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Tom:
Brian Jacques writes about Furries! Hah, who's gonna remember that!! :-D
[quote author=KharBevNor For example, Le Fanu's Carmilla, in my opinion, is better written than Dracula, and must be just about the first work in the modern western canon to deal with female homosexuality, yet today it is relatively obscure, living on mainly as the inspiration for the 'lesbian vampires' meme.
[/quote]
Where can I obtain a copy of Camilla?
KharBevNor:
--- Quote from: Wayfaring Stranger on 01 Dec 2007, 10:50 ---Good points, Khar. I think though, that Stephen King, maybe unlike a Grisham, has made a pretty big cultural impact. As per the older horror writers like Stoker and Shelley, no matter how people know about them, their work is still recognized even to the point of being household names. It seems reasonable that figures such as Carrie and Cujo may be recognized a long time from now. Good point about Lovecraft. His recent surge in popularity is pretty interesting. Cthulhu is popping up everywhere.
--- End quote ---
The thing with Lovecraft was that he was, literally, ahead of his time in some respects (though his attitudes towards women and non-whites weren't). It may seem cliche, but I think that most of us, nowadays, are much more ready to believe a world of lurking, formless, unseen horrors and deranged, vile cultists. Also, I suppose changing religious attitudes might have something to do with it. A lot of his work is actually pretty blasphemous, in a way.
Tom:
I personally believe that Lovecraft is the only entertaining misogynist ever.
KharBevNor:
I'm not sure I'd call Lovecraft a misogynist as such. Not by the standards of his day, anyway. Racist, definitely. Even for his time, his obsession with miscagenation, degeneracy and genetic decadence is significant, though he did write at a time when eugenics was a worryingly popular idea. Lovecrafts attitude to women is more conservative and dismissive, I think. I always got the sense that women feature so rarely in his stories because they were at home cooking. When he does give the appearance of misogyny, I think its more his asexuality and hatred of being touched talking than anything else. As far as I'm aware, his closest relationship was with his mother. The only tale of his I can think of that could be considered misogynistic is The Thing on the Doorstep, and I think that's more just straight body horror. Indeed, the only other stories I can think of off the top of my head with female characters are The Dunwich Horror and The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and in both of those negative portrayals of women are more to do with the fact that those women are half-deep ones or inbred cultists who fornicate with Yog-Sothoth. Both those also have, however incidental, positive female characters. The historical society curator in The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Dr. Armitages wife in The Dunwich Horror, for example.
Tom:
from wikipedia:
--- Quote ---Gender
Women in Lovecraft's fiction are rare, and sympathetic women virtually non-existent; the few leading female characters in his stories — like Asenath Waite (though actually an evil male wizard who has taken over an innocent girl's body) in "The Thing on the Doorstep" and Lavinia Whateley in "The Dunwich Horror" — are invariably servants of sinister forces. Romance is likewise almost absent from his stories; where he touches on love, it is usually a platonic love (e.g. "The Tree"). His characters live in a world where sexuality is negatively connotated — if it is productive at all, it gives birth to less-than-human beings ("The Dunwich Horror"). In this context, it might be helpful to draw attention to the scale of Lovecraft's horror, which has often been described by critics as "cosmic horror." Operating on a grand, cosmic scale as his stories are, they assign humanity a minor, insignificant role. Consequently, it is not female sexuality to which the stories categorically deny a vital and positive role — rather, it is human sexuality in general. Also, Lovecraft states in a private letter (to one of the several female intellectuals he befriended) that discrimination against women is an "oriental" superstition from which "aryans" ought to free themselves: evident racism aside, the letter seems to preclude at least conscious misogyny (as does, indeed, his private life otherwise).
Keeping in mind, the earliest contact Lovecraft had with women, first, was his mentally ill mother, and later on, a life spent living with two elderly aunts. No serious misogynistic elements are evident in his fiction.
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