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Well, there you see what we lose when controversial content is eliminated out of fear of moral panic and things are watered down instead.

I contend that Lovecraft's works are unique because he channeled his anxieties, his fears, his phobias and his prejudices into his writing and created something raw and powerful that later authors who pay homage to him cannot imitate. It's like no matter how many people want to write like...

You can ask ask him yourself if you track him down on the web, but this article should sum it up.

If you want to interpret the typical high fantasy story in that light, I'd say they reflect more on the cultural trauma of brutal invasions like the Muslims in Iberia, the Huns and the Mongols from the East, or the Turks. All the many desperate defences of countless Minas Tiriths replay...

The Jews weren't exactly scattered across Europe and the Mediterranean of their own free will. They were expelled from Israel by the Romans after one rebellion too many. That's why dwarfs usually fill that role since Tolkien drew on themes in Exodus when he wrote about their lost homelands like...

As a small historical aside, black slaves were fashionable in Europe among royalty, nobility and other wealthy and influential personages around the 16th to 18th century, and quite a few of these slaves managed to capitalize on their situation and rise in the social hierarchy. Aside from Yasuke...

You have me lost me here. What position was "nobody" taking on what? I believe we were talking about if there was anything particularly unique about slavery in the US.

I don't have a goal beyond engaging in intellectual debate and exploring the topic at hand. I mean, why would we be discussing Lovecraft and the fear of finding out you have a non-white ancestor outside of the context of the Deep Ones in The Shadow over Innsmouth? I believe I brought it up in...

I think you can confirm most of my claims just by reading Greenwood's QAs on the Candlekeep site.

Forgotten Realms is a good example of what we lose due to censorship. Apparently, Ed Greenwood's original was heavy on the Free Love, and all those "festhalls" on the city maps were originally brothels/sex clubs, and people were overall very open about experimenting and trying new things, like...

I could have sworn I made a post agreeing that Wizards of the Coast are free to include whoever they want or don't want on their recommended reading lists, and that they can do whatever they want with the rights to D&D. And since they have made the previous editions available digitally, everyone...

Sardines go great with pineapple on pizza. Another great thing we would lose if we eliminate controversial toppings.

Family and bloodlines are very important in feudal societies and are used to amass holdings and wealth. So the only thing really stopping the royal family from seizing the lands in question is if its worth the risk of going to war with the wife's family/house.

This is a point I frequently make. Lovecraft had no need to hide his prejudices and was free to incorporate them in his published fiction since that was the style of the times, I remember picking up the Belgariad by David Eddings in my school library and even then I wasn't oblivious to his evil...

It's also a spectrum. You yourself said that "some" did not consider black Africans human at all, but that was far from a majority opinion, otherwise there wouldn't have been people opposed to slavery, people who wanted to baptize and civilize them, and so on. So there would obviously have been...

The point wasn't what Lovecraft would have felt had he lived long enough to this hypothetical DNA test, but what inspired The Shadow over Innsmouth. Some think it reflects on miscenegation, while others (including me) believe it reflects on Lovecraft's fear of carrying some form of congential...

I'm from Scandinavia and overt racism is rare here. In fact, I don't recall hearing a single adult ever demean someone based on their ethnicity, religion or sexuality while growing up. I have come to appreciate this a lot. I think the bit about people taking genealogy tests and realizing that...

A genetic study made the news recently that showed a large influx of people occured during the early Viking age. While they obviously don't go into too much speculation about the whys and wherefores, the influx was traced largely to areas known for Viking raids, like the Baltics and Ireland...

Yes, but the central motif reflects his own anxieties over congential madness, as both his parents died in mental institutions. As far as I am aware, Lovecraft would not have personally feared having an undesirable ancestry.

PS: I went back and read your post again and realized I jumped to conclusions when I saw Lovecraft's name in the same sentence, more or less, as Bill Cosby and Jimmy Saville. It was obviously not a direct comparison, like saying "XXX is worse than Hitler!", but examples of people from two...