Alan Davey Vision Quest Request

[Mary Sullivan]

John Majka wrote, "Lovecraft is definitely a favorite of mine.  The course
of his life shows the progress of a true humanitarian and scholar.  It is
true that earlier 
on, Lovecraft could have been considered (along with 99% of Americans) to be

racist, but he dropped these views in later years and there are many letters

showing his regret that he could have ever been so callow or could have 
thought in such a way.  It's heartening that he evaluated himself and his 
views and remade himself.  Even the quality of the stories exists on an 
incline, getting ever better and more sophisticated.  It's a shame that 
cancer killed him at such a young age and that none of his writing was 
published in book form before his death.  He would surely have gone on to 
even greater achievements.  One can only speculate about the greatness of a 
Lovecraft novel...."

Wrote, "A sign of an intelligent person is one who can grow beyond their
earlier work, and admit they were in err.  I respect a person that's honest
enough to do that.

Mary 

P.S.  I'd read in  a collection of Lovecraft stories that he died from
Rickets? 
-----Original Message-----
From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List [mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET] On
Behalf Of Steve Swann
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 3:10 PM
To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
Subject: Re: Alan Davey Vision Quest Request


Also, as someone else mentioned, he was a thinking person who in later life
appears (based on his voluminous body of correspondence) to have
reconsidered and recanted his earlier racist views...

Steve

On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 10:23 AM, Carl Edlund Anderson <cea at carlaz.com>
wrote:
> On 08 Jan 2010, at 07:24 , Mary Sullivan wrote:
>> I agree Lovecraft wrote some fantastic
>> stories, I also understand he had his  prejudices.
>
>
> I wouldn't say that I _ignore_ the prejudices evidenced in the works 
> of people like Lovecraft and Howard, but I try to remember that they 
> are products of their time and culture -- which, despite the closeness 
> to my own, _isn't_ the same!  After all, I am accustomed to reading 
> works by much older authors, some of whom came from cultures in which 
> slavery was normal and human sacrifice not unknown (and heaven knows 
> whatever other everyday things for them would seem shocking to us), 
> and I need to see their works as products of a particular time and 
> place as well.  (It's easier with them, since there's more distance, 
> but really it's the same issue.)
>
> Heck, I wouldn't necessarily condone all the thing some of my favorite 
> musicians have done over the years -- but I'm listening to their 
> music, not issuing a general approval of everything they did or said 
> as an individual! :)
>
> Cheers,
> Carl
>
> --
> Carl Edlund Anderson
> http://www.carlaz.com/
>