#HP Lovecraft Historical Society

[vintagerpg]

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has really outdone themselves with the Arkham Investigator’s Wallet (2023). You might be familiar with their cool literary prop art objects, or the boxes of RPG props for Masks of Nyarlathotep and the Call of Cthulhu 40th anniversary box. This time, they’ve penned their own Call of Cthulhu scenario, The Dog Walker, and packed a genuine leather wallet full of props in support of that.

The props aren’t just for that scenario though — most of them are handy, all purpose scraps that will be handy for any investigation (and I swear I read somewhere that some will be used in the recent reissue of Arkham Unveiled, but I can’t find that quote now). There’s a driver’s license, a car registration, a gun license, a street car token, a mysterious key, a gold coin, a Miskatonic University Orne Library Card, an Arkham street guide, a cigarette card, a fortune, classified ads from the newspaper and more. My favorite bit is a card from the Grafton Diner, with notches ticked toward a free meal. Close second is the Eye of Amara membership card. All of the ephemera feels right, with period-correct designs. Did I mention the wallet is actually leather? It’s going to be a long time before someone figures out a way to top this as a gorgeous and useful (and not prohibitively expensive) RPG prop.

The scenario is good, too! It is definitely…uh…not what you expect. And, bonus: you can even play it solo — just get a pal to customize the props the way the PDF says!

[who-canceled-roger-rabbit]

Does the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society (official site, Wikipedia article) do filks about other cosmic horror authors? 'Cause I've been wanting a song about "Helen Vaughan has got it going on" for a while.

[what-life-is-really-like]

Lovecraftian Christmas Song

In honor of the HPLHS’ Lovecraft-Christmas songs, I have written my own to the tune of ‘Christmas Island’ by the Andrew Sisters (this is pretty much a 1st draft, but I don’t want to have this stuck in my drafts until next year).

How’d you like to spend Solstice on Cthulhu’s island?

How’d you like to watch Rlyeh rising up from the beneath the sea?

How’d you like to spend Solstice on Cthulhu’s island?

How’d you like to explore all of Rlyeh’s strange geometry?

How’d you like to free Cthulhu like those poor sailors do?

Watch great Cthulhu slide into the sea to devour you?

If you ever spend Solstice on Cthulhu’s island, you’ll be led astray, for every day your nightmares will come true.

How’d you like to free Cthulhu like those poor sailors do?

Watch great Cthulhu slide into the sea to devour you?

If you ever spend Solstice on Cthulhu’s island, you’ll be led astray, for every day your nightmares will come true.

[skaruresonic]

No one tell those people that african tribes regularly practices slavery amongst one another, and the trans atlantic slave trade got kicked off in the first place because europeons decided to aggressively and proactively exploit the supply of slaves they were being provided from trading with african nations.

Shock of shocks, when you take people who lives hundreds of years ago in drastically different environments and hold them up to modern first world american moral standards, they end up seeming a little bit fucked up in comparison. Wowowow! What are you, 12? Did you just discover that santa claus doesn't exist or something? "People who lived in the 1300s did a bad thing once >=o " holy fucking shit, you're blowing my mind!!!

People who talk about historical individuals or peoples as if they need to be judged as good or bad piss me off. Whether they're talking about the aztecs or fucking HP Lovecraft or whatever. It really just contributes nothing to the discussion and cataloging of historical facts. "Pol Pot was a very bad man >=c " that's nice sweety, we're trying to document and discuss what he did and said though, you're not really helping anymore when that's all you have to say about it.

No one tell those people that african tribes regularly practices slavery amongst one another, and the trans atlantic slave trade got kicked off in the first place because europeons decided to aggressively and proactively exploit the supply of slaves they were being provided from trading with african nations.

It's all about context and extent. The colonists arrived here and originally sent Indians as slaves to the Caribbean before they went to Africa because, at the time, we were the nearest natural resource on hand. The problem is, then, the underlying belief that regards people as a resource to be consumed. It requires the stratification of society into Resource or Person.

While this belief is definitely not unique to one culture, it was the colonists who employed it on a mass scale.

While I'm not entirely comfortable comparing the selling of our people as slaves to the transatlantic slave trade, it seems to have impacted our culture, to the point where I suspect the word for "to betray" holds the root for "to sell" for this very reason. And yes, that is because some of our own sold others of our own. That is an unfortunate fact.

Remember what I said about our struggles not being so different from others'? They also share common roots. The one drop rule contends that if you have just one drop of Black ancestry in you, you are Black. This was used, historically, to justify the slavery of generations into perpetuity.

Blood quantum is the same process but thrown in reverse: the blood of other races dilutes your own, and there will be a point where the Indian will be bred out of you and your children will no longer be considered of your people. This is still in use today for tribal enrollment requirements, and becomes an increasing problem as families grow and the chances of inbreeding increase. This was absolutely by design in order to make us disappear.

Both of these ideas may seem in opposition to each other at first glance, when really, they're intertwined: the result of white supremacy attempting to control us. They rest on the same underlying ideas of denying people the right to self-determination.

---

Shock of shocks, when you take people who lives hundreds of years ago in drastically different environments and hold them up to modern first world american moral standards, they end up seeming a little bit fucked up in comparison. Wowowow! What are you, 12? Did you just discover that santa claus doesn't exist or something? "People who lived in the 1300s did a bad thing once >=o " holy fucking shit, you're blowing my mind!!!

The thing is, people weren't always barbaric in the past. That's my entire point. It's a fallacy to assume modernity is synonymous with civility and progress.

I just get chuffed about it because they always bring up the scalpings and the human sacrifice and warring tribes and whatever else in order to paint our ancestors as morally gray. However, you need some light to balance out the darkness in order to paint a truly gray portrait. They never say anything about the Longhouse, the Great Law of Peace, the Two-Row wampum, the times our people saved colonists from starvation or slaughter, or the inter-tribal alliances we made. It's just, "they cut the tops of people's heads off omg so brutal" as if they're saying anything particularly new or revolutionary, and they leave the matter at that.

In fact, the Haudenosaunee were not the only peaceful coalition the Skarù·ręʔ were a part of---we made a smaller alliance of mutual protection with two or three other tribes down in North Carolina as well.

The omission of our merits and the constant attention to our bloodier histories just feeds into this hateful stereotype that we were always savages.

---

Also, I didn't address it in the earlier post, but OP essentially went on to imply that white supremacy isn't a real problem. Rather, they waxed lyrical on some overreductive, strawman-nihilist "Rousseau was wrong" bullshit about how war will always exist in complex societies and it isn't unique to white supremacy.

First of all, nobody was saying violence or imperialism are white-only things. To argue otherwise is to imply other people don't know their own histories. Or other countries' histories.

Second, the existence of the Haudenosaunee contradicts this narrative that humanity is so inherently belligerent that reconciliation is just a pipe dream in "complex" societies. We operated just fine in peace for literal centuries before colonial contact. Either you don't consider us a "complex" society, or you have an incomplete view of history.

Third, white supremacy is very much real, and it is a problem that impacts a large number of people, white people included.

Again, the US as it exists today largely does so because of white supremacy. It is a direct result of Manifest Destiny and the assimilation and displacement of indigenous people. Trying to divert the conversation by pretending what was said was that all violence is innate to whiteness is a strawman of the argument, as well as deliberately being obtuse in order to distract with meaningless asides. It'll only make people go, "Oh well, everyone was shitty in the past, so I guess there's no reason to try to understand the structures my ancestors put into place and how they might benefit or hurt others to this day."

Of course violence has existed in every society. Of course it will continue to exist in some fashion. But that doesn't mean we can't take steps to curb it and discourage it whenever possible.

Moreover, our ancestors having scalped someone 200 years ago doesn't mean anything when blood quantum still exists on the books in order to "breed" the Indian out of us and have us forfeit the land to the government, you know what I mean? I would think the more pressing and far-reaching problem rests on the colonist structures that are still in operation today, and it is worth examining where those structures came from in order to dismantle them.

And look, I don't particularly enjoy waxing poetic about this stuff because it's not something I like looking directly in the face for long periods of time. As a white-passing Native, I know I'm not the hardest-impacted by these things. I'll never experience the harshest brunt of the racism my darker-skinned friends, family, and neighbors do.

That doesn't mean I experience No Racism Ever, of course. But I recognize that most of the fucked-up-ness of the situation and my relative comfort comes from the fact that my incidental whiteness inoculates me from a lot of bullshit I would otherwise experience.

[doyourememberrocknrollradio]

Do You Fear What I Fear-  HP Lovecraft Historical Society

[genericswordsmaiden]

My jacket's from the HP Lovecraft Historical Society!

Ah, thanks for telling me! I honestly don't know how it works, like - do you have to be a member if you want to have one? Do they have a store? I'm really ignorant about this kind of stuff, but it is rather cool that there are so many products/merchandise related to hpl's works. It makes me feel good about being a nerd, because there are people even more nerdy than me who work to make these things :D

[redacted-metallum]

Is there a favorite adaptation of the mythos u enjoy?

In terms of accuracy and craft, by far it's the Cabinet of Curiosities Pickman's Model.

In terms of accuracy and sheer joy, it's the HP Lovecraft Historical Society's. Everything they have ever done but in particular the DARTs for the Call of Cthulhu and Haunter of the Dark and their Whisperer in Darkness movie.

And also Re-Animator. Which strictly speaking isn't Cthulhu Mythos.

[miraclemaya]

looking at the masks of nyarlathotep prop set from the hp lovecraft historical society and my god that shit is insane not only is masks like one of the longest, most highly rated campaigns ever made it also has insanely high quality props like this shit is wild

[chicar]

Hp Lovecraft Historical Society:

Vaguely Lovecraftian:

[nepalsaysrawr]

If I were a Deep One Blub blub blub blub blub blub blub All day I'd swim beneath the sea If I were a Deep One

[vintagerpg]

This is the second volume of Call of Cthulhu adventures produced by Miskatonic River Press. The press itself was founded by Keith Herber to continue to compliment his Lovecraft Country line of sourcebooks for Chaosium with ever more scenarios — the first volume of which was New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley. Unfortunately, Herber passed away soon after the book came out. This volume, More Adventures in Arkham Country (2010) is dedicated to his memory.

The book opens with a fun scenario involving a plant god and an explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs. Second is a sort of inside-out Scooby-Doo mystery, in which there really is something horrible going on beyond the fake haunting. Third is a sort of cosmic riff on “this is not a place of honor” involving containment of a horrible creature by the mi-go long before mankind. Next is an odd one involving Leonardo Da Vinci’s brother, a machine for Armageddon and Nyarlathotep — in execution it feels like a combo of Dead Light and Saturnine Chalice. Next uses a heatwave, local legends and witchcraft to excellent, folk horror-ish effect when history repeats. The book wraps up with a twisted Innsmouth love story that wasn’t for me.

This volume is very good. I liked the first one, but the adventures here feel more usable in general games, where the scenarios in the first seemed geared for one-shots. These almost all make use of established Lovecraft cities, which is another odd contrast with the first book.

Good art and production design throughout. Andrew Leman of the HP Lovecraft Historical Society designed the handouts, which are lovely. Interior art is split between Jason Eckhardt and Reuben Dodd. I love Santiago Caruso’s cover — it rivals Eckhardt’s own Innsmouth illustrations in both the atmosphere of decay and its oddness.

[magicalmilly]

HP inspired me to write. And fostered my love of reading.

Looking back as an adult, I can now easily see the flaws in the work. I can look back now and see how the books are filled with JKR's shitty views of the world.

That a child destroyed by society and abused chose to become a wizard cop instead of a teacher - when the only time he seemed to be happy in the series was while teaching and not while fighting.

That the muggle female main character was actively laughed at for being fascinated with the new world she was in, and for being made fun of for being antislavery (which is even worse with the later "Yeah, I can see Hermione being Black" conversation)

That Seamus, the one Irish classmate, was labelled as a firestarter. Which is... a loaded statement for British v Irish populations, historically.

And don't even get me started on the antisemetic goblins and the okay with slavery because they were born into it elves.

Like, looking back, I see nothing but flaws. I see how her bigotry isn't new. And I see how her shitty world view isn't even tenable in the fictional universe she made up to hold it. Like, you want me to believe for a single moment that Harry Potter who was too poor to own his own clothes and lived in a cupboard didn't give any money to the Weasleys? Not even tried to slip it in or pay for anything? Didn't offer to help Ron out at school? I know that 12 year old me was giving what I had to others freely, and I was nowhere near as poor at preseries HP. And like, she has characters that start to follow their natural proclivities due to the character traits she gave them... and then they abruptly stop and change to the "don't rock the boat" point of view because she realized that the way they wanted to go didn't fit her political view of "don't rock the boat"

I understand why child me didn't see this. i didn't have the political and socioeconomic background to understand the shitty underbelly of JKR's writing. But I do remember child me being drawn to fanfic. And, even then, being drawn to the stories others would write that ignored the limits that JKR put on her characters. Because I knew that there was something holding them back. And that's how I got into writing. By wanting to write about Hermione not being made fun of for being anti-slavery. By wanting to read about Harry nurturing his softer side and his empathetic side from being abused as a child and becoming a teacher.

I remember how all of my queer and trans friends CLUNG to HP growing up. Because it was a magic world where you connected to others by your personalty traits and not your outward body. Where students all seemed to care about each other. A world in which a hated and isolated and abused little boy found his own created family and was respected and and honored.... in a time where a vast majority of queer and trans kids were isolated and hated. It was such a safe point in the harbor. I know why it was such a comfort to me growing up. My family has always been accepting of me, but not everyone has been. And so I dove into a place where I was wanted like Harry was and respected for my skills like Hermione was.

Nowadays... it's really hard to do that. I can't really read any HP fanfiction seriously anymore, as it is all tainted. The fandom that taught me to push back at the original work, that gave me a desire to write, that made me fall in love with reading. it's... gone. I can't touch it. Even fanmade works, where they can make everyone trans and remove the racism and... I can't. Because it's based on a series that, the more I look at it, the more I realize that you can't divorce author from the series.

It's just... exploding with her shitty ideals. They're on every page. And, since she's still alive and bragging about the money she's getting from subsidies, I can't even approach it with a "well, she isn't around anymore so we can do whatever we want" with the way like lovecraft has been approached.

Overnight I had to go from joking about hogwarts houses and pottermore and my hatred of snape to throwing away all of my shit that I collected my entire life. It was easy for me to make that decision, even though I had like nothing but 1st edition copies and shit, because the idea of willingly reading the work of a living transphobe makes me sick. But, it still... I can tell it was the end of an era and a turning of a page in my life. A fall back conversation that I could always have in my pocket for literally any situation (so what hogwarts house are you?) is now unavailable.

Looking back, I'm still in awe at how quickly I went from talking HP at least 2 or 3 times a week to not mentioning the series at all for months on end. I haven't spoken out loud about HP since.

I would have eventually stopped caring about the books overtime. i know this because the last time I tried to read them I stopped after a few chapters because I was annoyed by this, that or the other. But I even had the choice to disconnect with a childhood staple taken away from me.

All because JKR decided she didn't give a shit anymore. And felt violence was preferable to just.. not engaging.

What makes JKR's shitshow even harder to process is that she didn't just ruin a book series. Harry Potter was an entire subculture. Like Star Wars and Star Trek fans, Harry Potter fans dedicated their lives and careers to the series. I don't know if I'd call it "underground," but liking Harry Potter got you beaten up when I was in school, so it was more of a dedicated indie culture than a mass-appeal fanbase.

Harry Potter was so huge that fan works developed their own followings. Potter Puppet Pals racked up hundreds of thousands of followers and was nearly as relevant as the series itself. For fanfiction, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality got so big that it has a Wikipedia page. The band Harry and the Potters spawned the wizard rock music genre. A Very Potter Musical developed a fanbase and launched Darren Criss's career.

Harry Potter also has extensive ties to fandom history. Everyone in my generation (millennials) remembers coming home from school to read Harry Potter fanfiction on the Internet. Today, most people just post their stories on Wattpad or Archive of Our Own. But at the time, the fanbase was splintered between fanfiction.net and dozens of individual websites and forums, some made for specific ships. Since they all had individual hosts, a lot of those sites have been lost to time.

And there's the infamous My Immortal fanfiction, which is an Internet legend with people still searching for the author. Everybody read that one (and laughed at it) in middle school.

Pre-social media, fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet had massive followings because they were one of few sources for news, theories, essays and fan content. Some of these sites still exist after being around for over a decade and building their own legacy.

Before Deathly Hallows came out, fans were so desperate to know what happened that Mugglenet published a book called What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End? Yep...Harry Potter was so big that people wrote separate books about what would happen in an upcoming book.

And that's not mentioning all the book release parties, Harry Potter-themed events, monuments, fan films, restaurants and even a theme park. A lot of fandoms have those, but Harry Potter infiltrated every aspect of popular culture.

Today, there's a thriving culture of "Harry Potter adults" with themed weddings, baby showers and Etsy stores. Putting your Hogwarts house in your Instagram bio is pretty much a prerequisite for joining the "bookish" community. Warner still produces new content, like the Fantastic Beasts series, although we've all seen what a disaster that's been.

Everyone has at least a few memories associated with Harry Potter even if it's just watching the movies. I had great memories associated with Harry Potter. But looking back at the subculture, history and thousands of fan works, it doesn't seem fun anymore. Studying the fandom or being part of it comes with an awkward tension because you don't want to seem like you're condoning JKR's bigotry but can't divorce her from the series. This subculture was spawned by a woman who turned her legacy of magic and wonder into one of abuse and hatred.

I don't expect people to write paragraphs about how much they hate JKR every time they post about Harry Potter, but it's still uncomfortable to see people make new content or wear their Harry Potter Etsy tote bags like nothing happened. Even if they clarify that they don't support her, it's just a weird, tense situation for everybody.

People dedicated years of their lives to running Harry Potter fan sites, writing fanfiction, cosplaying characters and making fan movies. If I were in that situation, I'd have a mild identity crisis. I'd ask myself "Did I waste all those years? Should I delete my content? Where do I go from here?"

So ultimately, JKR didn't ruin "just" a book series or even "just" a fandom. She tanked an entire culture, which inspired people to look at Harry Potter more critically. The issues that people brought to the light tainted the series's legacy even without JKR's personal issues.

Once, Harry Potter was a series for generations. Now, former fans hope that the series fades into irrelevancy. Unfortunately, JKR didn't just tarnish her legacy--she took decades of history, millions of fans and a worldwide subculture along with her.

[davidjhiggins]

Haunting the Stacks

Scant hours remain until Yule. In celebration of the forthcoming enbookening, one of my favourite HP Lovecraft Historical Society songs: May your festival be unplagued by those who speak aloud.

[allengreenfield]

Audiobook Review - Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: Masks of Nyarlathotep by HP Lovecraft Historical Society - BEFOREWEGOBLOG

[chronivore]

[priestessofspiders]

In the very slight defense of pop culture Cthulhu depictions, Wilcox's bas-relief is described as "If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful", and the idol recovered from the cultists on the Alert is described as "The crouching image with its cuttlefish head, dragon body, scaly wings, and hieroglyphed pedestal". So there is some basis for the popular culture understanding of what Cthulhu looks like, BUT, I've always found that depicting him in a traditionally "badass" way is somewhat missing the point. He is also, as you said, described as flabby, corpulent, blob-like. Hell, when Johansen confronts Cthulhu in the Alert, he is given the description of "pursuing jelly". He only happens to look vaguely humanoid, if anything his anatomical structure is more or less completely alien, the vaguely human form a total coincidence. I mean, when he gets rammed by the Alert he pops like a balloon for goodness sake!

Also I do think people tend to take the "octopus" and "cuttlefish" comparisons far too literally, if I see a Cthulhu with only 8 tentacles I'm going to be disappointed. I expect to see dozens at least. The best on-screen depiction of Cthulhu I have ever seen is in the HP Lovecraft historical society's silent film adaptation, where he is portrayed with stop motion and generally kept more or less to the shadows

In addition, the HPLHS film also had the best depiction of R'lyeh in my opinion, I always loved it being a sort of Caligari-esque abstract landscape.

All the physical properties of Cthulhu as understood by popular culture:

Huge

Green

Scowling octopus man face

Badass humanoid reptile body

Cool dragon wings

All the physical properties of Cthulhu ever actually described in the original story:

Huge

Green

Kind of squiddy face mostly referred to as "squirming feelers"

"Sticky"

"Flabby"