I’ve actually been meaning to write about this for some time, then last night I received this excellent question from Adrien Sebbane on Twitter:
First post: @misanthropemike Don’t you think H.P #Lovecraft would have been completely against Twitter or the whole Internet generally ?
Second post: @misanthropemike Are we “betraying” someone we like ? I’m curious about what #Lovecraft would have thought about networks & high-tech… 🙂
As I said, great question. Here’s my take: First, I don’t believe anyone is “betraying” HPL if they like something that he doesn’t. After all, if that were true, we all might be a bit more racist, and that’s not a good thing.
That said, I don’t believe Lovecraft would have hated the internet (in general). I say this because Lovecraft may have been the greatest letter-writer in history, possibly writing around 100,000 letters in his lifetime. Someone like HPL would have loved email, in my opinion! (And just think, if he’d used Gmail, we’d still have copies of every single one of his letters.)
I’ve often had the thought that he was on an internet, of sorts, albeit a low-tech slow one. I don’t see him using Facebook or Twitter, but I sure do see him using email.
What are your thoughts? Comment below.
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He would have probably been a heavy blogger and might found more success in life! He was offered a job as editor of Weird Tales, but did not want to move from New England. Had he been able to tele-commute, it would have been a different tale.
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Really great point on the tele-commute. I agree.
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Everybody loves and hates the internet. At the end of the day it’s just a tool.
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I agree. In the end I think he would have loved it. For all his love of antiquities and the old ways he was after all a science fiction author… or at least helped in that field. His stories contained cutting edge technology when he could have just as easily used old stuff. I think he would have loved the internet and maybe even Twitter. No one can doubt he loved the written word.
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Maybe “betraying” is a word that’s a little too strong.
To begin, excuse me if I sometimes chose awkward or wrong words, I’m french… 🙂
But here is the point: it seems to me that some stories of H.P Lovecraft are about “science allowing humans to discover some terrible secrets (or forgotten things)”. So to me, it sounds like some kind of message: “Science without conscience/moral is just ruin of the soul” (awkward translation of Rabelais’ famous saying: “Science sans conscience n’est que ruine de l’âme”).
Because Lovecraft really liked writing, he probably would have liked e-mail or similar ways of communication. So for example, when Mike says: “And just think, if he’d used Gmail, we’d still have copies of every single one of his letters”, that brings me to another question: “What about private life ?”. Maybe Lovecraft would not be happy to learn, that you can dig into someone’s private life (even, after his death) !
But I also think, that the Internet would have been a really interesting starting point for some of his stories. Image, very often Lovecraft’s characters are forced to spend a lot of time into libraries, and reading books to find information about some cases. What if, the amount of accessible data had been far more huge ? What would have those people be able to find by spending as much time on the Internet ? Maybe a lot of dummy or false information, but not only…
That will be enough for me tonight. It’s been a tiring week, and it is close to 11pm. I’ll probably just go to bed now ! 🙂
Good night !
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LOL! Good points Adrien. Can you imagine his character visiting ancient and forbidden web sites? Weird esoteric websites do exist and you have to look hard for them… especially in the age of Google.
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I think he would have loved it. For research and correspondence alone it is a boon, and I think that he would also love the availability of things to read and watch…no more waiting for a handful of periodicals to get you through the month, that’s for sure.
I generally consider the modern participant in social media to be analogous to the man or woman of letters in a prior era, just as I consider publications like this to be the modern equivalent to the amateur journalism and pulps of Lovecraft’s era. We do no disservice to our forebears in this; indeed, I would contend that we continue their practices and traditions for much the same reasons they did.
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Lovecraft would have loved the speed of email. He would have hated typing–but perhaps he would have considered it worth it.
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I agree. I think he would have loved email, although twitter might have cramped his style. I’m not sure about FB. He did have a large circle of friends that he enjoyed keeping in touch with scattered across the country, so maybe he would have liked that too. I think he would have liked the access to new science articles and news as well, although he might have been appalled at some of the things he would stumble across if he wasn’t careful! Would he have enjoyed LOLCats, that’s the question.
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