tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post2040780852538318408..comments2024-03-12T12:38:23.542-04:00Comments on The Kind of Face You Hate: The Kind of Face You Slash - Day 22: As For Red Hook -- It is Always the Samebill r.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-43060234235314266882013-10-23T13:32:49.848-04:002013-10-23T13:32:49.848-04:00If you've read Houllebecq, you'd know he m...If you've read Houllebecq, you'd know he means "full of rage", "nihilistic", and "against life" as compliments!<br /><br />Btw, I love this idea of Suydam---a man with a name so old-New-Amsterdam that there's a street with it in Bushwick---as a proto-hipster, in a doomed quest for authenticity.ThatFuzzyBastardhttp://thatfuzzybastard.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-9587758878649749242013-10-23T05:59:18.970-04:002013-10-23T05:59:18.970-04:001925, just around the time my people arrived and s...1925, just around the time my people arrived and settled down in Flatbush, too. That might explain a lot.<br /><br />I don't get it. Isn't "houllebecq" one of those words Lovecraft made up? As in, <i>ia ia cthullug houllobecq fthgan misshuguna nathlaq baggaraaaa!!!</i><br /><br />Anyway, a fun read, but I still tend to think the racist (or maybe more accurately, "xenophobic") aspect of Lovecraft's work gets blown way out of proportion more often than not., and this French guy is really going for the gold here. This story (which I don't remember well) aside, it's an insignificant element at most in the stories he's remembered for, most of which exhibit a clear sympathy for their hapless protagonists and for sad, doomed humanity in general.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05364322006357208797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-28522769043199643422013-10-22T19:19:23.767-04:002013-10-22T19:19:23.767-04:00There is some sort of development in HPL's rac...There is some sort of development in HPL's racism and bigotry as time goes by, however, a pronounced lessening in the fiction. By the time of "The Shadow Out of Time", Australian aborigines are the only humans with the sense to stay away from the ruins of the Great Race; by "The Haunter of the Dark", it's up to the ethnic Italians and Irish to hold off Nyarlathotep with their candlelit vigil. The difference between what happens to the characters in "Arthur Jermyn" or "The Rats in the Walls" when they discover their horrifying secret lineage (madness and/or death) and what happens to the narrator of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (ultimate acceptance and transformation and, assumedly, acceptance into a community for one who was previously an Outsider) also suggest something shifting in Lovecraft's fiction away from abject horror at the hideous degenerate masses...Jonathan Stoverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07751600613741713162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-36966789690644016862013-10-22T15:21:21.440-04:002013-10-22T15:21:21.440-04:00It's my understanding that Houllebecq is quite...It's my understanding that Houllebecq is quite fond of Lovecraft's work.bill r.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-85460721311072772852013-10-22T15:02:42.979-04:002013-10-22T15:02:42.979-04:00“What is indisputable,” Houellebecq insists, “ is ...<i>“What is indisputable,” Houellebecq insists, “ is that Lovecraft […] was full of rage.”</i><br /><br />I'm always happy to disagree with this sort of hater on the subject. Change the word 'rage' to 'fear' in the above quoted sentence and I think there's a much richer and more realistic discussion to be had about this complicated man and his work. From these excerpts, book's premise seems a heard-it-all-before take-down job meant for people who either don't know the first thing about Lovecraft's life, or perhaps those wishing they had other methods for dismissing the writing itself. Love the subject, but as someone who has read biographies of the guy before, this sounds like a hater-wallow. Thanks for the heads-up, but I'll be skipping this one!The Terrible Old Oregoniannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-53556412710353573072013-10-22T13:48:25.899-04:002013-10-22T13:48:25.899-04:00As I was reading the Lovecraft excerpts in this po...As I was reading the Lovecraft excerpts in this post, I thought, "Wow, this sounds frighteningly like Hubert Selby at times!" And then I read the last sentence. Day made. <br /><br />Selby of course seems to have had nearly boundless empathy for his characters and their inspirations, while Lovecraft shied away. But there are definitely echos of Lovecraft in Selby's prose.testingwithfirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03038810305314082088noreply@blogger.com