Politically INCORRECT fantasy authors - Is it so bad?

I’ve been reading fantasy for 30 years now, it is my favorite genre.

By Source, Fair use.

But lately, I’ve noticed a trend: whenever I read an article in mainstream media, there is a mention of the author’s beliefs about social & other delicate matters. Every article about Lovecraft mentions his anti-semitism and racism; Robert E. Howard was a “red-neck misogynist”; Tolkien suffered from unconscious euro-centricism (lolwut??!); etc etc.

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So, what is fueling this trend?

In my opinion, numerous authors have already written thousands of pages analyzing the literature of HPL and R.E.Howard and the rest. They have examined every word written, they have explored hidden relations, they have uncovered secret meanings, they have left nothing untouched in their work. But still, every new writer that keeps a blog or writes for a newsletter or online magazine, has to write something about the old classics. Since there is hardly anything more to write about their work, what is left?

Yes, let’s write about their personality! Lovecraft in his letters was very hostile against jews, blacks, and immigrants. He used vulgar vocabulary to refer to them, very similar to the words he used when describing ultra-dimensional horrors. So, many new critics focus on that and comment on that quality of HPL, as if he was a political analyst in newspapers or a commercially successful trend-setter.

European Middle-Earth (link to source)

I believe that these people see HPL (and the rest) from the wrong point of view, just to stir up some controversy to their own posts/articles. Slowly, as is the case with any internet trend, more authors adopted this point of view because they see it in other blogs, and eventually, the band-wagon fills with people that are unable to deal with his racism!

When I read HPL’s stories, I enjoy the cosmic horrors he describes, I let my mind drift away in the vastness of space and the insignificance of humanity. When evaluating his stories I don’t care if he was a racist in his personal life, because I can make the following distinction:

It’s a Story - not a Lesson

HPL wrote fictional stories, not academic lectures on sociology. In order to make a story thrilling, exciting and something to remember, things have to be controversial and extreme. Ordinary people in extra-ordinary situations as HPL did; larger-than-life protagonists like Howard’s Conan and Solomon Cane. If everything was flat and comme-il-faut (or politically correct if you prefer), there would be nothing to impress and thrill the reader.

“But, wait a second Nyarlathotep of the 1000 Masks,” you might think, “should they use racism and misogyny to thrill the readers?”

I am a mature reader. I can understand the qualities of the protagonists I read of. I can realize what is wrong with them, the faults of their personalities and the errors of their actions. I can distinguish good and bad, when I read about it and I don’t think I would change my world views and become racist because I read about a racist in a fantasy novel. Even by a racist author.

And above all, I can separate the author from the content, in other words when reading fiction, I don’t evaluate the author’s personal characteristics; i evaluate his work of fiction.

But aren’t they role-models?

I would show my young kids the original Star Wars trilogy, in fact we’ve recently watched those films. I like the fairy-tale qualities and the way Lucas’s heros and villains are depicted: the distinction between Good and Evil is clear and obvious. The heros do… well, heroic things and act by virtues that I would like my children to adopt. The villains on the other hand, have negative qualities that are easy to explain and their actions are clearly demonstrating the faults of their personalities. Yes, it is easy to use those heros as role models and the villains as examples to avoid, and I have found myself many times saying “do you remember what Luke Skywalker did when …”

What about Conan then? He despises women, he has a violent temper, he might think more before eating a piece of smelly cheese than taking another life for Crom, his god! Not much to inspire a young kid, right?

Definitely right. Every protagonist is not a role-model, and every book is not an example to follow. That’s where the discretion of the reader is important. That’s where a mature reader must draw a line, and enjoy what he reads as a good & exciting story, not as a lesson to follow or to inspire others.

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Thanks for reading my rant, I hope I did not insult anyone and his beliefs, in my attempt to explain what I feel. Just to make it clear:

I don’t support in any way the racism/misogynism/antisemitism/etc evident in the works of the authors mentioned above, but I do enjoy their stories. And I enjoy them, very, very much!