After Almost a Century H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth Receive Award
Recently in July, the Hugo Awards awarded the 1945 Retrospective Hugo Award for Best Series to H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth for the Cthulhu Mythos. For those who are not familiar with the Retrospective Hugo Awards, the “Retro Hugo” awards are awarding to those in the past before the original Hugo awards were being given.
For some, including me had similar reactions to the award being giving for the Cthulhu Mythos. It was about damn time it happened. In consideration of how much Lovecraft’s Cthulhuian mythology has influenced modern horror writers and changed the genre of horror. Horror writers such as Stephen King, Peter Straub, and even the great horror writer Junji Ito have all stated Lovecraft as being a big influence on their horror writing. Most of the modern horror games have a Lovecraftian influence on them both indirectly and directly. Recently in a popular game, Smite, Cthulhu was added as a playable character. Other than King’s horror influences in the western world, and Ito’s influences in the eastern world, Lovecraft continues to be a giant in the genre of horror. Recently, I had the luxury of playing the video game The Call of Cthulhu yet again; a game loosely based on Lovecraft’s story The Call of Cthulhu, and I was surprised to see how well the game has held up after a few years. The influences do not stop here. Composer Graham Plowman has made multiple compositions in the theme of Lovecraftian horror, such as The King in Yellow, Dream Cycles, etc. The Dread X-2 collection; a collection of twelve different horror games in which the developers had ten days to design and create based on the theme of Lovecraft. So far, the reviews of the second Dread X collection have been highly positive.
However, while the Cthulhu Mythos finally getting the recognition it deserves after such strong influences on horror, the Hugo awards came under heavy fire from the public after seeing the award for best series. Many began to criticize their decision to give this award after recent events like BLM, considering that Lovecraft was racist. However, it should be noted that the award is for the best series, not the best author, and the best series is for the Cthulhu Mythos. Which is in itself is not racist literary work. A lot of the Cthulhu Mythos stories do not involve more than one human in the story and revolve around ancient gods and beings that reside in space or other dimensions. It is important that for awards such as the Hugo awards that people separate the art from the artists, because more often than not the artist is the problem, not the art. Consider Bobby Fischer, a fantastic chess player and considered the greatest player of all time, however, Fischer has said some highly racist things. This does not mean that Fischer’s chess games should not be considered for brilliancy prizes because of his inappropriate behaviour in his later years. Similarly, Lovecraft’s stories and literary works should still be considered for awards, even though a fair share of Lovecraft’s views are now considered inappropriate or outdated.
N. Monk, Avid Reader and Bookman
Photo Crefit: Creative Commons_enigmabadger
Photo Credits: Lovecraftian Longsword designed and created by N. Monk.