i always had read , and even to this day read what people write about reading h. p. lovecraft's weird tales and not having been aware of the racism in lovecraft's weird tales with a grain of disbelief , especially if they be a person of race . it remained a print phenomena for me until one day when i was talking to an acquaintance and she brought up out of the outopia of the moment the subject of h. p. lovecraft's writing . she told me how her brother had read all of lovecraft's writing when he was a teenager and had gifted her with some of lovecraft's weird tales . familiar with lovecraft's writings from reading his fiction and nonfiction and because the person i was talking to is canadian by birth though of asian heritage , the first thing that came to mind was the racism of lovecraft's writing . both what i had noticed in his writing and what i read of mentioned in criticisms and biographical works .
when i voiced the question "can i ask you something? , with you being of japanese background what do you think of the racism in his writing?" , i got an uncomfortable look from her ("what does he mean racism in lovecraft's writing?, is he talking about the same author as me?") , and then the response "no" she hadn't noticed it and she couldnt think of any sample at the moment . no , i thought that interesting and said it wasn't only my opinion, there are critics of his oeuvre who have written of his literary racisms and mentioned realistic examples and figurative ways lovecraft introduced races in to his tales and then showed those races in a negative way compared to characters of euroese races in his stories , specifically characters of british euroese decent . she said she would have to reread some of the stories and maybe ask her brother if he noticed it and would let me know . i can not recall if she ever got back to me about it .
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