Victimizer said:

Not really.

When I say 'bastard' I don't just mean that he was personally unpleasant. I'm also taking his political views into account. Ok, so maybe he was occasionally tolerant when he was actually forced to meet people, but there's no denying that his actual opinions - many of which he expressed in his fiction - were shamelessly, massively racist. He hated New York city because it was cosmopolitan. He fumed with rage on subway trains and in mixed-race crowds. And many of the stories he wrote expressed unambiguous loathing for just about every ethnic and cultural minority you care to name.

He may have been a "pretty bright feller", but he was clearly hopelessly confused, and in a way that I have very, very little sympathy for. I'm not saying that it's impossible to enjoy the stories. I'm just saying that if I actually met HPL, I could probably jab him in the eye with something sharp and not feel particularly bad about it afterwards.

I did not try to deny or condone his racism and agree with all of that except two things, the violence part (which doesn't matter) and the part about him being "occasionally tolerant when he was actually forced to meet people". As far as I recall, he was fairly openly disgusted with foreigners of all types in all situations, so this is inaccurate - i.e. I don't recall him holding back, at least, if his wife is to be believed (she has proven inaccurate on occasion, but I think in this part we might not have to let good ole HPL off the hook so easily).

What I was referring to though was that the people he personally knew as friends he did not acts as one might expect a racist to act against, i.e. his jewish friends and wife (despite he himself stating a few times that he considered himself quite the anti-semite). A somewhat irrational stance to take (besides racism in general I mean). He sometimes defended this stance with saying things about social integration making it ok (though not in the case of blacks, and I am unsure if he really ever knew any. Iirc he corresponded with one briefly, but I don't remember the details, but it wasn't a warm affair anyway - I think I'd recall if that was the case. Anyhow, I'm speculating on shreds of memory with that one).

I didn't argue against your use of the term bastard, I just meant that I personally wouldn't call him one - which is another matter entirely; it's just a personal stance that, while I criticize things that bug me (racism, incorrect portrayals of my various hobbies/fandoms, religion, etc.), I do not attack them with insults. However, HPL is dead so it isn't like you can hurt his feelings, andI suppose there's an ironic (and likely unintended) undertone to calling the author of The Shadow over Innsmouth a 'bastard'.

Citron said:

Good Point. Apparently no one has it right yet or they'd be stirring in their slumber by now.