Who needs a memory?

[pyat]

For years, I've had dim memories of reading Robert Bloch's last published work, in Omni magazine. The horror author was one of H.P. Lovecraft's penpals, and the writer of Psycho. Part of me thinks Lovecraft would have sent Bloch an angry letter about Psycho.

The essay was significant, first of all, because it was message from a dead man, about his approaching death. Bloch wrote it a just days before he died, and he knew he was dying. It was published just days after his death.

Secondly, it was significant to me, because I remembered him raving about inferior races of humanity in it. And I went around telling people that Robert Bloch was a racist. Just now, I used the net to look up the date of the issue, and then went down to the basement to dig around for it. Lo and behold, it was the sitting right at the top of the box, ready to hand.

And, it turns out that Robert Bloch was not a racist, at least not in this essay. He just made a single wry comment about how he's an elitist and didn't think all men were equal, except under the law. Not the same thing at all.

My brain had embroidered that single statement extensively over the last 15 years.

Comments

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

These things happen. I placed similar and rather unbalanced emotional weight on a few things Harlan Ellison once said, but a) that from stuff he wrote in the early Seventies and b) I only later found out Harlan was insufferable for a great many reasons anyway.

[paka.livejournal.com]

Gah, that didn't come out right. What I meant was, I can't imagine Bloch being a racist - he seems like someone who'd know what it's like to be targeted by racism.

The part about HPL though still stands. Wonder what was the thing that really got him interested in Bloch? Or for that matter Howard, since Howard's stuff is all so incredibly grunty and pulpy.

[rowyn]

Does that mean I need to check to make sure Lovecraft was a racist now? Oh dear.

I've always rather thought "all people are not created equal but should be treated by the law as though they are". But that's not as catchy. Maybe "all people are created equal, for a given value of 'equal'." >:)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Nah, Lovecraft was pretty racist, at least judging by his letters. However, various biographers point out that he "got better" over time. In his early APA days, he didn't like anybody who wasn't from an old New England family. While he certainly didn't reform entirely, and his world view would be considered decidedly nasty nowadays, in his later years he at least wasn't terrified of Jews and Italians...

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

Same thing that got you reading other people's LJs.