Lovecraftian Thing a Day No.183: NecronomiCon 2015 Passes

2016 being a leap year means that today's 183rd entry into the Lovecraftian Thing a Day marks the exact midway point of the series - only another 6 months/183 days to go! I had planned something special for today's entry, but unfortunately that has been over taken by the sadly depressing events in the UK, so I will save that for a later time. This also being the final day of the Lovecraftian SJW Week, I also thought some reflections on inclusivity in the Lovecraftian community would be appropriate by way of my NecronomiCon 2015 memorabilia. In regard to this, NecronomiCon 2015 got off to a rather awkward start with Robert M. Price's now infamous address seemingly making use of The Horror of Red Hook - one of Lovecraft's most overtly racist stories - in support of the orientalist 'Civilzation versus Barbarism' rhetoric informing much of contemporary Euro-American populist politics - an address which, I know for a fact, led to a number of attendees (who were also PoC feel unwelcome at the event). Ironically, this is the exact same rhetoric which has gone on to produce its own kind of barbarism in the UK in the past week, with an apparent five-fold increase in racially-motivated abuse and crime being reportedsubsequent to the decision to leave the EU.

Commendably, the NecronomiCon team responded swiftly to Price's address, not only making it openly clear of the unacceptability of such views at the event, but in the closing session vowing - to great applause, as I recall - to find ways of facilitating greater diversity and inclusivity as part of the convention's remit. Never have I felt so proud to be part of the (increasingly global and diverse) community of Lovecaftians. As this week's entries have, I hope, demonstrated, there has also been a groundswell of support and interest in Lovecraftian projects that seek not only to interrogate Lovecraft's racism and bigotry, but to recover - and reconfigure for a modern and diverse audience - his cosmicism from it. To this end I would like once more to strongly urge readers to support Brian Sammons and Oscar Rios' The Heroes of Red Hook, a collection of jazz-era cosmic horror short storied featuring immigrant, minority, female, LGBT, and other outsider protaganists.