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Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
18. Yes, indeed the story has been good and I didn't know it was a book!
Tue Sep 1, 2020, 07:31 PM
Sep 2020

A few years ago, Prof. Nnedi Okorafor, a Nigerian-American author and winner of the World Fantasy Award, a prestigious literary prize for fantastical fiction, wrote in her African-futurism blog of her conflict of receiving the WFA trophy modeled after Lovecraft himself, "I knew of Lovecraft’s racial issues, anti-Semitism, etc., but I never knew it was this serious. How strong the sentiment must have been within his soul for him to sit down and write that poem. This wasn’t racism metaphorically or abstractly rearing its ugly head within a piece of fiction, this was specific and focused.

Anyway, a statuette of this racist man’s head is in my home. A statuette of this racist man’s head is one of my greatest honors as a writer. A statuette of this racist man’s head sits beside my Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and my Carl Brandon Society Parallax Award (an award given to the best speculative fiction by a person of color). I’m conflicted.

I too am deeply honored to win the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. It feels so so so right and so so good. The award’s jury was clearly progressive and looking in a new direction. I am the first black person to win the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel since its inception in 1975. Lovecraft is probably rolling in his grave. Or maybe, having become spirit, his mind has cleared of the poisons and now understands the err of his ways. Maybe he is pleased that a book set in and about Africa in the future has won an award crafted in his honor. Yeah, I'll go with that image."
http://nnedi.blogspot.com/2011/12/lovecrafts-racism-world-fantasy-award.html

Yes. I'll go with that, too. It's just too delicious knowing Lovecraft basically inventing the disturbing horror genre is used to reveal the very meaning of horror by awesome writers helping to upend racism I Love it!

My husband and I are watching it. Behind the Aegis Sep 2020 #1
Yes JustAnotherGen Sep 2020 #2
No. murielm99 Sep 2020 #3
I'm thinking about taking a look at it. Aristus Sep 2020 #4
If feels Lovecraftian to me. Ilsa Sep 2020 #7
Seems very Lovecraftian to me. I like it. rickyhall Sep 2020 #12
Loving it. sweetloukillbot Sep 2020 #5
Are they H.P. Lovecraft stories set to the modern day or Lovecraft-like stories? yonder Sep 2020 #6
I woudn't want to see a Lovecraft story set in modern-day America. Aristus Sep 2020 #8
"....eerie, remote, isolated, rotting little towns", populated by eerie, isolated, rotting people. yonder Sep 2020 #11
I had just posted that when I remembered a little place where I stayed while doing my hospitalist Aristus Sep 2020 #13
How was the food? yonder Sep 2020 #15
There was a Mexican place and an Italian place. Both passable, nothing more. Aristus Sep 2020 #16
There is a book called Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff that is the basis Ilsa Sep 2020 #9
Thanks for the info. yonder Sep 2020 #10
I thought HBO's Watchmen did a good job in the mix of horror/racism genre. Kind of Blue Sep 2020 #14
I knew he was a racist, but what a godawful poem!! I am enjoying the show Nay Sep 2020 #17
Yes, indeed the story has been good and I didn't know it was a book! Kind of Blue Sep 2020 #18
Wonderful JustAnotherGen Sep 2020 #21
Yes, indeed! When I saw the teasers and found Jordan Peele is one of the producers, well, you know. Kind of Blue Sep 2020 #22
Yes! I am really enjoying it. femmocrat Sep 2020 #19
Episode 4 JustAnotherGen Sep 2020 #20
Good rundown of The Hidden Black History of Lovecraft Country Kind of Blue Sep 2020 #23
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