Lovecraft's Anarchy by Accident
Despite being a xenophobic racist with unremarkable political opinions—well, extreme even for the mainstream xenophobia and racism of the day—H.P. Lovecraft, of all people, managed to understand a principle of authorship and story that those of us stuck in the post-end of history capitalist milieu seem so desperate not to.
One of the fundamental principles of the Cthulhu Mythos is that it is shared. Writers may dip in and out of it, remixing it as frequently as they desire.
That's why we get the good versus evil projection of Derleth, who used it to his own well-criticized end.
But it is also why we can dip back into the Mythos at any time and use it to take the good ideas and use them as we see fit. It's why we can have anthologies like Cthulhu's Daughters, or commentary on the way the Lovecraft worldview really wasn't even extreme for the day as his defenders claim, in something like Lovecraft Country.
It's why Get Out's use of Lovecraftian names makes the film's themes resonate that much more. What is the Dunwich Horror if not Lovecraft crying yet again about miscegenation?
But the real genius of Lovecraft was this sharing. The work grows and changes precisely because others can dip into it, cite it, change it, pervert it. Turn it back against the originator.
Lovecraft accidentally created a properly principled anarchist method of writing. Why should, when the author is done with the setting, the lore, the characters, they belong now to those who want to use them?
That's how fan fiction works, though when done properly it also takes pride in being officially unofficial, a fuck you to the ownership of ideas.
Think now of Mickey Mouse. The Disney corporation would hold that they own Mickey, that he is corporate and therefore should be controlled by them. But this cannot be true at the same time Mickey Mouse as synecdoche for America continues.
There's a truth every child who has seen the cartoons, especially the old great Mickey Mouse cartoons (like "the Gay 90s" or the one where he rounds up his friends to build a giant ship they don't know is just a model), deeply understands:
Like the Cthulhu Mythos, regardless of what Disney enterprises would suggest, parody or not, Mickey Mouse is for everyone.
Just like the Mythos.
