A friend posted this article on FB yesterday: "First Trailer for HBO's Lovecraft Country Blends Jim Crow Horrors with Supernatural Monsters." I instantly watched the trailer, got excited, then instantly paused. I was hella excited to see Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Courtney B. Vance, and Michael K. Williams in a new show in which Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams are the producers. I had to look up Misha Green. She's badass too! She was the creator and writer for Underground and writer for some eps of one of fave shows: SOA.
My excitement was on reserve after I watched the trailer because the show (taken from a book of the same name) puts black people in the Jim Crow South in peril from both racists (actual evil monsters) AND fantastical beasts (literary monsters). My first thoughts: "Damn! Wasn't racism, hatred, discrimination, terror, violence, and unpunished, state-sanctioned murder at the hands of racist people and systems monstrous enough? We gotta add movie monsters too?" As I read more about the book and saw that a white man had written it, my first thoughts: "Damn. White people always gotta add an EXTRA layer of scary monsters. Racial violence was and still is scary enough." Because I'll be honest, I'm beyond tired of white people (esp. white men) writing stories about black people and other POC and fucking shit up. Too often, black people are poorly portrayed, white stories are centered--even if the main character is supposed to be a black person, and overall, it doesn't add anything to the conversation about our lived experiences. Our stories by us matter, and it's frustrating to see white authors telling stories about us getting more praise than stories BY us.
My questioning led me to discuss this with my white allies. I was completely unfamiliar with the book Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, and even unfamiliar with Lovecraft and his OMFG racism--beyond the idea that he's often credited with heavily influencing modern horror, which is a genre I don't read and don't really watch much of. Lit isn't my jam, but it is my allies' jam and specifically, horror lit and movies is one of my friend's delicious, dark jam!
Upon discussion and deeper inspection, it seems that Ruff did a damn good job of portraying and not shying away from the horrors of racism and the violence it beget in his book. And it makes sense that he'd name it Lovecraft Country since Lovecraft was racist AF. It seems that the racial violence in the book is unrelenting and realistic--just like it was in real life. I have no doubt the show will do the same in the hands of Peele and Green.
Our discussion revealed some interesting points that it's frustrating that we still need today: for some people (especially wypipo), they need the fantastical, movie monsters to make real the horrors that black folks experienced. For some people, it isn't until they see the horrible, grotesque monsters in a book or on a screen that the horrors of history come to life. It's a damn shame that slavery deniers and Holocaust deniers exist, but they do. There was even a whole ass court case in the UK about it where American historian Deborah Lipstadt was put on trial for libel because she'd called a Holocaust denier a Holocaust denier in her book. The movie Denial depicts this insane case; it's unreal the lengths she had to go through to prove the Holocaust happened in order to prove she wasn't libelous. (I don't understand deniers. Like, what do you think happened to those millions of people? Aliens took them? Ha. That would probably be more believable for some folks.) I don't know if there's a case like that about slavery, but I wouldn't doubt it. People will go to great lengths to attempt to believe that the worst shit of humanity didn't actually happen, or to deny that the greatest shit throughout the world couldn't possibly have been created by people who weren't descended from European ancestors. Surely Aliens must have created Mayan or Aztec cities or the Nazca lines or Tenochtitlán? I guess it's the lies they need to tell themselves in order to justify the modern impacts of the fucked oppression that large groups of people experienced in history.
I digress...
Our discussion also revealed that sometimes horror movies (or shows) do a good job of substituting for the horrible ills of society in a way that people can digest and understand them better. For instance, I've loved Interview with the Vampire since I first saw it, and could easily see then that the film had homoerotic undertones, but I was yesterday year's old when I learned that the homoerotic undertones of that film (and many other 90s vampire films) were meant to be a commentary on the AIDS culture and how society had fucked that up. It's odd how you learn one aspect of something in one time and space, then learn another aspect of something related, but never put the two together or see that they are connected. I watched Interview when it first came out in the mid-90s. It wasn't until the 2000s (college years) when I learned of the history of AIDS, how gay people were horribly treated, how the government didn't give a damn, fucking Reagan, the original name GRID (ugh!) and all of that. I see the connections between these things more clearly now, and I can see how vamp movies were meant to be (or could be) the starting points for those conversations.
BUT...
Why do folks need a substitution? Because reality is hard to swallow? Fucked reality and history even more so?
My excitement was on reserve after I watched the trailer because the show (taken from a book of the same name) puts black people in the Jim Crow South in peril from both racists (actual evil monsters) AND fantastical beasts (literary monsters). My first thoughts: "Damn! Wasn't racism, hatred, discrimination, terror, violence, and unpunished, state-sanctioned murder at the hands of racist people and systems monstrous enough? We gotta add movie monsters too?" As I read more about the book and saw that a white man had written it, my first thoughts: "Damn. White people always gotta add an EXTRA layer of scary monsters. Racial violence was and still is scary enough." Because I'll be honest, I'm beyond tired of white people (esp. white men) writing stories about black people and other POC and fucking shit up. Too often, black people are poorly portrayed, white stories are centered--even if the main character is supposed to be a black person, and overall, it doesn't add anything to the conversation about our lived experiences. Our stories by us matter, and it's frustrating to see white authors telling stories about us getting more praise than stories BY us.
My questioning led me to discuss this with my white allies. I was completely unfamiliar with the book Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, and even unfamiliar with Lovecraft and his OMFG racism--beyond the idea that he's often credited with heavily influencing modern horror, which is a genre I don't read and don't really watch much of. Lit isn't my jam, but it is my allies' jam and specifically, horror lit and movies is one of my friend's delicious, dark jam!
Upon discussion and deeper inspection, it seems that Ruff did a damn good job of portraying and not shying away from the horrors of racism and the violence it beget in his book. And it makes sense that he'd name it Lovecraft Country since Lovecraft was racist AF. It seems that the racial violence in the book is unrelenting and realistic--just like it was in real life. I have no doubt the show will do the same in the hands of Peele and Green.
Our discussion revealed some interesting points that it's frustrating that we still need today: for some people (especially wypipo), they need the fantastical, movie monsters to make real the horrors that black folks experienced. For some people, it isn't until they see the horrible, grotesque monsters in a book or on a screen that the horrors of history come to life. It's a damn shame that slavery deniers and Holocaust deniers exist, but they do. There was even a whole ass court case in the UK about it where American historian Deborah Lipstadt was put on trial for libel because she'd called a Holocaust denier a Holocaust denier in her book. The movie Denial depicts this insane case; it's unreal the lengths she had to go through to prove the Holocaust happened in order to prove she wasn't libelous. (I don't understand deniers. Like, what do you think happened to those millions of people? Aliens took them? Ha. That would probably be more believable for some folks.) I don't know if there's a case like that about slavery, but I wouldn't doubt it. People will go to great lengths to attempt to believe that the worst shit of humanity didn't actually happen, or to deny that the greatest shit throughout the world couldn't possibly have been created by people who weren't descended from European ancestors. Surely Aliens must have created Mayan or Aztec cities or the Nazca lines or Tenochtitlán? I guess it's the lies they need to tell themselves in order to justify the modern impacts of the fucked oppression that large groups of people experienced in history.
I digress...
Our discussion also revealed that sometimes horror movies (or shows) do a good job of substituting for the horrible ills of society in a way that people can digest and understand them better. For instance, I've loved Interview with the Vampire since I first saw it, and could easily see then that the film had homoerotic undertones, but I was yesterday year's old when I learned that the homoerotic undertones of that film (and many other 90s vampire films) were meant to be a commentary on the AIDS culture and how society had fucked that up. It's odd how you learn one aspect of something in one time and space, then learn another aspect of something related, but never put the two together or see that they are connected. I watched Interview when it first came out in the mid-90s. It wasn't until the 2000s (college years) when I learned of the history of AIDS, how gay people were horribly treated, how the government didn't give a damn, fucking Reagan, the original name GRID (ugh!) and all of that. I see the connections between these things more clearly now, and I can see how vamp movies were meant to be (or could be) the starting points for those conversations.
BUT...
Why do folks need a substitution? Because reality is hard to swallow? Fucked reality and history even more so?
How many average viewers will see those connections without someone drawing a larger arrow between the two?
If people need movie monsters to portray the real-life horror, terror, violence, and death in order to understand those real-life pains and trauma of other humans, what does that say about people?
Is it that difficult to understand the violence and death heaped upon other humans at the hands of humans--by humans who might look like you and perhaps share your family tree?
Oh, wait. Silly me...
If people need movie monsters to portray the real-life horror, terror, violence, and death in order to understand those real-life pains and trauma of other humans, what does that say about people?
Is it that difficult to understand the violence and death heaped upon other humans at the hands of humans--by humans who might look like you and perhaps share your family tree?
Oh, wait. Silly me...
For too long, people who weren't white or perceived white American weren't considered human and their pain and trauma didn't matter. And in too many instances today, still don't matter. So, it's a damn shame that movie monsters and horror need to stand in for real horror in order for some folks to get it.
And Lovecraft... oh my fucking god. It's a damn shame that a modern genre of lit is impacted by this racist. Then again, every aspect of modern society is heavily impacted, influenced, and framed by the actions or inactions of avowed racists, sexists, misogynists, homophobic, hateful men and women.
Thanks to this lovely tweet and subsequent replies, I fell down a rabbit hole about Lovecraft, his fucking cat's name (JFC), and this whole thing. This shit is hella fascinating. The word, history, and movie nerd in me are dancing and having tea and discussing shit.
My verdict: Lovecraft Country (both show and book) are meta AF and likely are doing a good service of addressing head-on the fucked racism this country had and still has.
It's just a damn shame some folks still need movie monsters to understand the real horrors people have faced in history.
My excitement is no longer on pause. I'm excited to see where this show goes. Hella happy for Peele and Green and the actors. But like my feelings about Handmaid's Tale--I don't need a show to depict what can easily be seen by reading a fucking history book, or a news article from this current era. It's damn sad too many do.
And Lovecraft... oh my fucking god. It's a damn shame that a modern genre of lit is impacted by this racist. Then again, every aspect of modern society is heavily impacted, influenced, and framed by the actions or inactions of avowed racists, sexists, misogynists, homophobic, hateful men and women.
Thanks to this lovely tweet and subsequent replies, I fell down a rabbit hole about Lovecraft, his fucking cat's name (JFC), and this whole thing. This shit is hella fascinating. The word, history, and movie nerd in me are dancing and having tea and discussing shit.
My verdict: Lovecraft Country (both show and book) are meta AF and likely are doing a good service of addressing head-on the fucked racism this country had and still has.
It's just a damn shame some folks still need movie monsters to understand the real horrors people have faced in history.
My excitement is no longer on pause. I'm excited to see where this show goes. Hella happy for Peele and Green and the actors. But like my feelings about Handmaid's Tale--I don't need a show to depict what can easily be seen by reading a fucking history book, or a news article from this current era. It's damn sad too many do.
Thanks BP and DK.
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