The Legacy of Puritans

[tealin]

Mr Lovecraft reminds me of the thought Mr Schama placed in my head: that I need to study the Puritans more in order to better understand the U.S.

' ... the product of generations of pathetic Puritanism; kindly, conscientious, and sometimes gentle and amiable, yet always narrow, intolerant, custom-ridden, and lacking in perspective.'

~ From The Plague-Daemon

Unfortunately most Americans' familiarity with their Calvinist founders stops at the Grade 2 Thanksgiving Feast reenactment. Puritans ... they were the ones with the buckled hats and big white collars, right? You mean Pilgrims. They landed at Mayflower and had Thanksgiving and nine months later America was born. The end.

Ohhh, historical ignorance.

I promise there will be drawings tomorrow.

Comments

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Oh right- duh! I even read that part. You were right - that stuff is pretty intense and well written! (although I could see some people possibly taking some offense from his description of the African-American boxer...eek.) I just had to chuckle at the cyclical nature of the stories: "Well, people just didn't understand what we were trying to do, but we figured this time, we'd get it right...oh, darn! THAT didn't go well... And apparently some people got killed, eaten - some kids disappeared - such a strange coincidence! (they seem so completely removed from the consequences of their actions!) And the zombie had to be put down/institutionalized/burned/etc. - just awful! We'll never try anything THAT collossally stupid or irresponsible again...KIDDING!" It's kind of like a series of Simpsons episodes, where they are vaguely aware that stuff happened previously, but not really! And they're mocking these repressed Puritans, including the doctor who they never acknowledge might have been right about their wacky schemes! It could make a great sitcom - heyyyy - you could make some quick "webisodes" based on them!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

OK, I never made the connection between the missing kid and the boxer zombie ... You are not allowed to call yourself stupid in my presence ever again.

It's the cyclical nature of the stories (aside from the last one) that made me make the above sequence. Amusingly horrific. Or horrifically amusing.

Yes, Mr Lovecraft was an unabashed racist and xenophobe. Rather a shame. But he had quite an imagination.