Counter-Currents
The Counter-Currents H. P. Lovecraft Prize for Literature
Greg Johnson
270 words
On Sunday, November 8, the World Fantasy Awards announced that their prize bust would no longer bear the image of H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft, of course, was chosen for the honor because he is one of the giants of science fiction and fantasy literature. But he was also a racist and xenophobe, and this is The Current Year, so Lovecraft must be purged to spare the feelings of lesser men.
I suspect, however, that if Lovecraft were alive, the antipathy would be mutual. Lovecraft would have been insulted by the ugly bust bearing his name and the many cretinous hacks who received it.
Last year, we at Counter-Currents saw this coming. Thus we have created the Counter-Currents H. P. Lovecraft Prize for Literature, to be awarded to literary artists of the highest caliber who transgress the boundaries of political correctness. Our first laureate is novelist Tito Perdue, who received the award at a banquet in Atlanta on March 7, 2015.
Tito Perdue and prize
The prize bust is by world-famous porcelain artist Charles Krafft, whose own defiance of political correctness has just led to the cancellation of an exhibition in London.
As the Left continues to hollow out and destroy institutions, corrupt minds and culture, and denigrate white greatness in art, science, statecraft, and the culture at large, Counter-Currents and other New Right organizations will construct new institutions and honors to carry forward the greatness of European man. For us to carry on, however, we depend on the donations of readers like you. Please visit our Donation page today.
Thank you for your loyal readership and support.
Greg Johnson
Editor in Chief
36 comments
… Counter-Currents and other New Right organizations will construct new institutions and honors to carry forward the greatness of European man.
Agreed.
We need to create these alternative infrastructures as part of a more general WN movement.
There’s a considerable audience here for this sort of thing. H.P. Lovecraft’s works have been the basis for not only literary works, but numerous role-playing games (RPGs), professional & fan films, and even bumper stickers (“Vote Cthulhu When You Are Tired of the Lesser of Two Evils”).
I’ll note that much of the Lovecraft gaming community appears to be young white people, and they can be open to the message of nationalism.
On a related front, there’s been the fatwa against the Confederate battleflag over the last year. This has, apparently, even been extended to book covers and video games. Presumably, burning of heretical materials are to follow! But before that happens, there’s an audience of Southerners, honest historians, and gamers who might be open to a message if WN positioned themselves as defenders of Free Speech.
Perhaps a broader front could be created in which all these groups saw their common interests and fought for them…
“I’ll note that much of the Lovecraft gaming community appears to be young white people, and they can be open to the message of nationalism.”
You couldn’t be more wrong. We aren’t open to supporting any form of nationalism, although I do consider myself an American patriot. – A young white/asian lovecraftian gamer.
Well, since you aren’t entirely white, they aren’t interested in your support anyway.
Untrue. There are whites and there are non-whites. But non-whites are divided into enemies, neutrals, and allies. If non-whites agree with our views and value our achievements, that is to their credit. We welcome allies wherever they can be found.
Yes Lovecraft is a wonderfully divisive figure among those devoted to fantastic literature. All the mainstream rags and orgs are now officially against him or compliant in the purge, and we need to capitalise on this politically and culturally.
A personal tale: I was recently involved in editing an anthology with some PC mainstream types, having kept silent about my politics. When the other editors found my stories on CC, they purged my story contribution and editorial credit from the project, and unpublished the novella of mine they had previously published. They then wrote to everyone associated with the anthology execrating me and justifying themselves. when I tried to get some of the authors whose work I’d selected and helped to edit to abandon the project in solidarity — silence.
For me this has been an edifying experience. These people are not worth having anything to do with. The whole world of genre lit is just a Red Army without guns.
We’ll publish your stuff.
If you enjoy Lovecraft, discussion of his politics, and the recent manufactured controversies around him, the radishmag article is mandatory reading: https://radishmag.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/cosmic-horror/
I should just add that one of the authors, D-J Tyrer, has since published a creditable response on his blog: https://atlanteanpublishing.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/the-right-to-write/.
I am very happy to see Counter-Currents offering literary awards. Titu Perdue was a good choice, too.
This coincides with a lot of ideas I’ve been mulling over since attending NPI’s Become Who We Are conference. We need a lot more awards and recognition for notable contributions to the New/Alt Right like this at conferences that are well attended.
I don’t think you can infer that the author meant to call you or your friends “cretinous hacks,” Mr Campbell. And obviously it’s a matter of record that Lovecraft associated with Robert Bloch. For a man who has reaped so much praise in his life (a lot of it deserved, in my opinion) you certainly know how to take offense!
More to the point, what is your position on the WFA bust issue? Will you be working with Tor Books again in future? Will you be following ST Joshi’s example and returning you past awards? Will you be making a public statement? Will you be condemning the machinations of cretinous hacks like the Vandermeers and Jose Older? Or do you regard them as the legitimate successors of the men whose names you mention?
To answer the questions I’ve been asked – yes, I certainly hope my old friend Tom Doherty will continue to publish my books. I singled him out for praise in my acceptance speech at the recent World Fantasy Convention. THE KIND FOLK is due from Tor next year. No, I won’t be returning my awards, and have already made a statement that I’m proud to own them. I’m afraid I don’t know Mr Older’s work, but Jeff and Ann are certainly not “cretinous hacks”. And just to return to the original comment in the essay here – “Lovecraft would have been insulted by the ugly bust bearing his name and the many cretinous hacks who received it” – the word “many” does lead me to believe it might include the folk I’ve named, me included. Don’t worry, being included doesn’t bother me!
Mr Campbell, the writers and readers of this website are primarily concerned about the genocide that is being inflicted on White people in every White country. You are from England; ever heard of the Rotherham scandal? What moral do you draw from this? I would have thought the man who wrote The Nameless might be able to discern some parallels.
Ultimately, this is not about hurt feelings, literary awards, or how you feel about Jeff “No Brainer” Vandermeer and others. The removal of Lovecraft’s image because of the racial realities depicted in his prophetic literature is another blow on the cultural front in an anti-White genocidal project that, as we can see from yesterday’s events in France, is quickly turning violent.
What is your opinion of these issues? I recall some snide remarks about inti-immigration Tories and National Front activists from some works of yours from the 70s and 80s, but surely developments since then have made some impact on your sensibility. No?
You are in a position to make at least a small number of people listen, think and re-evaluate. I hope you will consider using your influence as a force for good.
I am sorry you think me a cretinous hack, along (I presume) with many old friends of mine – Bob Bloch, Manly Wade Wellman, Fritz Leiber, Steve King, Peter Straub, Dennis Etchison, Karl Edward Wagner… well, the list is very long.
Political correctness has always been the rampant breeding ground for hypocrisy, in my opinion. Judging historic characters (such as Lovecraft) outside the context in which they lived simply underscores people’s ignorance . . . and the ongoing self-righteous human condition of “I’m right, you’re wrong, if you don’t agree with me I’ll skewer you.”
Aww, isn’t that cute, the right wing nut jobs formed their own circle jerk.
The Left exalts the weak and inferior, so it is no surprise that its defenders have been reduced to semi-literate, quasi-pornographic, and entirely witless sarcasm.
I could elaborate like the other fine folks here have done, but let me make it simple.
Fuck. You.
Actually, you probably can’t “elaborate.” The modern Left has raised a generation of foul-mouthed, cretinous cry bullies. Giving political power and a public voice to people like you is like giving a gun to an imbecile. Your kind must be disenfranchised, disempowered, and silenced for the greater good. Beginning here.
“White greatness”? Please drop off the face of the Earth. Thank you.
If you think that white greatness is a questionable concept, I suggest you review the races of the greatest philosophers, artists, scientists, inventors, and explorers.
” I suggest you review the races of the greatest philosophers, artists, scientists, inventors, and explorers.”
Alright: admiral Zheng He, the Phoenician sailors who circumnavigated Africa, Confucius, Buddha, Lao Tzu etc, etc. To be fair I give equally appreciate European geniuses and have no time for the PC brigade who dismiss them as “dead white men”. I just don’t think there’s anything better about white people either.
I have one question, a lot of political correctness attacks white people who take an interest in the culture of non whites, condemning this as ‘cultural appropriation’. What’s your take on this phenomenon?
How fragile does your sense of self have to be to create something like this? This is the adult equivalent to a child’s macaroni sculpture, if that child were a racist xenophobe and an embarrassment to its parents.
Is resistance to political correctness really so astonishing that you are capable of nothing more than stammering out incoherent, cliched psychobabble? Honoring great men is a sign of a strong and forceful sense of identity and worth. What does that say about the Left that it is committed to tearing great men down?
Political correctness is correlated to a weak sense of identity and low self-worth (often justified) in two ways. First, political correctness is all about inverting standards of value so that the botched and inferior feel good about themselves at the expense of the healthy and superior. Second, adherence to PC is enormously flattering to the ego, especially the egos of people with well-deserved inferiority complexes, for it basically offers us the opportunity to look down upon Plato and Aristotle, Dante and Goethe, Kepler and Newton, Bach and Wagner simply by virtue of signaling allegiance to the latest attempt to invert healthy values.
“This religion recognizes all men as brothers. It accepts all human beings as equals before God, and as equal members in the Human Family of Mankind. I totally reject Elijah Muhammad’s racist philosophy, which he has labeled ‘Islam’ only to fool and misuse gullible people as he fooled and misused me. But I blame only myself, and no one else for the fool that I was, and the harm that my evangelical foolishness on his behalf has done to others.” (Malcolm X)
This is Malcolm Shabazz admitting too and renouncing his former racist views.(of which he was basically killed for doing so) Yet it is the Racist Malcolm X that is sensationalized and worshiped today. I can think of no greater indicator of how backwards we are on race(We have a president elected in large part based on skin color for F’s Sake. And we have Malcolm X Blvds honoring him in every major city. Yet we have no problem over looking his racism(which is extreme in it’s Hypocrisy)
The liberal left had no problem defending Maplethorps child porn on the grounds that it’s art and therefore above moral scrutiny yet they want to actually separate the art from the man in this case and pretend that all that is left to see is a Racist deserving of Stoning.
I can safely say that everything our govt/media/schools teach us about race nowadays is dishonest and so biased as to lose all truthful meaning.
Our writers are now promoting Censorship.
What a Disgrace!!!!!!!!!!
P.S.
Thanks for not Censoring my Opinion.
This is becoming increasingly rare.
You all are truly, vile and disgusting excuses for human beings. Your racism and hatred is as useless and clichéd as the awful writing you support.
The good news is, it gives those of us with actual compassion and intelligence, a good laugh to see your rampant ignorance. It also lets me know who not to support, like that hack Tito the misogynist.
You apparently lack elementary self-knowledge, otherwise you would realize that you are just hatefully flinging cliches and insults. You clearly aren’t very smart, knowledgeable, or compassionate, so it makes sense that you gravitate towards a philosophy of tearing down better people in the name of equality, a philosophy that allows you to believe that you are a brave warrior fighting for justice when you are actually just spluttering with hate on the internet. You are obviously incurring no risk and spending no effort, yet you fancy yourself a hero.
It’s interesting that neither your post nor any of those from your comrades make any actual arguments, but rather seek to simply drown your targets in a sea of emotional shaming. I think it’s because you don’t actually have any insightful, witty or rational commentary to offfer so you simply lash out against those that break the speech codes you were taught in elementary school. I am gonna go ahead and guess you were the type of kid that volunteered to play hall monitor in Junior High.
It’s hardly any more racist than Oprah’s Book Club. Perhaps the perspectives offered here are more diverse than you’re used to.
I strongly disagree with your politics. But damn, Mr Krafft is a skilled artisan.
I have to appreciate all of these commenters that haven’t actually read Lovecraft yet call us racist. Go back to your Dr. Who fandom and cosplay if you can’t handle the truth.
https://radishmag.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/cosmic-horror/
The Twitterati’s response to this has been golden, more so than their comments here. I particularly liked (((Scott Edelman’s))) insistence that association with us big bad raaaaacists will harm Lovecraft’s reputation, as if the likes of him consigning Lovecraft to the memory hole doesn’t. You see such feminine passive aggressive posturing and death by silence doesn’t hurt anyone, no, it’s thought crime that ruins lives.
I really can’t stand the group think of the left, it’s just as bizarre as the goings on in the corporate world with product launches and buzzwords. As in, manufactured nonsense meant to give us all a sense of belonging, but to anyone with half a brain, it begs the response as to why anyone can take such things so seriously. Without a concrete identity that suits us as a people, the many will grasp onto anything for some buoyancy in this deliberately discombobulating world without any organic reference points to live the good life. Anything that upsets this illusion, and actually points out to these people that they are in fact drowning is met with such invective and unreflective bigotry we see here.
I would go full national anarchist and let these deviants live as they do if they let us live as we please. But they don’t, they have to destroy the work of great men because such works does the damnable thing of making these people truly think for the first time in their lives. And boy, do they not like that. They can’t let us live in our own niches thinking what we think, and just getting on with life because it raises the possibility that they are in the wrong and if they’re wrong, then they have to force us to think that they are right, or destroy us. Pure Machiavellian end justifies the means thinking, and they do so without pity or qualms. So, I say, no quarter to the enemies of European Man, it’s the way they want it clearly, as it is the way they act.
Some news about the Counter-Currents H.P. Lovecraft Prize in the art press. The comments are better than the article, but not by much. http://hyperallergic.com/254089/white-nationalist-artist-charles-krafft-designs-award-for-right-wing-publisher/
@Ramsey Campbell, Jarl asked you some very reasonable questions, and it would be interesting to know your true feelings regarding these matters. Having recently discovered your work, I must say its some of the finest supernatural fiction currently being written. However, when you touch on certain tired, SJW concepts, it can be cringe inducing. I’m especially curious to know about your take on Rotherham and the many occurrences of violence being committed against native Whites by immigrants all over Western Europe. When it comes down to it, why should the giants of the SF publishing industry expect non self-loathing Whites to continue supporting them when they hold ideologies preaching for the destruction of our homelands, culture and heritage? Dispensing with Lovecraft’s likeness for the WFA is only the latest in a long line of acts which seek to undermine White historical and cultural contributions. I think it’s safe to say that a rather sizable amount of your readership is White, Mr.Campbell, and perhaps it’s time to rethink the Cultural Marxist degeneracy with which a man of your generation has no doubt been inundated with. The West has reached a crucial tipping point, and I ask you to stand with your kinsmen and contribute to The RIGHT Side of History, and not the false dystopia which is all the SJWs and their ilk can possibly offer.
Mr Martell, thank you very much for your kind words about my work. I thought the crimes in Rotherham abominable and the cover-up disgraceful. However, I feel exactly the same about (for instance) child abuse committed by Catholic clergymen and covered up by the church. I’m afraid I don’t support the cause the Counter-Currents site espouses.
@Ramsey Campbell. Mr. Campbell, I appreciate your timely response to my inquiry. Having said that I feel that your comparison of the Catholic Church’s current state of corruption to the sordid business in Rotherham is dishonest, namely due to the fact that where the cases of the Catholic Church go against the teachings of Christianity, the sort of activity which occurred at Rotherham is perfectly in keeping with the Muslim faith. This is precisely the reason why Muslim clerics both in the area and throughout the U.K. would not cooperate with law enforcement. Because the girls being exploited were kafirs–namely girls of European extraction and a few Sheik girls–they deserved what happened to them. I don’t think you fully appreciate the position your country is in, Mr.Campbell. London is now a city which is majority Muslim, why does this fact not raise a red flag for you? Do you seriously believe that you would be allowed to publish work such as yours under Shariah Law, which at the current rate WILL become the law of your land, the land of your forefathers going back for millenia? The cultural shift which Britian is currently undergoing will be more devastating than both the Roman Empire and Christianity combined. The two groups I just mentioned at least had the decency to allow the indigenous population to maintain their cultures for the most part. To no small extent, the Christian Church is the only reason we have the Poetic Edda, Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Beowulf and so forth. The Islamic State has no such interests, however. They only seek to destroy everything which has come before them. The anti-western sentiment in not just your country but every Western nation in which Muslims reside is both brazen and blatant if you would only take the time to look into it for yourself. You’re a talented writer, Mr. Campbell, our modern M.R. James, Machen and Blackwood. You went from writing Lovecraft pastiches to writing things that shock the (UN?)fortunate reader at the deepest, existential levels. All I am asking is that you try to question your programing, ask yourself if the annihilation of all Europeans is worth not appearing “racist”. I want to see future generations of writers influenced by you, but we will not have that in a Europe, Australia and North America from which the sons and daughters of Europa have been banished forever.
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