tit. Pass the Boula.