Real quick because I have actual work to do today, the thing I think gets overlooked a lot about Campbell and Lovecraft is the shadow they cast.

Campbell's specific definition of what SF he wanted didn't just shape a 'golden age' it shaped the critical criteria we use to assess what's good and what isn't. If you don't think that's intensely damaging and we're still paying the price for it, then look up Tiptree's career.

Or the most dishonest, most whinging version of everyone's least favorite literary movement from a few years ago, saying 'We just want good simple rocket adventures back!' when we all know what they really wanted and what they really meant.

As a personal aside? Campbell is a big part of the reason I and a dozen friends lost an afternoon in San Jose two years ago when idiot bigots emboldened by King Idiot Bigot decided that trolling a science fiction convention was something adults do.

Campbell's shadow, it often seems, covers the genre. And that both breaks my heart and enrages me because science fiction should be about tomorrow, and how we get there, not yesterday and how we remake it.

Especially as Campbell eclipses so many other editors who friends of mine have worked endlessly hard to bring back into the light. That's the thing Campbell tries not to let us see; SF was ALWAYS interesting, always varied. The fact we've had to relearn that is largely his fault

Which brings us to racist Banquo's Ghost himself, Lovecraft. Horror is my literal day job, I host a horror fiction podcast and we deal with cosmic horror, Mythos stories and the like regularly.

The point @LeeAHarris made earlier is very accurate; HPL would hate the people playing with his toys now and that's something that we can take some satisfaction from.

The fact that even NOW people have decided his provable, documented, colossal racism is still up for debate? Not so much.

Again, Lovecraft blocks out the view of so many other, diverse, interesting authors. His semi-weaponised use of IP means his stories are functionally immortal. His toybox is the one a lot of people use and while they make new things with it, it always comes back to him.

Like Campbell he's changed what we're able to see as good. Like Campbell, he's shifted the Overton Window of what's 'real' horror and like Campbell, he's holding onto it with a death grip.

We run mythos stuff regularly because we find new people doing good things with. But the genre deserves better tools and horror and science fiction alike, both deserve to be in the light, not the shadow of two intensely problematic figures who damage as much as they build

It's fine that the Retro Hugos exist. It's fine that they're intended to echo the voters of the time when possible. But they don't exist in a vacuum, and shouldn't be treated as such. And wins for Lovecraft and Campbell, this year especially? Says a lot.

@threadreaderapp Unroll please:)