H. P. Lovecraft | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Why Read The Classics?

Well, for one thing, they’re available. The Brevard County Library System in Florida pulled the erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey from its shelves this week after determining that it didn’t meet the library system’s selection criteria. Library services director Cathy Schweinsberg said,

“Nobody asked us to take it off the shelves. But we bought some copies before we realized what it was. We looked at it, because it’s been called ‘mommy porn’ and ‘soft porn.’ We don’t collect porn.”

What I find most interesting about this is that the intrepid reporter covering the story (click here to see it) did a little browsing in the library catalog, and found a variety of well-known erotic titles, including The Complete Kama Sutra, Fanny Hill, Lolita, Tropic of Cancer, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, and Fear of Flying (if she ever leaves journalism, she could have a bright future as a readers advisory librarian). When the library director was asked why these titles, with content of a similar nature, were on the shelves, she said:

“I think because those other books were written years ago and became classics because of the quality of the writing… This is not a classic.”

(I wonder if they own Twilight?)

So if I want to check out erotica from the Brevard County Libraries, it has to be well-aged, and well-written. (I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t live in Brevard County). But this whole incident raises an interesting point. There are many who look down on the horror genre- on post 1974 horror in particular (to use Becky Siegel Spratford’s demarcation) and who wouldn’t dream of having those nasty covers, those possibly badly written books, anywhere nearby, because they’re not old enough and haven’t been canonized yet. And a lot of books ARE badly written and never will become classics. But people want them. They want that feeling. It’s not fair to dismiss the desires of your readers and users, whether those desires involve erotic Twilight fanfiction or ravening zombies.

If you happen to have a library that doesn’t have the horror fiction you are looking for, it doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. They are in disguise, lurking in the depths of the library- Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson… Jekyll and Hyde, Dorian Gray, Dracula, Victor Frankenstein. If you can’t find the latest, try out the early greats. And then harass your librarian to get you the new stuff while you read… the classics.

Women in Horror Month: Silvia Moreno-Garcia and New Visions of Lovecraft

So, I’m noodling around on the Internet looking at what comes up when I search for “women writers and horror” and trip across Broad Universe, which is an organization that promotes women writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I’ve been there before, but not in a while, so I decided to explore a little and soon I discovered a blog entry by someone whose name seemed familiar. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who runs horror micro-publisher Innsmouth Free Press, wrote about new ways of approaching Lovecraft. She wrote:

“Lovecraft does not need to be all lily-white New England gentlemen cloned from one of his stories, any more than an epic fantasy needs to include hobbits”.

With Innsmouth Free Press she is approaching Lovecraft in new ways. Not that long ago, we reviewed Historical Lovecraft: Tales of Horror Through Time, an anthology produced by Innsmouth Free Press that explored Lovecraft’s universe through a variety of times and cultures (you can check out the review here). I like seeing that even the old white dead guys can escape the restraints of their time and place, with a little push from the right person. Not every woman involved in the horror genre is a big name, but there are many, like Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who put a lot of time, money, and love into making it what it is, not just for women, but for anyone interested.

(For the record, I don’t know Silvia Moreno-Garcia beyond our contact regarding the review mentioned above. I just like what she said).