This is the first I’ve heard of it, but here’s one of his infamous quotes:

"There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews.

I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”

His other quotes tend to be condemnation about specifically Israeli zionism and barbaric murder, but i don’t have context as to whether he’s referring to palestine or not. Some people might have more sympathy for these statements these days, but a lot of his other quotes have to do with Jews controlling money and media, less defensible prejudice.

  • cashmaggot@piefed.social
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    3 months ago

    I heard something like this on…Reddit? Maybe. A while ago. They said something akin to while Dahl was racist he didn’t let it encroach upon his writting like Lovecraft. I don’t really read Lovecraft (haven’t since a long, long time ago) but I do have a compillation of Dahl’s writings. And I liked them. Didn’t feel put off by them, outside of the fact that he can write some gross stuff. I am not sure what else to say on the subject other than it stinks.

    • Varyk@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      3 months ago

      I know lovecraft was racist in his personal writings, but I can’t recall any specific exams of it inside his fiction.

      He wrote so many stories, I would guess it must have somewhere, but I don’t remember any and I’ve read almost all of lovecraft.

      I should fill in the gaps with Lovecraft actually and finish the rest of it.

      That’s great you got a collection of Roald Dahl, I’ve definitely read all of his books multiple times, they are great.

      I don’t see evidence of racism inside Dahl’s works either, except for like the oompa loompa is coming from Africa, being African pygmies?

      • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        I know lovecraft was racist in his personal writings, but I can’t recall any specific exams of it inside his fiction.

        The glaring example.“The Rats in The Walls” had a cat called “removed Man”.

        And of course admins censor the N word. Jesus Christ this world we live in is fucking scuffed.

          • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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            3 months ago

            There’s quite a few less obvious examples in how he explains black people like animals. He also does the same with Asians. Dude was a man of the times lol

            • Jarix@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Leaving aside his poetry and his collaborative works, here are some other examples of racism in Lovecraft stories.

              “The Rats in the Walls” features a cat named “N----- Man”

              “The Horror at Red Hook” refers to a villain as “an Arab with a hatefully negroid mouth”

              The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: “the wife [had] a very repulsive cast of countenance, probably due to a mixture of negro blood.”

              Herbert West: Reanimator contains a particularly problematic bit of description:

              The negro had been knocked out, and a moment’s examination shewed us that he would permanently remain so. He was a loathsome, gorilla-like thing, with abnormally long arms which I could not help calling fore legs, and a face that conjured up thoughts of unspeakable Congo secrets and tom-tom poundings under an eerie moon. The body must have looked even worse in life—but the world holds many ugly things.

              Edit: this is entirely copy pasta

            • Varyk@sh.itjust.worksOP
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              3 months ago

              Mm, I believe it, I am was so into the eldritch descriptions I must have glossed over the racist shit, lovecraft country is what brought it to my attention originally.

              And I haven’t read his does rice that show aired.

              I didn’t realize it was based off a book, I want to read that, now

              • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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                3 months ago

                Lovecraft country was so good. Shame about majors.

                I will argue though what I love about Lovecraft country is probably not what most people did.

    • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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      3 months ago

      I loved his books as a child. As an adult I read them to my kids and I’m strick by a lot of inappropriate language, normal for the time. Racism, fat shaming, child abuse.

      Its problematic, and if I was black, I dont know that I’d be comfortable reading descriptions of oompa loompas to my child in a world full of racists. It made me wonder if I should not have read it to munchokd, who would not understand the stereotypes used, nor the allegory to slavery.

        • cashmaggot@piefed.social
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          3 months ago

          I mean kinda, I had fun reading his adult stuff as an adult. But to each their own. Also this was a handful of years back. So I’ve got the jist of what I read but can’t give you a thorough play by play. But I will say as an individual who is a minority, of a minority, of a minority (the lazy way of saying I have some intersectionality going on here) that I don’t remember being outright terribly sad face offended. Which when that happens, I tend to put down whatever I am reading/doing/going to and never pick it back up.