Racial extremism may sometimes depend on how you name a pet. Sounds surprising? You might google HP Lovecraft Cat Name to know more.
This incident relates to perceptions during the early 1900s. At that time, there was a fictional author Howard Phillip Lovecraft. He often blatantly expressed his racial attitudes through his write-ups.
He had a black cat named Nigger-man in his childhood. Lovecraft was very much fond of the pet. In his letters, the author talked about the cat frequently. However, this pet-name eventually provoked many people. They considered the name another expression of Lovecraft's racism.
So how did a random name make a huge issue? This content might give you insight.
About Lovecraft
The author belonged to a solvent family. However, after his grandfather's demise, Lovecraft had to face the harsh reality of life. Moreover, his father kept incurring losses in business. As a result, His family ultimately had to let go of the luxuries.
Lovecraft was moved by his seeing so many deaths in his childhood. He kept getting repetitive nightmares. He described these nightmares in many of his stories.
From early childhood, the author had a deep fascination with English literature. With his grandparents' inspiration, the author acquired proficiency in many fields, such as poetry and classical novels.
Eventually, Lovecraft joined pulp magazine and published many articles under the magazine. Later he got involved in pulp fiction as well.
The writer began to publish letters and short stories after the First World War ended. His horror stories grabbed special attention for the scary vibes they created.
Many horror movies still visualize characters from HP Lovecraft books. The very recent comic villain Black Manta from Aqua man was also one of Lovecraft's characters.
This author frequently expressed his inclination towards the English race. Such a view further created scope for many racist controversies.
Strangely, the creations of this great man remained unnoticed for a long time. His works received more recognition after his early demise.
The H. P. Lovecraft Cat Book
Unique sides of HP Lovecraft Stories:
The American author HP Lovecraft focused mainly on horror fiction. People used to find his write-ups quite eccentric yet interesting. This writer used to evolve around horrific fantasies.
He often considered humanity an unimportant element. Many HP Lovecraft stories contain examples of how he glorified non-human beings. Besides, the author used concepts from occultism, science, dark Prometheus myths in his stories.
His stories had a shivering description of events. The way Lovecraft described the character's appearances or background sounds disturbed many readers. He introduced many non-human characters and portrayed their supremacy over humans in a vile way.
He received tremendous fame for writing Cthulhu Mythos. In the story, he introduced a frictional universe filled with imaginary beings. These characters reflected the writer's perception of the world.
A significant masterpiece of Lovecraft's work would be The Call of Cthulhu. In this short story, he dreadfully described the activities of an ancient horror. The myth and characters are still so famous that many filmmakers use them at present.
The background story of Lovecraft's cat name
As per the author's philosophy and works, it is clear that he is subject to many controversies. People became obsessed with marking him as racist that they even put his pet's name as evidence.
Whereas, it's still unclear who named their family cat. Lovecraft was very fond of the cat Nigger-man. He expressed a lot about the cat in many of his letters.
He had affection towards other cats as well. He often used to name stray neighborhood animals. Those names were fancy enough to tell interesting stories about the cats he named.
Nigger-man deeply influenced the author. He lost the pet at the age of fourteen. Yet, he expressed tribute to them through many of his writings.
Lovecraft talked about Nigger-man in many of his letters. He also used its name in his short story, The Rats in the Walls. The character Blackie or Black Tom reflected the writer's pet Nigger-Man.
Both the names, Nigger-man and Blackie questioned Lovecraft's racial attitude. Many believed that the writer subtly tried to present his racist view using these cat names.
For such arguments, editors changed the cat's name in the new edition of the book. Unfortunately, it didn't help much. People kept linking the pet name to the author's racism. As a result, H.P Lovecraft Cat Name became a synonym for racism.
Many of the author's supporters oppose this remark. They agreed that Lovecraft had a racist perspective. Yet connecting the pet's name with that racist view didn't make sense.
The cat was adopted when the writer was only five years old. Thus, someone else must have named the pet. Lovecraft simply shared his attachment with the cat through his write-ups.
Present Internet Sensation:
Surprisingly, people still use this cat's name as many racist memes. In 2018, suddenly, this trend went viral. It all started at Tumblr in June 2018.
A picture was shared where Lovecraft was holding his friend's cat. In that picture's comment section, someone wanted to know the cat's name. Some more people continued that conversation humorously.
The conversation got more than 200 thousand likes. Eventually, the screenshot of that thread went viral on some other platforms.
Very soon, this trend became much popular on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. Many shared jokes and trolls that end up mentioning Lovecraft's cat name. These trolls mostly end up without mentioning Nigger-man's name directly. They would simply relate something racist to Lovecraft's pet name with humor.
Again in 2019, this cat name troll got famous in another form. Reverse memes were asking not to google HP Lovecraft Cat Name. As a result, more people googled the term, got to know more about the trend, and kept sharing the fun.
Conclusion:
The term "HP Lovecraft Cat Name" is an example of how simple things can go viral. The presumption about the writer's racial attitude played a vital role here. Thus, many denied taking his emotional attachment towards an old pet.
Nowadays all the information is widely available on the Internet. Therefore, 100 year’s old discussion could get this popular once again. People searched the background of the term and had fun sharing the humor.
Lovecraft's actual intention behind using the cat's name is hard to find. However, everyone enjoyed social media trends related to the concept.
