Symposium – Lovecraft

How does one survive in a world one hates? This question runs like an undercurrent through the entire body of work by H. P. Lovecraft, author of the famous Cthulhu Mythos – or the ‘Yog-Sothoth-eries’, as he preferred to call them – which have permeated popular culture to an extent beyond imagination. Whilst there are now soft toys bearing the likeness of the terrible inhabitant of R’lyeh, Lovecraft’s work nevertheless expresses a visceral rejection of reality, which culminates in a collapse. Reality is overwhelmed, invaded by an outside that is radically other. Cyclopean landscapes, impossible geometries and dreamlike worlds are all escape routes tainted by nightmare, whilst the ‘other’—the stranger—becomes a silent threat forged by ontological racism.
Engaging with Lovecraft today therefore requires critical reflection. It is a matter neither of absolving him nor of rejecting him in turn, but of understanding what his work reveals about our own relationship with the world. Through readings, short sketches, lectures, and audio-visual presentations, this symposium aims to explore a form of ‘disappropriation’: accepting that reality is not meant for us, that it transcends our frameworks of thought, and that not everything with a face is necessarily human.

• Free for all