Lovecraft Controversy: Sexual Deviancy?

The blog will not shy away from controversy. Chrispy wants to repesent all sides - and all possible reasonable speculation - of Lovecraft's life and literature. I will let two of the leading writers and devotees of Lovecraft's legacy sqaure off on this one. Here is an abridgment of the essay.

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“Just how perverse was Lovecraft? ... Stanley Sargent states his revolutionary theory that “The Dunwich Horror” was autobiographical.

“One would think, perverse old queen {Pugmire is openly homosexual} that I am, that I would welcome such a theory ... that Wizard Whateley, as sexual proxy for Yog-Sothoth had carnal relations with his daughter, the offspring which were Wilbur ... and his noxious twin.

“To Stanley it is obvious that Wilbur is ... Lovecraft.

“I refuse to believe that Lovecraft was a closet homosexual, but that is not the point ... that disturbs me. ... To give credit to his wild idea, Stanley has pointed out ... a sexual energy between Lovecraft and his mother.

“I was quite astonished when ... Alyssen Bills {reported a passage from Peter Cannon's Lovecraft Remembered} I nearly fainted when I read in Wilfred Townley Scott's ... essay ... The psychiatrist's record takes note of an Oedipus complex, a 'pscho-sexual contact' with the son...” {elipsis is Pugmire's}.

“It is ... foolish to determine what Lovecraft's characters are meant to represent. I have long been of the opinion that Lovecraft's best work contains much that is astonishing in its perversity.

{By association, Pugmire rebukes Sargent's ideas} “Satnley's theory .. that Armitage is meant ... to represent the narrow-minded social system that would repress Wilbur's dark nature. This is refuted by Joshi {Biography, p. 450} 'I found myself psychologically identifying with one of the characters [an aged scholar who finally combats the menace] toward the end.'

“Sargent's distressing suppositions may hold more truth that I {Pugmire} want to credit.
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Pugmire has long been a writer of a special kind of Mythos. His writing is excellent, disturbing, and thought provoking. More here.

Sargent's The Black Brat of Dunwich is a classic story hailed by all critics. His many Mythos stories have created a new standard for late 20th century Mythos and boldly pve a way into the new millennia. More here.

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Lustcraft: A column by Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, Esq. In Crypt of Cthulhu, Number 105, 2002, pp. 33-34. ed. Robert M. Price.