Lovecraft's Book

[Dr. Nikola]

Richard Lupoff wrote this as if recounting an actual incident in Lovecraft's past, discovered via a Freedom of Information Act disclosure.  Fascinating stuff involving Lovecraft being recruited by proto-Nazis who want him to produce a volume introducing fascism to Americans.  Strange goings-on involving underwater projects, Lovecraft's ex-wife, Houdini and his brother, the Friends of the New Germany, and HPL's somewhat peculiar personal and political beliefs.   Highly recommended.

[MediaGhost]

That does look like a lot of fun in a satirical conspiracy theory sort of way.

[TransconaSlim]

Haven't read it, but did look up the plot.  From wikipedia, it seems like the plot would write itself:

"The story concerns an offer made to H. P. Lovecraft by a fascist sympathizer, George Sylvester Viereck. His offer is to have Lovecraft write a political tract in the nature of an American Mein Kampf. In return, Viereck promises the publication of a volume of Lovecraft's stories."

George Sylvester Viereck was a real person.  Viereck became close friends with Nikola Tesla.  Nikola Tesla planned ways to cut the planet in half like an apple.  Viereck was the publisher of The Fatherland, a pro-german newspaper.  One of the contributors to The Fatherland was Aleister Crowley.

Def think I'll try and pick this one up. 

FYI, Here's my Wikipedia free fall:

Richard Lupoff >>> Lovecraft's Book >>> George Sylvester Viereck >>> The Fatherland >>> Aleister Crowley

[old book]

I saw this YEARS AGO in some obscure bookshop by some obscure publisher and have been kicking myself ever since for not picking it up then, whether it was the book or just an ad inside another book by the same publisher for a COMING SOON volume.

The Nazis did have a propaganda effort in the United States including "turning" influential, popular writers to the cause. If I remember right, they didn't have a lot of success, and the people in charge of propaganda in the Third Reich really misread American culture, believing their own drivel a little too much concerning Judaeo-Bolshevik control of American mass media. There were exceptions, but it seems the major traffic at least so far as entertainers, thinkers and artists go was in the other direction, out of the Third Reich to the west.

Again, if I remember right, the Nazi propaganda effort was more less run out of NYC and there wasn't a lot of big money involved, but it's possible someone did try to contact HPL at some point. Remembering his anti-German stereotypes in The Temple and his more or less consistently pro-American stance (except concerning the wars with the British), I don't think Lovecraft would have bitten.

Thanks for posting the name of the work and author, it's always been sort of lodged there at the back of my mind and I've always wanted to follow this up a bit more.

[TransconaSlim]

I saw this YEARS AGO in some obscure bookshop by some obscure publisher and have been kicking myself ever since for not picking it up then, whether it was the book or just an ad inside another book by the same publisher for a COMING SOON volume.

The Nazis did have a propaganda effort in the United States including "turning" influential, popular writers to the cause. If I remember right, they didn't have a lot of success, and the people in charge of propaganda in the Third Reich really misread American culture, believing their own drivel a little too much concerning Judaeo-Bolshevik control of American mass media. There were exceptions, but it seems the major traffic at least so far as entertainers, thinkers and artists go was in the other direction, out of the Third Reich to the west.

Again, if I remember right, the Nazi propaganda effort was more less run out of NYC and there wasn't a lot of big money involved, but it's possible someone did try to contact HPL at some point. Remembering his anti-German stereotypes in The Temple and his more or less consistently pro-American stance (except concerning the wars with the British), I don't think Lovecraft would have bitten.

Thanks for posting the name of the work and author, it's always been sort of lodged there at the back of my mind and I've always wanted to follow this up a bit more.

Yeah, the high of German-American pro-nazi movement occurred on President's Day, February 20, 1939 When the German American Bund held a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Some 20,000 people attended.  The violence that broke out between Nazis and anti-fascists shocked and put off the majority of Americans.   You can see video of that rally here: http://youtu.be/KPGT7EaCiIY

The Nazi flag was adopted as the exclusive use as the national flag of Germany due to the “Bremen incident” of 26 July 1935, in which a group of demonstrators boarded the Bremen ship, tore the Nazi party flag from the jackstaff and tossed it into the Hudson River. When the German ambassador protested, US officials responded that the German national flag had not been harmed, only a political party symbol.

[TransconaSlim]

We have to remember that HPL was pro-Italian fascism, although luke-warm on Hitler-ism.

I could see how Italian fascism could appeal to Lovecraft as an American.  The entire foundation of Italian fascism, the 'corporative state' was to be where the best and most enlightened of each economic sector, arts, workers and state officials would direct the economy and government.    In practice, fascism was no more then one man dictatorship police state, but I can see how from a far distance someone like lovecraft could find this desirable.

I remember reading somewhere about how HPL was a supporter of Italian imperialism in Ethiopia - he said that Mussolini was bringing "civilization" to Ethiopians.  Clark Aston Smith pointed out how silly it was to say that there was a 'civilized' way to bomb people. 

[old book]

Yes, I've heard audio files of the Madison Square Garden rally, probably an address by father Coughlin or Lindberg or someone. I recently saw it or related stuff again in a torrent called WWII audio.

I wonder if the Bremen ship you mention belonged to the Hamburg-America line???

Last night I was looking around the official Chinese news agency website, xinhua.cn or xinhuanet.something, and saw a bunch of banners for the upcoming 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. All of a sudden I flashed back on what Lovecraft had written in letters about how socialism that provided human dignity and leisure time for intellectual and aristocratic pursuits might not be such a bad thing, and wondered what he would make of how Chinese Communism has developed into what it is now, and about the "nationalist" content of same, which seeks to preserve a 4,000-year-old civilization. Of course he was probably predisposed against Chinese culture, but if he could get past his blind spot on that, I wonder. Not that I'm a great fan of what has happened in China over the century, but things seem to be moving toward a better life for a lot of people, allowing them more leisure time, and I've been seeing a lot of Chinese art and scientific ventures over the last several years.

According to the pamphlet "Lovecraft's Fascism" by someone (Grimwald?) in New Zealand, Lovecraft believed eventually the Japanese would come to dominate global civilization, and that this was a sorry state of affairs, iirc.

If Lovecraft was lukewarm on Hitler-ism and probably very much against Japanese Shintoist emperor-worshipping territorial expansion, and he liked Italian fascism for the idealistic reasons you mention, instead of the reality on the ground, he might have seen Chinese Communism as more faithful to those actual ideals, of the state and private entrepeneurship working together to achieve the highest attainable goals in the arts, science and economy. This, too, might require distance; the reality might not appeal as much as the ideal.

Klarkash was certainly correct, just as the "humanitarian mission" in Libya--bombing civilians with depleted uranium while supporting the faction of rebels with whom the United States and NATO have allegedly been waging war for the last decade, "al Qaeda" aka al CIAda--is pure hypocrisy, and even as they claim to have a "mandate" from the League of Nations/United Nations to close airspace over the country, they have troops on the ground in violation of that same "mandate" which violates the founding convention of the UN itself. I assume Klarkash would see that clearly, and that Lovecraft would temporarily lose himself in visions of glorious and romantic battle against the Barbary pirates of yore, and migth never snap out of the reverie long enough to realize he and everyone else had been supremely had.

[Dr. Nikola]

"Clark Aston Smith pointed out how silly it was to say that there was a 'civilized' way to bomb people. "

Too bad Bush and Obama never read Clark Aston Smith!

[yumegari]

Guys, I come here to get /away/ from people herf-derfing about the last few Presidents.  Please don't bring it here, too.

[old book]

You're seeking escape from the terrors and horrors of real life (and death) in the 21st century on a Lovecraft forum? I salute thee! Still, the horror from outside intrudes. Klarkash has a new name: Kicks Ass.

[MediaGhost]

Guys, I come here to get /away/ from people herf-derfing about the last few Presidents.  Please don't bring it here, too.

Relax.  There's nothing here more mind-bendingly horrible than the average election year in the US.   

[Genus Unknown]

I just assumed we were all voting Cthulhu anyway.

[catamount]

Nah...I'm voting for the Creeping Chaos...I guess that makes me an...anarchist?

[Kaelestes]

Do we have the figures to calculate which is the greater evil?

[Bob Lovecraft]

Nah...I'm voting for the Creeping Chaos...I guess that makes me an...anarchist?

I don't think the Crawling Chaos would ever be bound by something as rigid as an election.

Bob